The Birmingham age-herald., 1907-03-31
From the New York Evening Post.

6HERE Is new element in this
 NY years tourist business that the
 tourist agencies have hardly been prepared for, and that is motor tours in Europe for women. A dealer in automo- piles, who has established a Continental Touring service. said of this unexpected and extensive demand:
 "our service primarily was intended to take care of the shipping. custom house entries. insurance, and other details for Americans who wished to take their own extended until it includes making itiner- aries, furnishing chauffeurs, and renting of cars. Last year our Paris house was called upon a number of times to ar range tours for parties of women, but there was no special indication of the surprising interest women are now show ing in that form of travel. We have constant inquiries for the cost of tours for varying periods of time. in France, Italy, Germany, and in England. They ask to have itineraries planned, giving the names and rates of suitable hotels, the service of thoroughly competent chauffeur, usually one who can speak English in addition to foreign languages The parties may comprise anywhere from two to ten women, and strange to say, most of them are entirely without exper- fence in motoring. some frankly saying they never have even ridden in one. And that is just like the American woman traveller, she Is quite undaunted by diff faculties when she sets out to accom- plish anything.
 '"The perfection of the highly organized modern tourist system is due primarily to the demands and needs of women travel ing alone or with other women. If motor tours appeal to them there will have to be complete organized system to meet their demands, but for the present 1t is only at the beginning. It is easy to understand that when we undertake to arrange motor tour for. say, four women to cover a period of two weeks in France, and they come to us and say, We have never been in an automobile and expect you to take full responsibility for equipment of machine and man, and insure us series of suitable stopping places,' that every pHdSe Ol lfic uiluci tdhii6 10 iioio NhhSdit than it would be for party of four men. Much greater care must be taken with every detail, and that takes time to per- feet, so for the present the cost of such tours is largely an estimate.
 Tt costs about s25 a day for the auto mobile and the services of the chauffeur. The horsepower and size of the car are important factors in the cost of the car. This price would include oil and supplies and the man would be carefully chosen and not permitted to indulge in the favor ite trick of chauffeurs hired by the inex- perenced. that of pretended breakdowns in order to get a commission on imagi- nary shop repairs As a rule, the personal expenses of the chauffeur form a separate charge, paid for day by day, with the hotel expenses of the party. The total expenses when divided between four women would probably amount to about $50 a week each, and that is no more than the average rail and hotel expenses of tour of ordinary travel Women wishing to take motor trips much prefer to make all their arrangements before they start, and, if possible, through American agents, and they are quite right in doing so, but as we did not foresee that so many had made up their minds to do 1t, we are rather unprepared as to details. By next season there will be definite plants and prices to meet all inquiries, for motoring in Europe is an Ideal way of spending holiday and bound to attract large num- bers of people,"
 A woman teacher who has for number of years conducted select small parties on European tours and who for the first time offers motor trips in Italy, France, and England as a part of her itinerary of this summer, shed additional light upon the subject.
 Tn trying to complete my plans for the motor trops,' she said, there has been no end of difficulties. Last summer in Paris. in planning for two-weeks motor tour, I discovered there wasn't a car to be hired for weeks ahead. In many cases people had purchased cars outright, in or der to be able to take the trip they had gone over for.
 For this year resolved to reserve cars in ample time. if possible, but agents in this country of foreign cars do not seem to have much practical information about the chances of securing good ma chine and man for a certain time or for a fixed price. This will surely be remedied, for the number of inquiries that I have had from women wishing to take such tour is significant of change. There is much preliminary study of road maps, the laws of the various countries in which we will tour and the complicated systems of frontier custom duties and registra- tons Membership in the touring clubs of