I've always planned my vacations using multiple on-line sites that give you the "best" deal. Then I met Avis, from Destination Escapes. We wanted to visit Niagara Falls Canada via train from Chicago. We handed it all to her, told her our "must haves", our budget, and never had to think twice. She managed every detail including many we hadn't thought of. All because we said "We want to stay on the Canadian side, we want to take the train, and here is our budget." We hadn't even thought about local transportation or passports! Avis talked us through that as well.
We just returned from the cruise-of-a-lifetime to Alaska via the Celebrity Solstice 7 day cruise. Avis worked doubly-hard on making our trip perfect. She has great ideas, NOT PUSHY, so I never felt pressured into spending one dime above our budget. At Avis' suggestion we did purchase traveling insurance through AIG. I thought that would cover us in case the cruise or flights were cancelled. Little did I know I would get sick and need to see the ship's physician. 150 unplanned dollars. Followed by baggage damaged by the airline. It never occurred to me before Avis telling me that these expenses were covered in that policy. SO even after the trip, she's working for you! By the way, AIG reimbursed us head-spinnningly fast with barely any documentation (I swear, the dog ate it!). I expected a fight, and got none.
I guess if I was driving straight to one place and directly home again, I might wing it, but my time is precious on most vacations. Avis was there to tend to any questions or mishaps or complaints (of which there were none!). I'm not even sure I could have saved a penny trying to do all of this myself considering everything we got! But the bottom line is that "best" deal you get elsewhere won't help you if anything goes awry.
On to Ireland! read more
