I had been to New Zealand for a week. My daughter and I had a 3-week package tour to Australia and New Zealand in 2005, spending the last week on the south island of New Zealand with a few days in Auckland. I loved it and knew I wanted to return. Kelly was busy in our usual travel months of September and October, but was still interested in a trip this year. I remember her asking what location would be…
I went to Costa Rica for a week with Brenda, a friend from my book club. A widow, she and her husband had a time share in Aruba but she hadn’t used it for several years. She was going to lose another week but was concerned about going alone since she had never traveled without her husband. I said I’d be happy to go somewhere with her, if she was interested. After searching for a while and dealing with limited…
We wanted to see Angkor Wat in Cambodia, but we found a great itinerary for both Vietnam and Cambodia. We booked through Pacific Delight Tours. They partner with the local company Asianventure Tours, based in Hanoi, for local guides. We spent the 20th in a hotel in Chicago; it got us free parking for our stay plus we didn’t have to get up at dawn to get to our morning flight on the 21st. We had a long layover in…
Miami Kelly and I booked a week long trip to Ecuador with Go-Today. Since most flights to Quito were through Miami, we decided to spend a couple nights there on the way. We arrived Saturday afternoon. After visiting the beach, we had some Mojitos, a late dinner, and then just walked around enjoying the South beach area. The next morning, we booked a on-off bus tour of the city. We got off at Vizcaya, the beautiful home and gardens of…
Alex took a job in South Korea to teach English after she graduated college. One of her college roommates, Kim, took a job with the same company. They left September 2009. I visited in April 2010 for a week. I arrived Monday afternoon, April 26th, in Incheon, after a long flight and losing a day crossing the date line. Alex met me at the airport and we had a long, long trip to her town, Anjung-eup, south of Seoul. It…
When we started thinking about a trip to China, we thought we could plan and book it all ourselves. We looked at domestic flights and other travel options between the cities we wanted to visit. As much as we don’t really like groups tours, after attempting to book our own travel to the various cities, we decided that it would be easier with a tour group because the logistics were going to be complex. We booked a tour with China Spree…
Machu Picchu! Who doesn’t want to see the amazing history of Peru and incredible Incan ruins? We booked this trip with Go-Today. I’ve used them for a number of trips since the early 2000’s. They were consolidators and many of their trips initially were just airfare and hotels, sometimes with airport transportation. You could customize by level of hotel or add days. I had used them for a week in London, and a week in London and Paris with Eurorail…
Alex and I spent a week in Spain in March 2008, over her college spring break. We spent 4 nights in Madrid and 3 in Barcelona. Our trip was booked with Go-Today and included flights, hotels, and the train between the cities. Alex’s college room-mate, Kim, was studying in Barcelona for the term and came to Madrid to see the city and spend some time with us. She showed us around Barcelona, also. She really helped us out with her knowledge…
After our first trip together to Oktoberfest, Kelly and I decide we enjoyed traveling together and booked Budapest, Vienna, and Prague through Go-Today. We loved that trip and all three cities. Austria uses the Euro but Hungary and Czechia don’t. We talked about visiting non-euro countries again because of the better exchange rates. We both wanted to visit Poland and Go-Today had a Warsaw-Krakow trip that included city tours, airport transfers, and the train between cities. Looking at their site recently,…
Alex and I wanted to get away somewhere warm on her winter break from college, so I booked an Apple Vacations at a local travel agent, Suzy Davis Travel. I think it might be the first time I used a actual travel agent! We had a “six apple” (rated) resort, a special deal but you don’t know which one until you arrive at the airport. We saved quite a bit of money this way. We flew out on December 9th…