Wow!  What a year this has been right?!!  Not what I expected personally or as a business owner.  It's been a tough year working countless hours cancelling and rescheduling trips.  Hours sitting  on hold.  Hours answering emails from clients with questions and of course, complaints! All of this to make a LOT less money than compared to last year.  In case you don't know... travel agents don't get paid unless you travel.  So when a trip is cancelled, we make $0!  So it's been a challenging year to say the least.  

However, things are coming around and travel is starting to pick up!  Let's be honest everyone is ready to get out of their houses.  So I took a couple trips to check it out.  One in July and one in September.  Here is my account of travel during this time to Mexico! 

​I first went in July and took my 18 year old daughter with me.  We chose El Dorado Seaside Suites.  The flight down was completely full and everyone had their mask on.  Arriving was business as usual.  After walking through immigration you can see where there is a temperature check and a desk in case you get pulled over to the side, but other than that you wouldn't know the difference.  Our transfer service immediately gave us hand sanitizer.  Upon arrival we were given hand sanitizer again and our temperature taken at check in.  The staff was cleaning and handing out hand sanitizer everywhere you went.  They always have their masks on and the bartenders have a mask and a face shield. The occupancy was very low and we felt like we had most of the resort to ourselves.  The service, food, drink and amenities were amazing. 

In September I had a destination wedding that had to be rescheduled so my husband and I decided to go ahead and go back down and see how things are since July.  We spent two nights at Live Aqua and two nights at Sun Palace.  Once again, arrival into Mexico was business as usual, although much busier this time.  Our transfers were clean, sanitized and great as usual.  We always do private transfers so this is not much different for us.  We still felt like we had almost the entire resort to ourselves during our stay.  The Mexican people are really taking Covid serious and I feel safer there than I do going to the store here in the US.  This time we had our temperature taken no less than 10 times in 5 days and everyone has a mask on everywhere you go.  The resorts are doing as much touchless as they can including room keys and room service.  Again, leaving the airport was much busier than it had been in July, which makes my heart happy!  The day we left they were raising the occupancy level at resorts in Cancun to 60%. 

Thank you to Mexico for making traveling again so easy, clean and FUN!! 

So today is "Travel Tuesday"...  I hear there are a lot of good deals out there.  Mainly on airfare.  Do you believe in Travel Tuesday? 

As a Travel Professional, I've never ran across better deals today than I do any other day.  I specifically priced a Cancun vacation I priced yesterday to see if the price had actually gone down.  It hasn't.  It actually went up because the "Black Friday" sale is over now and there is no promo code to apply. 

Don't get me wrong, I would love to have a day of the year (or more) where there were spectacular deals and I would sit at my computer and book trips all day long!   :) 

​If any of you out there found some special deal today, I would love to hear about it! 

I'm not sure how you feel about the cold weather settling in, but I for one am not ready for it.  I sit here and long for a vacation on the beach to get back to warm weather! 

So... that's what I am doing.  Sitting here planning my next beach vacation.  Likely it will be Mexico, as it's so easy to get to for a short trip.  I also happen to LOVE Mexico!  You can be planning your next vacation as well with all my tips, knowledge and recommendations!  Don't sit here during the cold this Winter and not have a plan!! 

I had a great lunch at Bristol Seafood Grill in Leawood yesterday with Globus.  Globus is a travel company with several brands of tours to fit different styles of travel.  

* Globus - First Class, Fully Escorted Vacations
* Monograms - Partially Escorted with Local Hosts
* Cosmos - Fully Escorted Value Vacations 
* Avalon Waterways - Small Ship River Cruising 

They truly have something for everyone.  Even  Cosmos Lite packages for those that want to travel independent but still have the hotel and airfare packaged together for better pricing.  

If you want a convenient way to travel through Europe at a real value, don't wait any longer!  Let's get you there today! 

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Very excited about all thing travel after attending the Ascend ALGV Conference last week!  Many of you may or may not know that Apple Vacations and Funjet Vacations along with United Vacations, Southwest Vacations, Travel Impressions and Blue Sky Tours are all under one umbrella now all owned by ALG!  There were so many good workshops and we learned a lot of new information about the industry and where it is headed! 

The big Trade Show was a huge success!  I got to meet with many of the tour operators and vendors we work with and make many more personal connections that only help my clients in the end!  Personal relationships with them let me give YOU better customer service!