10 Essential Questions to Ask Before Booking Your Next Vacation

It seems every adventure travel company promises the best guides, the best food, the best service, but do they provide a safety net for the unexpected? Here are a few suggested questions from Jim Sano, president of Geographic Expeditions, to ask to help make sure your backside is covered.

1. Do you provide around-the-clock logistical and air support services? (this is especially important in the event of cancelled, delayed or changed flights?)

2. Do you include medical evacuation, expense, and assistance coverage, with access to a board certified emergency physician?

3. What assurances do you provide to protect my travel investment?

4. Do you accept major credit cards?

5.  Are my deposits and payments placed in a U.S.-based financial institution or an offshore entity? 

6. How will you protect me from currency rate fluctuations? (Some international currencies have fluctuated by as much as 40% over the past 12 months) How to do mitigate the fuel surcharge risk?

7. What are your payment/cancellation terms and conditions? What are your cancellation policies in the event of a U.S. State Department, Centers for Disease Control, or World Health Organization travel warning?

8. Do you offer optional trip cancellation/interruption insurance, including cancel for work reasons?

9. Does your company participate in a U.S.-based seller of travel/consumer protection program?

10. Does your company possess current liability insurance with an A-rated company?

Source: Choosing the Right Adventure Travel Company; Canadian Mountain Holidays, The Adventure Blog.

A 5-Star Resource for Luxury Travel Ideas: The Kiwi Collection

courtesy of the Kiwi Collection

Do your 2010 resolutions include…

Dancing the nights away in Paris?

A romantic island getaway?

Sampling the best wines in Australia?

Dining al fresco in Italy?

A safari in South Africa?

Skiing the slopes of Switzerland?

Seeing the sights of New York City?

Finding a place perfectly suited to your dreams just got easier. An interactive guide to the best luxury hotels, resorts, spas and destination experiences on the planet, the Kiwi Collection* is a 5-star resource for planning your next trip-of-a-lifetime.

Learn more: www.kiwicollection.com

*sponsored listing. 

TravelDragon.com: A powerful new search engine for a world of unique travel experiences

What’s your dream trip? Find it at TravelDragon.com

What’s TravelDragon? It’s travel specialist Kathy Dragon’s rolodex of the best in the biz. Insider information on where to go, what to do, and who can help you experience it better, that’s what it is. It’s all my favorite travel companies, and a few new ones, wrapped up in one user-friendly search engine. Thank you, Kathy!

Curating a searchable portfolio of unique tours, excursions, and accommodations by exceptional travel providers from around the world, TravelDragon.com enables you filter you choices by comfort level, exertion level, price, group size, green commitment and more.

“I’ve been traipsing around the world designing and leading tours, living and working around the world, meeting with guides and exploring hotels, restaurants, routes and companies for decades. Friends and friends of friends are always interested in the best recommendations around the world,” says Dragon. “TravelDragon is designed to further that network of travelers you trust and help you to find the types of trips to the destinations you are looking for with all the information you need to narrow your decision.”

What TravelDragon has done is handpick a collection of the highest quality tour operators, properties and associations worldwide who offer experiential travel opportunities. Whether they specialize in adventure, culinary, family, volunteer or nature travel they are experts in connecting you with a destination in an authentic and intimate way.

Click to read more ...

Why National Parks are "America's Best Idea"

Explore North America with Abercrombie & Kent

What began fifty years ago on a family road trip to national parks across the country led to a lifelong fascination for writer Dayton Duncan, resulting in “The National Parks: America’s Best Idea,” a six-part, 12-hour documentary by Ken Burns, which begins airing on PBS stations September 27. Filmed in some of nature’s most spectacular locales, the series is sure to inspire other families to visit all 58 U.S. national parks. Abercrombie & Kent celebrates these national treasures with new itineraries in North America for 2010, featuring several of the national parks showcased in the series including Denali National Park in Alaska and Glacier National Park, where “Going-to-the-Sun” Road is said to be “the most beautiful 50 miles in the world.” 

Alaska: A Backcountry Adventure – New for 2010
Glimpse Mount McKinley, North America’s highest peak, en route to your lodge in Denali National Park, home to large caribou, moose, wolves, Dall sheep and grizzly bear. Travel aboard the Alaska GoldStar Dome train to Talkeetna for a river canyon trip by jetboat. Visit the homestead of 4-Time Iditarod Champion, Martin Buser. Enjoy a scenic glacier cruise in Prince William Sound, keeping watch for glaciers calving and a variety of marine wildlife, including whales.

Click to read more ...