Avanti Destinations is America’s premier travel management specialist located in Portland, Oregon. Since 1981, we have worked exclusively with Travel Advisors and we’re excited about helping you and your clients design their custom travel experience. We are recognized as the pre-eminent provider of independent travel in Europe, Central & South America, Asia, North Africa & the Middle East, and the South Pacific focused on delivering authentic experiences with great service. Read the rest of this entry »

With flames licking the edges of Canada’s largest national park, officials ordered 25,000 residents, visitors and seasonal workers to evacuate the town of Jasper; Jasper National Park and the Fairmont Jasper Park Lodge have closed; and the Rocky Mountaineer train has canceled several routes.

Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau on Thursday said the government is deploying military resources and evacuation support to Alberta, as well as coordinating firefighting and airlift assistance.

Rocky Mountaineer posted on its website that it is “unable to continue our rail journeys to or from Jasper for the foreseeable future” and is “moving as quickly as possible to work through the impact to guest itineraries,” in sequential order. It has canceled Journey through the Clouds departures on July 25: Jasper to Vancouver, July 26: Vancouver to Jasper and July 28: Jasper to Vancouver, and changed the itineraries for Rainforest to Gold Rush departures July 27: Vancouver to Jasper and July 30: Jasper to Vancouver.

“We will continue to work through other departures of Journey through the Clouds and Rainforest to Gold Rush and reach out to those guests as quickly as possible,” the company said.

The First Passage to the West route from Vancouver to Lake Louise and Banff, and The Rockies to the Red Rocks route from Denver to Moab, Utah, will proceed as scheduled.

Rocky Mountaineer also noted that a potential strike by the employees of Canadian Pacific Kansas City and Canadian National, which own and operate the rail lines on which Rocky Mountaineer travels, are facing potential strike action by unionized workers. “Rocky Mountaineer employees are not involved; however, if there is labor action, it could impact our train operations,” the company said. “Our team is working on a contingency plan should there be an impact to our rail journeys,” but negotiations are ongoing and the unions are required to provide 72 hours’ notice before striking.

Meanwhile, Fairmont Jasper Park Lodge—home to the largest golf course in Canada—said the fire has reached the property and everyone has been evacuated. But most of the lodge structures, including the main lodge, remain intact. For more information, call the Fairmont Banff Springs at 1-403-762-2211.

I recently woke from what I considered at the time to be a nightmare. Don’t you love it once you realize that the turmoil you are facing was just a dream?  Mine nighttime experiences seem very real and at times, filled with creative nuances that confuse me as the day later unfolds.

I won’t bore you with the specifics, but I will share enough information to help support today’s message. Read the rest of this entry »

Reaching—and keeping—high net worth customers is all about developing personal relationships–among you, them, the people with whom they are traveling and the luxury travel suppliers with whom you all interact.

That theme was repeated over and over again by the tony Manhattan crowd at Travel + Leisure’s “The World’s Best Summit” in Manhattan last week. Among the speakers from luxury travel companies like Hyatt and Six Senses and Hurtigruten, my favorite was Embark Beyond founder Jack Ezon, representing the luxury travel advisor community. Ezon said selling luxury is about offering customers access in the most creative of ways, bonding your clients and their guests over shared experiences that will last a lifetime. Read the rest of this entry »

Getting to and from river (or barge) trips is one of the more challenging aspects of travel. First, we prefer air travel with the most convenient connections. Second, we prefer to travel in comfort. To that end, we’ve written often about how to get the best business class fares.

The major airline hubs where river cruises often begin or end – Amsterdam, Paris, Vienna, Budapest – usually pose no problem, other than finding good-value airfares. Other destinations – Lyon, Arles, Bordeaux, Basel – pose challenges because they typically require connections through the major hubs. Read the rest of this entry »

September will bring two new all-inclusive options to Jamaica, as the Princess Hotels & Resorts Group debuts the adults-only Princess Senses the Mangrove (Princess Senses The Mangrove | Only adults hotel Jamaica (princess-hotels.com) and the family-friendly Princess Grand Jamaica (Princess Grand Jamaica Hotel en Negril (princess-hotels.com).

Scheduled to open on Sept. 15, the two properties will be next to one another in Green Island, a town on the western tip of Jamaica in Hanover.

Princess Senses The Mangrove has 401 oceanview suites and 14 overwater villas with private infinity pools. Among them are Pleasure Suites, which promise a sensual ambiance, and more exclusive Platinum Club Suites offering private areas, upgraded amenities and butler service.

Also on site will be a spa, a fitness and wellness center, a water park, a convention center and a nightclub, along with 14 restaurants and 15 bars serving everything from steak to food truck fare.

The Princess Grand Jamaica, meanwhile, has 590 oceanview suites, including Platinum Suites as well as Family and Master Suite options. It also has nine restaurants and a food truck, eight bars, three pools, a water park, a kids club and teens center, and a spa.

To keep guests busy, both properties offer beach volleyball, yoga, water aerobics, dance classes, cocktail-making and cooking classes, motorized and nonmotorized watersports, soccer, tennis, basketball, pickleball and archery.

Starting rates are $579 for a deluxe junior Suite at Princess Senses The Mangrove or $505 for a Princess Junior Suite at Princess Grand Jamaica.

Based in Spain, Princess Hotels & Resorts has a total of 11,000 guest rooms in the Canary Islands (Gran Canaria, Fuerteventura, Tenerife, La Palma), Barcelona, Dominican Republic (Punta Cana), Jamaica (Negril) and Mexico’s Riviera Maya.

“The World’s Largest Cruise Company” is growing even larger, introducing a new class of ships that hold 8,000 passengers each – and ordering three of them for Carnival Cruise Line from Italian shipbuilder Fincantieri.

At 230,000 gross registered tons each, and with more than 3,000 guest staterooms apiece, the new ships will be the largest in the Carnival fleet when they arrive in 2029, 2031 and 2033. They will be powered by liquefied natural gas (LNG) and feature advanced energy efficiency, waste management, and emission reduction technologies.

Carnival Cruise Line earlier this year placed its first newbuild order in five years, for two more Excel-class ships scheduled to join the fleet in 2027 and 2028. In addition, five vessels are being transferred over from sister brands between 2023 and March 2025.

When you’re on a roll, said Carnival Corporation & plc CEO Josh Weinstein, you stick with it. And so the company is “doubling down on the growth of Carnival Cruise Line – our highest-returning brand – to keep up with the incredibly strong demand we continue to see for the world’s most popular cruise line. At this point, our newbuild pipeline is just one delivery in each of 2025, 2027, 2028, 2029, 2031 and 2033. We continue to take a disciplined approach to growth, strategically directing new capacity to the areas of highest demand at a rate of one to two new ships per year.”

Carnival Cruise Line president Christine Duffy, meanwhile, promised “innovative guest experiences that will take Carnival Cruise Line into the future with new FUN features and excitement that we know our guests will LOVE.”

With five years to go until the ships debut, the company did not yet share details on the ships’ designs or itineraries.

If you’re still among the travel advisors who say “I don’t sell cruise,” you might want to reconsider. The growing cadre of luxury cruise ships sailing to exotic and adventure-filled destinations offers new options for existing customers and lures for a new generation of young travelers—and above all, it can serve as a gateway to the lucrative expedition travel market.

That was just one interesting takeaway from one of my favorite trips so far this season, an Embark Beyond fam trip to Alaska on the new Silversea Nova that had a unique angle: Onboard were five top-selling luxury travel advisors who had never sold a cruise—or even sailed on one.

I cannot remember being this excited about sharing my thoughts on any one particular topic in a long time. Your life could very well be on the verge of changing for the good. Fast. Easy. And soon.

It all started for me at my kitchen table while reading the morning paper. My wife showed me a book review of One Small Step Can Change Your Life: The Kaizen Way, written by Robert Maurer, Ph.D.

Since I often remind seminar attendees that Olympic Gold is usually won by thousandths of a second, the concept of taking small steps to achieve Read the rest of this entry »

When Janet and Jeff Blackwell checked into Beaches Negril on June 26, no one was paying much attention to a tropical wave forming off the coast of Africa. Celebrating their 40th anniversary, they planned to spend six days in Negril with their two grown sons, their wives and three small children, and then recreate their honeymoon with some private time at Sandals Montego Bay.

As the winds picked up, from 35 mph to 135 to 165, and the storm turned west and headed across the Caribbean toward them, they did consider changing their flights home. But tickets were scarce Read the rest of this entry »

Last week, AmaWaterways sent us a press release on their newest Nile River ship, AmaLilia. I was going to post the release with some photos for you all to read, but when I got to looking at pictures of the ship, I knew that you all needed to see more than just a few of them. Read the rest of this entry »

Disney will continue its expansion into Asia with year-round cruise vacations in the Land of the Rising Sun, under a new agreement with the owner of Tokyo Disney Resort, Oriental Land Co., Ltd. (OLC).

“Disney Cruise Line has ambitious plans to bring family vacations and Disney storytelling to more guests around the world than ever before,” Disney Experiences chairman Josh D’Amaro said.

Under the terms of the agreement, OLC will operate a new ship that will be registered and based in Japan year-round. With about 1,250 staterooms, the ship will be a sister to Disney Wish, but also feature “imaginative designs created by Walt Disney Imagineering,” including “select modifications specially designed with Japanese guests in mind.”

More details about the maiden voyage, itineraries and onboard experiences will be announced at a later date, Disney said.

The ship will be the ninth in the Disney fleet, which will almost double in size from the current five ships — Disney Magic, Disney Wonder, Disney Dream, Disney Fantasy and Disney Wish by 2029, with three more ships expected by the end of 2025. It will be owned by OLC, however, and leased to Disney.

It also will be the fourth in the Wish class, which will add two more ships by next year, Disney Treasure later this year and Disney Destiny in 2025. These ships are slightly larger than Disney Dream and Fantasy, holding about 4,000 guests in 1,250 staterooms. Disney Wish features the AquaMouse water coaster, a Marvel-themed restaurant and a Frozen-themed dinner theater.

Disney Cruise Line also plans to begin year-round cruises from Singapore in 2025 and this summer debuted a private island, Lookout Cay at Lighthouse Point, in The Bahamas. Its fleet sails the Caribbean, Europe, Alaska, Mexico, Canada, Hawaii, the South Pacific, and Australia and New Zealand.

There’s a buzz in the travel industry today as The Travel Institute kicks off its 11th Annual Promote Your Professionalism (PYP) campaign. Running through July, this beloved event aims to shine a light on the immense value of travel professional education and offers an incredible opportunity for all industry professionals—from travel agents and agency owners to suppliers—to access scholarship funds across its renowned 3-tier certification program, including its CTA®, CTC®, and CTIE® designations. Read the rest of this entry »

This may sound at first like a foolish question. Of course, you are ready to make more money. But it is not a foolish question. In fact, it is a question worth asking again and again. The truth is that most “travel professionals” do not want to make more money. I know this to be a fact because if they did, they would be making more money.

There is a wise old phrase that reminds us “talk is cheap.” Another cogent reminder suggests, “After all is said and done, more is said than done.”

Let’s cut to the chase and get a few facts straight. First, you can make as much money as you like in the travel business. You can double your current income in the coming year. Yes, you can. Read the rest of this entry »

Here’s one thing I learned on my first-ever camping trip last week: There’s something kind of sexy about sleeping with your husband under a star-filled night sky, watching him wrestle a big rig across the vast prairie, recalling cowboy movies set beside soaring red cliffs.

But I digress. Let’s start at the beginning.

Our amazing adventure in Zion National Park and Bryce Canyon started with an email from Benoit Lafond, CEO and co-founder of Noovo, a Vegas-based company that builds carefully crafted high-end camper vans. (His mission, he says, is to build “homes on wheels that incorporate the luxury of European hotels and the design of tiny Parisian apartments.”)

It started out much like other safaris. We piled into an open 4X4 safari vehicle with four rows of tiered seats and headed out into the bush. A few moments into the drive we encountered a wildebeest. We stopped and looked, as it looked back at us. Then we moved on.

Our guide, who was driving, told us, “It’s hard to compete with the Big Five.” There are no lions on the 47,000-hectare reserve known as the Cradle of Humankind. Only a 45-minute drive from Johannesburg, it’s not surprising that some of the larger, more charismatic wildlife have moved farther into the wilderness. There are leopards and waterbucks, and many other kinds of fascinating animals and plants, but this is not about the Big Five. What it has is something no one else in the world has: the oldest hominid fossils so far discovered on Earth Read the rest of this entry »

Located in southern Kenya, near the Tanzanian border, Amboseli National Park is more than an afterthought to the great Mount Kilimanjaro on the horizon. It has the “Big 5” of African animals to witness on safaris, large elephant herds, and is home to the proud Maasai tribe. Not to mention plenty of options for a few nights’ stay, from lodges to luxury camping.

The landscapes of Amboseli National Park range from the seemingly endless savannahs to the woodlands of acacia trees, to the swamps created by the runoff of Mt. Kilimanjaro. Impossible to overlook, Mt. Kilimanjaro is approximately 30 miles away. Views of this almost 20,000-foot-high mountain capture the attention and curiosity of travelers and locals alike–images memorialized in the minds of all who bask in the present scene. And particularly for those who enjoy photography.

Caribbean resorts are hunkering down and cruise ships are scrambling out of the way as Hurricane Beryl roils the skies and seas around the Windward Islands on Monday.

The only Category 4 hurricane ever recorded in June, with 130 mph winds, has sent up warnings for Barbados, St. Vincent and the Grenadines, Grenada, St. Lucia, and Tobago, and tropical storm warnings for Martinique and Trinidad. Hotel guests are hunkering down—but cruise passengers are sailing away.

Royal Caribbean on June 29 said Beryl’s “high waves and strong winds” were causing changes in Eastern Caribbean itineraries; instead of visiting St. Thomas and St. Maarten, Icon of the Seas will call at Cozumel and Costa Maya, Mexico, and then Perfect Day at CocoCay as planned. Wonder of the Seas will replace scheduled stops at Roatán and Costa Maya with Nassau; Harmony of the Seas will skip Roatán, Honduras and arrive in Cozumel and Costa Maya ahead of schedule.

Norwegian Cruise Line too, is making changes. Norwegian Jade will skip Falmouth, Jamaica; George Town, Grand Cayman; and Cozumel, Mexico, and instead head for the Eastern Caribbean, with calls at San Juan, Puerto Rico; Tortola, BVI; and Puerto Plata, Dominican Republic. Norwegian Breakaway also will head for the DR, instead of Honduras.

And Disney Fantasy will skip Falmouth, Jamaica and instead spend an extra day at sea.

As of 8:00am EST on Monday, Beryl was approximately 70 miles east of Grenada, hitting Barbados, St. Vincent and the Grenadines before taking a west-by-northwest route toward the Yucatan Peninsula later this week, then through the Bay of Campeche late Friday and toward the east coast of Mexico.

As we approach the Fourth of July, here’s to a safe and happy holiday. We will have a finger count next week. Take some time off (it’s OK) and use the time to celebrate our nation’s independence, enjoy fireworks, and gather with loved ones. Whether planning a family barbecue, a day at the beach, or simply relaxing at home, relax and forget about the day-to-day for a bit! Read the rest of this entry »

Paris offers so many opportunities for river cruisers. You can hop on a barge and cruise the Oise (or the many other regional canals and rivers). You can cruise the Seine or make your way by fast train (about two hours from Paris) to Bordeaux or Lyon for river cruises through beautiful wine country on the Rhone, Garonne and Dordogne. You can even get to Amsterdam or Basel, both about three hours by fast train, for Rhine river cruises. Read the rest of this entry »

It’s been three days of presentations on travel marketing—from defining your market to branding and using social media to creating raving fans—at the TravelPro Marketing Summit this week. And it’s no surprise that I’ve come away with a few good ideas I can’t wait to try out.

When experts talk about a subject they love, you can’t help but get excited. and this second online Travel Pro Summit is clearly a labor of love by travel advisor Tiffany Elberfeld and the speakers she recruited Read the rest of this entry »