Hill Travel Centre
Call: (615) 754-1117 | Email:
Hill Travel Centre
Call: (615) 754-1117 | Email:
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Hi All,
Greeting from Hill Travel Centre,
Yes, it is a time for great uncertainty; Yes, it is a frustrating time; Yes, we have been through bad times before and have always fought our way through: So shall we this as well.
I am sitting here on hold (for a long time now) trying to cancel, change, etc. a client booking. I am also sitting here thinking of all of the travel that we have done since 1969 (when Cancun wasn't even there!) and we flew into Merida for an amazing Mayan week. I look at 1970 when we took 45 people to Portugal, Spain and Italy for two weeks at a cost of $450.00 pp. (air and land)! I also look at the tours to Scandinavia, Central Europe, The UK, China, Japan, Australia, New Zealand, Hawaii, Alaska, Ecuador, Peru, Chile, Argentina, Uruguay, Canada, the Azores, Costa Rica, Cayman and more. I also think of all of the cruises that we have taken around this beautiful world; and the many visits to the Caribbean...Especially SANDALS and BEACHES!
With all of these thoughts and memories, we do not intend to stop going and hole-up as hermits. Even at our age we have more of this world to explore; And we think that you should also. No, it would be better to wait a bit; But you can start now to make your bucket list. Perhaps the following will give you some possibilities: -Least expensive cruises: Carnival and RCCL Cruise Lines sailing out of Baltimore (no air involved); And sailing from Cape Liberty (Bayonne, NJ): RCCL and Celebrity Cruise lines-OR NYC sailing on Norwegian, Carnival, Cunard, Princess Cruise Lines. No air involved
-Best Air Deals: Southwest, and Spirit Airlines to the Caribbean from BWI: And a host of domestic and foreign flights from EWR (Newark NJ) and JFK (NYC).
-Best Railroad experiences in the USA: AMTRAK Vacations, Rocky Mountain Rail tours, VIA Rail Canada; And you can board in Wilmington, Delaware to make all of the connections needed.
-Best Motor Coach Tours available: Delaware Express, Avalon Tours, Elite Coach, Perkioman Tours, Cecil Travellers, and local tour groups. You can google for contacts to these, or call us for more contact information.
-Best local experiences that you can do in the comfort of your own car: Visit the Conowingo Dam (base), and not only watch the many Eagles, Osprey, Cormorants; But view the fish and the dam itself////Drive to Chesapeake City and enjoy a wonderful and relaxing day or half day....Also visit North East, Port Deposit, Havre de Grace, Chestertown, Rock Hall, Easton and Cambridge and a host of lovely and neat little town up and down the DELMARVA Peninsula (Eastern Shore of Maryland, Delaware, and Tidewater Virginia). You can drive to all of these places and enjoy the history and culture as well as have excellent and reasonably priced Bay Food. So don't stay home all of the time and become board: As noted above, there are a number of things you can do that do not involve large numbers of people.
-So, as you can see, there are things that you can do to get out and about. If you need more suggestions or contacts-Do not hesitate to call and talk to us.
Sincerely, Ann & Wayne Hill
Once upon a time (until the early 1990s) there were some 47,000 travel agencies in the USA. Since WWII these travel agencies first wrote and then printed (issued) approx. 85% of all of the airlines' tickets. That percentage (at least) is also the approx. number of tours, cruises, resort vacations, hotels, rental cars, and travel insurance booked by those same Travel Agents. The Travel Agent was (and still is except for airline tickets) paid a commission for making those bookings, and taking care of the whole process for you (the client). If you book something through a tour operator directly the rate would be the same as your Travel Agent told you, but you would not receive the commission...AND you would not have a local Travel Agent there to work on your behalf.
Unfortunately, everyone didn't live happily ever after: The airlines and online booking sites have slowly but surely eliminated a large number of agents because people have gone to the Internet thinking that the deals were better (in some cases they are); But they also lost their best travel friend and advocate: Their local Travel Agent. Now, if you can find 12, 000 travel agencies you would be lucky. The really sad part in all of this is that the airlines stopped paying Travel Agents commissions thinking that they would make a fortune- not paying those commissions....Look Again: They could not pay employees, and provide benefits for what they were paying the agents to issue those tickets. So, they were forced to sell allotments of ticketing seats to various online booking agencies: i.e., Expedia, Travelosity, Kayak, Priceline.com, etc. at prices that literally change every day!
If you thought that airline ticketing has gone off of the deep end, take a look at hotels, even some cruise lines....and you guessed it: They are also dealing with allotments. That simply means that if you go online to most hotel sites and do not find room...Fear not, you can simply go to one of the above sites like Trip Advisor-etc. And they may have space. This is becoming the norm, and it is quite sad. Not only are you forced to jump around all over the place, not have anyone who will answer a questions for you...............When you do book something and have questions or a problem...Who can you call who will answer? Yes, your local Travel Agent......However, she or he cannot help you because you didn't go to them in the first place, and they cannot touch anything that you have booked.
It is hard to imagine that many people would turn-down the solid advice that a professional Travel Agent would offer (for the most part free). These Travel Agents have spent years acquiring these skills and knowledge, yet many people simply do not take advantage of this. The least you can do is to contact your local Travel Agent and ask them to price something for you and to make suggestions....I suspect that the advise is extremely good and worth consideration.
What can we do for you? One of the best things we have done for our clients is this website. This is an amazing website, not just for unique pricing comparisons but a host of special travel information from around the world. Look at this page and see the words BOOK RACK..click on it and fine over a hundred electronic brochures for you to read and do your research: It , like our agency, is free at no charge to you. I even have school classes use this side based on what it contains. Check it out!
TRAVEL NEWS:
More to come......................Let us know if you need any assistance...Ann & I will be here for you.