The History of R & J Tours
The story of R&J Tours began in 1990 when Ralph & Jan Engel, along with two of their teenage daughters, Michelle and Mary, had stacks of papers and computers surrounding them on their dining room table. Their vision was to get a coach full of eager travelers together to experience a great destination through a quality tour where the travelers could step back and let the Engel’s do the planning, booking, and executing. Thus, R&J Tours was born when they took their first tour to Branson with 19 passengers! These happy travelers returned, spread the word of their great tour adventure, and soon the telephone was ringing with requests for more tours! Gradually R&J Tours added destinations to the Canadian Rockies, Washington DC, Wisconsin Dells, and even went internationally to places like Australia & New Zealand, Scandinavia, and Germany.
Soon after, Ralph realized that if they really wanted to put the needs of their travelers first, they needed to figure out how they could pick each traveler up right at their own front door – and that’s just what they did! Home front door pick-up, high quality planning, attention to detail, and enthusiasm became the benchmarks for every R&J Tour.
Now over thirty years later, R&J Tours employs over twenty employees and plans vacations all throughout the United States, as well as Canada, Europe, China, and more! It is the philosophy of putting the needs of their travelers first that has brought R&J Tours to where they are today, and this is just the beginning!