It’s that time of the year when our thoughts turn toward what we should give our loved one(s) for Christmas. Our favorite Christmas gift, or birthday gift, or anniversary gift, or pick-a-reason gift is the gift of travel. One of the reasons is that a travel gift never grows old. . .oh, the immediate experience of travel might grow old, but the memory will live on as long as you have a memory. Not so with many other gifts given at Christmas…the sweater will wear out, the toy will get broken, the game will be forgotten in a year or two, or the shower head will get corroded. That shower head illustration is a true one; a friend of mine confessed he gave a shower head to his wife for Christmas!!
With a travel gift, there is the period before the trip of exciting planning and anticipation, there is the selecting the right clothes to wear, there are side trip or excursions to consider, and of course, leaning on the experience and suggestions of a travel agent to help with the selection of the right travel experience that fits your family’s needs and budget.
A very popular travel gift that many couples, and even families give each other is the destination that I talked about last week, Alaska. We would love to visit with interested folks about that gift. We have had the pleasure of planning and escorting groups there for the past 20 years. We have several blogs on our website that talk about some of our Alaska experiences; see www.thetravelfactoryabilene.com.
Another cruise gift, quite different from the ocean cruising experience, is a river cruise. This vacation option has been extremely popular over the past 5 years, and if you have watched any of the Viking River Cruise television commercials, you get an idea of the varied, interesting, and beautiful sights along some of the European rivers, as well as those in China and Russia.
It just so happens that The Travel Factory has the perfect Christmas river cruise present. We are planning a cruise on what Viking River Cruise calls the Romantic Danube next November. Already 10 couples have signed up to go, and one of the reasons that it is so popular now is the current promotion they have. Beside the $125 per person discount on the two for one price, they are offering a $150 per person discount if you are traveling on one of their new longships (which we are), and if you have ever traveled on Viking, they are offering an additional $300 per person discount. For example, one couple who has signed up with us is traveling on an 8-day European cruise for a base room rate of only $1,420 a person.
That cruise starts in Budapest, visits Vienna, Melk, Passau, the 12th century medieval city of Regensburg, and terminates in Nuremberg. We visit 4 UNESCO World Heritage Sites, and enjoy the merchants getting ready for the Christmas shopping rush.
There are so many other Christmas travel gift options, so rely on the experienced travel agents at The Travel Factory to guide your decisions. Call us at 698-1421 or 800-760-4040 or come by 4150 Southwest Drive. Happy travel shopping!!!