In deciding where to go on holiday one must consider many things such as budget, time, activities, and of course, Pics and Pans, which is a big factor. Careful thought goes into deliberating if you want to vacation for one to two weeks or just take a long weekend. Are you motivated to choose a destination because you want to party, learn about the culture, or soak up some sun and play in the ocean?
I am planning vacations to Bali and Hawaii for two different groups of clients. I want to go on both trips but time is not permitting. Believe it or not, getting folks to decide what they would like to do is often difficult. This is especially the case when visiting a place you have never been to before.
My humble advice is to research 3 things the place you choose is famous for. Do you like the activities they have to offer? Yes, great. Now add some guest dining and a club or two and the vacation is golden.
Maybe beachy is more your style? Can you swim? Let’s go snorkeling or whale watching. Perhaps exotic drinks tickle your fancy, most likely in a smoke free environment. You can have an Elevator Cocktail in Bali or a Mai Tai in Hawaii. Challenge accepted.
On the other hand, let’s explore holy temples and museums and architecture galore but no gourmand eateries or clubs to party at. Finally, pick three fun activities that you would enjoy for every 4 days. Give yourself a half a day to relax upon arrival and realize 10am-2pm is usually check out time so that last day is a wash. But before you go, to get you started here’s some suggestions:
As a travel consultant and small business owner, I am constantly doing research for clients and myself. So in August, the Long and Short Travel Adventures Club will be visiting St. Thomas. First, hopefully we will all be vaccinated for Covid19, if possible. We have to get tested within 72 hours of trip departure. Then, we may have to get a rapid test the day before we leave. It is in America, so the rules may change and become more relaxed. I say prepare for the best and worst case scenario.
So vaccine? Check! Test? Check! Insurance because ish happens? Double check! With that out of the way we have to address the other issue. This includesthe pretty big elephant in the room…
Can you swim?
Yes? Great! You can go water skiing, scuba diving, snorkeling, fit skiing and more, just to name a few. There’s water sports galore and a beautiful ocean calling out to you. No? Dang, why not? Shucks, me either. Oh, I can flutter kick but more than 5 feet and I have issues. Everything pool related is closed due to Covid19 so no crash courses.
Well, don’t worry, be happy! There is hang gliding, horseback riding, nature walks, fishing, museums and shopping. Plus you can always tan on the beach with a good book and relax with a cool drink. It is a vacation after all.
In truth actually, we really need to swim. I want to jump in the ocean and maybe play with some happy fish. Jet skis and snorkeling look fun too. Scuba diving, maybe I’ll try it in a few years. So off to St. Thomas we go! Come join us! Worst case scenario is you get scared and tinkle! The fish won’t tell!
Guess we have to have a virtual hot girl summer… well hot middle age woman summer….
Last year me and my sister and bestie had plans to go to the Cincinnati Music Festival to see Janet Jackson. It got canceled. You know why. Ms. Corona did not want me to enjoy my hot girl summer. It would have been the first year in 2 decades that I would be fit and able to do fun things, single, and have places to go.
This year, she did it again. Another cancelation. Dang. It is my annual birthday trip ( July 28)
Ok, I understand why. We are not there yet. Huge concerts, even open-air concerts are still a no no. I did not gain weight but I did not get the figure I promised myself. A year of being alone 90 % of the time, no cute cafes, concerts, limited travel, and my little travel club and management consulting businesses took horrible hits.
I am making lemons out of lemonade. Me and my business partner from the LASTA Club and Long and Short Travel Adventures are pivoting our business model. We are pivoting and dancing like a couple of ballerinas. This year we will find local and continental trips for us and our friends to go to. I am thinking of renting a cabin in the Great Smoky Mountains, maybe renting a condo near Disney World, or go glamping.
Give me some ideas. I love travel. That is the addiction that I replaced food with (first loves die hard but one must be careful these days, no more 20-year-old girl metabolism)
Where would you like to go in 2021? In the USA, Internationally?
I have Paris and St. Thomas coming up. Paris may be canceled. I am crossing my fingers but not holding my breath. Paris can be replaced by Hawaii. If things get worse, so far they are slowly getting better, I like the idea of visiting all of America’s National Parks. They are beautiful and with the exception of Hawaii and Alaska – I can drive a van to them. We can party there and back!
Get vaccinated or at least keep on that mask and keep those hands clean. Answer the call when contact tracers call to tell you that you may be contagious… not answering doesn’t provide a cure, it just makes others ill. They are trying to nip this thing in the bud! Let’s continue to be responsible and nice to each other. We can all help beat this thing and next year walk around all summer with “Corona stole two summers and all I got was this crummy T-Shirt” clothes. (*steps off soapbox…)
But for now, my friends, hot girl summer is canceled. It has been replaced with hard working, reasonable woman spring. I am just glad the snow melted and I can visit with a few select friends. That’s ok. Next year, I am taking LASTA club members and Long and Short Travel Adventures’ clients all over the world. I plan on wilding out. Well, a little. It may take more than a year to fully bounce back, but we will get there.
This was my first trip to Vegas and I had a blast! I actually stayed at a hotel on The Strip, right in the midst of all the action. Now I will admit because I was there during the Covid19 pandemic, Vegas wasn’t jumping like it normally does. Truth be told, I didn’t miss the uncontrollable crowds but big star bill boards still flashed brightly even though most shows were closed. I actually walked up and down the strip for hours and got to see a lot of the Boardwalk I’ve only seen in movies. The margaritas on tap were huge and the show girls were out in all of their flashy feathers and colorful sexy costumes. The Fountains of Bellagio were beautiful with water and lights that danced to a hot musical beat.
Of course, there was still enough street entertainment to have a great time, especially on the Freemont Experience strip. I got to see some of the original hotel casinos and the outdoor entertainment was dope. There were street rappers, amazing painters, strong and sexy marines doing photo ops, and Zip line bravados under a jumbo tech house music digital sky, to name a few. I didn’t have much luck on the slot machines personally, I tend to keep to a small limit, but make no mistake all the casino action you wanted was open 24/7! Having to make reservations to eat anywhere, even at Denny’s for breakfast, was a true sign of pandemic life.
Naturally, I wore my mask everywhere outside of my hotel room, washed my hands a thousand times throughout the day and social distanced literally everywhere in any line. I will admit, though that since I hadn’t flown in over 20 years, I was not totally prepared for all the changes in security measures. Also, in order to fly you have to take a Covid19 test with negative results 3 days before you plan to fly out. Depending on the airline you’re taking for your trip, you may be randomly asked for proof of negative test results before you can board the plane.
When flying out of an international airport, such as O’Hare, I had to go through a body scanner, take my shoes off, receive a full body pat-down and the usual emptying of my pockets and placing my purse and jacket in a basket to be scanned. On the other hand, on the return home at the Vegas national airport, I only had to go through metal detectors and place my belongings in a basket to be scanned by actual security personnel. Overall, my airport experience wasn’t nearly as long and arduous as I thought it might be. Believe it or not, despite all of the pre/post Covid19 tests, sanitation precautions and social distancing measures, I’m ready to go on my next adventure. I can’t wait to go back to Vegas, perhaps post pandemic, so I can really party like a rock star.
I have always dreamed of going to Paris for as long as I can remember. To go for a whole eight days next year in September of 2021 is crazy exciting. I think my cabin fever during this pandemic has reached its peak and now I can hold on a little bit longer knowing that I will get to actually see The Eiffel Tower. Everyone I know will be so jealous of the wonderful pics I’m gonna post on all of my social media as proof that I was really there and happily soaked up the culture.
I’m not the biggest history buff but to actually walk the historical halls of the Louvre Museum is mind blowing. Believe it or not I really, really love action movies and have seen so many with car chase scenes of the Arc de Triomphe du Carrousel monument like Mission Impossible and Skyfall (James Bond). I’m also looking forward to trying genuine French food and wine and what could be more authentic than that?
Why not? Get insurance, pay on your dream trip and live your best life through travel with the L.A.S.T.A. Club. Worse case scenario is you get most of your money back. Best case scenario, you have an amazing time full of memories and pictures and make new friends. www.longandshorttraveladventures.com
Ok so 2020 was the year of the COVID, the year of the big election, the year of the mulligan because, well, we all want a dang do over. Now is the time to prepare for trips for next year. It’s true, it may be a bit harrowing. I am going to put on my dancing shoes and happy pants and go for it anyway.
People are still traveling. People are still booking cruises. People are still flying. And A lot of folks are taking it on the road. The cool thing is, trips are cheaper now because many tourist places are trying to get butts in seats for 2021 and 2022. Yes, I said 2022. People book cruises and big trips well in advance. A 14 day cruise down the Danube River – better do that a year in advance for premium prices and a guaranteed spot. Disney just opened up and they are getting to the point where the prices are going up because folks are pulling mulligans for trips canceled this year. I want to go on an African Safari through South Africa and several neighboring countries. The tour I looked into was booked until 2022. That’s ok.
I did not want to go until then anyway.
I do plan on going to at least 5 places next year. The plan is 2 big trips and 3 small ones. Maybe a short cruise to get my feet wet (joke) and then a nice European tour somewhere. I want a lot of things including for Corona to get her stinky self away from our lungs and nasal passages and leave us at rest. I will just book something nice for me and my friends and LASTA club members and insist that everyone get trip insurance. No exceptions! Australia and a side trip to Fiji has been on my mind since an online friend went two years ago. That trip was about 6k, double occupancy if I am remembering it correctly. Why not pay 300 extra for insurance. Heck, I will go one further. For trips outside of the USA get supplemental medical insurance every time without fail. If I break my back falling off of a camel in Dubai, I need to know I can just go to the doctor and be airlifted to USA as soon as I am stable without losing my house.
So stop being a chicken and lets go!
There are some things you should know:
Look at government websites and see where the hotspots are. They are pretty much everywhere. Some countries will let you in but you have to pass a COVID test within 72 hours of departure from the US. Hawaii is like Americas own little tropical paradise and it is semi open. There is a 14-day quarantine of you can not prove you passed an APPROVED Covid19 test within 72 hours of touch down. You have to prove that you have somewhere to stay for 14 plus days…. Yes, I know I am “threatening you with a good time” but 14 days may be all of your vacation time, and extra days at the hotel may costs you thousands extra. My opinion: 1 insurance 2. Don’t go if you can’t do the test, period 3. Insurance ( yes I said it twice) 4. Do not book with folks who have old fashioned rules about rescheduling, look for the ability to cancel last minute. If you get COVID positive results, it would be nice to be able to get most if not all of your money back.
Put essentials in small carry on: meds, glasses, several disposable masks, face shield, hand sanitizer, proof of COVID-19 negative test, tickets, passport, ID, credit cards, and cash. Nothing worse than going “ Oops I packed that” after a 2 hour wait in line to get in.
Be early, be patient, have a paperback, eat light, bring light snacks, for trips less than 3 hours just suck it up you don’t need to eat. For longer, buy some light snacks before boarding. Traveling is fun! Adventures are what you make of them. Make plans to travel to at least one place next year and then make plans for 2022. COVID should be sick of us by then surely.
When you think of the prep astronauts have to go through and all the stuff they have to wear… a mask and a little nose swab really isn’t not that big of a whoop ….
now that’s a face shield!Seems like a wild adventure, but can Mr. Musk have me back in time to go into work on time?
I don’t know about you guys but I’ve always wanted to go to Disney World. Like a lot of you I was worried that my dream of going there anytime soon would be ruined by the current Covid19 climate. However, 19 Disney Resort hotels are now open and a few more opening in early and mid-2021. You can actually choose from a large variety of villas, resorts and lodges such as the Disney’s Boardwalk Villas or Disney’s Caribbean Beach Resort.
There’s a huge assortment of stuff to do at Disney World in addition to visiting the theme parks. Do you want to relax in the sun or you want to hustle and bustle while you work up a sweat? Wouldn’t it be great to have someone cook a delicious meal for you at a great restaurant every day for a week? Well, Disney has lots to choose from such as Poolside activities, Movies Under the Stars for the whole family, Fitness Centers if you want to get that workout in, Sports Courts to play tennis or hoop, Beach Rentals for fun in the sun, Fishing Excursions for serious relaxation, and Disney Skyliners and aerial gondolas for thrill seekers and lots more
Just note that before access is allowed to Disney everyone will have their temperature screened(must be under 100.4 Celsius for admittance), masks are required at all times if you’re over 2 years old and social distancing will be strictly enforced so count on little bit longer wait times. But you can conveniently expedite some things by using online self-check-in and automatic check-out at your hotel. You can also make reservations for self-parking and at a lot of their restaurants up to 60 days in advance, which I highly recommend. For purchases you can use MagicBand at a large variety of open shops and theme parks or use the My Disney Experience app for room needs to avoid the lobby. They also have staff available by virtual chat to help resolve any issues you may have.
In spite of the many government safety guidelines in place you can still enjoy a lot of services. Bus transportation is available from the airport to most Disney Resort hotels and to the Disney theme parks. You will definitely have to make sure you have your theme park tickets ahead of time and you can opt to have your room lightly cleaned every other day for clean towels, trash removal, etc.
No need to panic though, Long and Short Travel Adventures is here to help you navigate through all of your needs. We understand that this is a trying time for everybody but the excitement never ends at Disney World. You can count on us to take the stress out of booking reservations and/or travel packages for your entire family or group of friends. We also recommend that you purchase insurance to cover any unforeseen events that may come up to protect you in case of cancellations. Remember Christmas is right around the corner and the earlier you inquire the better. Call Long and Short Travel Adventures with any questions you may have today.
We used PPE and six feet of space, don’t worry. We journeyed to Mackinac Island Michigan. No cars and bikes and horses everywhere! Melissa lost 4 lbs because we walked or biked everywhere. I recommend it for a great short adventure. We looked at the Grand Hotel on Mackinac island, beautiful but pricey. You get there by taking the ferry to Mackinac Island from Mackinaw City Michigan. It took 6-7 hours to drive from Chicago, but we will do it again, and next time take more folks along. Maybe we will stay at the Grand hotel in Mackinac Island.
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