The holidays are over and a bright, shiny new year has begun. If you’re like many (or at least like me), this time of year my thoughts immediately turn to travel, because having something fun (and potentially warm) is the best way to get through the post-holiday letdown and those winter doldrums.
Travel protection is something that I always recommend to my clients because a vacation is a very sizable investment to make, and….life happens. In my opinion, it only makes sense to do whatever you can to protect that investment. While I don’t take adding additional costs to a vacation lightly – and would never recommend anything that I did not think would benefit my clients – as I’ve said many times, it’s not always just the cost of something to consider, as the value you are getting is just (if not more) important. The value of a trip that is disrupted, and you lose tons of money as a result, is…….zero. Read more
Last Friday morning, as I was getting ready to fly to Wisconsin for the wedding of our best friend’s daughter – a wedding where I was doing a reading – I noticed in my Southwest app that our evening flight was already showing delayed. I thought that was a bit odd so many hours before our flight, so I kept checking all day long, and kept watching the delay steadily increase to over 3 hours by late afternoon.
And then I got the dreaded alert: Cancelled. Read more
Everyone wants to know they’re getting the best possible price for their vacation – but how do you actually do that?
Do you scour “discount” travel sites that offer trips at cheap prices? Do you grab that Groupon that just showed up in your email? Do you ask thousands of people you don’t know in a Facebook group? Do you book the inn that your Aunt Martha said was a great deal when she and Uncle Harry visited there 20 years ago?
The answer actually starts with two truths that you probably heard as a kid:
For many folks, a tropical island vacation means a vacation to the Hawaiian islands, and for good reason. With its one-of-a-kind culture, spectacular beaches, and endless room for adventure, to say nothing of the majestic waterfalls, volcanoes, and rugged mountain landscapes waiting to be explored – the appeal of a vacation to Hawaii is obvious.
Until they look at the flights.
When travelers realize that most flights from the west coast of the U.S. are at least 6 hours – along with the cost of that airfare – for many, that is the end of their dreams of a vacation in paradise.
But it’s not necessary to give up hope of enjoying a tropical vacation on a beautiful island. There are a number of Caribbean islands which match Hawaii in beauty (and some would say even better than what you can experience in the Hawaiian Islands). Best of all, you can generally fly to the Caribbean from the U.S. mainland within a few hours, so you can enjoy that exotic experience without flying halfway around the world. (And the airfare is a lot less expensive too!) Read more