Planning Your Great Expeditions Travel Adventure

Whether you have just a few short days, or that special longer trip you’ve planned years for, take a few minutes to think about your goals for this vacation. A few guidelines are not only very helpful in making sure your next adventure meets and exceeds your expectations, but is essential for us to best assist with your next vacation of a lifetime

1. Destination:
Do you have a specific destination in mind?
If so, have you been there before?
If the answer to this yes, then ask yourself what you liked and what you did not like about your previous experience. Are you looking for new experiences or a repeat of your previous ones?
If no and this is a new destination, ask yourself what sorts of pre-conceived ideas to you have? Have your friends been there and told you about it? Did you read a magazine article? Is it a destination you’ve wanted to travel since you were a kid? Are there specific areas or activities you want to see or do?

These "pre-conceptual" ideas play a very important role in how your actual vacation will compare to your planned vacation. With this information, we can ensure, as best as possible, you see and do what you want. Alternatively, we may recommend you into a different destination that will better suit your pre-conceived ideas.

2. Activity / Focus For Vacation:
Is the primary reason for your travel for a specific activity such as:
Scuba diving the Great Barrier Reef?
Trekking the Milford Track?
Sitting on a beach?
Interactive native culture?
Bird watching or animal viewing?
A little of everything?
Nothing at all?
How important are these activities in your overall itinerary?

Be realistic as to your actual abilities and interests and prioritize the importance of these activities in relation to your overall itinerary. This information will often determine much of the finer details of a given itinerary, or perhaps be the focal point around which everything will be planned.

3. Time Frame:
When do you plan to travel?
Is this a general time frame or specific dates?
How long do you have for your trip?
Is this flexible and if so how much?
Have you researched or thought about your travel dates in light of:
Is this the best time of year for that destination?
Is it the best time of year for a specific activity you plan to do?
Do you have enough time to travel to your destination of choice?

4. Personal Style:
What types of properties do you prefer?
Fine hotels?
Boutique or unique?
B&B?
Just a clean basic bed to spend the night?
Do you prefer to arrive and plan everything once there?
Or do you prefer a fully escorted trip?
Is a given experience worth some logistic hardships?
Do you need your hotel to be right on the beach?

This information is really what helps us get a feel for what you want from your trip and is essential in our ability to truly customize your itinerary to suit you. It is often information that is difficult to convey on email, thus we encourage you to call and conference with one of our travel planners to discuss your trip "in person" so to speak. By talking with you we can get to know you a bit and that is what our travel services are all about!

Feel free to use our toll free number 1-888-SNORKEL.

5. Budget:
What is your budget (per person basis)?
Is this flexible?
What do you expect that budget to include?
Airfare?
Accommodation?
Meals?
Activities?

If you are not sure what your proposed trip might cost, that is understandable, but a rough idea is still important. The question is not asked so as to make your trip cost as much as possible, but more to have a realistic idea of what you can afford. This is probably the single most important piece of information you can provide as many itineraries / destinations can be done on different levels according to your style. However the other component to that is your budget and no sense putting forth an itinerary that is not affordable. Likewise, we would not want to omit a great experience on your trip of a lifetime because it is expensive. Remember, a budget is subjective. What some may consider expensive is average to others.

6. Traveling Companions:
Have you taken their interests, abilities and style into consideration?
Who are you traveling with?
Are their children? Ages?

7. Pre-Booking Your Trip:
How far in advance should you plan?
What deposits will be required?
Trip Insurance?

If you are planning on traveling over holidays or during peak seasons, then you will need to pre-book well in advance of your travel dates. Other factors such as booking remote areas that have limited access and / or have limited capacity, such as that Fijian resort with only one honeymoon bure, again needs to be booked well in advance. Waiting too long to plan your trip may result in properties being unavailable thus you have to consider alternate properties or alternate dates. Additionally waiting too long can cause higher prices as least expensive air seats are not available, or advance purchase conditions are not met. For last minute travel plans, there may also be a late booking fee to cover additional costs incurred to expedite payments and travel documents.

Under normal booking situations, usually a 25%-50% deposit is initially required upon confirmation of your reservations and final balance of your trip due 45-60 days prior to your departure. Deposits and final payments are usually non-refundable and to protect you against cancellation and other travel hazards, we do recommend trip insurance, however, the purchase of trip insurance is optional. We provide information on a program offered through Access America, but you are welcome to purchase other programs.

8. Required Paperwork:
Many of the destinations in which we specialize require US citizens to have a valid passport. Some require an entry visa as well. Others just require proof of citizenship. Proper proof of citizenship usually includes an original birth certificate, along with a current government issued photo ID, such as a driver’s license. While we try to have updated, current information on the destinations of your vacation, it is your responsibility as a traveler to know and have the proper paperwork prior to departure.

9. Destination and Pre-Trip Information:
General information can be found for each destination on our website. While Great Expeditions strives to provide accurate, current information about travel logistics within each country, please refer to official government websites such as http://www.cdc.gov/travel/ and http://travel.state.gov/ government travel advisory for current political and medical advisories.