giving a trip for the holidays

The end-of-year holidays are upon us, which means you’ve got a choice. Do you want to go to the mall and buy “stuff” that may or may not be the right size, could possibly be a good color, might or might not fit, or is be exactly the same thing that they already have?

Or, do you want to give a gift that will bring you closer to the people you love most in the world, expand the way that you understand the world around you, and that possibly transforms you into a newer, better version of yourself.

Yeah, I know. Enough with the twinkle-ding-dong stuff. But, honestly—whether you’re sitting on a beach, boarding a cruise ship, setting foot in an amusement park or heading off on the bucket-list adventure-of-a-lifetime, giving someone the gift of travel is just about the best gift, ever.

And we’re here to help with that. If you’re going to give someone a trip, you don’t want your gift to go to waste—you want it to be something that they can actually do. What could be worse than planning a vacation for someone, only to find out that they’ve got a prior commitment?

The answer: book with us! If you’re planning far enough ahead and you’re using a travel advisor, you can reserve your space on all sorts of trips with a nominal deposit—ensuring that you’re not going to be out thousands of dollars by paying for everything up front. Our preferred travel partners have some really flexible policies on deposits. So, you can pick out your dream trip, put down the deposits, come up with a fun, creative package for them to unwrap, and then, if there’s something slightly off, we’ll work with you to make any necessary adjustments, so that your gift doesn’t go to waste.

You should call us to talk through the details, but here are a couple of ideas to get you started!

• $1 Deposits on a Cruise. One of our preferred premium cruise lines has this exact special going on today (and today only, as a matter of fact). If you call us today, we can hold your preferred cabin on any number of Princess Cruises for only $1 per passenger. Want to sail through the Panama Canal, cruise the Baltic Sea, or experience the Mediterranean in high-style? We can find the best available balcony cabin for you, and we can hold it so that no one’s able to snatch it out from under you. And it’s a buck! (But you have to get in on this today, if you want to do it. Other cruise lines also have reduced deposits from time to time—sometimes as low as $1, but more frequently around $50 or $100 per person, and with many of those lines, your deposit is fully refundable!

• Flexible Deposits on Adventure Travel. We love our friends at G Adventures—our preferred partner for all kinds of Adventure Travel. G Adventures has pioneered the concept of the “Lifetime Deposit.” When you reserve your spot on one of their small-group itineraries, if your plans need to change, your deposit can be used on any other date, any other itinerary, or you can even transfer your deposit to another traveler. So, if you want to save space on a fabulous National Geographic Journey to the Galápagos, but then it turns out that your gift recipient would rather cycle through the Loire Valley, or have a culturally immersive trip across Morocco, a simple phone call to us can move your deposit. And because they never expire, you can use your deposit in ten days, ten weeks, ten months, or even ten years—it’s yours for life.

• Purchase a Vacation with Protection. If you’re pretty sure that you’re on the right track with the vacation you want to buy for someone, you can get a little extra security by purchasing cancelation protection. Our travel partners like Funjet Vacations will let you book your vacation for extremely low (or no) deposit, when you purchase their all-in-one travel protection plus. (Terms and conditions apply, so call us about this for more details.) Essentially, you can book your vacation for $0 deposit for hotel-only bookings, $50 dollars for charter air and value flight vacations, or $100 for other air and hotel vacation packages.

Those are just three of the examples of how you can lock in a vacation to give as a gift, without being locked-in to specific details that might cost you more than you need to pay. If you’d like to surprise your family with a fabulous vacation this year, just give us a call. We’d absolutely love to be your co-conspirators!