World Tour

My husband and I had come to a point in our life where were able to take a pause. We had sold our business, our children had left home and we could now take time for ourselves and travel! This trip was not something we could put together ourselves, we tried and it was impossible, nearly destroyed the laptop in the process! We were then recommended Travel Counsellors, (I had never heard of them before). But how glad we were that we found Jane, our local Travel Counsellor. We met with her and explained our crazy idea and she made it happen! Our aim was to see family in New Zealand taking in other countries en route. With her and with her professional knowledge on the technicalities of ticketing, destinations and time scales we started to formulate a plan. Within a couple of weeks, two meetings and some emails we had our final World Tour. Planning it was as exciting as packing and going. Jane was very patient with us as we chopped and changed the route to get exactly what we wanted and within our budget. So, in March 2010 with a small family gathering at Heathrow to see us off, we set off for Las Vegas, and the Aria Hotel. What a great place to start, so vibrant and exciting. This flight was the first of 28 over the next 9 weeks. After not winning on the tables, but seeing the Grand Canyon, wow, we took our hire car and drove to LA, from here we flew to Auckland then on to Wellington. Here we stayed with family for a few days before boarding a tiny plane for a bumpy flight to the South Island and a camper van for a week touring the island. Helicopter to the Franz Josef glacier was thrilling! From New Zealand we flew to Melbourne, visiting friends and discovering this beautiful city. In Australia we visited Sydney and travelled up to Cairns to the Barrier Reef staying in a self-catering swim up apartment, loved that! It was now April and my birthday, celebrated with the sun rise over 4 mile beach and a glass or two of sparkling Cloudy Bay! From Cairns we travelled to Bangkok and a 7 night cycle tour of the River Kwai. To rest our tired bones after cycling, we checked in to the Six Senses in Hua Hin for a 14 night pamper and pause. We were totally chilled and loved Thailand. Refreshed, we flew to Hanoi and Halong Bay and Surprising Caves! Due to poor weather we couldn’t stay on a Junk but we were checked into a very nice hotel on the bay, all this was organised by our Travel Counsellor back at home and was seamless to us. We flew down to Ho Chi Minh City, which we found very moving, there’s lots to see here and the food was delicious. From Vietnam we travelled to Hong Kong for a few days (and shopping!) before coming home. We could not have put this programme together ourselves and have enjoyed it so much. So, when I came to another point in my life for a change, I chose to became a Travel Counsellor myself and now I am creating dream holidays for my lovely clients.