EA Radio Travel Podcast

EA Radio Episode # 16 - Get To Know Your Friendly Neighborhood Travel Planner

Scott Stein, the owner of and travel planner for Extraordinary Adventures (https://www.myextraordinaryadventures.com/travel-podcast.html), shares 15 things you may or may not have known about him, all so you can get to know your friendly neighborhood travel planner a little better.
Music: www.bensound.com
(The show transcript is being provided by YouTube's automatic transcriber. Please forgive any inaccuracies or errors.)
hey everybody and welcome to the 16th episode of EA radio I'm Scott from extraordinary adventures and this week I thought we'd have a little bit of fun get to know your friendly neighborhood travel planner yes it's me one of the things that I firmly believe in is is having a more personal relationship with my service providers my product people I don't feel like you can put your faith in something so personal as a travel plan in someone that you don't really know in somebody that is distant or anonymous or like an online travel agency not to knock the them Expedia and Orbitz and all these things but you know that's very transactional so if you're gonna be in a position like mine you're in a very personal business and I feel like I would want to get to know my travel planner I would want to like make sure that he was in my corner understood my needs and I think the best way to do that is to once in a while be a little silly be a little quote/unquote unprofessional and share some stuff about yourself I think this whole idea from 30 40 50 years ago professionalism I think it's gone out the window in this day of social media instant access access to everything you have to stand out in some way and the weight that I think the best way to stand out is to be incredibly genuine to be transparent honest connect with your folks and that's something I do you'll see if you're not yet a client my clients already can attest to this I become Facebook friends with you I give you access to me I give up I like access to you I like to see what you're up to I like for you to see what I'm up to next week if you have a question 11 o'clock at night if I'm sitting there you know watching TV or whatever usually I'll answer your question 11 o'clock at night I don't I don't have those hard and fast 9 to 5 monday-friday hours you know I respect your privacy in your time and you respect mine and that's it I mean it's a it's a great relationship but I think you only get that through creating rapport so I thought today would be fun to again tell you things that help you to get you to know your friend neighborhood travel planner that's me so 15 things you may or may not know about me let's get started first one I think everybody knows this one but the single most important thing in my life is my wife Laura we've been together I was 18 she was 17 that was 26 years ago so you do the math figure out our ages we were babies I mean truly really really young we we went to different high schools on the mound met each other it was called cruising Hempstead Turnpike side of the road parking lot a bunch of kids would hang out and and meet people and date and whatever and that's how we met it was a great it was great first month she was supposed to leave to go to Indiana and we just fell in love and have been love ever since she came right back one month later and said I'm not leaving him and her father was upset and her mother was upset and everybody's everybody was upset but you know we clearly showed them prove them wrong because you know our wedding song is just still the one by chennai 20 because she's still the one and i'm happy to say that we are have beaten the odds of divorce in this country i think it's again because a my my philosophy our philosophy of the way we connect with people being genuine having open communication and transparency the same thing I do with my clients we do with each other so I think that is made for a really really open honest environment that has allowed for the flourishing of two people who be worse with children and grew up and do adults and did alongside each other and those I think a very powerful thing for us the numbers number two things you may or may not know about me I'm a big dog guy had Shepherds a lot as a kid and I've had labs as an adult I think dogs are so important in human lives I think that they add something that I mean cats are sweet and nice and bunnies are sweet and nice and and I had all the pets that you love your whatever dogs and there's a lot of science to you back this up there's a connection between human and dog and I couldn't imagine my life without my dogs I've had dogs since I was a baby since I before I was born my parents had dolly then we had buster then we got Chrissie then we had Tara then we got Spanky and Spanky died right around the time when I was leaving my house my wife and I got our first dog together that was Sammy we got him a brother that was Rex and they both passed on we got two new boys Albert and Brody many of you may know Albert he comes up a lot in my post and now we have how can any to add to the list many of you probably seen pictures of them as well and posted them as well we like to take them places and I tagged them and things because they have their own Facebook page of course me what dog doesn't um so that's that's my dogs the other thing you might not know about us is that Laura and I are bikers not bicyclists but bikers we both owned harley-davidson motorcycles we've had him four or five six years now we do all the biker type stuff go to events and go to the Biketoberfest Bike Week out in Daytona yeah we live the biker lifestyle it's you know that typical I wouldn't call it midlife crisis because I've wanted it a bike since I was a child that was a very small boy in Queens and queens new york and my cousin I forget his name somebody literally drove his motorcycle right into the living room and I was like okay that's for me and I knew that since I was small single digits and it took me like 40 well 30-something years to to finally get around to getting one so I've been a biker too hard my whole life and then my wife got on back and for several months and said okay that's for the birds and got her own she I've never dreamed about being a bike a biker but loves it loves a lifestyle likes hanging out likes riding so it's it's it's a little fun fact about us that many people don't know here's a fun fact that is gonna maybe strike you as odd I went to college telling everyone else undergrad Hofstra knew Hofstra University and then somewhere along the way decided I wanted to be a chiropractor and like kids do my wife and I kind of decided this together and we both jumped in we went down to life University Atlanta Georgia will place called Marietta right outside of Atlanta and we went to school become doctors she finished like 75 80 percent of the program I finished like 99% of the program the only thing I had left to do with some clinic work and three other board exams I had already done one so I was literally at the finish line and decided to stop and that's a whole nother story someday you can maybe ask me in person we'll talk about that but it wasn't for me long story short it wasn't for me so we bailed out of that and that was kind of when we got into the restaurant industry which I guess now is a good segue I'll skip number five and jump to number six and then come back to number five which of course you don't know the order so I didn't have to just say any of that so yeah after that we didn't know what to do kind of fly on it a little bit and just got jobs we were 24 25 years old but it led into a career my wife and I both became bartenders and servers and got into management and did the whole nine yards and at some point we actually even opened our own bakery cafe we had our own restaurant right here in dr. Philips turkey bacon sailing Sand Lake Road near the Whole Foods we were there for about four years loved it it was great it was fabulous the critics loved us we it was New York style pastries and bagels and some sandwiches and stuff but after doing it for like I said three or four years realized that too was not for us did teach us a lot about running a business taught us that we loved running a business but we'll taught us that we didn't want to work 16 hours a day seven days a week and then we needed to find something that we could take our passion and take our connect you know our desire to connect with people and be involved with people and do something with it differently so we closed that down went back to what we knew bartending she and I both worked and she still does work at Disney she was a fine-dining server and he's a fine-dining server and I was a bartender a high-volume bartender at Downtown Disney we did very very well and that gave us the ability to travel because it gave us a lot of time off throughout the year and it we made pretty good money for for those jobs you gotta remember Disney so its high volume and it's high ticket prices so that's when our love of travel started you know several years ago probably more than several at this point there's been a while we started with cruises and then we English and Germany and Mexican like we went everywhere and we just loved it and that's kind of obviously a foreshadow into what we now do for a living but that's that's that was that owned the cafe became bartender I have to have the chiropractic school and then somewhere along the way we were gonna head to Germany and I decided I wanted to learn German so that's fact number seven that you may or may not know about me is I eat reckon I'm beaten budge I mean I speak a little German I've been studying for years and I still sound like an idiot to myself I don't know I really just need to go live there for a few months and get immersed and sound better but it's a very very hard language but no excuses I also like yo hablo poquito espanol tambien I speak a little more Spanish I think I'm more comfortable in Spanish than I am in German but I think I know more German than I knew Spanish I just came up learning Spanish and so it's more comfortable for me so that's that's a little fact here's a quick one favorite band my favourite band has always been to bands since I'm 12 13 years old they toads been between Metallica yes I'm a bit of a hard rocker guy and Led Zeppelin little bit softer rocker but those two bands back and forth you know throughout the years I'll swear one way or the other those have been the two bands for me for 30 years that have been my nothing's toppled the two of them my favorite book ever if you haven't heard about it it's called Atlas Shrugged by Ayn Rand there was a survey done years ago influential people New York was the New York Library of Congress and somebody else got together did the survey these influential people like senators business owner like these people right and they said hey what's the most influential book ever and of course top the list was the Bible you think influential good bad different influential the Bible clearly the number-two book that made the list was Atlas Shrugged I said okay I got to read this book and it really was a great book it's a life-changing book it changes the way you think about things and I highly recommend it favorite movie my favorite movie like my favorite band is is to but it's really one of the same it they got father sound cliche but it is Godfather one and two I don't even recognize the existence of number three Godfather one and two are absolutely my favorite I go back and forth as to which one is my favorite I probably lean towards - I loved Michael in that what does new mapache knowing that Michael Corleone was so psychopathic and evil and amazing that it's like oh my god but um it was great it was great movie in the boost world I'm a big scotch guy single malt and I'm a big beer person and I don't mean just pounded Bud Lights although I would my refrigerators full of odd lights no I'm Laura and I are both a bit of a beer snob household she likes her IPAs and I like my mom or multi forward beers like the Germans or the English so that's that's our beer Sidon she's a big wine person she was studying to become a sommelier I don't know if she's still doing that or not she may she may pick it up again in the future but she really loves her wine and then she's a gym person so so we like going over to England Ireland Scotland because inland and Scott are very much known for their gin obviously Scotland is where Scotch is from so that's a big a big thing for me I love that favorite food favorite food is gonna have to be even though I grew up in New York which is basically Jewish and Italian somewhere along the line my favorite food became Mexican food obviously I like kosher delis and I like Italian food and I like New York Chinese and I like hotdogs I like all the New York foods I like I like it all but Mexican by far is my favorite is my favorite food okay you're not supposed to my posture don't ever talk about religion or politics well I'm not gonna talk about religion but I will talk quickly about politics I am a libertarian that's as quick as I'm gonna say I'm not a Republican I'm a Democrat I'm a I'm a libertarian that's it now you got to know me so maybe you hate me or like me for that you know we're more connected now because you know where I stand politically here's an interesting fact for you how does a person who sells travel who sells travel planning who travels himself how does that person whose destination focus is Germany England Ireland Scotland as well as the rest of Europe has that person hate flying yep I'm in the camp of people who hate flying I absolutely we would love to just take the Kino art transatlantic over and then do my Europe thing and then take my transatlantic back if I could it's more about time than it is about money because those translations aren't really that expensive but you'd have to dedicate like a month of travel because it takes four five six seven days to get over there or if I think seven days to get back so you're dedicating you know ten days to two weeks just getting there and back so you have to fly and I hate there's a fact now I'm up to the 15th and final fact that you may or may not know about me and that is I am a cruise at it I would be on a cruise ship 26 weeks out of the year so yeah half the year if I could I'd be on a cruise ship Caribbean river cruise expedition cruise Alaska cruise you name it if I could be on a cruise ship I'd be a happy man I love cruising I think that I think that for two purposes one I think that he'd mystically I think there's just a really laid-back fun vacation go down the Caribbean jump on Royal in the region whoever whoever you like I just think it's a great value as well I mean everything's included it's and it's amazing but then there's the other side the flip side is the more philosophical side and the expedition and river clue cruises and the small ship cruises and the sailboat cruises they get you to ports that you could not get to with these big guys you got to remember the world grew up on the waterways whether that was ocean or earlier on rivers so where did all the great towns and cities spring up on coasts and on rivers so you can get to much of the places you want to get to via boat so I say why not if you don't know anything about river cruising you might be surprised to know that oftentimes you get dropped off right in the heart of a city so instead of going the airport then driving an hour to get to that city or using a cruise ship like a mess a mass-market one like royal or something like that where you then port and then you've got to take an hour to get into these cities these river boats go right into the heart you step off and you're in the action so and that to me I you can't be dead so between the hedonism and the connect connecting and then the immersion that I just I just love cruising I'm never gonna stop cruising so that's that alright so that's my 15 you heard by my wife and low my dogs I meant Harley and my chiropractic school and that we owned a bakery cafe and that I was a bartender and then I speak expect fine beach and bunch and then I like Metallica and Zeppelin Alice shook my favorite book Godfather one into my favorite movie booze scotch and beer a sketch of beer man I'm probably gonna go have a beer or soon as I get done recording this Mexican foods my favorite I'm a libertarian who hates flying but loves cruising so that's it so that's the show for today now you know a little bit about me email me back Scott at my extraordinary ventures calm tell me why you love the things I love more hate the things I hate you know hate the things I love and tell me what you love and hate I would love to hear about my audience I'd love to hear about my clients and that's that so I hope you enjoy the show for today definitely give me an email if you do I'll read your email on the air like we did last week with I think was George will Macon if I recall and you just say your your first name and where you're from and we'll read your email so until next time this is again Scott from extraordinary adventures I'm thanking you for tuning in and reminding you to please share this show on Facebook and Twitter remember we are now on iTunes and Google Play so it's very easy to just share the link it's it's EA Radio EA travel rates up you know I'll get you I'll get you you would think that I would know it's EA radio travelpod cast EA radio travelpod cast and you can find that on Google and iTunes okay so how professional was that that I don't even know the name my own thing alright guys now you got that you learned that about me as well that sometimes I don't know my own stuff alright until next time spread the word we'll catch you on the next episode of EA radio stay tuned ciao

EA Radio Episode # 15 - Fast Travel vs. Slow Travel

Scott Stein, the owner of and travel planner for Extraordinary Adventures (https://www.myextraordinaryadventures.com/travel-podcast.html), is joined by his lovely wife, Laura, to discuss the virtues and drawbacks of fast travel vs. slow travel.
Music: www.bensound.com
(The show transcript is being provided by YouTube's automatic transcriber. Please forgive any inaccuracies or errors.)
 [Applause] [Music] hello everybody this is scott again from extraordinary adventures EA radio welcome you today to the 15th episode and today's episode we're gonna kick off with a question we got from George down in Lakeland it was curious about he's going parents going out Ireland and Scotland then he's curious about how much time he should spend there so I said you know what this would be a really great opportunity to discuss fast travel versus slow travel first the definitions and second the examples and I said you know this is a topic that's not heavy in research I thought it'd be a great opportunity for our guest host to come back and and join us hi everyone okay well that's the show for today though much all right so fast travel versus slow travel really for me the definition I think boils down to unfortunately the American days-off whatever they call that vacation time schedule we all get X amount two three four weeks a year whatever we get but even if we get four weeks a year very often we can't take more than a week or two at one time so even if you include that with you know weekends with that maybe a holiday the most you're gonna get up to is eight nine ten days that to me is fast travel there's not a lot of places you can go you can go to one city you can go to Rome and maybe you know day trip out to a few spots in a week because remember ten days you got to spend the whole day flying and getting over there a whole day flying and coming back so that's now you're down to eight days Rome itself is gonna take you two or three days and you make three or four day trips that's your trip you can't see all of Italy in a week slow travel on the other hand is what Lauren I do when we go we try to go for 16 18 20 days at a time so now you're in the country for two weeks three weeks at a time now that's giving you some time so now you can hit multiple cities you know but you really still can't do too much but that's just the time definition best travel versus slow travel to me more is also a philosophical definition than just a time one and four for me the fast travel is those folks which I've done it Lauren I did it when we were in DC you know it was a checklist travel check seen it check seen it check seen it check seen it and you just move and you move and you move you going yeah I've seen it done it been there then there's slow travel where very often would slow travel you don't even know if you care if you've seen it and done it it's about immersing yourself in the authenticity and and the culture of your travel of your destination so a slow travel may look like you go to Dublin for a month for two months you literally are in one city for a month or two and you're checking out all the neighbourhoods you go into the different grocery stores and then you you in that case you usually will be getting an apartment or some kind of a timeshare thing you're not gonna get a hotel because you're gonna be there for a while and it's really about getting to know the people and people getting to know you if you're doing that let's say in more of a natural spot so not a city like like Dublin but let's say you go out to you know the Ring of Kerry and you're out there and you're with the people you know maybe you can't spend two months out there maybe that's just too much time so you have to define slow travel also by how much there is to see and do so that's fast travel versus slow travel in terms of definitions now the gentleman asked about George asked about Ireland versus versus our Ireland and Scotland so Laura give us some because we're researching this right now actually for a client give us some ideas of what George could consider for Ireland Scotland that would be maybe slow versus fast and help him decide I don't know if he's a retiree and he has plenty of time if he's only got a week let's talk about Ireland who's coming okay well the first thing really to take into account is travel time and that's something that a lot of people don't even figure in it takes time to check out of a hotel and then either get to the airport or take a train to their next destination and then check back into the net hotel before they're actually ready to go and start seeing the site so if someone says oh I have two days in Edinburgh well the reality is more like you're gonna have a day and a half or a day in two hours or three hours so that's not really two full days so you really have to take that into account when saying how many days do you need in a particular place I would recommend no fewer than two full days at any location preferably three you're sleeping for two nights for sure correct yes because otherwise you're living out of your luggage and you're just going from place to place to place now that's fast travel I mean when you're just spending one day one night and then you have to pick up and go to the next place the next day if you had any significant travel time between the two destinations you're literally just getting there to check into your hotel to go to sleep to get up and leave the next day which is kind of ridiculous so unless you're using unless you're using that as like a quote on a Waystation like as a midway point so for instance when we were driving up to Cheshire we stopped in number nine was it for one night and then we checked out the nice day but the Cotswolds isn't very heavy with sights distance things to do so we checked in did hung out in the town and the next day we got in the car to go see more of the Cotswolds because it's really really drawn you know long and drawn out it's not that something you're doing in one defined area so if you're passing through something you could potentially consider doing uh night but that's a very rare circumstance right right and then you know really the the biggest thing is to kind of take stock about what what it is that you want to see in a specific place you know kind of unfortunately do your homework before you get there unfortunately it is yes I'm I agree but sometimes you know people don't have the time well that's why they hire us but um you know so we would actually then telling you how many days we recommend in each location the other thing is beep brutally honest with yourself don't go somewhere and see something because the world tells you supposed to see it if you're been there done that and you've seen enough churches enough caches and enough museums and you just don't want to see it don't go see it don't see what you want to see go there for the reasons you want to go there right also you know another thing that people don't take into account is not only the travel time to get from point A to point B but let's you know say you want to do an excursion and you want to go kiss the Blarney Stone it takes time to get to the Blarney Stone and then once you get to the Blarney Stone you're not the only person in line to go and kiss the Blarney Stone there is a line so you think that the excursion might only take two hours but it might end up actually taking four hours and a lot of people also don't take into account the fact that they're gonna get hungry and they're gonna want to eat and can you go and grab a quick something you know and just standing up and scarf it down or do you want to have slow travel and sit and enjoy a nice meal but you have to remember dining standards in Europe are very different than dining standards in the United States their average dining experience takes two plus hours it's not a quick order it eat it give me the check and get out it could be 15 20 minutes for your server first shows it to your table there's a waiting do we have a server right so these are definitely things to take into account when you're planning your day it's not just what you want to see it's how long is it gonna take and maybe you have to go to the bathroom and it's you know where there's something that happens it's gonna take you gotta you need to build in buffers of time as all I'm trying to say so basically our rule of thumb is you when you finally figure out what it is you want to do in a place imagine at Mac's you're gonna do one or two of those things in a given day to max don't think you can clam cram in three or four or five things in a day because it's not going to happen you're gonna want to do is just like one if it's a big thing or two if they're smaller and that's it and then call it a day right I mean that's that's what's the what I'm looking for that's true for the major sites but that doesn't mean and what she's not saying here's she's not saying that you can't do things at the end of the day so for instance one of the things that we like to recommend when you're in England and which I would imagine this is across the boards for Scotland and Ireland and all that it's not necessarily as true for Germany but we did a phenomenal pub tour that started at six o'clock at night so now you can do the two things that Laura just told you to do and then at night you do a literary pub tour you go see where the poets are drinking their beers and doing their poetry so that now becomes a third thing but it's not quite what she's talking about you talking about seeing sights going the British Museum or whatever you're doing going to the London Tower or whatever but you can do those two major sites and you know few hours in the morning a few hours in the afternoon you got the two sites down and then at night you do what's considered like a third thing but it's more of a relaxed thing right exactly so and then of course not only she's talking a lot here about and this is kind of her brain versus mine she's talking about the plan the structure like she's that's like her thing in our company is that she really angles a lot of that making it all fit making the pieces fit for me though it's oh it's always been more about the content and the why I enjoy researching why you're going there what's to see what's to do if I was to go to Edinburgh it's considered a place you go for two or three days I could spend 10 days in Edinburgh each night there's a different pub to go to each day I went to see I for instance for me I know this about myself and as what I said about five minutes ago to you know yourself I know I'm a Roma file so anywhere there's a Roman artifact kind of thing I'm gonna linger there for like hours like looking at every my new show that's gonna take my time these these countries in Europe are layered I mean they are so layered they they have Stone Age history and on top of that they're gonna have you know medieval history they're gonna have modern-day history there's so much history so many layers of history they didn't in any given spot you could spend a lot of time and that's kind of how I like to do it I like to not necessarily been on vacation we get up by 7:00 7:30 we're kind of ready to go and eating our breakfast by like 9:00 to 10:00 o'clock we're ready for the day maybe a little bit later than some folks would like to do it but it's good enough for us and then that gives us 6 7 8 hours before things start closing for the day five six o'clock to just get out there and see stuff and then at night we like to slow down we like to go to the pub but we like to go to the beer garden we like to go and be with people but again we know that about ourselves and we know that it's going to take us a certain amount of time based on our history of travel if you haven't had a history of travel that makes it harder but that's why you use a travel planner who can kind of mind read you and help you plan for yourself right so another one is like we keep bringing up England Ireland Scotland and then Germany because as you may or may not know those are our major destination specialties we do a lot of Europe but we do you know all of Europe but those areas are our two specialties so we bring those up a lot speaking of Scotland you think oh I'm just gonna go to Scotland for a few days you have any idea how big Scotland is and you have any idea how sometimes there are roads at a 30 mile per hour roads you really think you're gonna do 90 miles an hour and fly there in a couple hours like you would do here in the States it's not gonna happen yeah sometimes there are one lane roads with two two directions of traffic and you can't pass each other so whoever Pat most recently passed a little shoulder has to back their car all the way up pull into that little bitch but the other guy passed and then you continue on in Ireland's got or not the easiest necessarily once you get out into the countryside to make fast time right yeah it's definitely a slow going thing plus you have a marked propensity to get lost as we did we were driving through a cornfield literally it was like a dirt like corn on either side we couldn't see the road we had no idea and we had no cell phone reception so we just like going until we got cell phone reception we were totally and thoroughly lost but it ended up being a really fun day yeah but we didn't get to see what we wanted to see that day and the other thing to know about the countries that you're going to the Italian the southern Italians are really known for this but the English Irish and Scottish should know for this to like to slow down kind of like Suthers in America versus us we're from New York they like to slow down talk get to know you you get to know them like they have all day all the time in the day and you're like I got to go see this and I got ever see that well part of the reason you're over there is to meet the people so you're up in Scotland you pull over and you see a guy in like you want directions you ain't getting directions at first you're getting his story he's getting your story I mean it's it's it's a very different way of traveling and if that's not for you you may want to stick to the cities but if you stick to the cities in Scotland and Ireland I can guarantee you you're missing Scotland I yeah and people are really friendly and you get to know them like when we got we got into a head-on car collision in England and a woman we were on a main road and this woman who lived a couple blocks she heard the car accident and she saw how shaken up I was she came to the main road to see me she invited me back to her house I was just sitting in her house chillin yeah waiting for the ambulance to get there but that would never happen it sticks at least where we grew up New York and Florida now plus it was really cool to see the way she lives yeah yeah so so yeah I think you're getting the idea that there's the checklist of travel where you're just Bam Bam Bam you're constantly living out your suitcase you're just you're just whiplash speeds and then there's another member I'll travel that you know I I understand that the American Way of doing with our vacation days dough isn't always conducive to it but that doesn't mean you can't do it let's say you do only out that week don't say I'm gonna take that week and I'm gonna go to Germany Italy Austria Switzerland and then oh well might as well stop in England on the way back that's insanity you're not gonna do that you have to get realistic and say okay I have a week I'm gonna basically be able to do one major city and the surrounding towns and that's it that's really all you can do so you know that I guess is pretty much our spiel for them unless you have something additional bad no no I hope we helped George yeah yeah so I guess you know give him a hard a harder number he wants to know about Ireland Scotland I would say if he's gonna do Edinburgh and Dublin like literally just the two cities that's a different story and then you might do that in ten days yeah okay if you want to do Ireland and Scotland I think you're looking at in the country at least a week per country that's not including the flights to and from so you're looking at 16 days 17 days that might be from just Scotland I don't think you can't you could do that Ireland am Scott I think you would do the 3 days in the city you go out in four days and do the countryside you go to Cork you go to ring care you go you go to Edinburgh and then you head up to you know st. Andrews and you go to I mean Scotland's a big bigger so you might go like additional day there so maybe you're at 18 days with 16 days so he days in each one or something but that's the kind of time you'd be looking at George if you wanted to really see both of those countries if you're good with just seeing the two major cities then you could probably get that done when you go from a Saturday to the following Sunday you could probably get that done it's tight but you know I think you'd have a good time with that so I hope that answers the question George all right that's it we're gonna keep it short today probably a little bit longer than I already wanted it to be but that's it fast travel versus slow travel if you enjoyed that you know please let me know reach out email Facebook Twitter whatever and then of course please share all this with your friends we are now on iTunes and Google Play so you can send the Podcast link to all your friends that's it so until next time this is Scott from a certain area ventures on ei radio reminding you to tune in next week for the next episode I'll be a row yeah thanks [Music]

EA Radio Episode # 14 - You Don't Go To A Neurosurgeon To Fix Your Teeth! (Use A Travel Specialist)

Scott Stein, the owner of and travel planner for Extraordinary Adventures (https://www.myextraordinaryadventures.com/travel-podcast.html), explains that using a travel specialist is a lot like using a medical specialist - you don't go to a neurosurgeon to fix your teeth!
Music: www.bensound.com
 
(The show transcript is being provided by YouTube's automatic transcriber. Please forgive any inaccuracies or errors.)
[Applause] [Music] hey everybody this is Scott from extraordinary adventures again coming to you with the 14 episode of EA radio first just wanted to say that I've got my phone ringer turned off my computer's turned off my other phone ring is turned off my cuckoo clock is turned off my dogs are all asleep so hopefully we can sound more professional in this episode we'll get it figured out one day anywho so on to the show I'm entitle in this one you don't go to a neurosurgeon to fix your teeth also known as use a travel specialist so first let's define what a specialist is just a dictionary definition it's a person who concentrates primarily on a particular subject or activity a person highly skilled in a specific and/or restricted field so basically this is me now not the definition basically it's someone who knows more and more about less and less kind of a jokey way to think about it but that's what it is really so let's let's look I'm gonna use this uhm the medical example because that's when people think of specialists is one of the things I think about is medical specialists so I'm gonna use that analogy throughout this episode with the general practitioner they have eight years nine years whatever it is of studies and exams and and they're proficient at being a general practitioner so they know a little bit about a lot of stuff and you get to go to them when you have issues whatever some which they'll be able to handle and some of which they'll realize their limitations and they'll say hey you should go to a specialist you should hire ologist neurosurgeon orthopedic surgeon skin doctor you know whatever they'll make that Deborah referral and sometimes if you have an HMO as opposed to a PPO I think that's how that works you can just go directly to the specialist because you already know hey this is probably above what my general practitioner can do same thing is true in trouble there are some what I would call like common cold travel things like booking you on let's say a Royal Caribbean cruise not the hardest thing to do could you do it on your own yes are you probably still better off having somebody help you with that just like an all-inclusive vacation in the islands could you do it on your own yeah but do you really know every cruise line out there do you really know every all-inclusive out there and what would be a best fit for you so you know honestly why take the chance you're better off using a travel agent Travel professional even in those cases just much like the the common cold you could self diagnose yourself self diagnosis you could self diagnose um and you could self medicate but is that really the best course of action maybe in some cases maybe but in other cases you know it might be worth it to get little expert advice so that's that's the general practitioner example but if on the other hand you absolutely know that you want to get you know a nose job if you're gonna get a nose job you're not going to your general practitioner you got to go to a myofascial surgeon I'm not sure who does that actually but if you're gonna go for a nose job you go to the nose job doctor likewise if you're gonna do something extraordinary in travel you're going to want to go to a specialist and more importantly again you're not gonna want to go to a neurosurgeon to fix your teeth both neurosurgery and Dentistry our specialties if you want neurosurgery done you go to the neurosurgeon if you want dentistry done you go to the dentist so the same thing in travel for instance I'll take I'll take the negative against myself I don't do west destination weddings it's a very complicated travel plan there's a lot of moving parts a lot of mood cogs in that in that such in that travel plan not my thing there are people that do it great and and I'll refer to them but what I do what I specialize in is and I'm gonna read this quote off my website culturally authentic locally immersive European adventures for the curious middle aged explorer alone or with friends but always on their terms in other words my plans are highly customized I provide a high level of concierge service to my clients but it's when they want to go to Europe specifically I do Germany and England but we can hear handle the general European countries you could put me somewhere for Europe you could put me above a general practitioner but when it comes to Germany and and England I would put myself in the neurosurgeon category though those are the couple countries I know England Ireland Scotland and then then Germany that's really my thing so come to me for destination wedding probably not the best guy come to me for Germany definitely the best guy so you see the difference between why you would use not just using a travel specialist but a travel specialist who specializes and what it is that you want to do what what your destination is or what type of travel are you doing with group travel or solo travel whether that's gonna be a cruise an expedition cruise a river cruise an ocean cruiser you know there's a million different specialties you're gonna want to go to somebody who knows that well so what do you look for when you're looking for a travel specialist first passion if you call somebody for their free initial consultation and they sound like a dud what makes you think they're not gonna be a dud the entire time through I don't know about you I don't like working with duds to the contrary if you get on the phone with somebody and they sound passionate about their travel they sound passionate about you know working with other people in their travels they sound passionate about their destination they sound the passion it's just clearly there in their voice and more so than that they don't sound like the professionals been doing this for twenty years even if they have that they don't sound like that kind of person is like you know taking you for granted oh yeah sure we can help you blah blah blah no every new client is a great opportunity for a travel agent travel professional and that's how it should sound they should sound like they don't take you for granted but they're happy that you're calling them so those are the things you look for for passion there's a zillion other things you could look for for passion but just remember not a dud somebody passionate about travel itself and then helping you with your travels the next thing you might look for is is natural talent and learned skills so natural talent not something anybody can do about it but there are things that we're just we have an for woman kids you know if you think back to middle school high school there were kids that just weren't good at numbers so you knew they were gonna do something math finances accounting whatever there were people who were good actors actresses they were always so dramatic and you you could see maybe that's gonna be a Broadway show performer people that were athletic there were people that had certain knack for things and I'm gonna take myself as an example here at least didn't you know I've wrote down a couple little things that I was good at as a kid and one of them is my gift for gab I can talk I can talk I can also listen so like that rapport that empathy of of not just talking to talk but talking to hear what the other person is saying and and having that back and forth you know where you really feel like you're connecting that gift for gab and that's kind of why I also love England Ireland Scotland particularly the Irish in that case my goodness they they will talk your ear off and they will listen they want to know about you and and and they'll tell you their story and they'll want to know your story it they're amazing and and that's one of my talents another one of my talents is in my insatiable curiosity about our world I've always been that way from a little kid ask my parents about the we traveled as kids you know they took us around the world I just I couldn't get enough I just couldn't get enough I said my rapport with people but I kept that kind of goes back to a gift for gab or were people that I connect those two together I also have a never-ending yearning to learn more I constantly want to know more and more and like a specialist I like to know more and more how less and less I really really really really want to know everything there is about German I have a friend who lives in Berlin I have a friend who lives in Bavaria I would love to know more about Germany than they do you know I didn't grow up there I don't know if that's gonna ever happen but I'm gonna try my best and then the last thing I thought about as a kid that my risk tolerance was always very high and my embrace of adventure was always very high you know I really wasn't the most athletic kid but I was the first one there we were out on our bikes together in the neighbor I'd be like hey let's go a little further let's go check it out yeah payers are not gonna yell at us so we go another block like I would always push to go somewhere and new and exciting and check out something different that was always my thing and that's the way I look at it still XE X amount of years later I'll just say it like 35 years later now that I'm 44 that's still the way I approach the world there's nowhere I wouldn't go I go to Iran I'd go to North Korea uh probably shouldn't and I probably won't be able to get there anytime soon but I would go there I mean I have that adventurous spirit to just about go anywhere Antarctica Iceland you know the there's Gobi Desert it doesn't matter if it's hot cold snow I want to check it out I froze my butt off in the ounce didn't there done that don't really know if I want to freeze my butt off in the Alps again but it was magnificent it was truly extraordinary to be up there that's the kind of person I am and that's the kind of the kind of trips and the kind of clients that I look for people who like me they're not adventurous they're not you know you know they're not mountain mountain climbing like a straight cliff or or or they're not you know snowboarding or they're not jumping off of things like you know cliff diving thing like that's not what I mean by adventure that's hard adventure and I think I actually did an episode about that I don't think I did I did it's called soft adventure that's what I look for I look for people who want to go and get culturally authentic locally immersive travels get off the tourist trap areas get off the beaten path and see things that not everybody's gonna see so that that's kind of my what I bring to the table just natural talent and learn skills learning by journey going to Germany myself which we're gonna touch on going there in a minute learning about England learning about the booking process of how to do that know what what's the best flight where's the best hotel it's a better maybe that you should do a river cruise you know what's the best way that's gonna make your trip extraordinary so that's the learn skills and then the other thing is the artfulness so you could learn stuff you could have natural talent you could you can be passionate but maybe you're just not very good at it I mean it can't happen there you're just not good thing that you're very passionate about but I mean fortunately for me my skill set my passion and my artfulness my ability to get the job done are all in line so I got very fortunate but that's the case and that's what you're going to want to look for in your in your travel specialist another thing in that little area is there unique value proposition so for instance one of my unique value propositions I like to use local guides not those big 50 person bus tours but let's I'll just name a point my friend down in Bavaria his name is Jake I know Jay Jake knows me when I send my clients to Jake he's gonna give them an extraordinary trip and I can rely on that and the folks who have used Jake and come back and tell me oh my god Jake was extraordinary that's my unique value proposition your local guides I have another one that I like to use in London amber she is extraordinary so that that kind of stuff you want to look for people who just have those little secrets little tricks like maybe when you go to Amsterdam now this is not one of my super specialties but I know it on the canals did you know that you could stay on a houseboat on the canal like that's a cool little tip cool little trick not the kind of thing maybe the general practitioner or even you yourself the home user would know how to do the next one haven't personally experienced the trip has your person been on a group adventure if that's what they're selling have they don't have did they do a destination wedding well maybe they didn't have to do that but have they gone to Thailand if that's their thing New Zealand have they have they been on the expedition expedition cruise to the to see the Northern Lights have they done these things if they haven't it's not a hard X against them but they'll be able to connect with you and your trip better if they've gone there and you know for me obviously Germany and England are we have friends who live in England we're actually going to see in 1987 days yeah my other friends in Germany come and go all the time we have a good connection to Germany in England and then the last one that I have is that they personally booked the trip so have they booked clients other clients before you to the destinations that you want them to book doesn't have to be the exact same trip no because if they're customizing trips like I do all my trips accustomed to what my clients want it's not going to be the exact same trip but have they look something in the in the neighborhood so for instance if I've done Bavarian bookings and somebody wants to go to Salzburg which not a good example because I've already booked people to Salzburg but you understand I'm saying if it's the general area it's the same flights at the same time that you know the timezone I mean they have a good sense if if you're from North Carolina could you do something for someone in South Carolina it's not a stretch whereas if they're in North Carolina could you do something for somebody in Alaska that's kind of a stretch so there's a little bleed over in maybe some of the local countries that are around if they've been on a Viking River cruise could they do a Crystal River cruise yeah probably so so it doesn't have to be very specific but they have to have done this before so you know that's just scratching the surface there those I think are the big ones that you're gonna look for the passion the natural talent and skills the artfulness the unique value proposition have they personally experienced the trip and have they personally booked the trip I think those are the big ones but again there are more just you know the way I think about it just think about how and why and when you would consider using that medical specialist and then apply that framework to your travel professional okay it's more than your hard-earned money that you're putting in their hands remember it's those precious moments of life there's no do-over there's no going back to a vacation gone awry whether that's doing it yourself which you really shouldn't do or hiring the professional you want to make sure that professional doesn't mess up your trip even if you could sue them and get their money back that doesn't get you your life back now you got to go and maybe try to do it again but you can't do things over again the you know the first impression with anything they don't know that that old saying you only get one chance to make a first impression do you really want your first impression of a destination to be muddied by apathy incompetence or an experience I wouldn't so since I know that you wouldn't go to a neurosurgeon to fix your teeth I also know that you wouldn't go to some other specialist when you want to travel to Europe in my case that's my show very simple try to keep a little shorter last week a brand a little long if you have any questions as always Scott at my extraordinary adventures calm Scott at my extraordinary adventures Calm tell me your name where you're from and I'll give you a shout-out on the air and that's about it so until next time this is Scott from extraordinary adventures thanking you for tuning in reminding you to share this show on Facebook Twitter wherever it is Instagram that you do remember minding you that I am now on Google Play and iTunes you can find our podcasts there and I'll have the link in the notes you'll also be able to find my podcast on my website and so on the navigation tabs called Travel podcast or something so that's it get out there spread the word help everyone learn more about travel and that's it stay tuned for the next episode guys ciao [Music] you [Music]

EA Radio Episode # 13 - Lessons I Learned From Planning A Group Cruise

Scott Stein, the owner of and travel planner for Extraordinary Adventures (https://www.myextraordinaryadventures.com/travel-podcast.html), shares the lessons he learned from planning group cruises.
Music: www.bensound.com
 
(The show transcript is being provided by YouTube's automatic transcriber. Please forgive any inaccuracies or errors.)
[Applause] [Music] hey everybody this is Scott from extraordinary adventures welcoming you to the 13th episode of e a radio today I wanted to discuss something near and dear to us here lessons I learned from planning a group cruise why is that so near and dear well just today just yesterday no today we finalized the final payment for the final passenger on an affinity group cruise that we that we planned over the last couple years and I thought that today was a great time to teach the lessons that I learned from planning a group groups so that if you don't use stern adventures to plan your vacations which I don't know why you wouldn't that seems insane to me but if you choose not to I wanted to give you the information that you if you could do it without us hopefully again you'll come come to us so let's start off I put everything in chronological order meaning things you're gonna want to think about from the day this idea dawns and news that hey I'd love to go cruise with my friends because cruising with friends is definitely better than cruising alone think about it if you go on a cruise one of the things for most people is meeting other people at the bar or at their dining table or or at the nightclub or wherever they happen to be they bump into people at the spa the owner of a hot tub that you start chatting and you wanted Uppal people that you become like friends with like in real life not just on the cruise you become Facebook friends you and then you maybe cruise with them again and that was that that was the I forget the word on family the inspiration for why I did this one it wasn't because I wanted necessarily cruise with the people that I knew in my personal life right here right here in Orlando but they were welcome to it was to meet up again with the people that I had cruised with over the last several years I wanted to get together again so when that idea pops in your head that that's what you want to do you'd love to get together again with friends that you haven't seen in a while or maybe you want to do something locally let's a bachelorette or a bachelor party or maybe you're doing something for work there's a million different reasons why the family of our union crews the million different reasons why you might plan a group Cruise where everybody goes together so this could be used by anybody so you decide you're gonna do this what's the first thing to do okay I'm gonna make a suggestion select the cruise line the ship and the sale date by executive decision not democracy you might think oh well I want everybody have a say in this out in the other well if there's 10 15 20 30 people in your group and everyone gets to say you're never gonna get through this process they can't get a say in every single thing that happens what you're going to want to do though through your executive decision is figure out what cruise ship cruise line price point time of the year all these are the factors that go into it are gonna benefit the most amount of people so for instance probably gonna be harder to get people to go on Christmas it's probably gonna be harder to maybe get somebody to go on a Caribbean cruise during hurricane season so you have to think of different times of the year that people maybe maybe you know a lot of your friends like let's say you're going on a teacher group and teachers all have off in the summer so maybe you make it in the summer maybe you don't make it in January when everybody's in school and can't get off so you just think about everybody that's in your group think about their particular needs the best you can and then pick something to the best irritability you're going to exclude some people no matter what you choose whether you choose their democracy or executive decision there will always be some people who cannot go but if you do this smartly if you think about it and put your brain to it you will choose a ship a sale date at a price point that will work for a lot of people you'll be surprised how many people you'll be able to get to join your group then once you've got that figured out get yourself or your travel agent preferably your travel agent because at this point now you're handling a group it's not just you and your husband or wife not you you and your boyfriend/girlfriend now you're handling a group of people you really don't want to do that yourself especially because for most cruises like this travel agents don't charge you anything there they're gonna make a commission from the cruise line sometimes it would be a planning fee sometimes there won't really depends on the the group that's going where they're going if there's a lot of pre hotel pre and pre-imposed hotel hotels sorry pre and post cruise hotel stays or activities or excursions so in other words it's not just the cruise then you may see that there's gonna be a planning fee but for the most part if you did a Caribbean cruise right how do you Port Canaveral in Miami with your friends and family you're not gonna get charged a fee by the travel agent so if you're not gonna get charged a fee why not take his or her advice time expertise whatever to do the work for you so now I'm going to assume for the rest of this episode that you're gonna hire a travel agent to do this get your travel agent figure out who he or she is gonna be and get him or her to book you on your preferred Cruise Line the second their booking schedule opens up meaning we're sitting here it's now September of 2019 let's say I don't know every line is different but let's say that right now in September XYZ line that you want to use opens up their schedule for 2021 so a year and a quarter from now now generally speaking it's actually gonna be longer than that you want to get the second that it opens up why when cruise when Cruise Lines release their schedule the rate that they released that day is one of the lowest if not the lowest rates you will ever see for that cruise again including all BOGO deals or family deals or any deal that days rate will almost always be the best and you can lock that rate in with Reuters and it will be held for two years or however long it's something like I think it 120 days or so before your sale date that they'll pull the rooms back that you haven't used so you have up until from the day you book until that that that final closed date to just hold those route at that rate you'll see rates climb the climb and climb and climb and people are gonna be shocked hey how did you get this rate so cheap you're gonna look like a hero because you locked it in incredibly early they also with the knowing some perks some offers of course if it's brand-new availability is wide open you can get any room you want so if you're going with it you know group of 20 people so that's ten rooms let's say two per cabin and by the way most times with these groups it's based on double occupancy not three not four so you're gonna have to speak with your travel agent and make sure if you've got a lot of families going that's something you're gonna need to think about but let's say you have 20 people going you've got 10 rooms let's see you want all those 10 rooms together on Dec 9 right in the middle of the ship well if you do all this very early on the chances are you getting that a very very high if you wait you won't get it the other thing to remember is that when you and I'm gonna get into other important deadlines later but I want to touch on this right now because it seems relevant when you create a group booking some of the perks offers OB sees whatever have not expiration dates but they're called early booking discounts are they different booking onboard credits and you have a certain amount of days from the day that you the cruise plan or person from certain Monday from that date that you've chosen to say okay travel agent boom booked me up until 60 days 90 days whatever each line is different then people need to book in that window to often get that OBC and if they book beyond it they won't get the onboard credit or the perk or the offer so just keep that in mind so now the next step you've got it booked figured out where you want to go figure it out your cruise line all the rest of that what do you do well you have a long time people are not gonna really want a book a year and a half two years out but you're gonna push as if they're going to you're gonna tell them all the benefits of doing it now and you're gonna post it on Facebook and you're gonna post on Twitter and you're gonna email and you call and you can talk about everything the only way that you're gonna get this group to get the numbers that you want get all the people to come with you is through repetition you've got a brand the idea in their mind you tell them once three weeks they're gonna forget you told you got it constantly it's got to continue to be sent until it are like oh you know mr. Smith is having that cruise we should consider going on his cruise but they won't think that unless you've said it a thousand times remember they won't book with you until they're ready to book and if you haven't been saying anything when they're ready to book go start looking around for what's available you don't want them looking around you want them to remember oh I'm thinking about a cruise well mr. Smith has a cruise and let's go with him in the group because that sounds fun to do a group cruise so promote the heck out of a constant then once you start getting people interested remember to remind them of specific deadlines that occur like that OBC special perk discount the other thing to remind them is the last date of booked into the route because let's say you know it's coming to an end November 1st is the last day you put a little pressure on people to say look hey November 1st is the last day if you don't book by November 1st you're gonna miss out in all these rooms all this availability all these great rates all these great perks are gonna go back to the cruise line and they're gonna charge today's prevailing rate which will be significantly higher than the rate that you that you've reserved for them by pretty booking so remind them of that once you get past that then whoever has books remind them of the final payment date which will generally be about a month or so after so you want and you want to hit them hit them hit them don't let anyone go to the last day you want to make sure that they're booking at least within days of in case there's any problems and then the final thing to remind people when they book to make sure they get travel insurance no matter when they go like right now we're sitting here in hurricane season and hurricane durian just skirted by fortunately everybody here was good but what would happen if somebody got sick somebody got hurt there was a a bit terrorist attack hurricane you know who knows what could happen so you don't want to make sure you remind them that within a certain amount of days of booking there's a window now you can buy insurance pretty much anytime thereafter but within that window 14 days 21 days every every insurers different you have to book in it because you want to qualify for things one pre-existing condition coverage so if you have any conditions and we can talk about that later you can give me a call we can email out and tell you more about that whole deal if you have pre-existing conditions and you want them covered you've got to do it within that window the second thing if if your insurer offers canceled / interrupts interruption for any reason coverage so for most cases it'll give you 70 80 % 100% whatever it is of the covered reasons then there's another little stipulation that you can get a plan that allows you to come cancel for any reason so for instance if your dog got sick they're not gonna let you cancer that won't be a covered reason but under this you'll get 70 80 % whatever each again he's sure sure is different of what you've laid out you'll get it back if your dog that sick so you won't lose money so you're definitely gonna want to make sure you book your insurance within that that depth timeframe the next thing is you're all thinking about it you've got some people booked in you want to start discussing and reserving excursions now this time more democratically because now they're on the cruise now they they're part of this they they're invested in it but still take the lead do some of the homework yourself or have your travel agent better yet do some of that homework present you with ideas for each of the islands that you're gonna be stopping in or the countries that you if you're doing the Mediterranean cruise or a European cruise have him or her go over the options present you with those options and then present those options like maybe two or three in each port because each for each port because each port could have a myriad of options you don't want everybody thinking well what about this and then you have people breaking off and splintering off now I will say but that's fine too it's again it's it's their cruise if they want to go do something there but many people are signing on to this because they want to be a part of the group so you want to have at least one planned group excursion in place for each of the ports but again put that into a Facebook group have everybody join that group or however you like to do it if you want to do Twitter Instagram I don't know whatever anybody likes to do but make sure it's a real time thing as opposed to email or text messaging you want everyone to see it you want everyone to interact with each other you know when everybody emailing you and then you're emailing everybody else get it in there have them think about it have them decide on it take the lead on it but then make sure that okay here's what we're gonna do guys because this is what the majority people want to do and then make your reservations get guys get that stuff figured out the next one you're gonna want to do is you're gonna want to pay attention to your cruise planner your whatever each one of them calls it something different it's the thing that once you're booked they have online an area where you can buy some ala carte items for instance your internet package your drink package your dining package excursions you know whatever else massage there are things that you can buy in advance you're gonna want to as the tour conductor and again you're probably going to just want to lean on your travel agent for this because he or she can help you with this you're going to want to let people know when there are drink package deals internet deals dining deals because often they'll put out sales the thing to know about these cruise planner deals most lines I don't know if all lines and again don't want it again check per line most lines will allow you to buy let's say you buy the drink package and two months later they put it on sale and it's 30% cheaper they will allow you to cancel the first one and repurchase at the new price here's the trick with that book at a good price not what you think may be the best price book at a good price something that you'd be comfortable paying then if it goes down awesome you can cancel your xandrie book the new one the problem is if you wait for it to go down and it never does or worse yet it goes up now you could have gotten it for that price two months ago and then you're kicking yourself so make sure that you can return it and if it's refundable book it at a good price what you think is a good solid price and then wait for it to go up or down so that that's anyone do that for dining if you want to different and you want to keep your group involved in that Facebook group what you should do is invite your travel agent into that Facebook group so he or she can make these announcements what the next thing you can want to do is you're gonna want to discuss flight plans and pre cruise hotel stays to coordinate any pre cruise meetups or activities so for instance we are having most of our people coming in the day before so everyone's gonna be here so we're planning some kind of event Meetup just maybe a place to just go out and a quieter place you don't want to go to too noisy of a place because you're talking about people that either haven't seen each other for years or have not even met each other before and you want to use this opportunity to have this pre Meetup so that when they're getting on the cruise day one it's not about hey do I know you it's about oh I met you yesterday I had a great time with you and now you're kicking off the cruise from day one from this second you board with people you know and you like and you're ready to party with you don't want to have the break-in period happen over a day or two and it could be there too because some people may not be able to find each other for the first day or two it can take time so if you have a way of telling everyone hey everyone come in early everyone stay at this hotel of that hotel let's have a meet-up let's get to know each other so that we are ready to go for day one that's totally democratic thing that's not something you can do by executive decision you need to get people involved in that now you've got all this figured out everything's done everything's you know all your or you're all you've done soar in a row the thing for you to do now is to organize a document that shows group events that will happen throughout the week of your cruise you want to keep that amount small and flexible so for instance you don't want to have ten different meetups a day every day first you yourself may not want to go to ten meetups a day every day but people won't go to every event the less the fewer events you have the better your turnout will be at them if you have ten events two people show up here two people show up there two people show up there if you have one event then all twenty people are gonna show up to the one event I want to make sure you keep it flexible you want to make sure you're paying attention to what for instance on Royal they call it a cruise compass I forget everyone has their own name for the different planners that they put out you want to keep an eye on the planner and look at when the shows are or belly flops or port stays or whatever you want to put your events into the calendar we're the most amount of people will be able to go again keeping in mind that yes this is a group cruise okay but everyone has limited days and limited dollars so for a lot of your folks this is not gonna be just a group cruise but their own individual vacation and it may even be your only vacation for that year or for that six months or whatever and you may not want to do all group all the time so keep that in mind be respectful of that said and that's the plan so you got to plan so now you're pretty much done everything's been done soup to nuts everybody understands everybody is in the same page everybody's booked in everybody's got the drinks everybody's got their excursions everybody's got the plan because you've emailed them that the itinerary the last couple things to think about what is I personally am buying the professional photo package I think maybe a few other people will as well but I want to see my friends and family forever I want to have I want to capture this great memory I'm gonna invite them all into different shots throughout the week so I will have that forever it's not quite the same to do it yourself on a cell phone doing selfies selfie sticks having said hey mister can you come over here and take a photo of us these professional people they do it they do it well they have the little backdrop so they they meet you on the island or they meet you in the pour that they're good a couple hundred bucks consider buying the professional photo package last thing the tour conductor credit you may never heard of this if you are creating a group almost every cruise line that I've seen river cruise premium yacht mass market it doesn't matter if you're creating a group they will often give you the tour conductor not your travel agent you they will often give you a credit for a certain amount of money based on the value of the rooms how many rooms blah blah blah so let's say that 500 bucks I don't know it could be a thousand bucks depending like if you're doing a premium line to be higher 500 bucks that's $500 that's not for him or her to decide oh well I'll give some people OBCs or I'll I'll I'll take more Commission for myself that's your to work and doctor credit if you want to decide to give your travel agent five extra bucks because he's been doing a great job well tip that's up to you but that money is yours now as the organizer you can do a few different things with that one you can just say hey I did all the work I'm taking that $500 and I'm reducing my cruise fee my cruise fare or maybe I'm going to go into a junior suite or something like that I'm going to bump it up because again I did all the work so I should get the perks the other thing you can do is you can give everybody more OBC onboard credit I apologize you can give people more onboard credit or I mean the other options or what what we're doing is I figured out as a travel agent I'm taking all my friends with me on this cruise I don't want to make money on the press so well that was not supposed to happen home-based business I'm taking all these these people on this cruise I'm the host they're my friends I don't earn money on them so I'm taking all my commission putting it in a fund I'm taking is I'm the one who's also the tour conductor I'm taking the tour conductor credit and putting it in the fund and I'm taking that fun and I'm gonna buy my friends and family you know t-shirts I'm gonna have like a group Cruise t-shirt made which is a great idea I'm gonna maybe buy them dinner or drinks I don't exactly know what I'm gonna do with that fund but I'm not gonna take it for myself there's nothing wrong with taking it for yourself you can do that but these are options of things you want to consider just remember it does not belong to the travel agent that's the thing I want to make sure that I Drive in the there are say this is politically correct as possible shady shady a bit bit strong maybe some people who wouldn't tell you everything you need to know I don't work that way I want you to know everything so they may not disclose to you about the talking up to credit and if you don't know about it there's no way you're gonna get it and they could take it from them for themselves so tour conductor credit belongs to you that is pretty much it if you have any questions I know this was a lot to cover I'm talking 22 minutes a lot longer than I thought but again was a lot to cover so if somebody wanted to do a group cruise here's all your stuff remember there will be some show notes you'll be able to to look through them and get some of this but better yet just email me Scott at my extraordinary ventures calm that's Scott at my extraordinary adventures calm ask me your questions I'm happy to about and if any of these questions are great give me your first name where you're from and I'm gonna give you a shout-out on the air and share that question with people on the next show additionally if this does sound like a handful and believe me it is call me I'm happy to work with you as a travel agent on this I've done this before I'll do it again I know how to do it well you'll be in good hands so you might want to just consider it just outright hiring me to do it so that's it that's it for today's show remember we're no longer on YouTube but we are on iTunes and as of today we are now also on Google Play so you can find you can find us on those two things but be sure to spread the word tell everybody about our Facebook page and our Twitter page and our our iTunes in our Google Play and we're also a we're on LinkedIn we're on Pinterest we're on the instrument oh it's a lot of work but we're on everything so make sure you get out there and you spread the word okay so that's it until next time we'll catch you on the next episode of the air radio thanks guys stay tuned ciao bye bye [Music]

EA Radio Episode # 12 - The Not-So-Unintended Benefits Of Travel

Scott Stein, the owner of and travel planner for Extraordinary Adventures (https://www.myextraordinaryadventures.com/travel-podcast.html), gets on his soapbox to preach about how important travel is and The Not-So-Unintended Benefits Of Travel.
Music: www.bensound.com
 
(The show transcript is being provided by YouTube's automatic transcriber. Please forgive any inaccuracies or errors.)
[Applause] [Music] hey everybody this is Scott much Jordan area ventures again and I'd like to welcome you to the twelfth episode of EA radio today I wanted to quickly discuss the health benefits of travel everyone knows that they love to travel it's wonderful it's fun it's it's you know something we all strive to do but have you really considered then it's not just would you call it a an optional thing I think that people overlook the significance of travel and leisure time rest and relaxation but I believe they are essential to our well-being in fact I'm gonna read something here according to a joint study from the global Commission on Aging and trans America Center for retirement studies in partnership with the US Travel Association traveling actually keeps you healthier the study found that women who vacation at least twice a year should was significantly lower risk suffering heart attack than those who only travel every six years or so the same is true for men men who do not take an annual vacation to a 20 percent higher risk of death a 30% greater risk of heart disease now I could go on pull more and more facts off the internet but you can do it yourself you can go to Google check it out left and right all of them page that the pages of data that's been compiled of how important not just going to sleep not just doing you know yoga those are awesome too but taking a vacation getting out of your typical routine your typical space I think that for me it really boils down to four personal things factors that I don't know that if I didn't travel if I if these things would be where they're at you know for me and I know that when I don't travel for a certain amount of time I definitely see these factors coming up so let me let me go to the first one I think the first and most obvious one is stressful we all work probably too hard most of us the American Way of life is to work too hard we give up so many vacation days every year we just change change them in for money we are the least vacationed Society first-class world society everyone else takes more vacations and thus everyone else has passports we have like I know 30% of Americans or something like that passports where is like you go to other countries in Europe bache they all do and they don't even need it to get from you know all those Schengen countries they can go all throughout the EU without them and yet they all have them they all travel there's a reason for that and they have figured something out I think that we haven't figured out and that is you got to get out of your space to unwind to to take the pent up stuff and get rid of it and I don't think you can do that just sitting at home I don't think you can do that go to the movies or going for a nature hike I think you need to get out so for me that's something that's that's a big one is that you know life life is beautiful wonderful I love it overall very happy guy but I have stress you know I'm a small business owner I have an aging dog who you know gives us a challenge too we love him he's been around 14 and a half years Albert in case you don't know some of you dude some you don't he's pretty amazing but it's stressful having an old dog and of course we have all just stresses that everyone else does money and paying the bills and all these things you need to get away from all that all of it even your lovely beloved dog you need to take yourself away for a couple weeks and and unwind but I also think for me the next one up is probably more important and I think I don't put these in order that one would be quote unquote the the lowest a priority item the next one would be happiness I don't believe in doing things just to remove pain I'm a person who likes to bring in pleasure joy so a lot of us do things to remove pain and that motivates us but the absence of pain is not joy you know what light exists darkness does not the absence of light is gives you darkness the absence of darkness doesn't give you light it's the same thing when you have an absence of joy you have pain but having an absence of pain doesn't give you joy so I find that for me Travel is a huge huge factor in my overall happiness and fulfillment in life whether that's you know the simple cruise getting away and just and just being in the islands and and relaxing and a hot tub and drinking pina coladas and stuff that counts I'm I love that stuff I if I could do that more often I would it doesn't have to be these these uh you know Patagonia trips or Iceland or or you know ancient Rome doesn't have to be anything too extraordinary even though the name of my company is extraordinary adventures what it just needs to be is getting away and and and having some fun dancing eating drinking being with friends so happiness is a huge one but I also think for me what's probably let me see I'm looking at these next two and Farah which one I think is is a the more important one and I'm gonna have to say perspective is coming next what do I mean by perspective so Laura and I have noted over the last several years that every time we get away we come back and we look at our life things in our life not necessarily the whole picture but things in it but also sometimes the whole picture and we look at me say wow that's that's not right what are we doing here we could be doing this better we could be doing that better we could we could change that something happens when you take your mind off of your own junk for a while you come back to it and you can see this was the same scene for the forest for the trees we we get too caught up in seeing all those little trees that when you back away you can look at the thing and say well this is working for me and this is not and I think you need to get away to be able to do that I think you need to take a vacation I think you need to travel and and also I think travel shows you and this one this one doesn't work so well with cruises it does go into other cultures when you when you go to you know South Africa and you get into the tribes if you go to to Asia and you meet them the monks when you look at other people's way of looking at the world it changes the way you look at the world and you can never come back from travel the same you will be a changed person and that will give you a new perspective on the things in your life for better force so perspective to me is a huge reason for why I travel but I think the single biggest reason for me for travel is the person is very driven in life you know I want to have a great relationship I want to have my dogs and my relationship with my dogs I want it to be great I ride a Harley I want that to be great I always push myself for greatness never for perfection you can never hit profession but for greatness be be good at what you're doing and just always strive to make it better but let me give you a quick analogy if any of you know Stephen Covey is one of the best motivational speaker writers of all time he had a great analogy about sawing down a tree guys walking through the woods comes upon a lumberjack who's sawing away sawing away sawing away and the guy says to him you know you look like that maybe that saw is a little bit too dull for the job that you're doing maybe you should take a break from that sharpen the saw and then go back and they'll make your work easier make your make your job lighter and the guys response was I don't have time to stop to sharpen the saw I'm too busy sawing that seems paradoxical doesn't it you can't slow down from sawing long enough to do something that will make your sawing easier lighter faster efficiency doesn't come from just going faster harder more over and over and over again you need to step back you sharpen that saw and then you need to go at it again so that's what I think that for me the vacation is probably the travel is probably the most important thing I believe that travel is good for your health is good for your mind it's good for your relationship but I believe that travel makes you better in your own life if you want to be better in your own life if you want your life to be the place that you want it to be you can't keep sitting in that bars and looking at those trees you've got to get out get some perspective change who you are be happy be strengthened stress have you stress reduced and sharpen that saw so that to me is why I say all the time I say that people over often overlook the significance of travel and leisure time but I believe they are essential to our well-being and as those are my reasons so that is our show for today I apologize for all the emails and and and phones and the dog barking and whining in the background we are here a home-based business and a home-based podcast so that's what happens when you are home-based and you don't have the editing power and money of a major podcasting corporation so hopefully as I continue to grow this will get better at cleaning some of that up the editing but ok that's all for today I hope you enjoyed today's show if you did or if you didn't either way email me at scott at my extraordinary adventures com tell me your first name where you're from and I'll give you a shout out on the air ok and of course don't forget to share this on your favorite social media outlet Facebook Twitter Linkedin wherever you like to do your social media ink but I will also tell you that from now on we are not gonna be doing our YouTube channel we are now doing a real podcast we are now listed on iTunes we're very fancy now so you can go like our Channel and you can go subscribe to it but I don't think there's gonna be anything more a new content going to our YouTube channel I will put a link in the show notes to the podcast that you can find it more easily downloaded to your your cell phone and your your I tuned player iPad I Mac wherever you do your eyes stuff and you'll be able to listen to it I think a lot more easily than the way I had it on the youtube so please spread the word tell everyone share that link with everyone and until next time again this is Scott from extraordinary adventures thanking you for tuning in and we will catch you on the next episode of e a raven stay tuned everybody shout [Music] you [Music]

EA Radio Episode # 11 - Soft Adventure Travel

Scott Stein, the owner of and travel planner for Extraordinary Adventures (https://www.myextraordinaryadventures.com/travel-podcast.html), explains what "Adventure Travel," "Hard Adventure Travel," and "Soft Adventure Travel" are and looks at whether or not you'll be a good fit for them.
Music: www.bensound.com
 
(The show transcript is being provided by YouTube's automatic transcriber. Please forgive any inaccuracies or errors.)
[Applause] [Music] hey everybody this is Scott from extraordinary adventures and you are listening to the eleventh episode of EA radio today I am not joined by my lovely better-half Laura she's got a lot of no plate so I'm gonna tackle this one by myself I thought today would be a good thing to talk about would be a topic I think that people are a little confused about it's uh adventure travel what is adventure travel what is a hard adventure travel over what is a soft adventure travel things like that so I think adventure travel you know it kind of brings to mind a thought when I say adventure travel you basically have a picture in your mind hiking biking camping snowboarding skiing scuba diving whitewater rafting etc there's an implication that to participate in adventure travel you have to be very physically fit like I know personally I wouldn't try climbing a straight face cliff I'm just not that fit but that's not all that adventure travel is adventure travel can include soft adventure travel as well I'm gonna give a little quote here that I loved it's as some of us take travel a little further we don't want to watch the world from afar we want to get up close and touch it for some that's embarking on heart racing African safari ziplining through Costa Rican rainforest we're meeting the multi-color inhabitants of the Great Barrier Reef for others it's simply transcending the daily routine to experience the sights and sounds tastes and smells of somewhere new from Close Encounters to distant wonders adventure is going beyond the typical vacation experience to become fully immersed in other cultures customs cuisine of our travels so let me repeat that one little blip adventure adventure is going beyond the typical vacation experience now that can be soft adventure that could be hard adventure here's where I'm here's where I'll tell you about Softimage sauce adventure so you have those those there's hiking's and and skiing's and all those things that we talked about but not quite that fit what if you're fit enough to mildly hike walk around you have no mobility challenges you're you're not disabled in any way and you want to get a little off the beaten path that is more about what soft adventure is than hiking less hard or cycling less hard so I'm not sure it can be about those but it just makes those things more approachable it's also not just out in nature I mean hiking through cities as opposed to taking a cab there's one way you can remain active while taking in the sights to get out of can you know get out of the bus get out and get out walk places when we went to Berlin we walked all over that city DC walked all over that city New Orleans okay normally as we took the look what was that like a streetcar thing that was fun no edit to it but that's you know that's what I mean get out there you know another one is cycle tours a lot of folks who go on river cruises through Germany and France and all the rest that's one of the things a lot of the river cruise ship companies have is cycles onboard for free that you can go out and take a cycle tour a lead cycle tour so you can get all over that town a heck a lot faster you get a little exercise obviously but you get to see all the sights in two hours instead of in four hours because you can get to each site faster another one is a Segway job yes even a Segway tour would be soft adventure I mean you're getting out there you're moving you're exploring you're not just sitting on a beach with a pina colada or or run a spa with a glass of champagne not that I don't love that too I'll be the first to you don't get on a cruise ship and have a pina colada and sit in hot tub but I think for the majority way we like to travel is we're more soft adventure people I could even mean riding in an ATV or yacht I mean getting on Katamari and you know in the Caribbean and getting to Pannell island off of say Martine Betts soft adventure travel sought not being such a venture would be to stay on the cruise ship getting out there you know jumping on that 4-wheel atv and going through the Belize and and seeing things that you could not see that that that goes back to you know this thing of some of us take travel a little further we don't want to watch the world from afar we want to get up close and touch it but unlike adventure travel I will say that for the most part soft adventure is more about the exploration then it is the physical exertion it's about like I said getting off the beaten path it's about not going to the tourist traps so if you go to Venice and you stay within that square over there it is designed to be a tourist trap I mean it's just you can't escape it you go a few blocks to left you lost it all right few bucks behind you've got a few blocks off the beaten path then you start seeing menus that are written in Italian and they're handwritten so now you've got a menu written in Italian tells you what they're not talking to the American tourists and they're handwritten what does that tell you it tells you that that menu changes so that's kind of a fresh restaurant for locals usually the prices are better almost always the food is better almost always the service is better so you don't want to definitely use that trick when you go to betters and that pretty much goes you know for any for anywhere I mean remember when in the Cotswolds and we went off the beaten path to some pubs and it was all bricks it was Brits and us and and that's I love that because then I'm I'm hanging out with the locals you know doing what the locals do I'm not going to the tourist traps but it's also about getting out of your comfort zone you know experiencing new sights sounds tastes smells and feelings not the plastic chain existence of our normal everyday lives here in America you know one one example that comes to mind is when we went to Germany went to a place called kokum and that's in the effect of River Harry the Mosul and Ryan area cochem castle is up on a hill as often is the case Heidelberg you know they're up on a hill and then the townspeople are down below so you're you know you're strolling you see this beautiful castle up there in one day we've decided we're gonna go up the castle apparently we went the hard way apparently there were two ways to go we went away that we had to have burned off three days worth of beer ah once we got up there then we learned uh you know there was an easier way to get up here oh well chalk it up to adventure but that was something that was great again you know when we went to DC and you're you're going Smithsonian hopping for lack of a better word oh my god you were gonna burn you're gonna burn calories you're gonna get out there and you're gonna you're gonna be exploring it's the best way to say again that st. Martin trip you know I remember when we went down to st. Martin we took not a okada man we took a guy named the suit Bob so illega I believe this his name it's soo early the tours forget the full name but it's suleka tours and you look at them on TripAdvisor and they have a bazillion reviews and they're like nearly perfectly five stars and when we went we realized why it was phenomenal they took you to all the spots around the island but they took you there via the boat it was a small little boat I think it held about ten to fifteen of us which is what we do here this company is my company certain adventures is very small private group tours no more than about 10 to 15 and it was perfect because you have a couple couples you know but by time you have four or five couples there's your ten two people you know and get to know each other you have lunch together and it was fun so that's you know that's a soft adventure so basically though what I guess what I'm really all I'm really saying is that if you take any ordinary vacation and you amp it up in the right ways you can have an extraordinary soft adventure travel so how do you do that how do you take that how do you get beyond the typical vacation experience to become fully immersed in cultures customs and cuisines of our tribe I'll tell you one way you give me a call you email me and I'll do it for you you know you just tell them to wife or your travel what you love if you love heart you love adventure you love reading do you love do you love nature do you love history do you love war do the things that you want to see and do that makes it extraordinary for you because extraordinary is a very subjective experience the things that make it extraordinary for you you tell me and I'll make it happen for you that's what we specialize in is isn't if you're a discerning traveler did you just don't have the time the desire or the know-how to book a trip but you want that trip to be extraordinary that's what we do so I apologize for the plug here at the end but that's what soft adventure travel is and then what we basically specialize in here we do do some river cruises and we do some other stuff as well some luxury stuff but for the most part we focus our efforts on the people who want to get out there and experience the world in a deeper broader way well that's you give me a shout and and we'll get you we'll get you a plan so that's it I mean it's a short show for the day when they're 10 minutes which is you know kind of what my original vision was to be was to present one topic quick but when we get Lauren here we banter and goes a little long I apologize for that but but that is the show for today so I hope you enjoyed that episode if so definitely email me Scott at my extraordinary ventures calm that's Scott at my extraordinary adventures calm tell me your name first first name you can tell me your first name or last name but I'm only gonna say your first name on the air and I'll give you a shout-out and and that's it so until next time this is again is Scott it's from extraordinary extraordinary ventures thank you for tuning in reminding you to share this show on Facebook Twitter Instagram Pinterest LinkedIn anywhere that you have the do you spend your time social media wise and then also please give us a thumbs up and subscribe to our YouTube channel that'll help spread the word okay I said guys thank you very much and we'll catch you on the next episode of EA radio stay tuned bye [Music]