Custom-designed Educational Tours Through Europe
Founder, Owner and Tour Director Brad Dicus graduated from Chaparral High School in 1990. He earned a B.A. in Extended English Education from the University of Arizona in 1995 and an M.A. in English Education from NAU in 2000. He has taught American Literature to 11th grade students at Chaparral High School for 28 years.
Ulysses Tours began in 1998 with seventeen graduates, two tour leaders, a custom itinerary and a zest for travel. The lines from British poet Alfred, Lord Tennyson’s poem “Ulysses” embodied the spirit of the trip:
Come, my friends,
'T is not too late to seek a newer world.
Push off, and sitting well in order smite
The sounding furrows; for my purpose holds
To sail beyond the sunset, and the baths
Of all the western stars, until I die.
It may be that the gulfs will wash us down:
It may be we shall touch the Happy Isles,
And see the great Achilles, whom we knew.
Tho' much is taken, much abides; and tho'
We are not now that strength which in old days
Moved earth and heaven, that which we are, we are;
One equal temper of heroic hearts,
Made weak by time and fate, but strong in will
To strive, to seek, to find, and not to yield.
Since that time, Brad Dicus has guided over 1500 adventurous travelers on custom designed educational tours through Europe, from Ireland to Norway to Hungary to Greece to Portugal and nearly every country in between. Perennial highlights include cultural experience in Florence, Italy; D-Day tour of Normandy, France; visit to Dachau concentration camp and biking tour of Munich, Germany; and hiking and white-water rafting through the Swiss Alps.
Ulysses Tours is simultaneously an educational adventure through the heart of Europe and an introduction to adulthood -- let’s call it Life 101. Participants must be at least 18 years old at the time of departure and will be able to enjoy the freedoms granted to adults in Europe. This is not a responsibility to be taken lightly. If your aim is solely to drink, smoke and gamble your way through Europe this is not the trip for you. I will not tolerate those who dishonorably represent me, the group or the United States of America in any way. It is my belief that the attitude and behavior of each individual traveler is directly tied to the safety and well-being of the entire group, and therefore I am not interested in taking fools to Europe, nor do I wish to take those who will regard me or the other tour leaders as adversaries to be outwitted. The tour works best when we function as a cohesive and interdependent unit; your participation is a crucial part, but it’s no more or less important than anyone else in the group.
Ulysses Tours, LLC is a private company not affiliated with Chaparral High School or the Scottsdale Unified School District.
Ulysses Tours, LLC was founded in 2014
