Travel: A True Gift

This month's post is brought to you by one of H&K Luxury Travel's travel consultants, Amber Dixon.  She is a great resource for family vacation planning and we are proud to have her as a guest writer for our blog.  Enjoy her insights and tips.

As a parent it is so easy to get caught up in the day to day grind of school, homework, activities, cooking and laundry – not to mention making sure you are raising your children to be decent, productive human beings.

One of the greatest gifts I have been able to give myself and my children has been one on one travel. I was recently in New York City with my middle son, Thomas, and it was the best trip ever. Just the two of us – no siblings, no spouse, just us. We were able to focus on the things that Thomas likes to do, move about the city more quickly than if we had more people in tow, and he had my undivided attention. But the greatest part of traveling one on one with one of your children is that you learn things about them that you didn’t know before – like the simple fact that Thomas likes kid shows that aren’t animation and wanted to see the new Beauty and the Beast movie.

Traveling with kids – no matter how many – always brings unique challenges and you can make the most of your vacation by making some simple choices and thinking ahead.

1.  Choose Your Flight Times Wisely
Do as I say, not as I do. We live a couple of hours away from the closest large airport so when we travel as a family we generally pick a late morning/early afternoon flight so that we don’t have to wake up and get everyone ready at the break of dawn. I chose an early morning flight for our one on one trip to New York City which required us to leave our house before 6 am. That was a mistake. Thomas was tired by the time we got to New York City and we spent most of the first day just hanging out and had an early bed time. A later flight would have allowed us to sleep later and be more adventurous our first day in the city.

2.  Let Your Kids Do Weird Things
Thomas loves pigeons. When we were in Washington Square Park there was a man who was feeding and holding pigeons. Now, this is not normally something I would encourage my children to do because it seems ridiculously dirty.  But I could tell Thomas really, really wanted to hold and feed a pigeon as he stared longingly as some other kids joined in. So I handed him a few dollars to donate for the bird seed and he had the absolute time of his life with those pigeons!

3.  Consider Your Kids Interest
Maybe the most important thing to consider when traveling with kids is what they are interested in. No matter where you travel if your days are full of only things that interest you as the parent then your kids behavior is going to be less than ideal. Thomas loves candy so we made several stops at candy stores, including Dylan’s Candy Bar. We also took into consideration that Thomas loves dance, drums and was interested in seeing the One World Observatory when planning our days. We also chose to see STOMP off-Broadway and Thomas belly laughed throughout the show because it fit his taste in entertainment and humor perfectly.

4.  Be Flexible
When traveling with kids even the best plans need to be tweaked. One of the things we wanted to do was eat at the Cookie Do restaurant that has recently become a viral sensation. But, due to the weather (it was cold and rainy) I knew that no one would be happy to wait in the two hour line. We also spent more time than I would have preferred playing in Central Park but at the end of our trip that was exactly what Thomas needed to do before traveling home.

So take your kids to explore new places! It is one of the most precious gifts you can give your children and yourself.

Not a Good Fit

NOT A GOOD FIT

A big mistake that almost every small business person makes starting out is thinking that every possible client is a great client and good fit for their business.  I made those same mistakes and have made them even recently.  But with the exciting changes coming to my agency, I have had to really put into practice the truth that not every possible client is a good fit for me or my agents.  It will help you, our valued-clients as well as anyone reading this post, to know what is NOT a good fit for us when it comes to those you might want to refer.  Here are some characteristics that some have that make them NOT a good fit for what we do:

1) They are checking multiple online sites and want someone only to match or beat the prices they are finding.  There is always someone out there wanting to beat someone's price and we are not in the pricing-war game.

2) They don't value our expertise or our personal service.  This really goes with the first one.  Someone just wanting the "lowest possible price" usually does not attach value to a professional's knowledge and personal experience.

3) They expect us to give them freebies in order for them to work with us.  We are not here to win someone's loyalty by throwing gifts at them.  We have bills to pay just like our clients do and this is our livelihood as well as our profession.

4) They expect us to reply to texts, phone calls and emails well after what some consider to be normal business hours.  While we are always accessible for our clients who are traveling, we do have lives just like everyone else does and we need our time with family as much as anyone does.  We may choose to work after hours, but that is our choice and clients cannot expect us to be watching our phones for questions at 9pm on a Friday night, for example.

5) They just don't want to listen.  There are clients out there who refuse to take any advice we give when it comes to flights, resort or hotel reputations, etc and then come back and complain about the very things we tried to warn them about.

If you are reading these and thinking...but I thought travel agents always guaranteed the best price... you have been misled.  What we do is provide the best vacation value.  Lowest price does not equate to best value.  Our expertise and skill allow us to provide each client with the best overall vacation which could include the best possible flight times/connections, the most favorable room location at their resort, the most memorable tours/excursions etc.  We guide our clients on how to navigate customs, we offer insider information when it comes to restaurants and sites to see and our custom itineraries may never be the lowest priced option.

So, if you find yourself in one of the areas listed above, then you are probably not a good fit for us and we would be glad to refer you to a website that would be willing to work with you. But if you do value professional service and expertise and want the best overall value from your dream vacation/adventure, then we would be thrilled to consider you our client and we would be honored to become your travel consultants for life.