2026 Tour Party Presentation

September 2, 2026

From Two Desks in a Basement to Tours Around the World: The Excite Experiences Story

Excite Experiences looks a little different today than it did when JJ and Cindy first got started.

Today, there’s a growing team of guides, operations staff, ambassadors, and guest relations professionals. There are tours across the United States and around the world. There are bus tours, Fly-In Tours, cruises, mystery trips, sports travel, and plenty more in between.

But in the beginning?

There were two desks, two chairs, two computers, two phones, a basement — and $100 in a new business account.

It Started With a Family Trip

For JJ, the travel bug started long before Excite had a name.

Growing up in Nebraska, family vacations were pretty simple. There were camping trips and visits to places like the Black Hills. Then, in 1999, the family decided to do something bigger: Disney.

That trip stuck.

A few years later, JJ’s Aunt Cindy was working in the tour business, and a college-aged JJ came into the office looking for a job to help pay for gas. The assignment was not especially glamorous: stamps, envelopes, and whatever else needed to be done around the office.

Then a tour guide got sick.

JJ, who was 19 and had never guided a bus tour before, was asked to fill in on a one-day trip to Omaha.

His first guest took one look at him and said, “I thought we left all these kids at home.”

A promising start.

But by the end of the day, something had clicked. JJ loved the people, the travel, and seeing familiar places through someone else’s eyes.

Soon, college classes were rearranged around guiding tours. JJ traveled throughout the United States and Europe, learning firsthand what travelers enjoyed — and what they wished group tours did differently.

Building Something Different

After college, JJ went into banking. But travel kept pulling him back.

Eventually, he approached Cindy and her husband, Tom, with an idea: What if they started their own tour company?

They had years of experience to draw from and plenty of feedback from travelers. They knew there was room to create something that felt a little different.

So they opened a business account with $100.

Tom cleared space in the basement for two desks, two chairs, two computers, and two phones. JJ and Cindy spent months working through the details: the company name, logo, tours, and the big question every new business has to answer — how do we get people to notice us?

Then they placed an ad in the newspaper alongside the established tour companies.

And waited.

Success did not happen overnight.

There were long days, late nights, and even an accountant who suggested they might want to shut the whole thing down.

They found a new accountant.

And they kept going.

Finding Their Kind of Travel

Over time, travelers started finding Excite.

By 2019, the tour calendar was gaining real momentum, with trips like Mackinac Island and Christmas in New York City helping introduce more people to the company.

Then COVID brought travel to a stop.

For JJ and Cindy, it became a moment to decide whether they still believed in what they were building.

They did.

Excite refreshed the brand, revisited its tours, and prepared to start again. When travelers were ready to get back out into the world, the company was ready too.

What had once been a handful of tours each year grew into a lineup of more than 100 experiences across the country and around the globe.

But growth was never supposed to mean becoming just another big tour company.

The goal was still the same: make travel easier to enjoy.

A Tour and a Vacation

One of the clearest ideas behind Excite came directly from years spent traveling on traditional group tours.

JJ had experienced the long days — the kind that could start at 6 a.m. and keep moving until 10 at night.

Excite wanted something different.

The idea is a mix of a tour and a vacation.

You still see the places you came to see. But there’s also room in the itinerary to slow down, explore something that interests you, grab a drink with friends, enjoy the hotel, or simply have a little time to yourself.

That same thought goes into the other pieces of the trip.

Hotels matter because you should feel comfortable with where you’re staying.

Food matters because it helps you experience where you are. If you’re in New Orleans, for example, trying the local food is part of the trip.

And the people matter — a lot.

Guides aren’t simply there to read an itinerary. They’re there to help, answer questions, adapt when something unexpected happens, and make the experience enjoyable from beginning to end.

Behind them is an operations team working on reservations, hotels, flights, transportation, and all the little details travelers hopefully never have to think about.

You Never Know Who You’ll Meet

Then there’s the part nobody can really put on an itinerary: the people you meet.

Excite has seen neighbors discover each other on the same tour, old friends reconnect, and solo travelers find people they want to travel with again.

That’s one reason group travel can work so well for someone who wants to see more of the world but doesn’t necessarily have somebody ready to go with them.

You don’t have to have a travel partner before you leave.

Sometimes you meet one along the way.

Still Growing, Still Excite

The company that started in a basement now includes dozens of people working both on tour and behind the scenes.

The destinations have grown too — from one-day regional trips to national parks, international journeys, cruises, rail adventures, sporting events, and more.

A lot has changed since the $100 business account.

The basic idea hasn’t.

Plan the complicated parts. Take care of people. Leave enough room for travelers to actually enjoy where they are.

And maybe have a little fun along the way.

Because after all these years, Excite Experiences is still built around the same thing JJ discovered on that first bus at 19:

Travel is pretty great. And the people you get to share it with are a big part of what makes it worth doing.