small ship cruise around Japan

Windstar is one of my favorite cruise lines. Two things I loved about my Windstar experience — and what keeps Windstar guests returning for more: (1) the luxury small ship experience and (2) the creative itineraries.

Each week there's a special sale on seven selected cruises — and the sale lasts just seven days. This week's specials include an 11 day tour of Japan aboard the Star Breeze that really appeals to me. Passengers will have opportunities to...

• Discover the beauty of UNESCO site Mount Fuji, Japan's highest mountain, when you get to Shimizu
• Take in the scenery as you cruise around the abandoned island of Hashima, near Nagasaki
• Explore Shingu's UNESCO site Makimura-jinja Shrine, part of the Sacred Sites of Pilgrimage Routes in the Kii Mountain Range
• Respectfully remember "Never Again" at the Peace Memorial Parks of Nagasaki and Hiroshima
• Enjoy the cuisine of Hiroshima, with not-to-be-missed Okonomiyaki savory pancakes
• See the 16th century Osaka Castle, the city's main historic landmark

On sale is the September 20, 2020 sailing. Sale prices begin at $3299 per person for a Porthole Suite ... or, for just $100 more, I recommend you upgrade to an Ocean View Suite. And for an even better value, you can choose an additional perk — either a shipboard credit, an air credit, or unlimited WiFi.

Is there a cruise around Japan in your future? You'll need to book this special fare by Christmas — reach out to Team@OurismanTravel.com and we'll be happy to help.

copyright (c) 2019 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.

packaged group tours | good or bad thing?

example of a expertly designed tour offered on the Tauck Tours website

Who cannot relate to the impassioned question posed by a confused traveler on fodors.com.

First, I booked a cruise to Italy. then dumped it. Then I booked a group tour to Italy. Still have that one, but the time for losing my deposit is almost up. 

But through it all I have a friend who keeps telling me it's ridiculous. She says I should get on travelocity and book a flight and some hotels and just go on my own. She says Italy is the easiest place to visit; you can see everything and move around easily with trains.  

That friend speaks fluent Italian, was raised in Italy, and goes back every year with her husband, and they have a lot of money. I am exactly the opposite. I've never been out of the country except to England, speak only English, and going with another woman who has never traveled in her life. Money is an issue. I'm also not sure of all the sites I'd want to see. 

Do you have any advice about which way to travel? I'm already lost and I haven't even left yet!

She probably chose the wrong forum to ask for advice. Fodors is an exceptional resource for travelers who revel in planning every element of their own trip. Go to booking.com, they told her. It's so easy to book your hotels. It's so easy to travel by train. It's so easy to find the best prices this way, they claimed.

But it's also so easy for inexperienced travelers to make expensive mistakes. All of us have made and learned from our travel mistakes, especially professional travel advisors. In fact, the wisdom we've learned the hard way is the very best resource we can offer our clients. We will think about neighborhoods that are safe, attractive, with an easy walk to where you want to be. We will research days on which favorite attractions may be closed to tourists. We will advise when you should buy tickets in advance, avoiding wasting hours needlessly spent in queues.

The most basic travel question is the task of creating an itinerary that makes sense. And that's why, for this particular traveler, a packaged group tour is probably her wisest choice. She'll buy an itinerary that makes sense with knowledgeable tour guides everywhere. She'll probably enjoy better pricing than if she booked everything on her own. Best of all, she will awaken each day anticipating a ready-made experience ... instead of trying to figure out what to do and how to do it.

Can a travel advisor help if you want a packaged group tour? Definitely, yes! Tour companies are not created equal, and the quality of group tours differs markedly. A travel advisor can point you to vetted tour companies whose group tours offer exceptional experiences, companies like Tauck Tours, Backroads, and Abercrombie & Kent. And, yes, we'll get a commission from the tour company ... but it won't cost you an extra penny to book that tour through us.

copyright (c) 2019 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.

saving money is a powerful motive...

our expert guide from Journey Mexico added so much to our visit of Chichen Itsa

Saving money is a powerful motive when shopping on the internet, but as strong as the impulse might be to click on the lowest price for a product or service, it doesn't always make sense. This is especially the case when:

(1) you do not know (or have someone to vouch for) the vendor
(2) you're purchasing a non-commodity item

If you're planning that bucket list trip, shopping for the absolute lowest price is not a good idea. Here's a true account of a trip to Cuba shared by a colleague. A client wanted to plan a tour for a small group, and my colleague quoted a package from a trusted vendor. The group planner, thinking the quote was too high, decided to save some money by booking everything online.

The trip turned out to a disaster. While their accommodations were ok...

(1) The guide he booked online never showed up.
(2) There was no one to contact for recourse.
(3) Communications were difficult.
(4) One member of the group suffered an illness during the trip.

Because of the difficulty with communications, two members of the group left Cuba and returned home early. Maybe they had saved a few hundred or thousand dollars. But because they were "shoppers," buying solely on the basis of the lowest price, they lost the entire investment they had made in their highly anticipated trip.

The alternative is to plan travel with a trusted travel advisor who, in turn, works with recommended and fully vetted suppliers with a track record of providing great service. You will pay more. But here's what you can expect in return.

The best guides. Guides are not a commodity item. While most guides are perfectly adequate (with a few who are unreliable and/or horrible), there will always be a select group of absolutely terrific guides who will take your trip to the next level! What are your specific interests? Whether you want to explore Cuban history, architecture, music, art, rum, or cigars, you can be paired up with a guide whose expertise matches what you want to experience.

Another consideration: do you have kids? Some guides are terrific working with young children. Others are best with an adult audience. How are you going to figure out on your own which "internet guide" to book?

A workable itinerary. Google is a great resource, but it is not a travel advisor. You can get lists of the "ten best things to do" in any destination, but that can't substitute for local, expert knowledge. What day is the museum closed? In what order should I see things? How long should I anticipate spending at each attraction? How long does it take to get to the next? Such information can help you pace your day. But more than this, what hidden treasures await, what authentic experiences unknown by most tourists because they do not show up on the "top ten" lists?

Things can go wrong. While we don't like to think about it, the unexpected does happen (like a broken arm). When you slip and fall, how valuable it is to have a trusted in-country supplier with a 24/7 telephone number who can help you manage the problem.

copyright (c) 2017 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.

don't "do" Europe | "experience" Europe

just sitting ...  (c) 2017 by David Ourisman, all rights reserved

I confess to being a regular "lurker" on the fodors.com Europe forum. I find it interesting to read the questions posted by travelers thinking about a European vacation and find that there are some quite knowledgeable fellow lurkers who provide great insights. But I'm — is "amused" the right word? — interested by some of the questions that people ask.

One traveler asks if his itinerary is "too much." My rule of thumb is, if you think there's too much crammed into your itinerary, pay attention to that feeling. You're probably right. One traveler posted the following itinerary for feedback. (They plan to get from place to place by RailPass.)

Athens - 2 days
Capri - 1 day
Naples - 1 day
Rome - 2 days
Milan - 1 day
Cinque Terre - 1 day
Vienna - 2 days
Prague - 1 day
Budapest - 2 days
Krakow - 2 days
Berlin - 2 days
Copenhagen - 1 day
Amsterdam - 2 days
Barcelona - 2 days
Madrid - 2 days
Lisbon - 2 days
Porto - 2 days

"I'm concerned that we have too many stops," he writes. Um, yes!!! ... This is an insane itinerary. Here's what I wrote:

This is crazy busy... You're seeing places, "doing" places in the parlance of some, but not really experiencing much of anything except seeing the countryside through the window of a train. You will be tired, frustrated, and disappointed at the end of this vacation.

I totally agree with what another poster wrote: 

You're high as a kite if you think you can do 17 cities in 27 days, especially ones as geographically distant as these.... Cut the number of destinations in half. Then halve that. 4 or 5 locations in 4 weeks would be awesome.

Don't "do" Europe ... experience Europe. The photograph at the top of this article shows what a European vacation should be like. This couple in Paris is sitting at a table in a café, watching the world pass by. Slow down. Less is more!

copyright (c) 2017 by Ourisman Travel LLC. All rights reserved. We provide Virtuoso and other Preferred Partner amenities as an affiliate of Brownell Travel. If you have comments on this column, or questions about booking travel, email me or visit my website.

... and I'll be in Scotland afore ye

O ye'll take the high road, and I'll take the low road,

And I'll be in Scotland afore ye

Just fifteen days until my next trip, so it's time to start getting excited! I'm headed to Scotland, still part of the United Kingdom, and I'm looking forward to the beautiful, rugged scenery and the opportunities for landscape photography. Photography has been my avocation since childhood, and travel photography is my primary reason to see the world's beauty and capture it on film on my digital camera. I'll be sharing my best shots on Travel Horizons and on Facebook, so ask to friend me if you'd like to see what I see.

My trip to Scotland is also an opportunity to inspect hotels and gain familiarity with the destination so that I can help clients plan their trips. Here are some of the anticipated highlights:

Flying on an Airbus 380. Never before flown on one of these double-decker behemoths, and I'll be on Air France's version, flying business class from SFO-CDG (and connecting on a smaller plane to EDI). I've heard the 380 is eerily quiet — and that AF's 380 business class seat product is flat but not completely horizontal — but I was able to use DL miles for a complete roundtrip in business.

Our itinerary in Scotland starts in Edinburgh where we'll be staying at The Caledonian, a Waldorf Astoria Hotel. From there, we'll take the longer coastal drive to St. Andrews, the birthplace of golf. Due to a tournament going on during our stay, we are not able to stay at the Old Course Hotel. We then we take the high road into the Scottish Highlands, spending two nights near Inverness and another two nights in Wester Ross.

Going south, we head to Oban in the Argyle and Bute region of Scotland. Why Oban? It's the home of Susannah — leisure travel sales manager for Four Seasons London. Her husband owns a B&B on the coast (and they've offered to do our laundry). Our penultimate stop will be the Gleneagles Resort which, I'm told, is the nicest resort in the U.K. Looking forward to being pampered at Gleneagles before our final two nights in Glasgow.

One final day in London where we'll spend the night at The Goring (home to the Middletons the night before the Royal Wedding) and have site inspections of the Rosewood London and newly reopened Lanesborough.

Flying back on Virgin Atlantic from Heathrow to San Francisco, it will be my first experience of Upper Class. If anyone has any tips on how to ensure your limo driver can access Virgin's Upper Class Wing (or anything else I've discussed), please let drop me a note.

copyright (c) 2015 by David Ourisman LLC. All rights reserved. We provide Virtuoso and other Preferred Partner amenities as an affiliate of Brownell Travel. If you have comments on this column, or questions about booking travel, email me or visit my website.

last minute planning for a trip

Seven days from now I'll be on a plane, somewhere between San Francisco and London. Hopefully, I'll get be getting some sleep - although getting quality sleep on a plane is always difficult. Between now and then, during this final week before a trip, I'll be going through my last minute trip planning.

What do you do to get ready to travel? I travel a lot — it's part of my job description as a travel consultant — and I find it helpful to have a plan. Here are some things you should do seven days out:

1. Reconfirm your flights. Sometimes reservations mysteriously drop out of an airline's computer system or flight schedules change. Call the airline with your confirmation number in hand, make sure your frequent flyer number is in the record, and get seat assignments.

2. Do your connections make sense? If schedules have changed, make sure you still have enough time for any connecting flights. If you don't because of a schedule change, this is one time you can get the airline to change your flights without penalty.

3. How are you getting to the airport? Now's the time to make your limo reservations, not the night before. What time do you want to be picked up? I always build extra time into my schedule so that even if rush hour traffic is terrible, I can arrive at the airport in plenty of time to check in for my flight.

4. Get your itinerary in shape. Include your flights, your airport transfers, your hotel confirmations with confirmation number and room rate clearly indicated. Make a day-by-day schedule with any tours you've planned, any trains or busses or rental cars you'll be taking.

5. Find your passport and put it in your carryon. Make sure the expiration date is at least 6 months beyond your date of return, and ensure that you have empty pages. Find out if you need any visas for foreign destinations.

6. Call your credit card company and let them know where you'll be traveling. That way, you're much less likely to have charges rejected while you're a continent away.

7. Put out your suitcase. While you don't need to be packed a week ahead of time, a suitcase on your bedroom floor will remind you of things you'll want to bring along. Whenever you think of something, stick it in the suitcase.

8. Develop a personal packing list. List everything you want in your carryon and accessories you'll need for your computer, cell phone, and camera. What toilet articles will you want to bring? Why invent the wheel every time you have to pack for a trip? Develop your own packing list and keep it on your computer.

9. What details do you need to take care of while you're away? Someone to watch your kids? bring in your mail? take care of your pets? Make sure they remember. Any bills you need to pay? Need to stop the paper? You can schedule all of that now!

10. Remember to have fun! It's been said that only two things are absolutely necessary in life: to breath in ... and breath out. With that in mind, get your final plans in place, and then enjoy your trip!


last minute planning for my trip (search here on Google)


copyright (c) 2009 by David J. Ourisman. 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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travel planning | order or spontaneity?

How many times have you seen this kind of question asked by someone planning travel?

We are going to Italy this summer.
Should we book our rooms now?
Or should we just wait until we get there to get a room?

While I have some very definite personal preferences about planning my own travel, I also recognize that people are different and value different kinds of experiences.

Some people cannot relax unless every possible variable has been anticipated and planned for. Their trips are scheduled on a spreadsheet with every detail accounted for. Hotel reservations are printed out on a meticulous itinerary. Sightseeing has been scheduled to-the-minute with maps and commentary reproduced from guidebooks. Dinner reservations have been made and show tickets booked.

This would drive other people crazy. They want to be spontaneous. They want to relax and enjoy themselves. They want to wake up in the morning, leave their hotel, and just go wherever their whims take them. When they come to a metaphorical fork in the road, they want to make that decision in the moment. Sometimes the road less taken leads to serendipitous discoveries, and sometimes it just goes to the city dump. No matter... this is how they do things!

Using the language of the Myers Briggs Personality Type Indicator, I am describing Judgers (who like things to be orderly and predictable) and Perceivers (who appreciate spontaneity). If you're curious about your own personality type, try this online test .

My perspective? Sometimes a little bit of structure can maximize your freedom.

You don't want to get off your trans-Atlantic flight, jet-lagged and disoriented, and have to spend the next four hours figuring out where to leave your bags. This doesn't make the first day of your vacation especially enjoyable.

You don't want to arrive in a popular tourist destination in high season without reservations, having to settle for what's left (either the least desirable hotel that nobody else wanted or some exorbitantly expensive suite that was cancelled at the last minute).

And you don't want to wait until the last minute to plan a trip for the week after Christmas or Easter. Any remaining plane tickets will be expensive (if there are empty seats at all), and the resorts you really want to stay in may be fully booked. In fact, it may already be too late (and we're only in the first week of May) to make some kinds of bookings for Christmas week.

So should you book your rooms in advance or when you arrive? There is no right or wrong answer. The important thing is to know what kind of traveler you are ... and plan accordingly.


If you have comments on this column, or questions about booking travel, email me or visit my website.