#LifeisBetterTraveling Archives - Page 3 of 15

Kids Table Talk-Secret Places in Universal

We talk about all the amazing rides at Universal Studios. Make sure to find out about one of our favorite “secret” places to go at Universal.

Fill out the form below to get started planning your next European Vacation. Looking for a motor coach tour, self-drive, or private tour, we can easily put together the perfect European vacation for you and your family’s needs.

When you book your vacation with a member of the Life is Better Traveling Team, you are supporting local families and business. Thank you to everyone who has supported us over the past 4 years, we have become an AMAZING travel agency due to your support!

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=K0-4QtTKkk8&feature=youtu.be

Table Talk…Why USE a travel agent?

Liz Hough on

So let’s talk about Why to USE a Travel Agent! We get this question sall the time, Why Should I USE You? Well, we are going to answer all those questions and myths that come along with using a travel agent.

When you book your vacation with a member of the Life is Better Traveling Team, you are supporting local families and business. Thank you to everyone who has supported us over the past 4 years, we have become an AMAZING travel agency due to your support!

The #1 Visited Cathedral in Ireland!

Liz Hough on

St. Patrick’s Cathedral

In just a few short months I will be taking a group of people through the Irish Countryside visiting castles, libraries, museums, ruins, and of course distilleries. Many times when people call me about putting together a trip to Ireland they want me to include Blarney Castle but one of the most iconic churches is never on the list. Is it forgotten or just off the beaten path?

St. Patrick’s Cathedral is the largest church in all of Ireland. This majestic cathedral has been witness to nearly 800 years of Irish history. Is St. Patrick’s Cathedral related to St. Patrick? Not so much a relation but it is believed that the church was founded on the site where St. Patrick baptized converts. If you visit the church you can not only feel the presence of what happened on this spot, but enjoy exquisite stained-glass windows, marble statues, and medieval tiling.

Besides this spot being a spot for literary pilgrims, the author of “Gulliver’s Travels,” Jonathan Swift once served as dean here and is now buried within its gray stone walls. If you decide to visit the castle and do an independent tour a guided tour, make sure to stop by to see all this amazing cathedral has to offer. You might want to make sure you opt in for the skip-the-line access to get into the cathedral.

Things to Know Before You Go

Travelers can explore independently or take part in guided tours, which take place several times daily from Monday to Saturday.
The cathedral is wheelchair accessible.
The Dublin Pass includes cathedral entry.
Take time to stroll through the adjacent St. Patrick’s Park, a grassy square with perfectly framed views of the cathedral.

How to Get There

St. Patrick’s Cathedral is located in the heart of Dublin city center, within easy strolling distance of several other big-name attractions, including Christ Church Cathedral and Dublin Castle. Ride the Luas Green Line tram to the terminus, St. Stephen’s Green; St. Patrick’s is about a 10-minute walk from there. Dublin Bus run several routes (49, 54a, 56a, 77a, and 151) to the cathedral.

Hours: Mon-Fri: 9:30am-5pm. Mar-Oct: open Saturday from 9am-6pm, Sunday 9am-10:30am, 12:30pm-2:30pm, 4:30pm-6pm. Nov-Feb: open Saturday from 9am-5pm, Sunday 9am-10:30am, 12:30pm-2:30pm

Admission: Adults: €6.50

Some information provided by Viator.com

As always, Life is Better Traveling!

TableTalk : Disney’s Bounceback Offer!

Liz Hough on

Our fifth table talk is about Disney’s Bounce Back Offer. You want to make sure you listen to this one as you can save thousands of dollars while on your next Disney Vacation with what we talk about.

Table Talk… Interview with a Travel Agent

Liz Hough on

For some time I have been wanting to sit down with travel agents to ask the hard questions. I am no Diane Sawyer or Barbara Walters, but I wanted to get down to some of the tough questions that as travel agents we get asked.

I came up with a series called Table Talk…Interview with a Travel Agent. I sit down with either one of the agents under the Life is Better Traveling brand or another brand and we talk about the questions we get a lot from our clients.

For our first Table Talk…Interview with a Travel Agent I sat down with Heather Joyce with Life is Better Traveling. Heather focuses on helping plan vacations that for people either wanting to do a Disney Destinations and/or a cruise. We talked about Walt Disney World Resorts. We discussed the Pros and Cons of each category, and why we liked some resorts over other resorts. We got through some really good information in just 15 MINUTES!

This was our very first table talk, but we have many more to come. We hope you enjoy these videos and that they help. Let us know if there are any topics that you are interested in us discussing and we will make sure to cover them.

As always, Life is Better Traveling!

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tLeAPC6-jgM

Traveling with a group? How to break the ice and make new friends.

Liz Hough on

How to “break the ice” with new people in your group?

My travel business is primarily group travel of friends and family. When becoming a travel consultant I didn’t expect to be doing a lot of group travel but it fell into my lap and I absolutely love it! I love that there is a group of people with a common goal, TRAVEL!

When booking a group one of the more common concerns people have is that do not know everyone in the group. I believe it is human nature to initially feel timid around people you don’t know. I know I do and I found myself always asking the wrong questions. Where do you work? How many children or grandchildren do you have? These are some of the questions that seem to be common but are a bit awkward. I have always found that people don’t want to talk about their work. After all, they are on vacation and really don’t even want to think about work, so I would avoid this question like the plague. My advice: Keep It Light!

We want open ended questions that will help get you information about them so you feel like you are connecting with them. Their reasons for taking the same trip should be one of your first questions. This is a great ice breaker because it isn’t a Yes or No question. They have to answer you with information. For example: “I am taking this trip because my husband and I have been wanting to take a cruise around the world for years. We didn’t want to go ourselves and when we heard from our friend that they were going with a group of people they knew, we thought it would be more fun to travel with a group than just the two of us.” This is a great information.

Even though they do travel on their own, they love to meet new people and experience new things. There are even more questions that you can ask from this one answer and the conversation will keep going and going. Before you know it, you have made a new friend!

Traveling with family can be an exciting experience also. For many years my husband and I traveled with my family. We trekked around Europe by boat, motor-coach, train, and buses. We had a lot of fun seeing new places and experiencing new cuisines together that we still talk about them today. Even though we crafted memories of a lifetime, there were a couple of times during the trip when I found myself needing a moment for myself.

I love my family, but I quickly learned that we didn’t have to do all the same excursions, tours, or even eat at the same restaurants. This holds true to any group who travel together for an extended period of time. You don’t have to do everything together ALL the time. It is your vacation too so pick the excursions that you want to take or eat at a restaurant one night that you want to enjoy.

Some of my best memories are the ones where my husband and I enjoyed our time away from the rest of the group. Like when we ate dinner by ourselves on our anniversary in a small pub on Rose Street in Edinburgh or the two of us almost getting lost in the bazaar in Tunis.

When you think about your next vacation don’t be afraid to say yes to a friend who is getting together a group trip. You will meet new people and experience a vacation in a whole new light. I promise you that you will have the most fun on any vacation that you have ever taken, but you have to make sure that you give yourself some free time for you or you and your loved one.

Here are some ice-breaking questions to ask people in your vacation group:

Question #1: Why did you decide to take this vacation?

Question #2: What do you think will be the most interesting place we see?

Question #3: Who do you think will be the person in the group that will make us laugh the most?

Question #4: Which tours or excursion have you chosen to take?

Question #5: What is your most favorite place in the world that you have already traveled to? (I love this questions because people will go on for minutes telling you why they loved that place and convince you that you need to go there too.

Vacation Rentals : Good or Bad?

Liz Hough on

I recently had a person contact me regarding helping plan a vacation to Italy. Before wanting to work with me in planning this trip with them they had one question…”Do you book Air BnB? We want the Authentic Italian Vacation feel and we feel that staying at AirBnB places will do that for us.”

Year after year, more and more vacation requests come in asking us if we book vacation rentals, specifically AirBnB. Even though there are many vacation rental sites, AirBnB has become synonymous with vacation rentals. With this request however, I was a bit unsure why it wouldn’t be authentic to stay in a hotel? After all, how can you get more of an authentic Italian experience then by staying in Italy itself.

I am going to be openly honest right now with spoiler alerts about vacation rentals. If you don’t want to know these spoilers because you like vacation rentals, then I recommend closing this email right now. If you are interested in finding out the truth, then let’s get started. There are many vacation rental sites out there just like AirBnB that you can book your stay for your upcoming vacation. It seems like a great deal that you can stay in a 2-bedroom apartment in New York city overlooking Time Square for $100 a night or rent out an entire Tuscan Villa for a week for just $800!

I remember when I was little my mother always told me that if it sounded too good to be true it probably was too good to be true. Many times, these amazing deals that you find aren’t as they are advertised or marketed. Yes, you get the 2-bedroom apartment overlooking Time Square but the rooms are the size of a bathroom and over-looking means turn your head all the way to the left to see Time Square. Maybe the Tuscan Villa you rented doesn’t look like anyone has lived it in for 15 years and the beds are even older than that. If this is the type of authentic experience that you are looking for, then you won’t be disappointed.

With so many vacation rental sites on the internet, many people will put their house, apartment, or villa up for you to rent. They go up so fast that my one concern is who is vetting these people or even going to the places. The worse part is that you won’t know for sure until you actually get to the destination if the place is going to work for you. Unfortunately, the amount of vacation rentals that go up a day is more than the company can actually verify. The best way to know if the place that you are renting is what they say it is, is by checking the verifications of the person who is renting. When someone stays at a person’s rental property they then can review the person and property on the vacation rental site. This helps give you a better understanding of who is actually legitimate and good to rent from for your stay.

Once you have verified who you want to stay with, it is a matter of seeing availability and pricing. If the place is available then it is time to book it. This is where you need to read the fine print. Last year a friend of mine decided to rent a house at one of the Delaware beaches through one of these vacation rental sites. She picked her house, booked it, and was billed an extra $300 that was not part of the booking process. This additional $300 was “hidden fees.” I would say they were more than “hidden,” they were really non-existent until she got her credit card statement. However, if you read the fine print it will tell you how much you will pay in additional fees to use these sites.

Ok, now you have booked your stay and you have calmed down about the extra fees, there is still more fine print to read! Yes, there is so much paperwork involved when booking a vacation rental. Don’t forget to read what is actually included in the rental. Is Free Wi-Fi included, a cleaning fee, use of the pool if the property has one, use of anything else that the property may have you thought you could use, what time you need to be there to get the keys, and the list goes on and on.

One of the main things in Europe when staying at a vacation rental is making sure that you are there at the exact time stated you need to be there to get the keys. The owner will only wait for a few minutes and then be gone leaving you with no place to stay for the night. Yes, this is a big compliant from vacation rental people. Many people just assume like a hotel the owner will be available for check-in when they are available to get there. This isn’t the case, so make sure to read the fine print as to what time you need to be there.

Now that you have a bit more understanding of how vacation rentals work, and going back to my original request to book an AirBnb, Life is Better Traveling does book vacation rentals with our reputable suppliers. We do not specifically use AirBnb, which again, I know the name is synonymous with the term vacation rental. What we do for our clients however is also look to see if a nice hotel with breakfast included is cheaper than staying at a vacation rental. I have personally found for some of my clients that a 2-bedroom vacation rental is more expensive than staying at a hotel in town with breakfast included. You then also get all the amenities that a hotel provides including a check-in desk to check-in at your own convenience, a concierge, a place to store your luggage until you check-in or check-out, spa services, a gym, laundry, and the list goes on.

If you are thinking you want to do some type of vacation rental either in Europe, the Caribbean, or here in the states make sure to contact one of our travel agents to help you find a great place with a reputable supplier.

Deicing the Plane… how it works.

Liz Hough on

We have had a mild winter up until last week when the temperatures plummeted to single digits. Even with this mild winter if you have been flying you will see those trucks out on the runway with the big arms spraying down the airplanes. It reminds me of a car wash but for airplanes. So, what is the purpose of spraying chemicals onto the planes before takeoff?

In the mid 1990’s there were several aircraft incidents where the cause of the crash was due to too much ice build up on the airplane. When this happens, it will disrupt the airflow over the airplane which prevents the airplane from “lifting” off the runway. Since pilots and the crew can’t know how much ice has accumulated on the airplane while standing by or taxing, it had caused major issues. As with everything over the years with the National Transportation Safety Board or NTSB, their investigations help increase the understanding and awareness of how to fix the problem.

Something so simple as applying chemicals that not only help take off ice buildup on an airplane but will also help delay reformation of ice for a certain amount of time, was brilliant. The term “deicing the plane” was now something airports used every day during the winter seasons. Denver International airport was the first airport to have the “fixed pedestal mounted booms” where they could extend up to 90 feet into the air. However, being fixed they weren’t able to get all parts of the airplane allowing ice to build-up where the spray couldn’t reach.

Many airports today use a better approach to making sure that all parts of the plane are being “deiced.” Truck-mounted booms allow crew members to get closer to the airplane. They now have figured out how to adjust the fluid mixtures based on the outside temperature to maximize the amount of fluid that the airplane receives. In one of my readings I found out that some airports, like the Pittsburgh International airport, are reclaiming spent deicing fluid. Since 1995 Pittsburgh International Airport has recycled more than 200 million gallons of spend fluid. That’s amazing!

So if you are flying this winter expect that you will wait in line for your plane to be deiced. I can’t say for sure how long you will wait in line, but the deicing process takes on average 12 minutes. It may seem like an inconvenience to sit there while the plane is getting sprayed down but remember, it helps the pilots get you off the ground safely.

Is your family vaccinated for their next vacation?

Liz Hough on

If you have decided to travel outside of the country there are many things that you need to check-off your list to get done. Get a passport, get a visa, if needed, what do I need to pack, how will I be able to translate the language, what will I eat, and the list goes on. One thing that many people forget to do is check to see what types of vaccinations they may need to enter certain countries.

The good news is that many European and Caribbean countries do not require a vaccination to enter the country. However, some countries require a long list of vaccinations including some that you may need multiple shots over a period of time, or they recommend that you receive the vaccination a certain number of days prior to departure.

Now there is a difference in definition as to what the CDC “requires” for vaccinations and what they “recommend” for vaccinations when traveling to certain countries. When they use the terminology “recommend”, this generally means that they are encouraging people to get the vaccinations in helping prevent them from getting sick for those diseases. They always recommend no matter where you travel to that you should have at least a flu shot. If they say they “require” that you get these vaccinations, this means that you may be denied entry into the country if you have not had them. Many times, when a vaccination is required it is mandated by the country you are traveling to. When you get there, customs in country will require you to show proof to get out of the airport.

So how do you know what vaccinations you will need to get for the countries you are traveling to? If you are traveling by cruise line, many times the cruise line will send you multiple email reminders as to what vaccines are required. It also should be clearly noted on your cruise line’s invoice/itinerary as to what you need. If you aren’t sure, feel free to ask your travel agent. Many times, we do have knowledge as to what you will need. However, if you have any other questions make sure to check out the CDC’s website and simply put in the country you are traveling to.

https://wwwnc.cdc.gov/travel/destinations/list

As always, our team of agents are here to help with any of your traveling needs.

Racecation lately?

Liz Hough on

Have you ever paired your vacation with a conference or trade show you are attending? Perhaps you take vacation before or after visiting out-of-town friends or family? I have done both of these things. I figure that if I am already in the area why not take advantage of it, especially when part of the trip is already paid for by your company. This same holds true when someone is either doing a triathlon, a bike race, or really any type of endurance race. These are called Racecations, a play on words of race and vacation. I find it to be very catchy.

With Life is Better Traveling, we do a lot of group travel and multigenerational travel. I had a good friend of mine contact me recently because she is going to run the Disneyland Paris Half-Marathon in September 2016 and wanted to put packages together to sell to friends and those who follow her blog, Powered By Bling. She previously ran the Princess Disney Half-Marathon in Walt Disney World and loved the energy of the people running the race and, of course, being in Disney. She took her family with her and stayed a few extra days after the race to enjoy the parks. She took a racecation!

After working with her over the last several months, I decided to talk more with her about her love for endurance races and Disney. Her excitement and energy for both made a light bulb go off in my head, why not start a new travel company under Life is Better Traveling, called Magical Racecations. We will just pair vacations with someone’s endurance race, triatholon, or any other race they may be competing in. My friend loved it and couldn’t wait to be a part of this new team.

Welcome Cassandra Burke one of our new independent contractors for Magical Racecations, where we Pair Your Vacation Perfectly with Your Race. Below Cassandra has written a few tips on What to Consider When Planning a Racecation. You can also find these tips on her website at www.PoweredByBling.com