Even though Slovakia has been one of the most successful countries in Europe in combatting the COVID-19 pandemic with less than 30 deaths since March, Slovakia Heritage Tours has decided to cancel its September 2020 tour following in the steps of the spring and summer tour groups that canceled earlier.
“We waited until June to decide. Slovakia and Europe are opening but there is still too much travel uncertainty to safely take a tour group in September,” explained Judy Northup-Bennett, Slovakia Heritage Tour organizer. “We see a growing interest in Slovak-Americans in traveling to Slovakia and reconnecting with their roots, and many of us were very disappointed in not being able to go back to this beautiful country this year.”
“I recommend that people wanting to travel in 2021 or in the future, use this year as their planning year while tour planners and genealogical researchers have time. We’ve been seeing an upsurge in people wanting to go back to their Slovak roots in recent years and there will be a scramble to plan and book tours when travel opens up again.” She encourages people to get on mailing lists for future tours; work with families and tour planners to set up private family tours; do the genealogical research; and take advantage of the new virtual tools to get acquainted with your ancestral village and Slovak family before you travel.
Peter Blazicek of Best Slovakia Tours, the Bratislava agency that has operated eight Slovakia Heritage Tours, has started a new one-stop service where he can help you plan your future private tour or personalize your group tour by introducing you to your family villages, as well as to your family, before you travel. “I have travelers who are disappointed to put off discovering their family roots to the future. They have been looking into their family history and they want to make the connection now,” said Northup-Bennett. “This new service will let them continue their family exploration as they plan for their future visit.”
Blazicek, who started his successful Best Slovakia Tours business with his wife Jane ten years ago, is one of many European tour operators who went from looking at a totally booked 2020 travel season to a complete turn-around in the early days of the pandemic in March. A people person who never tires of introducing Slovak-Americans to the culture, history, and beautiful countryside of their native land, Blazicek turned to communicating with his former and future travelers virtually. He began traveling to his favorite sites in Slovakia each week and producing virtual tours that you can follow on his Best Slovakia web site.
The feedback from these virtual tours led Best Slovakia Tours to the offering of a complete Heritage Services menu to help Slovak-Americans plan ahead to their future travel. People can contact Best Slovakia Tours to talk about their plans for future travel whether in personalized small groups, with organized tours like Slovakia Heritage Tours or in large group tours for organizations. Best Slovakia can connect people with genealogical services to research their family before they travel.
And, for the first time, future travelers, or people who never want to leave the comfort of their homes, will be able to hire Blazicek to do a video visit to their family village complete with overview drone footage that will capture the beauty of the countryside as well as visits to cemeteries, churches, home sites and special locations important to the history of the family and the region.
At another level, for Slovak-Americans who already know their Slovak families or who have recently discovered living relatives, Blazicek is offering a day service where he will visit the village, connect with the family and serve as translator for a Zoom visit with the families on both sides of the Atlantic. The fees for both of these Heritage Services will be quoted on time and mileage rates so that families can plan for how much of a service they would like to have.
“I think this will be a great opportunity for people who want to get started with their connection to Slovakia now and be ready for when travel opens up,” said Northup-Bennett. “It’s also wonderful for people who, for whatever reason, won’t be able to travel to Slovakia in the future. They’ll still be able to visit their family villages, learn from Peter who will be able to answer their questions, and even meet with long-lost Slovak family who are usually very eager to reconnect with the ancestors of their Slovak family members who left generations ago.”
To start preparing for a future trip to Slovakia, or a personalized video visit, check out Best Slovakia and its new Heritage Services at www.bestslovakiatours.com or contact peter@bestslovakiatours.com. To receive information (when it’s ready) on the 2021 Slovakia Heritage Tour, contact Judy Northup-Bennett at slovakiaheritagetours@gmail.com or 978-544-5144.
– Submitted by Judith Northup-Bennett, Branch 19
