It's shaping up to be a pretty chaotic summer for the airline industry. Want to make your travels go as smoothly as possible? Take this advice from our travel agent buddy Angela Richards, owner of ADR Vacations. 

Air travel is going to be nuts this Summer! There are pilot shortages, plane shortages, crew shortages, etc. hitting the airline industry hard just as travel enters its busy season. Here are a few tips to help navigate what is gearing up to be a very not fun time in travel.
✅ ALLOW EXTRA TIME AT THE AIRPORT. It's gonna be super busy this summer so give yourself plenty of time. Look, I get it. No one likes spending more time than they have to waiting in an airport but trust me. Making a mad dash to your gate only to arrive just as they've closed the doors to the jet bridge ain't no picnic either.
✅ DON'T BOOK THE LAST FLIGHT OF THE NIGHT. With all of the shortages, flights have been canceling like crazy. You don't want to put yourself in a situation where if your flight cancels you'd have to spend the night on a cold, concrete floor using your backpack as a pillow and your jacket as a blanket. It's not as comfy as it sounds.
✅ BOOK THE FIRST FLIGHT OF THE DAY. If you can stand getting up well before the crack of dawn, I recommend flying out on the first flight of the morning, which is almost guaranteed to be on time.
✅ PREPARE FOR THE WORST. If you are checking your bags, be sure to have a carry-on that contains a change of clothes, a clean pair of underwear, pajamas, and any medications you might need just in case the airline decides to put you and your luggage on different flights.

While of course things can still go wrong, following Angela's advice will give you a much better chance for smooth travels. Another tip from us: make sure you have travel insurance. Travel insurance isn't just useful if you need to cancel due to illness or get care while in-destination. It also typically includes "trip delay" coverage, which gives you money for reimbursement for meals, hotels, and other things when your flight has been delayed by a certain number of hours. One last tip? Use a travel agent. Then if there are issues, you have someone to reach directly, someone on hand and ready to help however they can.

Want help booking your summer travels? Reach out to us (or to Angela 😁, #travelagentssupportingeachother) and we'll get you set up for a great trip in no time! 

We wanted to share a little info on a lesser-known English destination today. Whitby, England, is an utterly charming seaside village in North Yorkshire, and it's a favorite spot of ours. ​

​When should you book travel? 

The short, not especially helpful, answer is "it depends!" There's no magic formula, and it depends a lot on personal preference. We've had people book trips a year and a half in advance, and we've had people book trips a week and a half in advance. But, that said, here are some things to consider:

• If you're booking a European river cruise, where the boats aren't huge, book as soon as availability opens up, usually a year and a half in advance. Prices predictably rise with time, so the sooner the better.
• Considering an all-inclusive beach vacation? The cost is going to vary dramatically based on two things: time of year (late summer and fall are cheapest, because it's super hot and also hurricane season), and flight pricing. Flight pricing is erratic, to say the least. My recommendation is always to book as soon as you know you want to go, but make sure to get travel insurance that includes a one-time price drop, so if prices do go down, you can take advantage of that.
• Want to book something without paying in full up front? Most packages require paying in full when you are 45, 60, or 90 days out, depending on the destination and other details. So know that if you're inside that window, you might be paying the full amount when booking.
• Considering one of our group tours? You can arrange monthly payments, so if you book sooner, there are more months till the final deadline, and therefore your monthly payments will be smaller. 
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What about flights? Flights can't be booked more than a year out. Should you book at, say, 11 months out? You certainly can, if prices are good. One thing to keep in mind: schedule changes after booking have become a common occurrence. That is something to be prepared for, regardless of when you book your travel. Keep in mind, though, that if the airline changes your flight significantly, you do not have to accept the flight they chose--you can look for other comparable flights, or cancel, if you choose, without penalty. So we find the best approach is to choose a flight you like when the price is good (which varies immensely, but generally is best at least a couple months in advance) but be at peace with the fact that the flight schedule may change, and you may have to manage that schedule change (or have your travel agent manage it--one of the benefits of working with one. 🙂 )

What about last-minute deals? A common misconception is that, due to the disruptiveness of the pandemic, airlines and hotels will be desperate to fill space at the last minute and will charge less. I wish this was true, but it tends not to be. That doesn't mean you can't find a perfectly good price when you're close to your travel date (ask me about the time I booked a trip to Mexico with two days notice!), but it's unfortunately not a strategy to get unusually good deals you couldn't get earlier. 

The main takeaway: There's no magic time frame to find the best pricing. Once you know what you want to do, if the price looks acceptable to you, go ahead and book it, and make sure you have good travel insurance. 

Do you have a trip in mind that you're considering? Want to talk about the best time to book that specific itinerary? Just email us and we'll get right back to you!

Back in November, Adam and I stayed at the Crown Paradise Golden, an adults-only all-inclusive resort (with a sister property next door that is geared towards families) in Puerto Vallarta, Mexico. It was a very budget property, very very affordable. Which I like--those views, that beauty, shouldn't only be accessible to people with money! But there were some downsides. The rooms were not fancy. The shower head hit me in between the shoulder blades (I'm tall, but I'm not THAT tall). Things were clearly kind of worn out.

The excursion: I went on a tour led by biologists to swim with wild dolphins. It was INCREDIBLE. There are a few pods of wild dolphins that live in Banderas Bay year-round, and we went out in a boat, and got in the water with them! I'd expected the dolphins to be like golden retrievers, delighted to meet us, but in reality they were totally indifferent to us, which honestly I respected. They were like "OK, cool, man, I'll swim past you, I've got stuff to do, I'm on my way now." They are also so, so, so fast. I'd swim as fast as I could toward them, and it felt like I was just swimming in place. Life jackets were offered, but the biologists recommended against them for decent swimmers, since they make it hard to maneuver. I opted not to wear one, and felt totally fine (plus, the salt water makes it easier to float--physics!).

Dolphins are huge, btw! One swam right under me, so close that a woman on the boat said she thought I was going to pop out of the water riding it.

It wasn't intended to be a whale watching tour, but we were approaching the time of year when humpback whales head back into the bay (they spent the summer off the coast of Oregon), and when our guide spotted some, we were all eager to go see them. They are EVEN BIGGER! We weren't allowed to get in the water with them, because they could accidentally hurt us. They're like 40 feet long. Amazing! We saw a group of five of them. The guide recognized one of them with a weird tail and said he comes down every year, an old friend.

When you think of a romantic vacation, you might envision drinking champagne at a candlelit restaurant, or lounging in hammocks on a secluded beach, or taking in the view from the balcony of a five-star hotel room. Sure, these things can be romantic, but there are truly only two things you need to create an unforgettable getaway for you and your love. ​It's really simple.

In January, amongst other travels, we spent two days in northern England, somewhere new to both of us. ​The cliffside ruins of Whitby Abbey stunned us with their stark beauty and fascinating history. Traditional English "cream tea" at a quirky cafe charmed us both. Even a terrible (truly, so terrible! on so many levels!) restaurant quickly became a hilarious memory. Northern England is not thought of as a typical "couples" destination like, say, Paris, but our two days there were wonderful, exactly what we needed. 

It doesn't matter whether or not a place is Instagram-famous, with a romantic reputation. You just need to find somewhere new with someone you love, drawing closer as you explore the world together. 

We just wanted to give a shout-out to the Black Travel Alliance for the incredibly important work they do. Founded in 2020, they created the Black Travel Scorecard to evaluate destination management organizations and travel brands on not just what they say, but what they do. They recently launched an important website, in partnership with Tourism RESET, on The History of Black Travel. This website functions as a resource for both educators and travel professionals. It's a fantastic project, and worth reading through. It includes profiles of people like Jessica Nabongo, who in 2019 completed her goal of visiting all 195 United Nations member countries and observing states, and Jill Elaine Brown, who in 1978 became the first African American woman hired as a pilot for a major airline. 

Also worth a read? This 2021 article by Joah Spearman, "Travel Is So Diverse. Why Is the Travel Industry So White?"  Spearman's article examines the myriad effects of white privilege in the travel industry (privilege which, we acknowledge, we absolutely benefit from), and how those effects then influence the experiences of travelers themselves. 

Read articles like Spearman's above, or this article by Channon Hodge on the experiences of Black travelers, and it will be abundantly clear (if it wasn't already) that the travel industry has got to do better. We'll be continuing with our pledge to donate 10% of our 2022 profits to Black Lives Matter, and to partner with Black-owned vendors and companies whenever possible. If you have other suggestions on ways we (us specifically, or the travel industry as a whole) can do better, please, reach out and let us know.

The itinerary for Cars, Breweries, and Beer Halls, our June 2022 trip to Germany, should give you a good idea of the highlights of the trip. But a vacation is so much more than the highlights. Sometimes the best memories come from the small things, the specific things, the little delights. Here are three little, hyper-specific reasons you should travel to Berlin, Munich, and Stuttgart. 

Travel journalists Asher and Lyric Fergusson have created the 2021 LGBTQ+ Travel Safety Index, a ranked list of 150 countries. This list does a great job of boiling down the varying factors that contribute to the safety and security of LGBTQ+ travelers into a simple-to-follow guide. They measure everything from transgender legal protections, to same-sex marriage laws, to how people there answered the survey question "Is this a good place to live for gay or lesbian people?" 

As tour operators and travel agents, this is something important to us, not just for our LGBTQ+ clients, but for our company as a whole. It's important to us that the tours we lead, the countries we visit, and the businesses we patronize, are all safe for all our clients, and do not compromise on the values we hold.

Thinking of planning your own trip abroad? Take a look at the Fergussons' index--it might just spark some new ideas! (Anyone up for a trip to Malta, perhaps?)