There's a moment that happens on every one of our tours, usually around day four, when someone says: 'This doesn't feel like a tour.' That's the design working.
With twelve people, you're never waiting behind forty others to get off a bus. You pull into a bakery and the whole group is inside in ninety seconds. A waterfall appears and — yes — we can just stop.
Small groups get invited places. Station owners, gallery curators, local families — they open doors for a dozen curious travellers that stay shut to a coach.
And the arithmetic of friendship changes. By the end of a small-group trip you don't just know everyone's name; you know their coffee order, their story, and which one snores (they know who they are).
We could run bigger groups. We'd make more money. But we'd stop recognising the thing we're selling, and so would you.