51 Countries, 6 continents, 11 months

Each year that we’ve been in business, we’ve put together a year-end wrap-up of all of the fabulous places that we’ve sent clients in the past year.

Well, this year is a little different.

We started out the year with some really exciting trips. We had clients who took the trip of a lifetime to see the Australian Open, and we arranged for them to get access to walk onto the iconic blue clay so that they could take selfies while the players warmed up. We sent clients on a gorgeous custom-built Southeast Asia trip, where they had a private junk cruise on Ha Long Bay, visited the UNESCO Heritage sites in Luang Prabang, Laos, and went cycling through the countryside outside of Saigon (our guides took their luggage ahead in the van, so that everything would be waiting for them at their next hotel stop). And we arranged some fabulous excursions for our client who went to Morocco to explore the ancient Roman ruins at Volubilis and the incredible bustling souks of Fés and Marrakesh.

The map of places where our clients actually traveled in 2020.

And then the virus hit. We were actually traveling when we got the news that there was a run on toilet paper nationwide on the Wednesday when America woke up to the nature of the pandemic. We returned from the Caribbean to a country that was very different from the one we’d left a week earlier.

On our last pre-pandemic trip, we were able to see Liz Phair perform in Santiago, Dominican Republic

That’s when the cancellations began. Over the course of the next ten months, we canceled and rebooked all of our clients’ trips. We’ve spent hours upon hours on the phone with our suppliers—wrangling with them about refunds and scrambling to get clients rebooked. We badgered suppliers that were slow to respond to us. We reached out to other independent travel advisors in our network to let them know what we were experiencing and to hear what their clients were facing. The map on the cover of this post shows all of the destinations that we had to cancel — more than fifty countries on every continent except Antarctica. That’s a lot of cancellations!

We’ve been relentless on behalf of our clients, because our core value as a travel company is that we take care of our clients before, during and after their trip. In fact, we’re still doing battle with Virgin Australia Airlines — the one booking from 2020 that we’ve not yet been able to resolve. The airline declared bankruptcy, and the trustee halted any refunds. But we’ve taken it up with our air consolidator, with the airline directly, and we’ve even registered formal complaints at the Department of Transportation. Right now, our clients have the full value of those tickets preserved, but travel to Australia isn’t opening up anytime soon, so we’re continuing to advocate for a full refund.

Like I said — we’re relentless.

Our client, Jill, asked if we could find a safe, reliable vacation rental close to home. We found a lovely house on a lake where she could cook, read, write and paint during the pandemic. Yep! We can do that, too!

We’ve also moved some suppliers off of our preferred list based on the way they handled this crisis. That major hotel chain that tried to charge thousands of dollars in penalties when our clients had to postpone their wedding because of COVID? We won’t be booking at any of their properties going forward. The company that mistakenly ran a charge on our clients cards and then took months to process the refund? We’ve made certain that every other travel advisor in our network knows what happened to them. And the luxury cruise line that has defaulted on debt payments and has been slow to process promised refunds? We’re staying on top of the latest developments in the industry trade press, to make certain that our clients aren’t left in the lurch if they plan a future trip on that line.

We’ve also taken this time to make new investments in our business. We’ve got new tools that give us access to minute-by-minute information about entry protocols, testing requirements, quarantine restrictions, and much more. We know which airlines are still blocking middle seats, and which ones are cramming passengers into overcrowded flights. We can tell you whether it’s possible to make a connection in any given airport without going through customs and immigration. And we have complete information about the sanitation and hygiene protocols at the hotel and resort you’ll be visiting.

Our domestic bookings were also affected by COVID. Alaska and Hawai’i had to be canceled in 2020, but we still covered a lot of ground.

And we’re also traveling, ourselves. We’ve recently returned from Mexico, after thoroughly researching the issues connected with air travel, and we’ve now got firsthand information about the safety protocols of the airlines and resorts that we’re working with. We also spent the summer doing an epic socially-distant road trip. But we weren’t the only ones taking domestic trips — we also booked those for our clients who wanted a safe stay, close to home. With the hotels and resorts in our luxury hotel program, we’re able to secure rates with exclusive amenities like room upgrades, spa credits, free included breakfasts, early check-in, late check-out, and more.

So, now that it’s 2021, what’s on the horizon? We’re more optimistic about travel than ever before. We’ve spent the past several months putting ourselves in the best possible position to advocate for our clients, to get up to speed on the realities of travel during the “new normal” and by thoroughly vetting and evaluating all of the suppliers on our list of preferred vendors. And, we’re starting to make new bookings, again!

If you’re ready to make a plan for your next great adventure, we’re ready to help you do that safely and securely and with all the value of our professional relationships and new booking tools. Just drop us a line or give us a call. The world is waiting for you!