There are all kinds of reasons that people join our creative holidays and you might be surprised to know that learning to paint and draw better is sometimes the last reason! Think about the last holiday you went on. There were probably times when you found yourself a little lost around what to do, or even stressed about making sure that you didn't miss out on key experiences. There's no doubt about it, travel can be stressful.
I don't know about you, but I don't know how many times I've found myself in a foreign place and felt a little overwhelmed with my choices. If I turn to google I feel like I miss out on finding the small, quaint operators or experiences that make a place feel so authentic. Often I would spend hours crawling through social media trying different hashtags and spying on other people's experiences to try and find the 'hidden gems'.
Of course there are tours you can book, but so often I feel like a tourist trailing behind a large group and just a number. So it's no surprise that a good number of our loyal followers who join our retreats are looking for that completely authentic experience where we are immersed in the culture of an area and in a small group.
One of the highlights of our Greece Retreats is that every second evening we pour into a local Greek grandmother's house to eat a home-cooked banquet, drink ouzo and dance between children and home furnishings!
Have you ever felt like your partner often doesn't want to do the same things that you do on holidays? I can remember finally getting to see the Louvre in Paris on a family holiday and of all exhibitions to see, they happened to have Raphael in all his glory. I was mesmerised, but I had to beat off the whinging children and a bored partner to get my art time in.
We have found over the years that our painters handle this in two ways. First, they send them on their own holiday with their mates, or second, they arrive at our retreats and hand them over to Steve (my own non-painting partner) who happily takes them on a range of more suitable outings while we are left in peace to paint!
Many of us are on our own these days too. The idea of getting creative and doing fun things with so many others in the same boat is more than a little appealing.
And we finally have the number one reason that people join and love our creative holidays? Because deep inside of us we are all yearning to tap into something creative and something fun and we deliver that in bucket loads. Each day at breakfast we are fielding the excited question of, 'What are we doing today?!'.
Sometimes the answer is, "Well we thought we would take you sailing to a secluded Greek island where we will swim and have a BBQ before returning with the sunset and the wind."
Sometimes the answer is, "Well, today we are heading to our own private art studio high on the hills overlooking the French countryside where you will learn print-making with one of the world's best artists and we will enjoy a long table lunch and local wines afterwards."
Sometimes the answer is, "We thought we would give you the morning off to walk by the river and in the world-heritage listed rainforests as tonight, after our 3 course dinner prepared by our own chefs, we will take a 4WD tour to spotlight nocturnal animals before we learn to paint them tomorrow."
Artable now has 10 years under its belt running art experiences and has recently won the local business awards for the 2nd time. We have built our reputation on making sure that you have the best holiday ever and want to rave about it with everyone you know!