Spring is all around! Now is the time to travel!
This is the time of year that I plan out my business and my personal life for the next year all the way through this coming winter. Why now?
Spring is the change of the seasons from the shorter and colder days of winter to the long, warm days of summer. This planning allows me to write down all the things I want to achieve in the coming year and how to achieve them even with the change. Why?
Change – Now is the time to Travel!
Change is happening all around us and to us. The one constant in each of our lives is changing. No matter how hard we struggle to control things, the only thing we can truly control is our own lives, so I set up a plan for the year…in the Spring. Planning is not concrete. I set my goals, but I understand that changes will occur and I update the plan every three months to accommodate change and plan accordingly. Travel has always been important to me, and I have traveled all my life because I knew that to travel now, means that I can still be traveling as long as I want, but that change will happen and I will adjust to it.
5 Reasons to Travel Now!
#1 Travel now because you never know…what changes will occur.
For some reason, we tend to believe the “ifs” and “tills” we say to ourselves. “If I just work long enough (till I retire, till I have enough money, till I am better, till I look better, till I own my home, till…), I can have the luxury of travel. Or the great “after” phrase (after I have married, after I have that promotion, after I have children, after I retire, after…), do we really feel we can let go and travel.
Let me tell you a story of a client of mine, we will call her Angel. Angel is in her 50’s and called me one day about some travel she wanted to reserve through me, but it was not for her. It was for her mother and her step-father. Her mother had always wanted to travel to the islands of Tahiti. She didn’t care which island, which hotel, or for how long, she just had always wanted to experience the islands. When Angel’s father died, she was helping her mother clean out the house and came upon a picture long packed away of the island of Bora Bora. This photo was black and white and had been painted colors, now faded. Angel asked her mother about the photo. Angel’s mother replied, “oh that,” then paused, “Since I was a little girl I always wanted to travel and I adored that picture of Bora Bora and dreamed that one day, I would be there or at least somewhere like it. I kept it in the top drawer of my dresser for years. But that wasn’t to be, because there was always something more pressing to do and as we got older your father just couldn’t travel anymore. So I put away that picture because it was a dream that I would never hold.”
That was when Angel decided that she would make her mother’s wish come true. It took Angel years to save up, because she had her own life, had kidney stones, and defeated cancer all the while working three to four jobs. When Angel had the money, she then called me, we created an amazing trip, and her mother and step-father had a trip of a lifetime to the islands of Tahiti.
Change is the one constant in our lives. Change is always good…always. It is just our perception of it that can make it not look good.
#2 Start with baby trips to create your habit of travel
No matter how old you are or how much you have traveled, you can begin traveling now, by taking baby trips. Overnight or weekend trips to a nearby place that you enjoy or might enjoy are easy. You also can use a B&B or a motel for your first trips to save money and make it easy on your budget. If you drive, pack some lunches and snacks to enjoy to save money. Take off a few days during the quiet season at work and in the middle of the week, to save money. Think about it and see your opportunities. The secret to baby trips is that it gets you used to be smart about your trips and you will gradually expand them and the distance from your home. It is like anything else, “practice makes perfect!”
#3 Make travel a priority in your life!
We tend to put travel off in the “Like to do” category. This is a delay for what you really wish.
Travel for most North Americans is a priority in their lives. We have a Travel Channel! There are many ways to see all the ways we can travel, all the places we can travel, and how to travel well. For many people traveling is a must. Most travel enthusiasts understand that starting small (baby trips, see #2) is the way to create a happy process for the big trips. When you make travel a priority and not a “Like to do” it allows you to do it more often. Once you are traveling often you will soon have a healthy travel habit.
#4 Planning! Ta-Da! You knew I would get back to this!
Planning is essential for a trip that is further away, costs more money, and involves multiple stops. I recommend to my clients and to you, to plan at least 10 months prior to the departure of these larger trips. This allows you the availability for the flights, accommodation, and activities, and/ or dinner reservations. Many destinations in the world do not have a lot of flights to them per week, or have reduced availability in lodging, or sell out quickly at certain times of the year like during the holidays. Remember that school holidays around the world are not like the school holidays in North America.
Take note: if you take all the travelers to the island of Tahiti that are tourists in one year, the same amount of tourists arrive in Honolulu in 10-days. Remarkable isn’t it? Long-term planning is essential.
#5 Use Your’s Truly or a known travel specialist for your travel.
A travel specialist is most likely a specialist in a part of the world.
Specialists have a wide knowledge of the area and have deep contacts with the local population and travel industry.
Specialists add value to a reservation by explaining your options so that the experience you have once on your trip is the experience you had been envisioning.
Most specialists do not use a middle company here in North America but book directly into the travel destination which saves the traveler money but also gives the specialist more control over the entire trip.
You speak to one person when making your travel arrangements and not to whoever answers the phone.
A specialist will create with you a special trust in travel planning that you will want to use in trip after trip.
#6 Bonus – Puzzles!
I love puzzles! What I find in each new client is that they see their trip from a unique point of view—or, to put it another way, their own puzzle.
By listening during the initial conversations with clients and asking questions that give me information, I can see or understand the pieces to the puzzle of a perfect trip for each client:
- Which hotel, experience, or island will work the best (puzzle pieces)
- Budget (puzzle pieces)
- Length of time (yep, puzzle pieces)
- The other piece is availability
The process of taking these pieces and creating an itinerary for the client that matches their goals, desires, and likes is putting together a great puzzle!
For me, that is the fun part and my creative specialty.
Every new client creates a new puzzle (itinerary).
That is why I custom design every itinerary for every client.
Each one is unique.
What’s your puzzle? Call me today!
Travel Well!
