trusted travel advisor

I was contacted a week ago by a couple making last-minute plans for a trip to Italy. They wanted my help filling in the last two days of their itinerary on Capri and getting them an affordable midday flight to Paris. I got them the affordable flight (the only inexpensive option was out of Rome), but this meant they had to give up one of their two nights on Capri (or deal with a pre-dawn departure). Their story is the perfect example of (1) why to consult a trusted travel advisor, (2) why to do so at the beginning of your trip planning process, and (3) why to start planning your trip many months in advance.

The most important tool I use to plan foreign independent travel is a simple blank calendar page (see above). I keep blank calendar pages in my files for just this purpose. After filling in the dates for the period of time my clients will be traveling, I map out their itinerary on the calendar. I'm a visual person, and it helps me to see the broad expanse of an itinerary. The critical thing: to develop an itinerary that works.

Here's why to plan early, rather than last minute. Had these clients booked their flight to Paris months in advance (rather than a couple of weeks), they could have flown from Naples to Paris very inexpensively, and they could have enjoyed their final night in Capri (instead of an airport hotel in Rome).


trusted travel advisor (search here on Google)

copyright (c) 2010 by David Ourisman LLC. All rights reserved. If you have comments on this column, or questions about booking travel, email me or visit my website.
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