VacationPlanning

[zoobernut]

I have a general question for BG. For those of you who like to travel and travel often how do you go about planning your vacation with regards to where you are going to go, where you get your plane tickets, where you are going to stay ect. Do you do it all on a website like travelocity or something like that or do you go to a travel agent or some other technique?

More specifically I want to plan a vacation for this summer and I would like to charter a catamaran in the Mediterranean and I have no idea where to start. Has anyone chartered a boat before anyone know any good websites or places to look?

Any other general vacation planning tips would be welcome too.

[Penthesilea]

That's gonna be mad expensive.

[Saphirea]

I do mine all through American Express.
I've found though in my business travels that Orbitz tends to have the best prices but shop around.

Orbitz, Travelocity, Expedia. Search those and take your time. Orbitz does have price guarantee.

If you have a major credit card, you can usually shop their site I think most do travel from them as well.

For what you're going to do, check with Costco if you're a member of them as well.

[Vandalhart]

It really depends on what kind of a Vacation you're looking for.
My wife and I are going on a Cruise in March and we used a Travel Agent
to get all the information and shore excursions and what not. It's probably more expensive than shopping around, I'm not sure what the procedure is for a Travel Agent. I would think a good one shops around for their client.

That being said, I know they have Mediterranean Cruises available from different Cruise companies. If that would be something that might float your boat you may want to entertain that idea. I personally like cruises because it's basically a dummies vacation. You fly to wherever you're going, take a shuttle to the port, get on the boat, eat/drink/be merry all week. I'm not sure how going alone would be, but we're going with my Sister and one of my Cousins this time around and it'll be a lot more fun than the last time we went. We're actually going to check out some Mayan Ruins when we stop in Cozumel.

[zoobernut]

Thanks for the suggestions. Instead of doing a cruise I want to see if we can charter a private sail boat which my family has done before when I was younger in the Caribbean. Has anyone done a charter sailboat before in the Mediterranean?

[Kwijiboe]

If your family has done it, why not ask your parents?

[zoobernut]

Well because both of my parents were not there and were not instrumental in the planning of it. Also I was just curious if anyone in BG had done any trips like that and had any tips. I wanted to do some research on my own and was just curious.

I am also asking other people in real life too.

[noblemountain]

i'm rather dumb in all the planning details 'cause i just call amex and the concierge service takes care of everything. i just tell them where/when/how many.

[Katlan]

If you have a good travel agent they should almost always be able to point you in the right direction of what you need even if they can't help you personally. Well... they help you in the long run by having the connections and taking care of all the flights/arrangements/hotels/shapperons (sp) you will meet up w/while there.

I went on a 14 day Safari around South Africa a few years ago. Stayed at 5 diff places (2-3 days a night at each place), had to have small planes come pick us up and take us to spots close to the next Safari hub, ect... It was all through our travel agent, but she got us connected w/another company that specialized in our type of trip so that we could have shapperons (sp) and such meet us at out landing sites and arrange our various accommodations. Made things so much easier... the moment we got off the plan into Tanzania there was somebody waiting for us who took us to out hotel, ect... and then when we left the main city we had 2 travel guide's w/ us the entire time who were w/us from morning to night. Was a great experience and had a great time. It was a very luxurious trip, but any good travel agent can point you in the right direction & get your trip mapped out

[Vandalhart]

Yeah, that's about how I "run" the show.

Email Travel Agent, they research, give me prices, I commit/refuse.

A private boat does sound fun though.

[zoobernut]

Yeah that trip was so much fun. It is rather pricey if you don't do it right but we had the whole family going so it cut down on costs because the boats were full. We also only had a skipper and a cook on one boat and the other we sailed ourselves.

We sailed around the Caribbean for 2.5 weeks hopping from island to island snorkeling and scuba diving. It was a really amazing experience and it is really nice to have the privacy of your own boat.

[Viena]

More specifically I want to plan a vacation for this summer and I would like to charter a catamaran in the Mediterranean and I have no idea where to start. Has anyone chartered a boat before anyone know any good websites or places to look?

I guess you know that this might get quite costly and be quite limited.

Chartering a catamaran will easily get over $3000 per person/week, and the distances you can get to will be quite limited, so you should have an idea of which part of the Mediterranean is the one you're more interested in. One really interesting choice that can suit a trip like this are the Greek Islands, as they offer very interesting and varied sights, and it's not uncommon to reach Turkey when visiting them.

I'm not sure if you were planning on also a hiring a captain, but if you aren't you should make sure that one of you can legally assume that role. I personally would find scary the idea of sailing in completely unknown seas without someone who is familiar with them.

Your options are varied, but they are really dependant on what areas you are interested in and on the ammount of time & money you have for a trip like this.

[zoobernut]

Right now I was looking at the Greek islands and I was expecting to hire a captain but no other crew. I was also understand it will be fairly expensive.

A couple of websites were recommended to me.

Sailing Charters Vacations Bareboat & Crewed Worldwide
The Moorings-Yacht Chartering Company-Sailing Vacations
Catamarans for Sale, Sailing Vacations and Catamaran services

[Quixon]

For the Greek Islands...... you must must must must go to Santorini.


No as far as planning goes. I usually surf around all the common vacation sites (Travelocity, Orbitz, etc.), then I'll check and compare prices with my travel agent (I use liberty travel).

Liberty Travel is almost always better price wise, and when they aren't they will match the price as best they can.

I usually take 2 trips a year. 1 cheap one and 1 on the more expensive side.

Me and the g/f are doing Disney/Orlando this year for the cheaper vacation. I got roundtrip airfare (Newburgh, NY -> Orlando Int'l), 7 nights at the disney all star, 7 days of disney park passes, and airport transportation for $778/ea.

At face value those park passes alone come out to like $420 lol.

For our more expensive trip we are looking at going to Fiji or Ecuador, but we haven't really gotten down to seriously planning that one yet.

[Quixon]

And yeah, the cheapest Catamaran I see available at "The Moorings" is $900/day for the area around Greece.

7 Grand seems a little excessive to sit around on a, smaller sized (37' isn't that big when you're on it for a week), boat.


EDIT:

I see one from Athens for 345.00/Day for a 34' mini-yacht. That's a bit more reasonable I suppose.

[zoobernut]

Yeah the yacht thing works the best when you can get 15-20 people on a very large 50+ foot boat. Makes it more reasonable on a per person basis.