So, where do you want to go? Everywhere, is not a great answer but not a bad idea. I was talking to a man on a cruise ship off of the coast of Omen who wanted to visit every country and had already been to 180 of them. He was interesting to me in that his comfort zone was huge. He had been in the military, Great Britian’s I think, and had been stationed in Africa and told me a story of riding a motorcycle from South Africa to Egypt in the 1980s. Quite an experience I thought. But his opinion was that it wasn’t really a big deal. Most people are friendly and curious around the world and are intrigued by travelers. So true, with a good attitude and a smile, most of the world will welcome you warmly. Of course, you need to understand the current situation and be mindful of the hazards. Cultural differences and toilets are important to understand everywhere in the world. But the explorer in us all craves new adventures …. but how do you begin.
FYI, when I wrote this I was sitting in Florida self-quarantining during the Covid-19 Pandemic, after returning from Spain. It was April 15, 2020 and Reva and I was scheduled to travel to India and do a 10-day tour of the golden triangle with Gate 1 travel. This would have been our first land trip with them even though we had seen their tours in different places around the world. I found the deal for Airfare, hotels, half of your meals for $899 per person including taxes. Think about that airfare from LA to India, 8 nights in good hotels, tour guide, entrance fees, transportation in country and half of your food. Now unfortunately, that was before the pandemic screwed everything up…but what a deal. So, where did I find that …. www.travelzoo.com. Weekly they publish their 20 best deals. Go check them out.
You may notice, the deals this week rarely include cruises. Now for cruising, we have used many agencies and completed over 50 (yes over 50) cruises. Actually, when you add everything up, Reva and I have spent over a year of our life sailing around the world. Pretty damn cool! Now, you would think that would cost a fortune and you are right…it could cost a fortune, depending how you chose to travel. Obviously, we like to do this frequently, especially if we can use the cruise to go between ports or continents so we need to do it on the cheap. So that means that I am always on the look-out for the best deal and often when we build a trip we start with factoring in a cruise .. or two at a really good price and then build the trip around this. Let me explain further.
The two main agencies we use are www.vacationstogo.com and www.crucon.com. I will price and compete prices between agencies, but I have found these two will be the cheapest 75% of the time. So start here and if you see a deal elsewhere, check that price against these two. First lets start with Vacationstogo’s 90 day ticker.
Vacationstogo requires you to establish an account to see their deals which is as simple as adding an email address. In the upper left-hand corner of the page you will find the 90 ticker. As you go through their list, you will see cruises 80% or more off of their brochure price. No one pays the brochure price and cruise lines typically sell cabins 30-50% off of that price.
Now let’s take a look at Crucon. Crucon, runs specials weekly and routinely adds extra bonuses. Recently they had an Alaska Cruise in May 2021 on the Celebrity Millennium for $839 going from Vancouver, Canada to Seward, Alaska. This rate includds tips, drinks (open bar whole cruise!), and $350 On Board Credit (this can be used for anything…including the Casino). So, the total cost for this would be $2,120 or $151 per person per day. Not a bad deal.
We almost never book through the cruise line….unless we are on a ship and they have a special deal going on. In that case we coordinate with Vacationstogo and Crucon and transfer the reservation.
We also have used www.iCruise.com and www.Onlinevacationcenter.com. Routinely when we cruise, we try to keep the total cost under $100 per day, per person and sometimes we have had it as low as $30. Now depending on where and when we want to go, we have splurged…New Zealand and Australia are expensive.
Travel doesn’t have to be expensive. In the next article, I will talk about how you can turn ideas into actual adventures.