The Brief
Deborah and her family of 5 wanted to go to New York and explore around that part of the States. Cape Cod, Martha's Vineyard, Boston, even Niagara Falls could be part of the itinerary. They were happy to consider any type of accommodation, as long as it could house 5 of them comfortably. The important factor was that they wanted to leave in a month's time...
Building the travel plans
This was a great project to work on. With only a month to their travel date, it was crucial to make decisions on the final itinerary quite quickly.
In the initial consultation, we explored the type of holiday she was looking for, what was important to her when it came to accommodation, how much travelling they wanted to do, how many days they wanted to spend in each location and the means of travel. We discussed the absolute "must haves" for their holiday and Deborah also gave me an idea of her budget.
It was wonderful to work with Deborah on her open and varied brief. Despite the time factor, there seemed to be good availability of both accommodation and flights. The research started with the basics - mapping out possible itineraries (including one with Niagara Falls as well as New York), the ease of getting from one place to another, flight availability and even the weather.
Once the possibile routes were in place, accommodation was explored. This included researching family friendly hotels, private apartments and private houses. In all cases, availability as well as online reviews were checked.
Within a few days, I was pleased to present two different itinerary options for Deborah. Each itinerary included:
- Flights (with different flight times to suit Deborah's needs)
- Airport Transfers (taxi or airport parking options to/at UK airport and transfer options at the destination airport)
- Hotels (suitable and available hotels for a family of 5)
- Private House rental (may be suitable for stays of a week or more, rather than a hotel)
- Private Apartment (a good alternative to hotels for families)
- Airport Hotel (good for early morning flights)
- Alternative Transport (some of their travelling could be done by train, rather than driving long distances)
Fine-tuning the options
Deborah and her family liked both the travel plans, and after consideration, made the decision on New York/Cape Cod/Boston. Within each plan were alternatives for each of the elements (flights, villa, apartment, etc). All that remained was to fine-tune these options and decide on which flight times were more suitable and which accommodation they preferred.
It was wonderful to then present the final travel plan. Deborah and their family had all the information they needed to make the booking part very easy.
Testimonial from Deborah
"Ching made what we had been talking about for months into a reality. Both my husband and I are internet literate, but we never seemed to have the time to sort it out. We really thought we had left it too late, but within days, Ching came up with 2 itineraries for our 2 week holiday and we left a month later! She provided us with all the website links so that we could explore her recommendations and decide which itinerary to go for. Knowing that Ching had checked the availability and providing us with all contact details, it made it very easy for us to make the booking.
I think going independently realised some real savings. The total price of our holiday was far less than we had anticipated and I would certainly recommend this for other families. I really don't think we would have gone if it hadn't been for Ching."
If, like Deborah, you're too busy to plan your next trip, why not ask me to do the legwork? I provide a no obligation quotation for each project and you initial consultation is FREE.