Finding the Best Fit for Your Next Trip!
The view from our bedroom window in Berthoud, Colorado USA - nothing to do with my blog today.
Getting there is just the start of a Vacation Adventure
How do you make your next trip become a reality?
Book a Guided Tour? Plan it Yourself? Or both?
Maybe YOU know where you’re off to next, but how will you put it together and what will you do when you get there? Knowing your travel style helps with the planning stage.
What is your style?
-Book with a Multi-day tour operator: manages your itinerary start to finish. It includes your accommodations, day and night excursions/activities, maybe some meals and drinks and oftentimes your flights. They might offer additional services that come with package experiences. An example would be Tauk, Trafalgar, National Geographic Pleasant Holidays, Avalon Waterways with MANY more!
-Build with a Multi-day operator platform: Expedia offers booking individual components
-Book Day Tours, Excursions and or Destination tour operators: Local operators that offer single-day activities, shore excursions or local guided experiences. These can fill the gaps with your own planning to do individual adventures. Avalon Waterways, Viator, Expedia, and other operators also offer this type of booking.
-Plan it yourself: book flights, tours, accommodations, rental cars, airport transfers, and other details on your own. Viator, Project Expedition and many more vet these local contacts for travelers.
I have experienced all of these styles and as a travel agent I can help my clients with any of these options. I help you save time, eliminate stress and mistakes and oftentimes money. All the operators listed above are resources I have relationships with, giving each traveler an advocate for all phases of a trip! There is value in eliminating the stress in planning and during a trip, making the most of your valuable time on vacation.
Talk About Stress Free!
I let go of control and we let Avalon Waterways do the work!
Photo Credit to my Wingman Todd Ball
We booked the Paris pre-cruise option - we took full advantage of the time and rode Lime bikes around the Champs-Élysées to the Eiffel Tower!
Our six night river cruise from Bordeaux to Saint-Émilion France provided meals, wine, luxury service, unlimited coffee on the ship deck shown here, amazing options for day trips for all levels of activity, and more! I didn't plan a single thing for our own trip - that's a first!
Packages Have All Kinds of Options!
We were in Greece, but a side trip to Egypt? Sure! Why not!?
This was the view from our room. With Expedia, I booked roundtrip flights from Athens to Cairo with our hotel. Now I'm not sure I can recommend the hotel of my choice, but we wanted an experience!
We would not have toured the Cairo Bizarre like we did without our trusty driver and tour guide! He was booked through Viator.
Those tour guides always seem to be pretty darn good photographers too!
As with all things, in my opinion, it's very important to read reviews and be aware of what you are booking and all the details!
A Private Driver is FABULOUS!
Visiting The Oracle and Monasteries in Style
Part of our Greece trip, from Athens<Olympus<Meteora<Nafplion, was fully guided — a private driver and guides the whole way, shout out to Demetris. It was a long trip that would have been 3 times as long using the trains. This trip proved the case for guided travel better than almost any other. We didn't speak Greek, and honestly, navigating those mountain roads, finding parking, and remote monastery access points on our own would have been a challenge for me. Our driver knew which overlook to stop at, which taverna in Meteora the locals actually eat at, and our monastery guide took us to his favorite coffee place. That's local knowledge you can't Google. If you're headed somewhere with a language barrier, with tight time frames, or sites that are genuinely hard to access on your own, a guide isn't a convenience — it's the difference between seeing the place and just passing through it. I do think that sometimes with my obsession of off the beaten path, we miss things.
Todd (middle) loves to stop for locals (R) selling their goods - Demetris (L) made it happen!
Guided Tours and Travel Have Their Benefits
...but I'll be honest.
That's not how I travel everywhere. In Spanish-speaking countries, I speak the language, and that changes everything. On a trip to Costa Rica, we explored Bijagua on our own - asking the locals what to do and where to go. A trail with hanging bridges that wasn't part of any package, gave us a good chunk of the day on muddy trails to see only 2 other people. We like being able to linger somewhere we love and skip somewhere we don't, on no one else's schedule. If you're comfortable navigating on your own, or traveling somewhere the language or logistics don't intimidate you, that flexibility can be an adventure!
Monkeys swung through the trees eating their breakfast while we ate ours!
If YOU would like to cross this bridge, I can reveal it's location.
This type of travel isn't for everyone, and I know this when listeners look bewildered when I tell some of my wilder stories!
Here's one way I look at travel types
Considerations for booking guided tours:
-first-timers to a destination, travelers short on time who want the sights without the planning
-someone who doesn’t pay attention to details
-a traveler who isn’t patient in looking at options and making decisions
-anyone heading somewhere with real logistical or language barriers
-take advantage of exclusive and VIP access for some admissions
-if you want a local contact and or built in insider
-looking for social connections
And here's who should think twice about booking organized guided tours:
-travelers who don’t want to be told when to get back on the bus
-people who already know how to navigate on their own
-anyone who wants to go deep in one place rather than efficiently cover a lot of ground
One reason I would go back to Rome for THIRD time is to go on a tour and really learn about the magnificence of The Colosseum and The Forum.
NO rabbit holes for you!
My point in this blog is that I may not be the right travel agent for everyone - and I'm ok with that!
I love what I do because I get to obsess over details and go down rabbit holes so you don't have to. Wherever you're headed next, I can my knowledge and make sure you get the trip that’s genuinely right for you.
Are you ready to plan out the details of your next trip?
Booking excursions with locals can be a life changing experience. Maybe not always, but you will never regret planning a highly rated tour with a reputable company.
steph@twoheronstravel.com 303-775-7128
