Travel Deals

More and more clients are coming in asking me to help them celebrate their Big 3-0’s, Big 4-0’s, and Big 5-0’s in an exotic destination. These birthday travel plans are becoming such a frequent request that I think it’s time to call it a trend. Where should you go on your next birthday? Well, that just depends on how young you feel.

Thrifty 30

Many 30-year-olds are almost as strapped for cash as they were in their 20’s – between the economy and saving for their first house. However, the thirties might also be the last few years before children, mortgages, and other adult responsibilities turn your duffel bag into a diaper bag, and your travel funds into home repairs. Live it up now! Plan a road trip around the American South; book a tour to Vietnam and Cambodia; or blaze a trail through Costa Rican rainforest. Or, you know, rent a beach house for a week and work on your tan (even young people need rest and recuperation sometimes).

Just For You 40

Life is a whirlwind of family responsibilities and work stress, and what you need is a place where you can let go of it all and focus on you. I love Body Holiday at LeSport for just that. Designed to re-calibrate your body, mind and spirit, this gorgeous resort in St. Lucia offers yoga, massage, gourmet healthy dining, and activities that will help you get back to being the best version of yourself.

50-Year Fantasy

What you need is for someone to wait on you hand and foot while you lounge in comfort, sipping your frozen margarita – am I right? Don’t just fantasize about it – book it! My absolute favorite destination for feeling taken care of is Secrets Wild Orchid in Montego Bay, Jamaica. Top shelf liquor, gourmet dining, and activities like tennis, yoga, sailboats and kayaks, and cooking classes all come with the all-inclusive package. Not to mention a world-class spa – and proximity to five championship golf courses. It’s one of my favorite resorts.

On-Board With 60

When you want to spend more time with your kids and grandkids, a family cruise can be a wonderful and affordable option for multigenerational travel. Why not celebrate your birthday with everyone you love on board a ship headed to an exciting destination? Cruise ships leave from Florida shores every day with destinations and itineraries for every taste. Isn’t it time you were on one of them?

Sitting Pretty at 70+

I have two words for the 70 and older crowd: canal cruise. Europe is crisscrossed with ancient waterways and the best way to see the sights is to use them. Charter an 8-12 passenger barge for a week with your friends or family, and float by castles and medieval villages while sipping local wines and indulging in cheese and chocolates. Most barges pride themselves on their food, and you’ll be drifting through the best wine regions in the world. Barge travel is also the perfect solution for those with mobility issues.

Some people might feel depressed at getting another year older, but I challenge anyone to feel down while flying a mile-high on the way to your next adventure.

#EliteTravelGroup #birthdaytravel #TammyLevent

As the capital city of Scotland and home to the castle, Festival and one of the most interesting city centers in Europe, Edinburgh attracts visitors from all over the world. Although there are no whisky distilleries in the city, there are a number of options for learning more about this cornerstone of Scottish culture. Whisky is both an important export and something which is deeply rooted in the Scottish way of life, where it is known as uisge beatha, or the water of life.

Whisky Heritage Centre

Right at the top of the Royal Mile, just a stone’s throw from the Castle is the Whisky Heritage Centre, there is an interactive tourist attraction which will tell you everything you ever wanted to know about how whisky is made, bottled and distributed. Experts tell visitors about the art of blending. There is even the chance to taste some whisky for yourself, with soft drinks as an option for children. The Scotch Whisky Centre has won numerous awards for its inventive approach to tourism, and has the largest collection of bottles of whisky anywhere in the world.

Scotland Whisky

If you’d prefer to see the real thing, one of the best places to see whisky making is on the island of Islay, off the west coast of Scotland. Small mini-bus tours, which show the 8 main distilleries over 4 days, are very popular and will give visitors and locals alike a great insight into every aspect of whisky making. Apart from the whisky making, Islay is a beautiful, remote island with plenty to see apart from whisky, making it the ideal option for people wanting to experience a true flavor of Scotland in depth. The small size of the groups on the tour also gives a great chance to get to know other tourists and to ask lots of questions too.

Timberbush

If you can’t spare 4 days out of your holiday to take a trip round distilleries, then the one day tour offered by Timberbush could be the perfect solution. Leaving from Edinburgh early in the morning, the tour takes visitors to picturesque Perthshire, home to both distilleries and the famous Gleneagles estate. The tour takes in Glenturret distillery, the oldest in Scotland, and the Famous Grouse Experience, home to an interactive tasting bar, restaurant and the warehouses where the whisky matures until it is ready to be consumed.

Author: Kelvin French is a whiskey enthusiast and recommends you try these tours out.

You’re planning a holiday but all the hotels seem to look the same. Don’t worry, though, as there really are some unusual ones. If you want to sleep with the fishes or stay in a shoe, there’s a hotel somewhere in the world that will offer you a room.

Water Holidays

Start your holiday with a dive into the sea at the Jules Undersea Lodge in Florida. There’s actually no other way of getting into your room. Once there, you can watch all the sea life around you while you stay in air conditioned comfort. If you don’t know how to swim, there’s a three-hour crash course available.

But if you are looking for top-class comfort underwater, try the Poseidon Undersea Resort in Fiji. Here you won’t have to dive to reach your room because there’s a convenient lift for the purpose.

If frozen water is your preference, try the Jukkasjarvi Ice Hotel near Kiruna in northern Sweden. This was the world’s first ever ice hotel, with a season that runs from December to April. All the furniture and even the glasses in the bar are made of ice but you will sleep comfortably on reindeer skins on your ice bed.

Stone Age

Return to the Stone Age but with all modern amenities at the Cappadocia Cave Suites in Turkey. The caves have been carved out of tufa, a kind of volcanic stone that resembles pumice and have been homes to local residents for the last 2,000 years.

You’ll be able to choose rooms with a lot of windows, just a skylight or no windows at all. It will be cool in the room even if the temperatures are sweltering outside, although you may need extra heating during the winter months. And even if your room door is a vast wheel made of stone that rolls shut, you will be able to sleep on a soft bed.

Try the modern version of a Stone Age dwelling in an old nuclear bunker in Sevelen, near Zurich in Switzerland. This is Switzerland’s first zero-star hotel – the Null Stern Hotel. There’s no breakfast on offer in most of the rooms but a “luxury” room comes with coffee in the morning. The heating comes from hot water bottles hanging from the wall, but the management kindly gives you a complimentary set of ear plugs to block out the noise of the ventilation system.

These bunkers are part of Switzerland’s civil defense system and they have to revert to their original purpose within 24 hours of any emergency. So don’t bother unpacking during your stay.

New Zealand

Stay in a boot as you explore the delights of New Zealand. The Boot Bed & Breakfast, also known as the Jester House, in Tasman South Island, lets you relive that nursery rhyme of the old woman who lived in a shoe. But this is a two-story house with curved walls in the correct places that offers you a romantic as well as an unusual atmosphere.

Continue your New Zealand tour to Raglan, a stunning beach resort on the northern tip of North Island and check into a caboose – the last railway wagon of an old train – at the Solscape Eco Retreat. Or you can get down to earth in style in a tipi, the local term for an animal-skin tent. If you need to keep extra active, you can also go ‘woofing’ – that’s trying your hand at some work on an organic farm – or kite boarding or surfing in the ocean.

Before you go anywhere, however, you should ensure that you have a good travel insurance policy to cover against all eventualities.

Article by Chris Rowlands

Traveling is risky business, but even though you can’t control mother nature or lady luck, you can control how much they affect your pocketbook. Tammy Levent, Owner of Elite Travel, helps you navigate the treacherous waters of trip insurance and explains why it could be vitally important.

So, you’re planning your honeymoon or destination wedding and are probably looking forward to some fun and romantic activities like snorkeling, hiking or horseback riding on the beach. When you’re traveling, you’re more likely to put yourself in harm’s way, but even if your goal is to plant yourself on a beach towel with colorful cocktails, what happens when a hurricane hits or a family member becomes ill before you even get on the plane? This is where trip insurance can make the difference between a ruined honeymoon, and a ruined bank account when you get home.

There are a million mishaps that could cause you to cancel your travel plans … from accidents and family illness to jury duty. Cancellation penalties increase closer to the departure date and many airlines have a no-refund policy on their flights, which means you could lose the entire cost of your trip! The main purpose of travel insurance is to make sure that doesn’t happen, so the vast majority of insurance policies cover cancellation costs for any reason—whether a relative becomes seriously ill or if your spouse sprains an ankle on the dance floor at the reception. Basic insurance usually covers lost baggage and missed connections too.

As expensive as cancellation costs can be, if you get hurt at your destination, it could cost you as much as a small house if you can’t use your regular plane tickets and need a medical evacuation. This is where having the right kind of insurance becomes vital. First, check to see whether your personal health insurance covers you abroad–it probably doesn’t. The best choice is to go for a comprehensive trip insurance policy that will cover trip cancellations, travel expenses, lost luggage and health, including air medical evacuation (which could cost anywhere from $10,000 to $75,000 without insurance if they need to fly you from a remote area abroad).

The good news is that trip insurance isn’t expensive.

The price of insurance is based on the ages of the travelers and the cost of the trip. For a $3000 to $5000 trip, the insurance might run between $200 and $300 for a young couple. A basic package should cover the amount of the trip plus medical ($25k). Insurance also covers terrorist situations; if you’re scheduled to go to an area with recent terrorist attacks, you’re covered.

You can buy travel insurance through your travel provider, cruise line or tour company, but those policies tend to be less comprehensive than insurance bought from a agent or a company that specializes in travel insurance. You don’t want to be caught off guard if something goes wrong.

If you’re going to the Caribbean during hurricane season (June 1 through November 30) you absolutely need hurricane insurance. Here’s how it works: Buy your hurricane insurance at the same time you book your trip—before any hurricane alert is issued. Then, if you haven’t left yet and a hurricane threatens your destination, get a statement from the weather bureau that there are potential hurricane conditions in the area for your insurance to apply. Insurance doesn’t cover “thinking” a storm will hit–the storm has to hit, and you have to make every reasonable effort to travel to your destination. If your airline is still flying, most insurers won’t pay. But it is usually possible to rebook your trip for a different time using the airline’s change policy (just make sure you know what the policy is beforehand). Larger resorts will sometimes allow you to rebook your stay for a later time if a hurricane hits.

If you don’t have insurance, it’s more difficult for you or your travel agent to make changes and substitutions to rescue your vacation – you paid for one trip, you don’t want to have to pay for another one before you even get home.