So, when you sit down to decide on where to go to have a holiday what criteria do you use? For me, this year the criteria was special. In light of the fact I have not had a holiday for so long, the fact that it is my 40th birthday and that I am definitely too large to fit into the average plane seat my criteria were somewhat different. The holiday should involve no flying, or, if flying was a necessity, it should be in a seating standard which had big seats - potentially that means traveling first class. The holiday needs to be memorable - ideally a dream holiday of mine or a holiday with a 'wow' factor in it. The holiday should involve being away for a period which included Christmas, New year, and my 40th birthday. Simple and broad criteria, there had to be something that fits the criteria.
With these criteria in mind what were my options? Without flying my options were to use a boat (cargoship, cruise liner or ferry), rail (passenger or passenger with car), or road (car, coach, 4x4). My dream holiday would have been touring Mexico, Belize Honduras, and Guatemala. I would have been able to spend my birthday in an amazing venue and celebrate it in an unusual way. A holiday with a wow factor would prohibit or any common holiday destination or a month at Butlins. Ultimately I decided there were two possibilities: resurrect my 30th birthday plan and travel first class or undertake a cruise. I obtained brochures for both. Ten years ago when I was looking for my dream 30th birthday I looked at holidays with a company in West London called Journey Latin America; back then their brochure was full of amazing treks and glossy pictures and I was relieved to see that nothing had changed when I received the new years brochure on the 2nd February. I poured over the brochures for days trying to work out what I wanted to do. Sadly, but not altogether unexpectedly, the tour had changed over the course of 10 years; in 2007 I would need to add some time to the beginning of a tour to do the missing elements of my holiday alone. Journey Latin America were very willing to help arrange this special holiday - they always have been good on the phone. In countries where it is difficult to take cars over borders and where I do not speak the native language I felt a little vulnerable at this idea and still do.
There is something appealing about flicking through the glossy pages of a holiday brochure that you do not get from a website. The bright colours of the blurb though equally vivid on-screen take on a new dimension when you can turn the pages and feel the sheen between your fingers. It may just be my personal preference but the ability to read a brochure at any time in any place has great appeal; when I read about a holiday I want all the information to be there at my fingertips and to be sure I wont miss anything crucial; it is with much regret I have to announce that despite being in love with the IT industry (for whom I work) there are distinct disadvantages to the internet. How many times has the click-click nature of the dispersed information on the web resulted in not having seen the complete set of details? Holiday brochures are always a winner with me.
Having ruled out resurrecting my dream holiday I got to my other option - a cruise. I searched online for all the different cruise liners I could recall although regrettably holidays rarely being on my personal radar I could only think of P&O, Fred Olsen, Holland Line, Easy cruise and Cunard. The web is a wonderful place for finding information I searched for each line in turn trying to find contact details to obtain brochures; looking for the contacts reduced me to two different cruise liner companies: Olsen Line and P&O, as regrettably none of the others had contact details that were easy to obtain. Both companies sent me brochures, which both landed on my doorstep on Friday 16th February.
My approach to finding my perfect holiday was a little 'unorthodox'. When prese
nted with the two plastic wrapped catalogues I opened the P&O brochure first; this was partly because the packet was bigger, but mostly because the name P&O is known by more people than the Olsen line. As I ripped the plastic apart I pulled out the thickest of the brochures, relaxed into the sofa and started to read. The first thing I encountered in the brochure was an 84 night trip which included all the dates required and a fair number of other days too! It was with great surprise that I discovered that the places it visited included most of the countries (but not the cities) I had wanted to visit some ten years earlier. The crowning glory was that the cruise started and ended from an English port so there was no flying involved. I looked through the rest of the brochure, but despite other trips meeting all my criteria, it was still the first trip that caught my eye "Artemis: The South American Odyssey 2007".
My choice was clear!
With these criteria in mind what were my options? Without flying my options were to use a boat (cargoship, cruise liner or ferry), rail (passenger or passenger with car), or road (car, coach, 4x4). My dream holiday would have been touring Mexico, Belize Honduras, and Guatemala. I would have been able to spend my birthday in an amazing venue and celebrate it in an unusual way. A holiday with a wow factor would prohibit or any common holiday destination or a month at Butlins. Ultimately I decided there were two possibilities: resurrect my 30th birthday plan and travel first class or undertake a cruise. I obtained brochures for both. Ten years ago when I was looking for my dream 30th birthday I looked at holidays with a company in West London called Journey Latin America; back then their brochure was full of amazing treks and glossy pictures and I was relieved to see that nothing had changed when I received the new years brochure on the 2nd February. I poured over the brochures for days trying to work out what I wanted to do. Sadly, but not altogether unexpectedly, the tour had changed over the course of 10 years; in 2007 I would need to add some time to the beginning of a tour to do the missing elements of my holiday alone. Journey Latin America were very willing to help arrange this special holiday - they always have been good on the phone. In countries where it is difficult to take cars over borders and where I do not speak the native language I felt a little vulnerable at this idea and still do.
There is something appealing about flicking through the glossy pages of a holiday brochure that you do not get from a website. The bright colours of the blurb though equally vivid on-screen take on a new dimension when you can turn the pages and feel the sheen between your fingers. It may just be my personal preference but the ability to read a brochure at any time in any place has great appeal; when I read about a holiday I want all the information to be there at my fingertips and to be sure I wont miss anything crucial; it is with much regret I have to announce that despite being in love with the IT industry (for whom I work) there are distinct disadvantages to the internet. How many times has the click-click nature of the dispersed information on the web resulted in not having seen the complete set of details? Holiday brochures are always a winner with me.
Having ruled out resurrecting my dream holiday I got to my other option - a cruise. I searched online for all the different cruise liners I could recall although regrettably holidays rarely being on my personal radar I could only think of P&O, Fred Olsen, Holland Line, Easy cruise and Cunard. The web is a wonderful place for finding information I searched for each line in turn trying to find contact details to obtain brochures; looking for the contacts reduced me to two different cruise liner companies: Olsen Line and P&O, as regrettably none of the others had contact details that were easy to obtain. Both companies sent me brochures, which both landed on my doorstep on Friday 16th February.
My approach to finding my perfect holiday was a little 'unorthodox'. When prese
nted with the two plastic wrapped catalogues I opened the P&O brochure first; this was partly because the packet was bigger, but mostly because the name P&O is known by more people than the Olsen line. As I ripped the plastic apart I pulled out the thickest of the brochures, relaxed into the sofa and started to read. The first thing I encountered in the brochure was an 84 night trip which included all the dates required and a fair number of other days too! It was with great surprise that I discovered that the places it visited included most of the countries (but not the cities) I had wanted to visit some ten years earlier. The crowning glory was that the cruise started and ended from an English port so there was no flying involved. I looked through the rest of the brochure, but despite other trips meeting all my criteria, it was still the first trip that caught my eye "Artemis: The South American Odyssey 2007".My choice was clear!
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