We’ve made it to the final week of our three week series on travel tips. If you missed any of the previous you can read about Tips for your carry on and 5 tips if you must check a bag by clicking each link. You can also revisit our packing tips here.
More of our travel tips
#1 –Clean out your wallet before you leave home! Carry one or two of your credit cards, along with a government issued id. You won’t need your grocery store loyalty card, your gym membership card, your library card, etc. Make copies of all your wallet contents, front and back, and leave them with someone at home who can help you cancel all of the cards should they become lost or stolen.
#2 – Make copies of your passports to take with you, but don’t fold them up and put them in the passport! They will help in getting your documents replaced should your passport become lost or stolen.
#3 – Keep a copy of your travel insurance paperwork with you rather than in a checked bag. Should you want to keep a copy of the paperwork in a checked bag that’s fine, just make an extra so you can keep one with you as well.
#4 – When leaving your hotel to explore a new destination ask for a business card at the front desk showing the name and address of the hotel in the local language.
#5 – Know at least how to ask in the local language if someone speaks English. You will go much further in finding assistance when you start in the native language rather than in English.
When you’re ready to start planning your next adventure, click here, we’d love to help you get the best value for your vacation budget.
Here’s part 2 of the series I started last week of travel tips. Remember, if you are traveling for 2 weeks or less a 20″ hard sided roller bag should be sufficient for your packing needs. However, longer trips sometimes call for a checked bag. This week I’ll share my top 5 tips, if as a last resort, you must check a bag.
5 tips if you must check a bag
#1 –Crosspack – Unless you are traveling solo – do not use one suitcase for yourself and one for your travel companion. Split the space, put half of your outfits in one suitcase and half in the other. Should one suitcase become delayed or lost you will still have necessities to get you through at least half of your vacaion.
#2 – Know the dimensions, color, size and brand of your checked luggage. Better yet, take a photo of your bag before you turn it over to TSA and the Airline.
#3 – Make sure your bags are marked, inside and out, with at least your name and a phone number where you can be reached during your trip.
#4 – Put copies of your intended travel itinerary and your travel insurance paperwork inside your luggage where it can easily be seen if opened by airport personnel.
#5 – Know how much your bags weigh. Put them on your scale before leaving home, or use a handheld luggage scale. Make sure you don’t exceed the airline limits for checked bags. A few extra pounds can be a costly mistake.
When you’re ready to start planning your next adventure, re, we’d love to help you get the best value for your vacation budget.
I get a lot of questions about how to travel with just a carry on bag to avoid the fees, fear and inconvenience of checking a bag. This week I wanted to share some of the tips we’ve put together.
Tips for your carry on
#1 – If you’re booking your own airline ticket, make sure that you are not booking a BASIC ECONOMY ticket that does not allow you to use the overhead bin on the plane.
#2 – A small hard sided carry on bag provides enough room for the average traveler on up to a two week itinerary
#3 – When making your packing list – start with the shoes! Wear a pair, and pack a pair, but build your outfits around those two pairs of shoes – not the other way around.
#4 – Take an empty water bottle with you so you can fill it before you get on the plane and throughout your travels to reduce waste. This is also one of our #VacationForGood tips!
#5 – Keep your liquids, pastes and gels limited to three ounce containers and keep them all in a quart sized zip lock bag for additional screening at the security check point.
#6 – Carrying powder? There are some new rules – powders in your carry on luggage should be less than 12 ounces and if the substance can not be identified by TSA it may not be permitted
#7 – We all know how nice it is to have a snack on the plane and those tiny bags of pretzels aren’t always the most filling. It’s fine to take food with you through the security check point (adhering to the liquid, paste, gel rules) but keep all of your food items together in a large zip lock bag and currently they require separate screening.
#8 – If you find yourself on a smaller commuter plane the overhead may not be large enough to accommodate your roller bag. Should that be the case, the bag will be “gate checked” for you meaning you roll it down the jet way, they put it in the luggage hold, then when the plane lands you claim it again on the jet way, it does not go to baggage claim. When this happens you also need to make sure that you don’t have any lithium batteries in the bag, or you will need to remove them, the same goes for the battery if you’re using a smart bag.
When you’re ready to start planning your next adventure, click here, we’d love to help you get the best value for your vacation budget.
The above video is a really wonderful dive into the relationship between the rise of social media and the destruction or overcrowding of natural and not so natural destinations.
With my background in photography I’m an admitted shutterbug. On my most recent vacation I took thousands of photos, just with my phone. I agree with the researcher in the video from USC who says that “when people take photographs they actually enjoy the experience more” and are more engaged in the travel experience. However, when taking those photos with the intention to post them to social media, rather than for personal enjoyment that enjoyment factor decreases significantly.
I’ve noticed in my personal trips to the Southwest over the past several decades that places are much more crowded than they used to be. Among additional factors, one of the main reasons behind this increase seems to be “social media fueled tourism.” Years ago you could take a photo, have it printed and share it with friends and family to encourage them to visit. Now everything is instant, you can stand on the rim of the Grand Canyon or even more out of the way places like Horseshoe Bend and instantly post the coordinates of your photograph to social media for others to punch into their device and get directions on how to get to the same spot. It’s called geotagging and it’s common practice these days.
There is an iconic overlook in Trolltunga, Norway that saw an increase in visitors from 500 in 2009 to 40,000 in 2014 according to National Geographic.
Of course, the flip side to the issue is that many destinations have benefited greatly from the increase in tourism revenue that social media has provided. This will no doubt continue as social media users search for the next hot location.
I think the real lesson here is that we need to be responsible travelers. Stop and think before you post that photo of your favorite trail or overlook that you currently have to yourself, do you really want to find a crowd there the next time you visit? Maybe the purpose of your post can be to educate others on how to visit responsibly rather than to simply inspire them to recreate your photo.
When you’re ready to explore more about your next vacation I’d love to help you navigate that process. Click here and let’s get started.
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Can you believe it’s August 1st? Where has your summer gone? We are knee deep in another week of summer camp. This is the 4th summer that my daughter has participated in Apple Camp. I continue to be blown away with the level of care and customer service that goes into these free programs for kids at the Apple Store.
Sitting at a workstation in the store both Monday and Wednesday I was amazed at how many people come in for assistance. Many of them have questions about how to operate their device while others have come in because they have encountered a problem with their device. These Apple employees are passionate about their products and also in helping their users get the most out of the devices that they operate.
While our offices certainly don’t have hundreds of people milling around all day, or 60-70 employees working on a Wednesday evening, our philosophies are the same. Just as the geniuses, as Apple refers to their employees, are passionate about the experiences their customers have, travel professionals are equally as passionate when designing vacation experiences for our clients.
How many of us can relate to having a device that we know has much more capability than we utilize? Did you know that the Apple store offers free workshops that will help you learn more about your device? They even offer photo walks to help you take better photographs with your iPhone. How great would that knowledge be on your next vacation?
I’ve even listened to these Apple employees get on the phone to wireless providers and become advocates for the iPhone users, this is not unlike what we are able to do with suppliers when you run into difficulty on a vacation.
Personally, I’m split on the Apple vs. Android, Mac vs. PC debates. I love the functionality of my MacBook for every day tasks. I also love the flexibility my Samsung phone provides.
Clearly there is no one camp, one company or even one vacation that is one size fits all. That’s why it’s my job to help you navigate the unknown and find the best fit for your needs. Sometimes that means we pick and choose options to put your ideal itinerary together.
When you’re ready to explore more about your next vacation I’d love to help you navigate that process. Click here and let’s get started, that link works from any device, regardless of where your loyalties fall into place.
I’ve always been enamored with photographs. In fact, my first college degree was in Photography. I’ve been known to drag large camera bags full of lenses, camera bodies, etc while on vacation. Luckily, I’ve found an alternative to packing the tripod and remote for the camera to capture family photographs when we vacation. For the 4th time now, we’ve hired a local photographer to help us while we travel. Our first experience was in Dublin, followed by Rome the following year. This past vacation we did a session in both London and Paris (have I mentioned lately how patient my husband is?) Honestly, he’s a Saint when it comes to indulging my photography obsession.
The tag line for Flytographer is “some vacations deserve more than selfies” and based on my experiences, I couldn’t agree more. While I certainly appreciate the “go go gadget” arms that my husband has and his ability to capture a great selfie of the three of us, sometimes you want something a bit more refined. Giving your phone or camera to a local or fellow traveler is always a gamble. Will you really get the shot you are envisioning, or will your heads be cut off in the frame?
This week I wanted to share a bit with you about how these sessions work and how to best prepare for them.
Flytographer is the company that we work most closely with for vacation sessions. They are based in Canada and have photographers in nearly 300 destinations. Just in Paris there are currently 12 photographers to choose from. You can scroll through each portfolio and choose the photographer that best matches your style.
Sessions range from 30 minutes up to 2 hours. They also offer packages for those wishing to capture a proposal.
Once you decide on a photographer and a session length, we can lead you through the recommended routes. I’ll take care of the booking process for you as part of our service on your vacation package. I recommend the 60 minute session to get your best value. It also gives your family enough time to get comfortable with the photographer.
When it comes to planning the session itself you’re able to work with the photographer on the level of direction that you wish. Perhaps your family is really comfortable in front of the camera and you don’t need advice on how to pose, that’s fine, we can make those arrangements. Maybe it’s been years since you and your spouse had a photo session for just the two of you and you would be more comfortable with more direction from the photographer, that’s fine as well. It’s all up to you.
The next big decision is what to wear! My advice is to coordinate, but you don’t necessarily all have to match exactly, unless that’s the look you’re going for. I’d also advise you to keep an open mind. When we arrived in Paris the afternoon of our shoot it was much warmer than had been forecast when we laid our outfits out together. Luckily, we were able to coordinate outfits at the last minute that worked a bit better with the heat. Well, I thought we did until my daughter asked me as we were walking out the door of the hotel “Is that the shirt you’re wearing for the pictures?” Well, it was, but clearly I had to change shirts with a statement like that! In came plan 3!
So, what happens after the session? Great question. Within a few days you get a “sneak peek” which is normally one shot that the photographer picks from your session and sends to you as an electronic post card. Then within 5 business days you get an email with a link to view and download your entire gallery. Those high resolution downloads are then yours to do with as you wish.
Are you ready to try out a photo session on your next vacation? Click here and let’s get started.
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I’ve gotten a lot of questions this past week regarding our Summer Vacation and wanted to take this opportunity to answer some of those this week. In case you missed it, we sailed aboard the Sapphire Princess from Southampton June 29 – July 6, 2019. The ports of call were Bruges, Belgium; Copenhagen, Denmark; Skagen, Denmark* and Oslo, Norway. Unfortunately it was too windy for us to visit Skagen, but that did give us the opportunity to spend extra time in Oslo.
How was the weather? Beautiful! The weather was absolutely beautiful. We had been watching the forecast for weeks to see what the trends were. Just before we left for London temperatures were forecast to be quite warm, in the 90’s in fact. Luckily, that forecast did not hold up and we had temperatures in the 70’s in London and even down in the 50’s in Scandinavia
Why did you choose a cruise? With our family dynamic a cruise was the perfect choice. The itinerary was unique in that none of us had visited these ports previously. The ship served as our hotel while we were able to visit three new destinations without the hassle of traveling between them on our own. Most important, we could vacation at our own pace. For me, sea days are spent pool side with my nose in a book. My daughter spent her time in the pool with Dad, playing cards with her Uncle or putting a puzzle together with her Grandparents. When we were in port we all had choices to fit our pace. For example, in Copenhagen we took the hop on hop off bus with our friends; my brother and his partner took an Uber to town to explore on their own; and my parents did a slower pace tour with a small group. The funny thing is that we ran into each of them during the day. Once back onboard we met up at dinner and spent the time sharing our stories from the day.
How many people went with you? Just in our group there were 11, myself and my family as well as two couples who are long time friends and clients.
Did you all do everything together? Absolutely not! See above about our time in Copenhagen. Other ports were similar. We also did our own thing before and after our cruise. My husband, daughter and I spent 4 nights exploring London before the cruise while the others flew over the day before the cruise began to join us in London. Once the cruise was over we all went our separate ways, my husband, daughter and I went to Paris for 3 nights, my brother stayed in London a few nights, my parents went off on another cruise around Ireland and the UK and our friends had a wonderful 4 days immersing themselves in the English Countryside and visiting Highclere Castle of Downton Abbey fame.
Will you do another trip where clients can come along? Yes, yes, yes! We’re considering hosting a river cruise through France in the fall of 2019 or 2020. If you would like to get more information on how to join us on that trip simply email me through this link. Of course, we are open to suggestions on where to go as well. Perhaps there’s a spot you would like to visit, but aren’t quite comfortable enough to jump on that by yourself, let us know and we’ll consider joining you and opening that up to other clients to form a small group.
If you have questions about my trip, I’d love to chat, please reach out. Maybe something I posted to sparked an interest for your future travels, if that’s the case, click here and let’s get started with your plans.
Let’s start planning that vacation you’ve been dreaming about. While there is limited availability remaining for 2019, we are in full swing for planning 2020 vacations and even have several inquiries already for 2021. With that, I’m sure some of you are wondering just when is the best time to book your vacation, that’s exactly what I’ll share with you this week.
When should you book your next vacation?
My favorite answer to that question is “NOW!”
There was a time when waiting until the last minute to plan a vacation could provide a lower price. Those days are long gone! Hotels, resorts and cruise ships have realized that rather than rewarding those who wait until the last minute with lower pricing they are offering their lowest prices to those clients who book the furthest in advance. We then see prices continuing to rise as availability starts to disappear. Even today, when we do see a last minute discount on a resort or cruise, the last minute pricing for airfare negates any savings that clients actually receive.
Did you know that when cruise lines announce that their World Cruise itineraries are open for booking that they normally sell out within a week?
For those clients who are planning a milestone celebration we often start the process 18-24 months before their desired travel time, especially when they are traveling with extended family. These are celebrations for milestones such as anniversary trips, “big” birthday celebrations, graduation trips or group trips or even multigenerational trips when you have the schedules of several travelers to coordinate.
When we start working around school holiday schedules those dates fill quite quickly so it’s not uncommon to start planning 12-18 months out. We’ve got several families booked for Spring Break 2020 already because their dates were not flexible. We’re starting to do the same for Summer of 2020, especially for families who’s children are involved in summer sports and only have one or two weeks during the summer when they can travel. If your dates are not flexible you need to book as soon as possible to secure the best value but also your top choices for destinations, flights and activities.
The other segment of clients who are starting to plan 12-18 months out are the honeymooners, once you have a wedding date set it’s time to start planning the honeymoon to make sure you get the best value for your vacation investment.
There are clients who are flexible enough to travel during any time of the year and can wait until 9-12 months before their desired departure date to start planning their vacation. These are the clients who are enhancing their children’s education by exploring the world beyond their classroom and traveling during the school year, empty nesters who aren’t tied to school schedules, and retirees who aren’t worried about vacation time allocation.
Certainly the actual time spent traveling is going to provide memories and happiness for years to come, but studies have shown that a great deal of happiness actually comes from the anticipation of the trip as well. So why not start that anticipation process now and cash in on the added happiness?You’ll most likely get a better value for your vacation investment as well.
If you’re ready to maximize the value as well as your happiness, let’s make an appointment and get started!
Today, June 6th, marks the 75th Anniversary of the D-Day Landings. It seemed like the perfect occasion to share this with you . I have planned vacations for countless numbers of travelers during my twenty plus years in the industry, but this one has been my favorite, so far.
A family was referred to me by a friend. We started working on a trip to France for the Summer of 2017. While in Paris, the family wanted to visit Normandy. Turns out that two of the young men traveling had a Grandfather who was involved in D-Day. They wanted to visit the beaches as well as the church, St Mere Eglise.
In further conversations I found out that their Grandfather was actually a paratrooper. He was the first in his battalion to jump during the D-Day invasion. With this information we set off to find a company that would enhance the experience in Normandy by arranging a skydive for the boys.
I think they were a little nervous when the airplane had to be started by spinning the prop, by hand. However, from the video I saw they had an amazing experience.
One of the jump guides had even surprised the boys by unfurling the American flag while he jumped with the oldest grandson.
These are the types of experiences that we love to plan, those that can’t be pulled out a tour book, but are customized completely to fit the expectations of you, the traveler.
Certainly this family would have had an outstanding and memorable day simply visiting the landing beaches, the museum and the church to find their Grandfather’s name in the logbook from June 6, 1944. However, by taking it a step further and actually doing a dive in that historic location they deepened their connection to a man whom they had heard stories about their entire lives, the man whom each were named after in some way.
I received this message from the family after they returned home: “This has been a really good time to be together. We ‘did’ about half of what we could have, but we spent a lot of time together. We talked nonstop all the way home, telling stories about the trip. It was fun to hear. You don’t always realize what they are absorbing. I kept a little journal of our plans versus what we did. We ended up spending more time absorbing the culture than ‘doing’ things.”
This is why I do what I do and am so passionate about making sure families actually experience the destinations they visit rather than simply check the boxes.
Are there destinations you want to experience? Click here and we can get the planning started today!
Summer has arrived, perhaps not officially as the equinox doesn’t occur for another few weeks. However, the Summer temperatures have arrived and if the traffic was any indication this past Monday when I returned from the Outer Banks plenty of people agree that Summer is here.
The Summer travel season is already in full swing. One of the trends that we are really seeing increase for 2019 is the rise in solo travel.
We have always worked with a handful of travelers that were independent enough, or tired of waiting for their friends or family to join them on a trip to just go, but those were not the norm. In recent years we have seen factors that make these solo trips an easier reach for the average traveler. We work closely with each traveler to make sure the vacation we plan for them is effortless. We also work closely with suppliers that do not penalize a traveler who wishes to travel by themselves. We’re able to match that solo traveler with a product, and itinerary that fits their travel style and comfort level, whether it be a wellness themed trip focusing on yoga and mindfulness, a river cruise through the villages of Europe or even a room to themselves joining a local group exploring the gardens of France or Italy.
We are also seeing more travelers that enjoy the companionship of going with a small group of friends, but still prefer their privacy and the space that their own single accommodation provides.
Regardless of the type of trip we help you plan, even as a solo traveler you’ll have the peace of mind that comes along with knowing that while you may be traveling solo, we are always here when things don’t go as planned so you’re never really alone.
Are you interested in learning more about solo travel? Contact me, or one of the other travel professionals at Slaydon’s Travel. We can make getting there as easy as being there!
