Now Insight's online forum is gone...

Hi Rita. Bad news about Trafalgar's sister forum being discontinued, although it does not surprise me after what they did with the old Trafalgar forum. It's a real puzzle why they so foolishly ruin things that were working well and generating sales via discussions and tour recommendations.

But it's not all bad news. Firstly, you found us here and therefore able to continue chatting to old (and new) friends about travel topics. Secondly, we have a fairly good archive of old travel tales, thanks to our friend Owen who put in an enormous effort to copy information before the Trafalgar forum was discontinued. We didn't capture everything, but there's still a lot of information that some members may find helpful.

And thirdly, this is an independent forum with no ties to any travel businesses. This means we can talk openly about all travel operators without fear or favour, rather than limit our discussions to Trafalgar or Insight.

If you are able to contact any previous Insight Forum members, please invite them here. They are most welcome. 

OzT

I'm in the process of reading the tour tales on this sight.  

Chech, that's the tough decision, will I be Christmas-ed out or not?  Well I have till around August to get the early payment discount, so I'm weighing the options.   I've been putting a Christmas time tour on the backburner for a while now
I still want to visit London, so it's just a matter of what works, within my budget.  

2 years ago, my mom wanted to see Singapore, so we went city hopping in December, Hong Kong, Siem Reap, Bangkok & Singapore.  I've seen pictures of Hong Kong, but never at Christmas time.  They decorate entire sides of buildings with Christmas lights!  Some even have lights forming pictures of Santas, reindeers, snowflakes.  Singapore had Orchard Rd (their prime shopping street) fully lit up.  I loved all of it, of course the only weird part for me was that it was warm, at least in Singapore - cold in Hong Kong, and I'm not used to associating Christmas with warm weather.

I still have a link to the previous Insight Forum.  Perhaps they have forgotten that it is still viewable.  The tour tales are getting a bit old now though.
forums.insightvacations.com/eve

I've also seen a photo of one of their buses for this year and the livery has changed. The green, purple and red stripe on the bus has gone and it's now dar blue and light blue stripes.

Oh, I like the two tone blue!

I just went back to look at the Insight forum and a post of mine in the travel tales from 2014 was still on the first page....so it must have been pretty quiet.

 

I like the 2 tone blue too….

That forum was closed in 2014 chech. Unfortunately, I can't access that link anymore.

I'm sorry to hear that they discontinued the Insight Forum, but not that surprised.  It was only matter of time.  

Rita, I'd love to go on a Christmas Markets tour some day, but London is also a fun city to visit, especially at Christmas.  I'm sure whatever you decide to do will be great.

Hi MarieLouise,
I remember you too!  I'm making more visits to this sight again as I catch up on all the info posted - and there's so much!

I think I'm aiming for London in December.  I've been there in March, May, August (twice) & September, and the last 2 visits (Sept & Aug) have been unseasonably warm.

Last August I went with my sister, mom and 21 yr old niece, it was her first visit to London and the first trip for the 4 of us together.   We had a great time, but I had to keep reminding my niece that London doesn't typically have 5 days in a row of 25C+ temps - thanks to a heat wave from Spain.  Of course we also got the 5 minute rain showers, but come on - since when do you get that kind of weather in London?  We even hit 29C one day - try the tube on a day like that, don't know how the guys in their suit and ties do it, they looked so calm, I was boiling!

I'm sure I've already read you note on London, but I'll take a a look in case I missed it.