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Quintessential Tours Clients - The Allens

About the Allens   |  About their Trip   |   Letter from Wendy  |  Photos
CLIENT SNAPSHOT
The group pose with Daffy Duck at Warner Brothers Studios
Client Name: Wendy Allen
Group Size: 3 adults, 1 teenager
Group Make-up: Wendy, her parents and her daughter Shelley
Home: Manchester, England
Interests: Hollywood, churches, shopping, sightseeing, football (the English variety)
 WHAT WERE THE ALLENS LOOKING FOR FROM THEIR TRIP?
This was the first trip to the US for Wendy and her 15 year-old daughter, Shelley. Her parents had been to New York once, but hadn't ever been to the West Coast. So, this was to be a true first-time California experience for the whole group, and they wanted it to be special. The Allens were not particularly interested in a whole lot of adventurous activities, or too much in the way of outdoors and nature. They really wanted to see the famous highlights that they'd seen and heard about for years, augmented with some churches for her father, and plenty of shopping.

Challenges:

 • 
Execute an itinerary that offered something to everyone, covering the interests of 3 generations. While everyone was quite keen to see the big highlights, each had their specific interests, as well. We needed to incorporate churches for Wendy's dad, plenty of shopping for her mother, a trip along Route 66 for Wendy, and had to search for a specific house for Shelley.
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Maximize the amount of times in the cities, while still making the area in-between interesting.
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Allow for some swimming pool and beach time while still covering a lot of ground.
 SPECIAL CHALLENGE - FIND THE "CHARMED" HOUSE

One of the priority tasks for the Allens' trip was finding a particular house for 15 year-old Shelley. Shelley is a big fan of the series "Charmed," which is set in San Francisco, and chronicles the stories of a family of "good witches." Our challenge was to find the actual house that was used as the series' most identifiable setting.

We knew from Wendy's research that the actual house was not located in San Francisco, but somewhere in Los Angeles. Jeff Lowe, who would be the family's guide while they were here, got straight to work and found the house in Echo Park without much effort. Then, going above and beyond, as is his custom, Jeff joined a "Charmed" discussion forum and found several other filming locations for the series, including a very beautiful church (which combined Shelley's interests with her grandfather's).

Once meeting the group, Jeff discovered that "Buffy the Vampire Slayer" was also one of Shelley's favorite series, and incorporated (on the fly) a couple of filming locations for that series as well.

Read Jeff's description of arriving at the "Charmed" house along with a detailed account of the Allens' trip.

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