Vegas

I have several things I want to get done today,so I am going to go on and get started on this.. So everyone will know, we are going out of town Friday, not sure when we’re leaving or if I’ll have time to do this, and we will be home sometime Tuesday afternoon. I’m not sure what our plans are, but I’ll for sure be back to normal next Wednesday.

I’m always seeing articles in the travel news about Las Vegas, but have always wondered about how family-friendly the place known as “Sin City”is. For families, it is probably wise to avoid New Year’s, Superbowl Sunday, and March Madness. This is one place that you will be able to get some great deals in July and August because it is so hot. But the resorts all have pools you can cool off in, and I don’t think you would go anywhere where there wasn’t air conditioning. If you are going to fly out there, you’ll probably do best renting a car unless your family plans to do nothing but relax at the resort.

Having been to “Sin City” once just about exactly twenty years ago now, I do remember that our rooms and the restaurant food are subsidized by the gambling money. Vegas has the world’s highest roller coaster.

I am going to stop here. Let me know if you have any questions about this place. I’d be more than happy to help.

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Starwood in Hawaii #2

For those of you that keep up with me on Twitter or my Facebook page, my “cold e-mailing” hasn’t gotten me anywhere yet, but I’m not giving on that. Hopefully I’ll be able to figure out some things before too much longer.. Sadly, it is much later than I’d like, so let’s get down to business.

Starwood has another property in Hawaii called Sheraton Princess Kaiulani which was built in 1955. The hotel has more than one thousand rooms, including twelve suites. If there is always fighting in your household about going to the beach or to the mountains, this may be the perfect place for you, because you can see both from this hotel. One restaurant on this property has both American cuisine and Asia-Pacific cuisine, and there is also a sports bar.

The Royal Hawaiian is a resort that was built in the 1920’s. It went through a complete renovation in 2009 and has about six hundred rooms decorating with historic art in each room.

Sheraton Kona Resort and spa is on what is called the Big Island. This resort has a full-service spa, a twenty-four hour fitness center, and the largest conference center in the area. Their restaurant is the only place where you can watch manta ray in their habitat.

I am going to stop here. Please let me know if you are interested in planning a trip with me. I’ll be more than happy to help.

Starwood in Hawaii

It’s Friday, and I have some different projects I’d like to get started on. If I can get started on one or two today, I’ll feel like I’m doing well. Lately by the time I do this, work on some school and go through the day’s e-mail I’ve done about all the work I can do for the day because I am going somewhere. But anyway..

Today let’s look at some Starwood properties in Hawaii. Starwood has eleven properties throughout these islands. Starwood has everything from budget hotels to luxurious resorts. Some of the properties have been there for a while, others are fairly new. Oahu has a resort that was built in 1901 that was rebranded as a Westin in 2007. On this property you will find a fresh-water pool, their signature restaurant, a spa, a poolside BeachBar as they call it, a fitness center, boutique shopping, and a business center. There is also a kids’ club that is shared between them and Sheraton Waikiki, which is actually the next property we are going to look at. This property was built 40 years, but its remodeling was completed in 2011. You will find that the rooms are completely redone. There are two new pools for you to enjoy. You will also find new restaurants on this property.

I might come back to this Monday. Please let me know if you are interested in visiting either of

Places for romance

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I think I am going somewhere tonight, and have several things I want to do today. So I am going to go on and get started.

I’ve shared on this blog that I love family. It”s the center of all I do. But I’ve also always been a big fan of romance. Christian romance is the kind of novel I read 9/10 of the time. And I’m taking a course on romance travel through the Travel Agent Academy. And of course, I believe that good marriages are the start of good families. I saw this piece in the news and decided to blog about this today.

Paris, France is known as one of the most romantic places in the world. There is a lot of art and culture in this city, as well as a lot of fancy restaurants or simpler cafes where you can enjoy fine cuisine. There is actually one huge canvas where lovers can write out how they feel about one anothers. Millions of couples have left their marks there.

Okay? Paris is in my course, but China? China has some absolutely beautiful mountains where lovers can hike through, having hours on end for just the two of them without the interruptions of other family or jobs. There are also ancient traditions that couples can take part in that will supposedly bind them together in love together forever.

Philadelphia is known as the “City of Brotherly Love”, but there is this fountain in what is known as the Love Park. There is this red sculpture near the fountain. This makes an excellent spot to get engaged.

I am going to stop here. Please let me know if you want to visit any of these places.

Tauck Tours

I’m definitely starting later than I’d like. I have certain things I do each morning. And then I also have a friend who is hopefully going to be a pretty good client, and I wanted to send her some things. So that has taken some time.

Today I thought we’d learn some more about Tauck tours. I’ve been reading about this group, and would like to learn more… Tauck is a family business, owned and operated by three generations. This tour company pretty much does everything, from river cruising to land journeys across the globe. They craft every trip according to your needs, striving to be known for their personalized service. These tours are all-inclusive, and by now you know that means you are going to get your accommodations, your meals, and admission to any sites in the tours as part of the package price.

Tauck does take families, church groups, book clubs on their tours. To give you an example of the kind of trip that Tauck does, let’s look at their itinerary for London. The first day you’ll arrive in the evening and will just have a reception that evening. On your first full day you will explore you will see the palace and Westminster Abbey, and then that afternoon you’ll be sites significant to Will and Kate’s courtship and marriage On day two, you will explore the British museum, and then that afternoon you will see Shakespeare’s Globe Theatre. You’ll also take a ride in London’s Eye where you’ll be looking down on the whole city. Day four you’ll tour BBC, and sites significant to that. Day five you’ll be looking at sites related to the great fire as well as World War II. And then this tour is over on day six… I’d love to go on one of these tours myself. Let me know if you’re interested.

Fall leaf tours #2

I have things to do tonight, so I am going to go on and get started on work stuff. I’m loving being a travel agent and doing everything that I’m doing.

Let’s get back to our discussion of Fall Foilage tours. Tauck, a tour group I’m seeing in the travel news a lot, does a twelve day fall tour of New England. People going on this trip are going to get a good look at the fall colors. But in addition, they are going to see a lot of historical sites as well. The starting point of this trip is Boston, which is of course where the United States’ revolution got started. People on this tour will also see parts of Vermont and New Hampshire.

Globus, another touring company, does a nine day tour of the New England area as well. This tour will also begin and end in Boston. It looks like anyone going on this tour will see roughly the same sites in slightly less time. And several other touring companies do roughly the same thing. If you’re interested in doing one of these trips, please be sure to let me know. I’m sure I’ll be help you determine the right trip for you.

This is a little shorter than I usually like… I have noticed that this blog is starting to get some more followers. For that, I thank you. I would love to hear from you, either on this blog itself, or my e-mail at sarah@familytripsinc.com. I would also love it if we could e-mail back and forth so that I might get a travelers’ profile on you. Please let me know if you are interested.

Fall tours #1

it’s been one of those mornings where I’ve had trouble getting started. I had some personal stuff to do. And I’ve also had some internet problems, story of my life lately. But anyway, I think I have what I need in order to get this done.

My family and I are going to go to our place in Tennessee, not this coming weekend but the following one. We have a nice place in the mountains up there. We do not have internet up there, so I have no idea how much I’ll be able to work up there, but anyway. One of the things we hope to do is to see some pretty leaves. And it happens that there is a story in the travel news today about doing “leaf tours”, so that is what I am going to write about today and maybe tomorrow.

The first tour we are going to look at is in the New England area. This area is beautiful at any time of the year, but especially in this autumn season because they have a lot of forests up there. In the Northeast, fall colors are likely to be best in late October\early November. New England used to be the only place these type of tours were done, but that’s not the case any longer. There are now tours in Colorado, the Pacific Northwest, Michigan, the Ozarks, and the Smoky Mountains… Maybe it is time for you and your spouse to take a little trip together to reconnect?

I am going to get into more specifics tomorrow.. I would love to know your thoughts on this.

#1 in Riviera Maya

I’m kind of feeling the Friday morning blues, part of me is ready to get work over with, but there is a lot I still want to do today.

Anyway, today let’s discuss a new resort that opened just nine months ago in the Riviera Maya, and has already risen to the number one spot on TripAdvisor’s recommendations for that area. This property is also getting a lot of business, and its popularity is growing throughout the region.

This is one place that truly works at being all-inclusive. You’re likely to get free bottled water, coffee, and wifi at a lot of different resorts. But would you get free biking tours? Are you going to be served high tea each afternoon? The resort is also about to go to a wristband system which will allow you to basically be able to leave everything in your suite except your beach stuff. There is a full spa there with a wide variety of services available to you. There is a fitness center on the property so you can keep up your workout routine. There are also some restaurants and bars on the property as well.

This is a resort families love. Some couples have enjoyed romantic getaways there as well. I think I am going to stop here and get some other things done. I would love to know your thought on this resort, or this blog.

Winters at Club Med

I’m going to go hang out at church tonight, so I’ve got to get some work done. I know I’m blessed because I really love everything I do day to day.

I read through travel news each morning, and came across this story I want to share with you… I live in southern Georgia, so it’s not feeling like winter is coming yet, but it will be here before you know it. And I know for some that means it’s time to hit the slopes. But for others winter means planning a tropical vacation so you can get a break from the cold. Whichever group you fall into, I have some suggestions for you.

For you snowbunnies, Club Med has a resort in the Alps. And for about $1500 per person per week, you can get your accommodations, your food, full access to the slopes, including any lessons you want to take, and Club Med will even get you to and from the train station. Oh and with Club Med, kids under four always stay free. This resort also has programs for your children, programs that are not just entertaining, but are also educational.

Club Med also has resorts for those that want to get away from snow and cold. They have several resorts in the tropics which have great programs for families.. A travel agent, me, can help you figure out which resort is best for you and your families.

Please let me know if you are interested in going to any Club Med resorts this winter.

Broadway

I let’s get started… I’ll be honest, I do want to see Lady Liberty and the 9/11 museum. And I do want to see Times Square, but the thing that interests me more than anything in New York is Broadway! My perfect New York vacation would be to have a leisurely breakfast each morning, go and do some exploring during the day, and then come back to the hotel and get ready for dinner and a show. I think I am going to try my best to make that happen within the next year or so. My hope is to do this trip with my sisters and maybe some girl cousins since our hope is to go through DC, which is where my aunt lives. Taking this trip with a group of girls would probably be a good idea, since ladies are more likely to want to do the same kind of things, and it’s safer, and more fun, to be part of a group.

I’m not finding exactly what I’m looking for, so let’s look at some of Broadway’s history today. Broadway is made up of about forty theaters. The first real theater came to New York in 1750, and continued to develop throughout the 1800’s as more theater companies were established. A lot of Shakespeare plays were performed at various theaters during this era. Musicals didn’t even begin appearing on Broadway until after the Civil War

I hope to be more together tomorrow. Let me know if you would like to do a trip to New York taking in some Broadway plays. I would be more than happy to help you.