travel souvenirs — part 9

 

I purchased this clay pot during an extended stay in Santa Fe, New Mexico during the summer of 1991. What do I remember about Santa Fe?

expansive, wide-open spaces... The beautiful landscapes of New Mexico are a recurring theme in the paintings of American artist Georgia O'Keeffe, and Santa Fe is the home of the Georgia O'Keeffe Museum. I was struck by the epic views just driving the highways, especially the sight of a storm rolling in. The vast horizons of the American West engaged my imagination.

Southwestern cuisine... There's a huge difference between the Mexican food typically encountered at chain restaurants versus the authentic local cuisine available in Santa Fe. I so enjoyed my meal at Santa Fe Bar & Grill, a very casual strip mall restaurant, that we kept going back.

Native American culture... It goes far beyond the turquoise jewelry you'll find in shops everywhere. Visit the archeological sites. Listen to the storytelling of Joe Hayes who appears weekly during the summer at the Wheelwright Museum (at least he did pre-Covid). And visit a craft show — I purchased the handmade clay pot (pictured above) at the San Juan Pueblo.

Santa Fe is a drivable destination. Call us to plan a vacation at one of its four Virtuoso™ hotels and resorts — and enjoy complimentary amenities (you'd otherwise pay for) including breakfast for two daily, $100 hotel credits, and upgrades if available.

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copyright (c) 2020 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.

Rosewood Little Dix Bay | 30% off

This bedroom, part of a 2BR Suite at Rosewood Little Dix Bay, looks so incredibly inviting. Little Dix Bay is completing the final touches on its total multi-million renovation. A boutique Caribbean resort with just 80 cottages, suites, and villas — most are nestled along a half-mile crescent beach. The 4BR Hillside Villa features commanding ocean views. First opened in 1964 as an eco-resort by Laurance Rockefeller (Dorado Beach being another former Rockresort in the Caribbean), you'll enjoy space and relaxation during your vacation on Virgin Gorda.

And this exclusive Rosewood Elite offer that can save you 30% off the otherwise Best Available Rate. The rules are simple:

1. Make your booking by the end of 2019.
2. Stays must be completed from December 11th, 2019 to October 31, 2020.
3. That's it ... only two rules!

There is availability for Christmas to New Years, and the 30% Elite Exclusive Opening Offer even applies to Festive Season bookings. Rosewood Elite amenities are included...

• Daily Breakfast for 2 (per bedroom)
• $125 USD Food & Beverage Credit once during the stay
• Upgrade subject to availability on arrival.

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.

make the most of your time on vacation

make the most of your time in Paris (or anyplace else)

How to avoid long lines? Rick Steves sometimes comes up with gems collected in one succinct article, and such is the case with a recent travel column he wrote for USA Today.

Time is your most precious commodity when you travel. If you're traveling, say, to Paris, and have just a few days, you want to make the most of your time on vacation. You can easily waste hours in line waiting to buy tickets to various attractions — the Eiffel Tower, the Louvre, the Musée d'Orsay (Impressionist art museum), the Georges Pompidou (contemporary art museum), Saint Chapelle (and its gorgeous stained glass windows), Notre Dame (the iconic cathedral of Paris), etc. — and you'll be frustrated. Precious time is slipping through your fingers.

Here are some tips to make the most of your time on vacation.


(1) Consider a private guide. Yes, private guides are expensive, but it's an investment in making the most of your stay with the least possible frustration. Not only will your guide be able to procure tickets in advance, she can tailor your visit to your interests and reduce stress immeasurably. I remember a great tour at the Prado Museum in Madrid, a huge museum in which you could spend days wandering aimlessly around. Our guide knew the museum intimately, and she treated us to a great visit of the museum's Velasquez and Goya paintings. Though they were scattered through many galleries, she knew exactly where to go. Not a wasted step, not a misspent minute, and we were treated to an informative show-and-tell of the paintings of these two great Spanish painters. Expensive? Yes… but we enjoyed these highlights of the Prado in one hour … and were off to the next stop on our itinerary.

(2) Buy a museum pass for the city you're visiting. Conventional logic says to compare the cost of the tickets you want to buy and the cost of the pass … and buy whichever costs less. But think outside the box! A museum pass lets you skip the long ticket lines at many of those places, saving you hours. Even if you've "overspent" by 10 or 20 euros, you're buying more time to enjoy everything you want to see — a small price to pay!

(3) Concentrating on maximizing your time, not minimizing your expenses. This may seem like counter-intuitive wisdom in this age of internet shopping. So what if you can save $100 by flying home a day earlier? It's a false economy. If you're spending thousands of dollars on a once-in-a-lifetime trip to Paris, or Venice, or Bali, why cut that experience short just to gain some minor savings?

Travel is one of the most life-changing and enriching experiences in life, and you'll always remember the trips you've taken. What you spend on travel is an investment in your life, just as important (if not more so) than your stocks and bonds, and you measure that investment by its return on life.


make the most of your time on vacation (search here on Google)

copyright (c) 2012 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.

all-inclusive vacation in Europe | $3,598 for two

What if $3,598 got you an all-inclusive vacation in Europe including round-trip airfare, 10 nights accommodations, fine dining, and transportation from city to city?

What if your journeys took you to Barcelona, Marseilles, Monte Carlo, Florence, Rome, the Amalfi Coast, Sicily, Malta, Santorini, and Athens?

What if you were sailing on a premium cruise line, Oceania Cruises? With a maximum 684 guests onboard any cruise, Oceania offers an intimacy and relaxed ambiance not found on 3,000 passenger megaships. Oceania's menus are crafted by chef and author Jacques Pépin, and open-seating is offered in all of their ships' restaurants.

This is just one of over 40 bargain fares for Oceania sailings. Interested in exploring the possibilities? Contact my cruise associate to book this offer - or to learn about the many luxury cruise vacations available to you.

all-inclusive vacation in Europe (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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last minute Christmas vacation travel

So, you've procrastinated! The cold, wet, nasty winter weather is starting to spread across the country, and you'd like to go away to some warm, sunny beach in the Caribbean for the holidays.

It's the worst time of the year to plan last minute Christmas vacation travel, but it's not impossible (and it won't come cheap). Good travel consultants work through distributors who handle the Caribbean and other warm destinations, and if there's space to be found, their contacts are the ones who can find your mid-winter vacation getaway spot. It's time-consuming work, and your travel consultant will likely charge you a fee for her or his time, but this is the answer to your last-minute Christmas vacation.

So if the thought of a white Christmas isn't what's thrilling you as you deal with the cold, wet, wintry December weather, start dreaming of a white sand beach, balmy breezes, rum drinks with little umbrellas, and a carefree week in the tropics.

last minute Christmas vacation travel (search here on Google)



copyright (c) 2007 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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Tryall Club | caribbean vacation villas

Imagine a Caribbean vacation in your own villa overlooking the sea. I recently stayed at "Little Hill," a five bedroom home on the grounds of the Tryall Club near Montego Bay, Jamaica. A great place for fun and relaxation, Tryall provides a spectacular setting. There's nothing quite like sitting on your own porch reading a book and enjoying one of the most beautiful views in the world (pictured).

Surrounded by a challenging 18 hole championship golf course that has hosted professional events, each villa at Tryall has its own individual swimming pool, and all guests have exclusive access to Tryall's private beach. Villas are even equipped with golf carts to get around the extensive property. Tryall offers two restaurants (one right by the beach), a kids program, tennis courts, shopping, free wireless internet in the Great House, even a large pool with swim-up bar. It's a great place to visit, whether for a family vacation, honeymoon, or destination wedding.

Villas offer the ultimate in luxury and privacy. Your staff will cook for you, do your laundry, even provide babysitting if you want to go out in the evening. The Tryall Club is part of the Virtuoso network of hotels and resorts. Book through your Virtuoso luxury travel consultant and receive a choice of complimentary amenities (choices include round-trip airport transfers, lunch for 4, or golf).

Tryall Club (Search here on Google).



copyright (c) 2007 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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how to plan a romantic honeymoon

So you're engaged, and now you're planning a romantic honeymoon to begin your married life together. You may find that planning this trip is very stressful because there are too many choices! Do you want to take a cruise or spend a romantic honeymoon at a beach resort in a tropical paradise?

Where do you want to go? The world offers so many honeymoon destinations: Hawaii. Capri. Costa Rica. Tahiti and Bora Bora. Fiji. The Maldives. Mexico. Jamaica or the Caribbean. Do you want an all inclusive vacation? Do you want a totally flexible package?

This is perhaps the one time in your life when all these choices are not welcome. You're in the midst of countless decisions about your wedding, and you're getting frustrated by them. You are discovering that the two of you may have different decision-making styles, different priorities, even different expectations. You've had to deal with disagreements and conflict around your wedding ... and now you have the trip of a lifetime to plan. Both of you want it to be the most wonderful, romantic honeymoon ever, but you can't agree on anything. What's a happily engaged couple to do?

Here are some tips on how to plan a romantic honeymoon and keep your love intact!

1. Keep it simple. You'll want to avoid frequent packing and unpacking. Who wants the hassles of traveling to a dozen destinations on your honeymoon? This is a time for you to be together and enjoy each other. Talk about this question: What do we like doing for fun? Brainstorm destinations that would be fun to visit. Come up with separate lists, then compare and see what you have in common.

2. Set a budget. If your vacation costs more than you can afford, the expenses will add to your stress, both during the trip and afterwards (when the credit card bills come in). You can have a romantic honeymoon that stays within your budget and enjoy your memories forever (and avoid the debt).

3. Ask for help. Planning any kind of travel can be complex; if it were simple, you wouldn't be reading this blog! A good travel consultant will listen to the dreams you have for your honeymoon, respect your budget, do all the research, and offer you a few choices that you can talk over together. Whatever you may pay as a consulting fee, you will reap many times that investment in mistakes avoided, real value found, and a bottom line that you can afford. And, most of all, you will have a romantic honeymoon that's been planned by an expert so that all you have to do ... is enjoy it!


copyright (c) 2007 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.