If you have never seen the Aura music and light show inside this cathedral it is definitely a must see. However, Even during a normal daytime visit the lighting provides an amazing scene. Just check our photos from our visit last month. Montreal was the final stop on our Canada New England fall color cruise. We had great time and highly recommend this itinerary. More photos coming soon!
First up is the Wines of Western Europe which includes Bordeaux (France), Basque (Spain) and Portugal. Our group will be sailing aboard the luxurious Azamara Journey. Azamara Club Cruises is at the crossroads of where luxury and destination immersive cruising meet. This ship only holds 694 passengers and has a wonderful mix of amenities. She’s a perfect-sized vessel: small enough that it’s never too far from one place to another, yet large enough to provide variety on long itineraries. On our trip we will experience late evening and overnight port stays. The Journey was completely refurbished in 2016 – it received new spa suites in the fully renovated Sanctum spa with updated decor in marble, light wood and a cream palate. Every suite and stateroom has new beds with the same decor scheme, and the restaurants also received a modern upgrade.
Our 12 Night GetAway begins in Southampton England on September 4 and ends in Lisbon Portugal on September 16. Along the way you will experience the worlds foremost wine region in Bordeaux, spend a day at the Guggenheim museum in Bilbao, wash Tapas down with Rioja wine, and sip port in the Douro Valley – and so much more. You can find more details at our website. We hope you can join us.
Our second European Group GetAway for 2017 is in December. Why December? Christmas Markets! Come with us and celebrate the season as we cruise along the Danube aboard the Uniworld SS Maria Theresa. We last visited Christmas markets in 2014 and everyone had such a great time that we knew we’d definitely do it again.
If you’re tired of commercialism taking over the holidays, you will be very pleased with the traditions and romance of real Christmas markets where the gifts are not mass-produced but craftwork of real quality. Our group will begin in Budapest and sail along the Danube while visiting Hungary, Slovakia, Austria and Germany. Every stop along the way will feature special Christmas Market excursions. You can find more details on the itinerary at our website.
Every Uniworld ship is as unique as it’s itinerary and the SS Maria Theresa is no exception. It’s opulent 18th century décor is a floating homage to one of the Habsburg empires most beloved ruler. The food, drink and service on Uniworld are absolutely outstanding – and everything is included! Call now as there are limited time promotions where even the air is included!
Six months ago you booked a special family vacation at an all-inclusive resort in the Caribbean. You love to travel and fully understand what a special time this will be – so much so, that you enlisted other family members to go with on the trip. Mom and Dad, Brothers, sisters – everyone was excited.
Did you know that 3 days before you departed on your much-anticipated family vacation, the resort determined they were oversold. Did you know your name was added to a list of people who were moving to one of their sister properties an additional hour drive away from the airport.
Did you also know that they were only moving some of your family? Some of you would stay at the original property and others would stay at the sister property.
Did you know this?
Of course you didn’t know. You use a travel agent. In fact, you have a great travel agent that works diligently on your behalf. An agent that solves problems before you ever even know about them. GetAway Travel LLC – solving problems that their clients didn’t even know they had since 1999.
At GetAway Travel, we pride ourselves on great professional service to our customers. Travel industry surveys continue to relate that travelers that work with travel agents have more fulfilling vacations than those that do not. We certainly believe it is true, and obviously so do our clients. Our clients expect to be treated like friends and family. They are confident in our abilities. They do not expect to be “sold” on travel as we already know they want an amazing vacation, what they want is our opinions, our help and our support. One of the ways we support them is by maintaining professional agency affiliations. The affiliation that we are always most excited about is with MAST Travel Network – and unless you are in the industry, you likely have never heard of them. We’ve been MAST members for many years now, and in fact Sue currently is serving a term on the board of directors. MAST helps keep us up to date on the travel industry and products, but more importantly puts us face to face with suppliers.
This week was the 12th annual MAST awards night and GetAway Travel came home with 2 awards which bring us great pride. The first award is for “Best Travel Show”, for our “Afternoon in Italy” event last February. The second award is the “Directors Achievement Award”, recognizing one of MAST’s smaller agencies for outstanding sales and support with highest percentage increases from one year to the next. This was a new category and we are truly blessed with being the first agency to ever receive this award.
You should expect great things from your travel agency, and we hope that for you that the travel agency you rely on first and foremost for amazing vacations is us.
European vacations continue to hold great value. The US Dollar remains at historic low levels vs. the Euro. This is good news for travelers to Europe as you definitely get more bang for your buck. Our best advice for Europe is to plan ahead – this is not a destination that typically rewards the last-minute traveler. The best way to start planning your European vacation is to schedule a consultation with Sue.
River Cruising continues to grow and for very good reasons. Our clients absolutely love to take River Cruises. All it takes is to try it once and you will rave about it forever. Be aware however that not all river cruise companies are equal. You can research endlessly on your own, or you can call us to discuss. Our goal is to find out about what you want to do, how adventurous you are, what you like and what you don’t like. What are your travel dreams? Our recommendations are simply based on you and your needs, that’s it.
All Inclusive vacations will remain hot, hot, hot. The industry continues to upgrade old properties and build new ones. There are All-Inclusives for all tastes and budgets. Well we know you want a warm weather, beach destination, but are you looking for a romantic escape or a family/multi-generational getaway? Do you want basic dining choices or a more gourmet experience? How does a canopy covered bed and open air shower sound? Or a private plunge pool within mere steps of your suite? The choices go on and on. We can help narrow it down to something you will love.
According to the experts, air ticket prices are down but add-on fees are up. The simple fact, is you need air tickets to get to many vacation destinations. They are the transportation, not the vacation.
Cheap will remain, well….cheap. While the dictionary defines cheap as inexpensive, it also defines it as something of poor quality or shoddy. Continue to be cautious about anything advertised as cheap, supercheap, ultracheap, etc. A fantastically cheap vacation is not a good value if it is actually craptastic (this is our official industry word for cheap vacations!). Everyone wants good value and that’s where we help – get the best value for your money that actually gets the vacation experience you are looking for. Will it be cheap? We certainly hope not.
The best things in travel continue to come to those who plan ahead. For example, how about planning 2017? You may not be ready yet, but we are. We have 2 special group options worth considering.
Join us in January 2017 for our GetAway on the Getaway. We will do all the following: go down the highest water slides at sea, attend award-winning Broadway shows, experience Iron Chef dining, walk the plank and be endlessly entertained and pampered. Book now and choose between Free unlimited drinks, Free Specialty Dining, Free Shore Excursions or Free WiFi.
In September 2017 we will be hosting a very special Wines of Western Europe group on the Azamara Journey. Beginning in England, we will sail to France, Spain and Portugal. Azamara specializes in unique itineraries that include overnight stays in many ports. Our group will be in Bordeaux, one of the world’s foremost wine regions for 3 days. But that is not the only World Heritage region we will visit – see our web page for all the details.
GetAway Travel wishes you a Safe and Happy New Year!
We just located this video in our archives (thought it was either lost for all time, or perhaps Paul forgot to push record on the camera!) These dogs work hard, and love their jobs. So do we! Please let us know if we can help plan your travels in 2015.
Paul & Sue – GetAway Travel LLC
For example, it seems that every single Google app we use always seems to be in beta version. Not a bad thing as one can assume it will (hopefully) keep getting better and better.
Such is the case with our GetAway Travel Pinterest pages. Always room for improvement, but it is actually starting to look better. We have a wealth of great photos from our trips that we love to share to help inspire our clients. Eventually we will get more photos posted, but there is only so much time in the day – and – planning great vacations for you will always come first. For now, please enjoy and let us know what you would like to see more of.
On our “Places We Love” board, we’re messing around with the new Pinterest feature that shows on a map where all the pins are located.
We do have other passions besides travel!
Here is a very small fraction (so far) of wineries we have visited
and of course our Wheaten friends
We love our clients and work very hard to make sure all of their travel dreams come true.
As the majority of our business is from word of mouth referrals, it’s always great to get feedback to see how they enjoyed their vacations.
Here is some of our most recent feedback:
“GetAway Travel Service is the company that we used for our recent trip to France and Italy. They spent a lot of time with us to help us decide where we wanted to go and what we wanted to see. They took care of all of the details and provided all of the information we needed to avoid stress when we were there. Everything went flawlessly. I highly recommend Sue Adams and Paul Adams at GetAway. Consider using them for your next trip!”
These clients took an amazing river cruise in France and then while they were already in Europe, we sent them on a luxury tour of Italy (Venice, Rome, Florence).
“We booked our 25th anniversary trip with them this summer. When the plans changed (beyond our control) just 5 days before our trip, Paul and Sue booked us an entirely new trip and took the stress away! We are already booked with them next year.”
These clients had booked a Celebrity Galapagos cruise over 1 year in advance. Literally days before departure, the cruise was cancelled (very rare circumstances). We quickly scrambled and sent them on a dream cruise to Alaska. We worked with the cruise lines to get them an upgrade on their Alaska cruise stateroom, and got full refunds on their air and cruise for Galapagos. They have already rebooked their Galapagos cruise for next year.
Is there anything we can do to help you make your vacation dreams come true?
Experience the difference that smart dedicated travel agents can make in your next vacation.
