STA & G.A.P. — Travel for the young?

A couple of days ago, I received my periodic STA (Student Travel) email with updates on travel deals and destinations.  STA [a Swiss found company] has an office at the University of Kentucky and provide travel arrangement for students … young students.  By the way, I am a full-time graduate student and a full-time employee and I am not young … compared to the 18 — 22 year old who make up the majority of college students, but I am still a student.

I don’t know about your STA office, but the one at the University offers a significant number of prearranged packages from G.A.P., the Great Adventure People [a Canadian company].  My take on these two companies is that they really cater to budget conscious young people, e.g., those adventurous spirits.  Students are not their real focus.  Of course, they will take anyone’s money.

As I started, I receive an email from STA, “debunking myths about tours.”  Now, I must admit that what they were debunking like many myths and stereotypes had kernels of realism.  So, STA says don’t be afraid to take a tour.  Tours don’t have to be those boring stogy “look here, look there, touch this, don’t touch this …” bus trips that your parents made take on family holidays.  Also, don’t worry, you won’t be the oldest person on the tour either and it will actually be an adventure.  This is STA’s spiel.

As a person who likes to take tours, and admittedly sometimes we are the oldest people on the tour, they can be very informative and an adventure.  I don’t think that an adventure has to be on the back of a moped, driving down some alley way off the beaten path.  While this could be fun, I don’t think it is necessarily more of a tour than my climate control comfortable buses.

A case of big brother or a little help with your international travels?

It’s almost time for me to start planning my summer holiday and every trip I debate whether or not I want help … from a travel agency and almost for every trip I research my destinations myself with a little help from Frommer’s and Expedia, and depending on the place, the United States Department of State Bureau of Consular Affairs.  The Bureau is an excellent source for information and a place for US citizens to “register” when traveling abroad.

Now, I am the suspicious type and do not necessarily like volunteering information about myself to the government, but if I am traveling to a potential trouble spot or unstable country.  I want my country to know and I want the closest US Embassy or Consular Office to know and come rescue me if I do something unintentionally stupid or illegal like taking pictures of a protest or indigenous children.  Perhaps, I am a paranoid US citizen or maybe I should not travel to places where this is a concern, but I actually register even when traveling to western Europe too.

Along with the Department of State knowing where I am, they provide a tremendous amount of information about the country including macro cultural beliefs, values, and behaviors, as well as cautions about doing things legal in the US, but illegal or disrespectful in the hosting country.  Remember, we are the visitors and if everyone was the same, why travel.

So unless, I write later that the Department of State is questioning me about my international travel, I will continue to register.  It’s not like they couldn’t find out this information anyway.  At least, I know that the Department of State has this information … I think.

When to use a travel agent?

Whether or not or when to use a travel agency is one of those nagging considerations that I make as I plan or decide where I want to go.  To date, I have yet to use an agent, but there have been times when I wondered, should I have used an agent or not.

Here’s my idea of what I think a travel agency should provide.  First, I think that they should …

• Ask me about my interests and accommodation needs.
• Be much more knowledgeable about the destination.
• Be able to help me match my interest to what’s available.
• Provide literature. 
• Make my arrangements.

But, this has not be my experience.  I am usually given literature and told “these are the options.”

Thus far, I have never used a travel agency to make my full travel arrangements.  I have only used an agent twice.  The most important trip where I used an agency was the Galapagos Islands … and they were unresponsive after they got my money.  Everything turned out fine.  In fact, the only reason that I used an agency for Galapagos was because I could not find another way to make arrangements.

Making travel arrangements is hard work.  You have to make arrangements to get there, you have to find a place to stay, and you have to decide what to do.  The Internet has made this work a little easier.  There are many travel sites where you can find information, like Frommers; online agencies like Expedia; and travel blogs … like mine.

I tend to use some combination of these sources and like to make my arrangements because I like flexibility.  But travel agencies can be helpful when there is not good information online and they usually can find availability that the average users can not.  I wish agencies were more flexible.  If you are not as picky as I am, they can certainly de-stress your planning.

My compliments to Grayline tours

One of the hardest decisions to make when traveling is what to do when you get there.  Do you explore on your own or use a tour company?  Well, it depends.  On our trip to Ecuador where language was an issue, we decided to use a tour company, but which one?  I’ve used Grayline for several other tours and learned that they have a presence in Ecuador, so I went with them.  The tours were wonderful.

Our first tour was a City and Equatorial Tour.  Here, we toured by bus and foot the wonderful cathedrals and churches of the city, including there Notre Dame and the famous San Francisco.  Several, we were able enter and marvel at the architecture and ornateness which belie the wealth of the country.  Throughout the tour, we are getting a history lesson.  We conclude the city part of the trip with a spactaculous view looking down on the old city.  While not part of the equator trip itself, our guide took us to the actual location of the equator in addition to the equator monument.  At the actual location is a small museum (and fee) where there are experiments and archaeological digs.

We also used Grayline to visit the Indian market Otavalo.  We took a private tour, because group tours are only offered certain day.  Along the way to Otavalo, we made several stop at local markets and scenic outlook.  While the day that we visited the market was not busy, it seemed not to deter the vendor.  This is a must visit place in my opinion, even if you don’t like to shop.  After Otavalo, we visited a small town known for its leather goods.  Advice … take a lot of money, while the products are not expensive by United States standard, you really get caught up in the bargaining.

The last tour was  to Cotopaxi and an hacienda.  While we had no intentions of climbing the volcano, the natural beauty of the area is incredible.  We were lucky in that we got to see the snowy tops of the volcano.  Because the day was somewhat clear, we drove to the base parking lot for climbers.  This was not part of the tour.  You better be adventurous and trusting.  A good part of the drive is quite foggy and the rode is curvy and not paved and there are no guard rails!  A word of caution for those who suffer altitude sickness … I thought that my head was going to explode.  The choice of hacienda was excellent.  Too bad it was raining.

Last word, while we could have explored these places on our own, there were lots of places on each tour where we stopped that we would not have known to do.  Also, we learned a lot about the history and culture of the places we visited.  Our guides made the experience personal and enjoyable.  All were professional and seemed to like their jobs.

Professional travel sites or blogs … where to go?

Planning a trip … I am one of those travelers who believes that preparation involves more than transportation to and from my destinations. For the extreme adventurous travelers who consider this sufficient planning, more power to you. Conversely, I don’t want to know what I am going to do every second of my trip either. So, regardless of your preference for planning, where do you go for advice, professional travel sites like Frommers, Fodor’s, Lonely Planet or a travel blog?

I used to rely almost exclusively on these professional travel sites, thinking that I would get some unbiased true advice from an “expert traveler” whatever that is, but then it dawned upon me that I shouldn’t limit my research to just one type of traveler, who may or may not have the same travel expectations or needs that I have.

My first venture into blogs began when I started reading opinions on Expedia that were written by your average regular traveler.  Sometimes these average regular traveler’s opinions are not helpful, but so is advice from some of the professional travel sites.  For instance, I used Frommer’s to select one of my hotels while traveling in Portugal, which turned out not to be great.

I have taken to using both “professional” sites and blogs.  I like the professional sites for their “factual” approach, such as you can do this, this place offers that, and so forth, but I like the blogs to learn about other travelers’ experiences.  I also find that people who spend time setting up a blog really want to share their experiences.  I’ve noticed that many of these “professional” sites like Frommer’s and Fodor’s include areas for blogging as well.

Bottom line, I find both useful.  You can find a broad range of advice from those who say, hop on a plane and just go with it, to those who offer recommendations and their experiences in terms of what to do, where to stay, and what to eat.