ABOUT US

Each year Rotary International holds its Annual Convention in late May or June. Host cities include Melbourne in 2023, Singapore in 2024, Calgary in 2025 and Taipei in 2026.

Back in 2022, members of Haliburton Rotary approached TravelMaven about creating a sightseeing tour either before or after the Melbourne Convention. After some discussion, they decided to expand the idea to before and after, make the tours fundraisers, and invite Rotarians from across Ontario (and beyond) to join them. The result was a 17-day pre-convention tour of New Zealand and an 11-day post-convention tour of eastern Australia.

Most significantly, after that successful first year it was decided to make Haliburton Rotary Convention Tours an annual event.

For Singapore 2024, TravelMaven created three offerings for Haliburton Rotary: a 10-night pre-convention tour of South Korea; a 7-night convention package in Singapore; and a 15-night post-convention tour of Vietnam. All three tours proved popular with Rotarians from across Ontario, Alberta, Michigan and even Australia joining the fun.

As a next step, Haliburton Rotary will offer its first Service Tour to South Africa in February 2025. This tour will combine the fun of travelling with other Rotarians with the satisfaction of taking on a project in the destination country. Haliburton Rotary is currently working with several South African Rotary clubs to plan meetings, identify potential projects, and figure out how all these things might be undertaken during our 19 day visit.

Calgary (scheduled for the end of June 2025) posed a unique challenge. Obviously, the regular model of "taking Canadian Rotarians to far-away places in May and early June" didn't really fit. However, rather than skip the year entirely, TravelMaven found a place few Canadians have visited: Haida Gwaii and the BC Coast. This tour will begin with a voyage up the BC Inside Passage from Vancouver Island to the remote island of Haida Gwaii.

In April 2026, Haliburton Rotary will offer its first Fellowship tour to Scotland and Northern Ireland. This tour is scheduled around the biennial Rotary International Curling Bonspiel being held April 3-10 in Stranraer, Scotland. In addition to the regular 13 day tour, bonspiel participants also have the option off adding 4 nights in Northern Ireland to their curling trip.

For Taipei 2026, things are back on the regular track. A pre-convention tour will be offered to Japan, a Convention Package will be available in Taipei, and a post-convention tour has been organized for Borneo.

Looking even further down the road, conventions will be in Honolulu in 2027, Manilla in 2028 and Minneapolis in 2029. Believe it or not, but plans for those are already in the making, with the plan to release them at the preceding Rotary International Convention.

Please send any inquiries about Rotary Conventions to haliburtonrotary@gmail.com and those regarding tour logistics to barry@travelmaven.ca. 

Each ye

TravelMaven offers guided tours to independent travellers. Please let us explain.

A couple of years ago,  Barry overheard a guest describe TravelMaven by saying, "Barry looks after us, but we get to do what we want." In that moment, Barry realized that Bill had verbalized exactly what he was trying to create with TravelMaven.

As we all know, travellers have an incredible variety of options. One of the most popular is DIY (do it yourself) where you do your own research, make your own bookings,  then look after yourself while travelling. If travel planning and logistics are a hobby for you, and you're comfortable dealing with airlines, hotels and the odd curveball, this might be the way for you to go.

At the opposite end of the scale, others want a travel professional to research, plan, book and manage their vacation. The is often a large group tour (30-50 people), where you're with a Tour Leader and busload of people on a tightly programmed agenda. On these tours, you simply show up and let someone else make all the decisions about your trip and look after you every day. This appeals to some as it's easy and stress-free.

TravelMaven offers something that bridges the gap between independent travel and large group tours. Our middle path offers the peace of mind and safety that group tour clients seek, while eliminating the lack of freedom that many independent travellers find stifling. Interestingly enough, many TravelMaven clients are happy doing DYI in North America or Europe, but don't feel that way about Africa or Asia.

To provide the best of both worlds, TravelMaven offers small group tours to exotic locations that still allow our guests as much freedom and flexibility as practically possible. Our tour recipe is to offer the planning and logistics of a large group tour, while still allowing guests the freedom to make many of  their own decisions. If that sounds like you, maybe you should join us!

A 'maven' (from the Yiddish word 'mevyn') is a person with a deep understanding of a subject built up over many years of practical experience (unlike an 'expert' who typically has formal training).

Mavens are the people you turn to for advice, whether it's about cars, fashion, computers or travel. Imagine you need new winter tires. Is there someone you'd ask for advice? That's your tire maven! In recent years, the term gained much exposure when Malcolm Gladwell explored it at length in his book 'The Tipping Point'.

Barry Devolin's first passion has always been travel. He made his first trip to Europe when he was 15, and has subsequently lived in 4 countries, visited more than 40 more (does East Germany still count?), 48 American states and 12 Canadian provinces & territories.

In 2015, Barry and his wife Ursula took their kids George and Molly (13 & 11 at the time) on a six month backpacking trip around the world. They took 17 flights, visited 19 countries and stayed in more than 40 places in Europe, Africa, the Middle East, Southeast Asia and Australia. Barry planned every step and stop, and in so doing, learned that complex travel planning is his true calling.

And so, after several decades in government and academia, Barry launched a new career in the travel industry in 2018. His goal is to share his love of travel with everyone he meets, and to show them that they can have the advantages of group travel without its stifling lack of freedom and flexibility.. To this end, TravelMaven offers travellers small group tours that still allow people to do what they want.

BarryTravelMaven is an affiliate of and receives booking services from DeNure Tours, where it is licensed and insured under TICO (Travel Industry Council of Ontario).