The
‘Plan Your Vacation’ Apps
The wine tour season always begins around bud break, you can
imagine the limos and tour buses shaking off the winter like horses shaking off
the morning dew. As the weather warms we’re seeing sales of our two iPhone wine
tour Apps heat up as well. We’re so inspired by this that we’ve begun
assembling materials for two new Apps; Planning Your Napa Vacation, and of
course, Planning Your Sonoma Vacation. Instead of being focused on the wineries
and our favorite restaurants, these new Apps will focus on other attractions,
locations and lodgings.
What makes our Apps and books special is that they are based
on our client feedback. They include our photos, the Napa App has over 2000
original photos and for some it’s the favorite feature. We’re good
photographers and our work has graced many a magazine cover. The only challenge
is this, while we visit most of the wineries with clients, we don’t go to all
of the hotels and Bed and Breakfasts. So, if you are the management at a hotel
or B&B in Napa or Sonoma and you want us to notice you, send us business.
It is the best way for us to know that you’re doing great job for your clients,
because we ask them.
The secret to our review’s success is that we don’t believe
the Publicists and websites. For some part of our materials we rely on their
information, but for the important insights we go see for ourselves and ask
other people’s opinions. Recently, to make that process more effective I
(Ralph) started driving for Beau Wine Tours again. We still have our own
company and car, Amicis Tours, but we’re getting client requests for larger
vehicles. While I’m a commercially licensed driver for the buses, we’re not
interested in expanding our fleet, so I went and talked with my friends at Beau
and came to an arrangement.
If you book tours through Beau feel free to request me as
your driver, although honestly they have the best team of wine guides in the
two valleys, because they have the best ongoing education program, so you can
trust that whoever they send you will do a great job.
The other reason I wanted to reconnect with the team at Beau
was our new Apps. Having a group of guides and drivers who will provide
feedback about lodgings, restaurants and of course wineries is a great resource.
Since we started this project I’ve always been the first person out of the car
and heading over to talk with any other professional driver when we’re waiting
for our clients. Our books wouldn’t exist if it wasn’t for the contributions of
the local livery community.
So, if you want be noticed in our Apps and our multi-lingual
websites (50% of our clientele is international because we market to them so if
you cater to international clients please let us know) then send us business,
so we can see for ourselves. By the way, the two current iPhone Apps are The
Napa Valley Wine Tour, and the Sonoma Winery Tour. They each cost $2.99 and
they are worth so much more.
Ralph & Lahni de Amicis are authors of the Amicis Winery
Guides, and owners of Amicis Tours. They are authors of over twenty books on
health, design, business and travel. Their iPhone Apps, The Napa Valley Wine
Tour, and The Sonoma Winery Tour are a tour guides approach to these beautiful
area, complete with 1000’s of photos and insights. Their articles and products
can be found on the sites http://www.amicistours.com and http://www.spaceandtime.com
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