one of life's guilty pleasures ...

Leafing through travel catalogues is one of life's guilty pleasures. Pictured above is the cover of the new 2019 Backroads catalog. Backroads is one of my favorite travel companies — featuring active vacations that involve strolling, walking, hiking, biking, or multi-sport trips (depending on your own preferred activity level). There are lots of great travel catalogues out there — from companies like Tauck, Abercrombie & Kent, Butterfield & Robinson, Lakani, Globus ... and so many others. We work with them all!

Here are several good ways to use travel catalogues... 

(1) Use your travel advisor to book one of the trips. If you come across a trip that excites you, that jumps off the page, your first call should be to your travel advisor. We can book the trip for you (for exactly the same price), but we'll do even more. We know you. We understand your travel preferences. We can help you choose among different trips that might appeal. And we can make sure everything about your vacation is coordinated — your pre- and post-trip plans, even your air if you need help with that.

By the way, if you want to call the tour company first and get a certain date "on hold," that's fine. Then immediately call or write us to take over that booking.

(2) Get ideas for your bucket list. When looking through any travel catalog, you'll see LOTS of trip you'd like to take. When I perused the Backroads catalog this morning, I was inspired looking at the pictures, marveling at the scenery, reading the descriptions of all the fun things I could do in those places. Reading travel catalogs are a great way to develop your personal bucket list.

Then make an actual list and share it with us! We'll keep it in your file (so you won't lose it!).

(3) Personalize one of the itineraries. Maybe one of the trips really appeals to you — but there are changes you'd like to make. Perhaps you'd prefer to travel on your own; the idea of traveling with a group of 12, or 18, or 38 doesn't interest you. Look at any itinerary as a starting point, the first draft of what will ultimately become your own bespoke itinerary.

When you're ready to plan that bespoke, once-in-a-lifetime trip, just get in touch.

copyright (c) 2018 by Ourisman Travel LLC. All rights reserved. We provide Virtuoso and other Preferred Partner amenities as an affiliate of Brownell, a Virtuoso® Member. If you have comments on this column, or questions about booking travel, email me or visit my website.