If you’re a traveller, the greatest innovation of the past century isn’t space travel or insulin, but rather wheels on luggage.

This has changed everything.

No longer are you restricted by your own ability to lift and manage your own bags. You can now bring just about everything you own, and simply be able to push it along a sidewalk until someone much stronger than you can lift it on to a conveyor belt.

This is clearly evident in the fact that new luggage comes in the same sized box as a refrigerator. If you don’t believe me, take note next time you’re at an airport or cruise ship terminal. It’s a comedy of errors watching some people attempt to manage their own stuff.

For some, this catastrophe-in-waiting is remedied by packing light. This has always been my preference. However, after travelling with my mother-in-law, I quickly realized this is not a course of action that will work for some people.

I also had to rethink my luggage strategy when I combined a back-packing trip in Europe with a cruise. I didn’t want all the other back-packers to make fun of my garment bag, so I was forced to look at alternatives.

As it turns out, there are a number of services out there that will pick up your luggage a few days in advance of a cruise (or other types of trips), and will deliver it to your embarkation point. Imagine how nice it is to get up on your date of travel, grab your carry-on, and leave for the airport.

One in particular that you may want to check out is Luggage Forward.

No overhead cranes to get your luggage in and out of your trunk; no wheeling through the airport with your half-ton of stuff – it takes away a lot of the pain of travelling.

One of my clients recently travelling from Seattle to Miami for a cruise, was charged $79 for her over-sized suitcase. When you consider the airline was going to charge her $40 to check her bag, it quickly became a no-brainer to send it via a luggage service.

So if you’re a notoriously heavy packer, or even if you just don’t want to be bothered dragging stuff through airports, it’s probably worth checking one of these services out. For a few dollars more you solve a refrigerator-sized problem.

Now… think about how much more stuff you can bring!

Planning a Cruise?  I’d love to help!  Click here to get in touch today.

I look forward to hearing from you.

Sue Bradley

It used to be that when you did a tour of Europe, you would fly to Amsterdam, and haul your oversized luggage from the motor coach to a somewhat marginal hotel room, only to be ordered to have your bags outside your door for 6pm so you could do the same thing all over again the next day.

You would work your way from Amsterdam, across the Benelux countries, through France, and then fly home from Rome, completely exhausted, and vowing to throw away your massive suitcase for good.

Needless to say that river cruising is a significant improvement over those days.

Most people going on a European river cruise still fly to Amsterdam, and then hop on one of dozens of potential river ships and take a 7-day trip to Switzerland, or a 14-day trip to Budapest.

These trips are the most popular, but the Rhine and Danube trips are not the only routes in Europe!

• For those with a particular love of the Dutch, you can sail round-trip from Amsterdam on the Rhine, Mosel, and Elbe rivers
• If France is more your speed, you can sail on the Rhone, Saone, or Seine Rivers.
• Italy is also a river cruising destination, often round trip out of Venice on the Po.
• German river cruises are available on the Oder and Elbe Rivers.
• If you prefer to be further south in Europe, you can sail on the Douro River through Portugal and Spain.
• You can even take a river cruise to Russia

There are also river cruises in Asia, South America, and even the United States.

Most of these trips are between 7 and 16 days long, and have a wide choice of itineraries. So, while the Amsterdam to Budapest route is definitely worth considering, don’t feel bound by just one option.

Thinking of a river cruise?  I’d love to help!  Click here to get in touch today.

If you’re like most people, you could hardly wait to finish high school, and then perhaps College or University.

After a few years went by, however, you realized that maybe those days with your head buried in a textbook weren’t so bad after all!

One of the key differentiators between luxury ship cruising and mass-market cruising is the number and quality of celebrity and expert speakers. The nice part about being on a smaller ship is that you tend to run into these fascinating people around the ship.

A few years ago, I attended a corporate event, and the guest speaker was Chris Hadfield, who we now recognize as a celebrity – the singing, social media-ing former commander of the International Space Station. Besides giving a compelling series of lectures about his experience in the military and the space program, he generally made himself available to those of us in attendance for informal casual conversations.

I not only got the benefit of Chris Hadfield’s enriching talks, but also a real sense of the man himself. It was truly a memorable experience both in terms of learning, and a great vacation.

If a similar experience is of interest to you, most of the luxury lines have an impressive roster of destination experts and guest lecturers. Some you would recognize, while others have less star appeal… but just as much to offer in terms of learning and enrichment.

Scientists, former politicians, diplomats, athletes, business personalities and artists are all accessible to stimulate your curiosity.

Browse through Silversea’s enrichment programs and you’ll see what I mean:  http://www.silversea.com/onboard/enrichment/

Similarly, river cruise lines often have ‘themed’ voyages, where you can experience your destination from the perspective that interests you most, in the company of others who share you passion.

Examples of special interest cruises include:

• Art & Impressionist Cruises
• Beer Tasting Cruises
• Culinary Cruises
• Festive Time Cruises (e.g. Christmas markets)
• Golf Cruises
• History Cruises
• Jewish Heritage Cruises
• Music Cruises
• Wellness Cruises
• Wine Appreciation Cruises

The opportunities for learning while travelling are unlimited!

Planning a Cruise?  I’d love to help!  Click here to get in touch today.

I look forward to hearing from you!

Sue Bradley

The difference between mass-market and luxury cruising is probably more pronounced in Alaska than any other market. This is not to say that the mass-market lines do a bad job in Alaska, but the contrast between those and the luxury lines is quite stark.

The big mass-market players in Alaska are Princess and Holland America. Princess’s ships are all over 100,000 tons are carry more than 2500 passengers, and as such have a hard time making it to anywhere other than the three stock ports of call: Juneau, Skagway, and Ketchican. HAL has slightly smaller ships, but with a few exceptions, are mostly restricted to the standard ports of call as well.

Take Skagway as an example – this small town has only 800 permanent residents, with a bit of extra infrastructure because the cruise ship industry is such a huge part of their economy. However, if you haven’t been there before, you can only imagine what happens when a town of 800 welcomes 10,000 or more passengers who are disgorged from three or four ships on the same day!

The experience is a lot like Disneyworld at spring break, except with mountains and glaciers.

Contrast that experience with what you’ll get on a luxury line, like Crystal, Silversea, Regent Seven Seas, or Seabourn; or on an adventure-style line like Un-Cruise or Lindblad.

On a smaller ship, you’ll be visiting ports along with a few hundred other passengers as opposed to a few thousand.

Second – smaller ships are able to reach smaller, more interesting ports. If you’ve already seen Juneau, Skagway, and Ketchikan, it might be time to check out Icy Strait (Hoonah), Sitka, Prince Rupert, Kodiak, Dutch Harbor, or Nome.

The scenery anywhere in Alaska and British Columbia is spectacular, but what you often miss on the big ships is the art, culture, and people of the ports. You will be surprised how many of the people working in the shops in Ketchikan are actually university students from Washington State! In the smaller ports of call, you are much more likely to actually meet a local, or to connect with indigenous peoples.

Further, the small ships purposely time their schedules so they are not at a port of call when there is even ONE other ship, much less three or four.

So if you’ve cruised to Alaska previously, and been left thinking, “Wow, what spectacular scenery… but now I know what it looks like to the local cattle herds”, you might want to give Alaska another try on a smaller ship – it’s guaranteed to be a different experience.

Planning a Cruise?  I’d love to help!  Click here to get in touch today.