Azores - go before everyone finds out!

We recently spent 12 days in The Azores or Sao Miguel to be precise. There are 9 islands and this is the one that is easiest to get to now that their government allows Delta to fly from JFK daily from May to October. It's a little over 4 hours from NYC and (currently) a reasonable airfare if you consider it is A) Europe and B) Summer.  We scored tixs for about $800/pp in AUGUST.

The Azores are a unique place. They are volcanic, have a tea plantation, grow the best pineapples you will ever eat, largely self-sufficient when it comes to food.

You can go hiking all over the island if you're that type of person.

You can go swimming in an ocean filled pool, scuba diving, sailing and whale watching (which we suck at because we never see whales) if your that type of person.

You can go to the botanical garden, historic and still active military fort/museum, or have a personal tour of the farmer's market and cooking class on what you've bought.

A really cool and unique thing to do is have dinner cooked by volcano. Furnas is the part of the island that still has volcanic activity. There is a park where restaurants take their pots in the early morning, let them cook all day and then serve dinner at their place in town. We were lucky enough to be there when they pulled one out of the ground. It's like Mother Nature's Crock Pot.

There aren't a lot of hotels so check out Airbnb for great deals. We scored a 3 bedroom flat with a view of the harbor and a parking spot in the building right on the main drag for about $239/night. We were walking distance to everything in Ponta Delgado.

Car rental was pricey but necessary if you want to see the island. Parking in town can be a challenge but is manageable. Driving is easy and as the roads that go around the island are winding so you don't go much over 30 mph. There are roads the cut across that move faster as does the highway. But take the scenic routes to really get a feel for this island. Just know that cows are really a source of traffic.

You can take 4 full days and do the highlights or a week to 10 days gets you a really in-depth view of these islands in the middle of the Atlantic.

Bonus: No regular cruise ships stop here unless they are on transatlantic from the US to Europe for the change of season. So you will not have days where the town is flooded with people!

The one thing you can't really do is shop. If you're a shopper looking for duty-free or lots of shops selling local wares, this is not the island for you, find somewhere else for that!

So Who is Your Travel Agent?

I get asked this a lot and it's always fun to reply: ME!

But I work at it. Some trips harder than others.  Maybe that's because our family likes to travel a certain way? 

If you looked at my TripAdvisor travel style you'd see beach goer, history buff, upscale and like a local. Which means we don't camp. (heaven forbid!) But we don't have the wealth to do the fist class airfare (every trip) private yach, villa with chef, butler and pool boy.  Then we're not Motel 6 people either. We prefer Marriott over Hilton but not over Four Seasons or the Ritz. And mostly we like to see wherever we are from the locals perspective.

[Note: NatGeo just published How to Be a Good Traveler in 10 Easy Steps which includes how to explore like a local]

So put that altogether and what you get is a lot of research and a lot of work. Generally I start with Google Earth and pick a spot that we think we want to go or try to zero in on an island or country or the city and plan from there.

TripAdvisor is always my first stop I look at all the hotel offers based on what our family tends to like. Beach. pool. Historical sites. If we are headed to a city, we usually want to be close to all the attractions.  If I don't find a hotel to our liking on TripAdvisor then my next stop is VRBO this is the be-all end-all for home away from home rentals and I've had great success finding us places to stay. Generally I use vacation rental by owner if were going to stay somewhere for a long period of time say 10 days or more. This way we have a place to come back to at the end of the day where we can make a simple meal and relax and not be forced to eat out every meal and be stuck in a  hotel room.

Just like buying a property it's all location location location. This is where you really have to do your work if you care about where you're staying. I tend to look at what is most attractive to us, check the map and see if any of the properties I've found match up. And you can't take the listing as truth on the location.  I've seen apartments listed in NYC as Upper West Side that are on 121st Street. Ummm, no. Note even close. Make sure you get an exact address before you book.

UWS = 59th to 110th

I just recently tried Airbnb.com for the first time. Again, gotta really look at the map and know where you want to be. I asked one owner about public transit near his rental and he said "there's a bus stop but you don't want to use public transit, it's not safe." Ok, apparently you don't want to rent your house. NEXT!  

After finding suitable hotel/housing next comes airfare. Usually. Sometimes I find a great place but airfare is prohibitive so I have to drop back and punt. [insert The Azores here]

The Azores - Gotta find the 'off season' to go here.

I like to first check Hopper to see what they have to say about timing of buying a ticket to our chosen destination. Then it's on to kayak.com to dig out a fare. I've always found the best days to find a cheap(er) flight is early Sunday morning or Tuesday. Usually I set up a daily email and watch the fare for a while before I buy.

But the one thing I always do is once I find flights I like, I go through the process of buying them so I can see how filled the seats are on those flights. If I have a lot of lead time then I'll do this a couple of times before I buy the ticket. I try to take note of how many seats are filled the first time and then look and see if they've filled up and do I need to buy sooner rather than later.

[Side Note: On a recent trip to Turks and Caicos the first time I looked at the flights and found one I like and then looked at the seating chart and realized I needed to book sooner and I bought tickets 8 months in advance of the trip. Otherwise we would've been able to get flights at all.]

Make sure you always check directly with the airline site and don't just go with what you see on Orbitz or Travelocity or even Kayak you want to make sure that the flight that you're seeing is really a good flight and you could actually get it as it's offered.

Once you've got your location your hotel and your airfare booked you're ready to go and the rest is easy. If you're a scuba diving family like we are then you have to make sure that you've got reservations on the dive boat for the days that you want to dive going to the places that you want to go.

Will Cypha aka rental car

Otherwise the only thing left his car rental, if you need one. If we're traveling stateside I go through Hotwire.com because I don't really care who I rent my car from as long as it's got four wheels and it's going to hold the amount of luggage that we're going to carry. Hotwire always gives me the best deal for car rentals often times it's half or even less than half of what the carriers are offering out right.

Ultimately you have to know what kind of traveler you are before you book the hotel or airfare or make the first travel plan.  

When It's Not What You Think

So we spent two weeks over the holidays in Providenciales, Turks & Caicos and it is beautiful. It's warm, sunny, the water is super clear. Diving was great [according to my divers.] Food was delicious. Really lovely.

But it wasn't what we thought it would be.  In fact, once you get past the beauty, weather and food, it was a lot like the Jersey shore in July. Grace bay is this 13 mile stretch of white sand beach with calm water and the bodies are practically on top of each other.  Granted they are in resort lounge chairs vs. the typical towel or beach blanket at the shore but there were people EVERYWHERE. And they were all American.

What you expect when you research TCI

This is what it's really like.

TCI totally caters to Americans.  In fact, their official currency is the US dollar, which is nice since you don't have to pay an exchange rate or additional fees on credit cards. Oddly, for an island that is so "American," very very few places take American Express.  [Note to travelers like us: Take your Visa or MC!]

We are the type of travelers that like to immerse ourselves in the local culture, history, food etc. That was really hard to do when everyone I spoke with was from somewhere else. All of the resort staff were Haitian or Jamaican. I met ONE person during our two week visit that was born and bred in TCI. And I talk to everyone! I ask where to eat, what to see, where to go. Most were stymied and the concierge at our resort just stared at me like I had asked to book a tour to the moon.

Thankfully we had our car, Will Cypha, who we drove all over the island looking for the elusive TCI culture, history, local flair and 'downtown' Provo, which we found doesn't really exist other than on a local map. 

Will Cypha - He spoke Japanese

The Christmas Eve "Funky Junkanoo" was as close as we came to any cultural activities. And we heard the Thursday Fish Fry is a good time, since the holidays fell on Thursday we missed that.

 

We did come across one historical site at Sopadilla Bay Hill.  Rock carvings from soldiers on lookout during the 18th and 19th century.  Here's the oldest one that dates to 1767 and another from 1832.  

But it wasn't a total loss - we had great food & drinks at Bugaloo's!

We did an all-day snorkel trip with Caicos Dream Tours on January 1st. That was fun!

Mind you, it wasn't a horrible trip by any measure. It was just not what we expected given all that we had read and researched prior to booking our trip - in April 2014!  [Yes, 8 months in advance and  reasonable airfares were difficult to find.]

I guess  'don't believe everything you read' is the lesson here. I am a big researcher before I book a trip and I feel like this wasn't quite an #epicfail but I certainly needed to have done more to ensure we went on the type of trip we enjoy.

So if you're an adventure traveler, history buff, museum monger or like to do all the locals stuff, Provo, TCI is not the place for you.

If you're looking for a place to unwind, take in the sun, hang on the  beach and enjoy the calm waters and eat great seafood, then TCI is the perfect place for you!

P.S. If you venture a trip to TCI, be sure to give yourself at least THREE hours on the return trip to the airport, you will need it. PLS is the worse island departure experience we've ever encountered. 

The Gift of Travel

Off We Go!

One of the many beaches we've lounged upon

We've been traveling for years during the winter holiday season.  Not being religious, I figured it was better to get out of town, avoid the cold weather, skip needless shopping for stuff people don't:
a) want
b) need or
c) like and will therefore have to return while fighting the throngs of after holiday sale shoppers
and head to the Caribbean for a week+ of warmth and merriment of our own making.

 [Side note: Our parents lived on the same street and it was too chaotic shuffling back & forth so we just gave up, which was way easier than dealing with the family holiday madness.]

Wilma was a Cat 5 storm.

I should say this originally started when we were taking a trip in October that Hurricane Wilma forced us to 1) postpone and 2) find a new place to visit after it wiped out Cancun.  The NOAA hurricane central website helped find an island that had not been destroyed in recent memory. [See my post on Like Amsterdam But in Pastels for the full story.]

This tradition started when our child was a baby. As she's gotten older we've asked if she wants to stay home and 'celebrate' and repeatedly we got the 'No," so I've stopped asking and now we just go.

We have 12 days until we leave for this year's trek. Two weeks in a condo on the beach. But let me tell you, each year it gets harder and harder to plan. It seems there are more people who have taken to the gift of travel instead of giving unwanted/needed/liked gifts.

 

 

Our planning process 

This is our actual airline confirmation. Notice the date: May 20!!!

In May we start thinking about where we might want to go. Generally I look for a more 'off the radar' type of island.  But for some reason, this year I zeroed in on a well known destination. Typically  I start the process of looking for a place to stay on TripAdvisor. After looking at hotel rates (GASP!) I opted to find a rental through VRBO or FlipKey.  Thankfully I found a reasonably priced place and I booked it stat!  [When we started this tradition I could get a 4-5 star hotel for $179/night. This year I was faced with $750+/night!??!  Clearly this whole run-away-to-warmer-weather-for-the-holidays has caught on.]

Then I started looking at flights. Much to my surprise I was FORCED to by airfare because the flights were already practically booked - in MAY? We're talking for a December flight seats were filled and some totally sold out! Maybe it's the island we picked? Guess we'll find out in less than two weeks.

Since flights were already crammed, I figured I better book the rental car at the same time.  So at least all the big logistics were out of the way.

The spouse and the kid are scuba divers. For the past two months he's been saying 'I need to contact the dive shop.'  Finally he did. Guess what? First choice dive shop was booked. As in for the entire two week trip. [Again, people are catching on to this non-holiday thing.] Plan B - go with the cattle class dive shop. Stay tuned to see how that shakes out!

Part of the planning of the location/accommodations MUST include: beach access, pool, bar, spa, and ability to prepare our own meals or at least a mini-fridge and microwave. The first three go without saying, but the spa is all me. This is where I'll be spending lots of time...

This is what I really look forward to while not celebrating a holiday.

Moral of the story?

So, moral of the Gift of Travel post? Book early if you want to go somewhere you read a LOT about. Consider renting a flat, condo, house, villa if you can't find a reasonable hotel rate. Then hope everyone else decides to stay home.

Happy Travels!