I never travel without my travel best friend. I love to travel, my boyfriend loves to travel But we never plan long trips without, my travel best friend, Yes, my travel best friend, Dan my travel agent. I found my travel best friend late one night. My boyfriend and I decided to take a big trip to Italy, I had several friends talking about how they booked their trips through various websites. They researched and put together their own itineraries. They recommended websites to go through to book.
The packages I found would include hotel, airfare, maybe some transfers and then what? Its one thing to wander around an area for a day, but it is another to plan food, tours, and other sightseeing opportunities for a week or longer. I didn't have time to research all that. My job was too demanding, so instead of researching travel websites I started looking for a Travel Agent. That search was a lot quicker than I anticipated. There were not very many travel agents listed. I picked one and hopped on their site and sent off an email.
I reached out to the travel agency that I found in my Google search. There were not a lot of listings for Travel Agents in my Google search. I was a bit concerned since there were not a lot of options from that search. I took a shot. My initial email was just to inquire if they could help me plan and book a trip. I honestly wasn't sure how it worked these days with people usually booking themselves on the internet. I got a fairly quick response from Dan. I explained what I was looking for. He said, yes this is what we do, we will plan everything for you. I emailed Dan with our list of travel requirements, what we were thinking, the dates we wanted to travel, what we specifically wanted to see on tours and of course the price range. Dan took the information and said he would be in touch with a few different options for us. He came back with various quotes, we altered our trip a few times. He designed the most wonderful trip for us. It had all the aspects we were looking for. It included tours, hotels, transfers, and airfare. Thus began the best travel relationship ever!
The beauty of your travel best friend is that should you need help or direction while travelling they are there for you. Dan reaches out to me when we are about to depart to give us reminders about travel documents and other things you might need. He will check in with us the day we leave. And if something goes wrong or you hit a bit of a kink in the plans, my travel best friend has always been there for us. We have had some interesting issues come up over the last few years while travelling. We had a flight cancel on us without our knowledge when we were trying to get home from Venice. Dan got things rerouted for us and rebooked. I was never happier to have him respond immediately to a text message and smooth everything over for us to get us home. He also negotiated a wonderful credit from that airline that we were able to use for another trip. Having a travel best friend gives you that extra support
My travel best friend takes a lot of the guess work out of travel for us. Dan has only ever recommended places that have great reviews. When he found that a hotel we were going to stay at for a trip really wasn't that good despite being a well known chain, he contacted me and recommended a different hotel. He was right and we loved the choice of places we stayed at. He asks a lot of questions to make sure what he is booking for us is what we are looking for. I have approached him with ideas and time frames and he will honestly tell me if its worth the time. For example my girlfriends and I wanted to have a vacation somewhere tropical. We decided on Cabo San Lucas. I checked in with Dan, who immediately told me we don't want to go there if we want to go to the beach and swim. We changed our course for that trip and ended up booking a place in Jamaica. That's the best kind of friend to have, someone who will stop you and say, this is probably not what you want. I trust him for that kind of advice.
My travel best friend helps us get more bang of our buck. When we were booking a cruise last year. Dan approached us and said we would get a better deal if we booked the airfare ourselves. We booked our own airfare but Dan arranged for everything else including our additional hotel stays in Anchorage and Vancouver. When I had a trip to Mexico planned, Dan spotted there was a price drop for our trip and was able to get us an upgrade at no additional costs. He truly has watched our backs to make sure we get our money's worth. Because Dan is doing the booking, tours and other things have a bit of a discount that you might not get booking on your own. Its wonderful to know that if prices change or upgrades open up, he is monitoring that and will notify us if anything changes. We have been able to get several upgrades at places just from Dan watching the bookings for us.
I never plan a trip without my best friend. If I am going to spend a lot of money on a special trip, the first person I contact is Dan. Dan makes our grand ideas into reality. He has the knowledge and the connections to find the best options for us. He can help make the extra tours seamlessly fit into the itinerary. You don't have to think about it, because it will fit logistically in with what is already planned. Last year I wanted a special birthday trip and he helped us arrange an all-inclusive at a resort outside of Cancun. Dan knew it was my birthday and let the staff know and they gave me a towel cake with rose petals. I know that special touch was because of Dan. He makes sure we have the little extras to make the trip just a bit more special. He helps with those little details that you might not think about when planning a trip.
Right now with Covid-19 and everything closed, we have a lot of credits on trips that had to be cancelled. Dan and I have continued to keep in touch about when the world opens up. I imagine his business has been negatively impacted. I will say this if you are planning a trip anywhere in the world, talk to Dan first, I promise he will make your trip special. Or, find your own travel best friend. If you enjoy travelling and want to take some of the stress out of the process, find a travel best friend to help you find the best deals.
If you are planning a trip in the future, contact my Best Friend Dan:
Big Blue Getaways
All the thoughts from me to you, more thoughts to come soon!
Genner