Planet Hoppers | March 2020

March 2020

California’s 2019 Travel Consultant of the Year - LUXlife Magazine

Bay Area’s 2019 Best International Bespoke Holiday Agency - LUXlife Magazine

With recent headlines affecting both life and travel, it’s important that you have accurate and timely information. Here are some resources to keep you informed and safe. Your well being is our number one priority so that you may fully enjoy your long-anticipated vacation.

- Travel Advisories issued by the US Government

- News from the World Health Organization

- What travel insurance does and does not cover in regards to Covid19

Featured Trip Of The Month

YUNICE, VINNIE & FRIENDS TAKE ON MOROCCO

See their fun-filled itinerary here.

Yunice and Vinnie are two independent, successful women working in Finance who met a decade ago as regional members of a business professional association. They both love to travel every chance they get. Even after Vinnie relocated to Thailand, they meet up in an exotic destination at least once a year, from their opposite hemispheres, for fun, adventure and, occasionally, shopping. Read about their Moroccan New Year's Adventure below:

“Morocco has always been on our bucket lists, but for both safety and logistics, our biggest challenge was having the right tour and the right friends to travel with us. We generally spend New Year’s together so this Morocco itinerary over the holidays was just right. We were able to recruit 2 more friends to travel with us, so all 4 of us were on the same tour with the rest of the group. We had such a great combination of people on the tour, and a great tour guide as well. He was fun. We laughed the whole time. Much better than travelling solo!“

“Our favorite place was the Blue Pearl, Morocco’s Blue City, Chefchaouen, there was so much to see, so very, very unique. And we were there the longest out of any other city. It’s so beautiful and all the colors, there’s so much to see@ Everything was shades of blue. You walk everywhere and it was easy to walk around and get lost in. Certainly, it's not a big city, so by the second day, we weren’t using google maps or anything. Once you got familiar, it was very comfortable. Essentially it was a small town, but very like a big city where you can find everything there.”

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“We are both huge shoppers and we decided that this was the one trip where we shopped the least. I didn’t notice, but looking back, Vinnie and I really wanted to shop and we were like ‘I can’t believe I didn’t buy anything!’ We did end up buying things in Marrakech that we really wanted to, like the biggest thing on my list was spices for my mother which I got, but in terms of other things, we wished we had bought more. The tour guide did take us to a place where they did mosaics and ceramics and things like that. They had that when we got to Fez, because some people wanted to buy ceramics, so that was good, but generally, this tour company isn’t obvious, they really do try to position factory visits as an educational activity. The tour guide was fun and good, but he didn’t want us to spend any money!“

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"Morocco has a lot of diversity in food. We were very cautious but, of course, I trust the tour guide implicitly, he always took us to places that were clean and professional and you never really had to worry about getting sick, because it looked like that might be easy to do in certain places. I’m very adventurous when it comes to food and I’d eat street food but our guide was like, 'don’t do it!' Part of me wished I had eaten more off the street, I didn’t get sick, but I wish I had eaten in places where I’d seen more locals than tourists. Everywhere we ate was really good, the tagines, the couscous. Everything. The really funny thing is that one day, we were all craving Chinese food, so we went and actually found a Chinese restaurant that was good enough to satisfy our cravings."

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“Mainly, one of the biggest differences (between doing it yourself and using an agent) is ease of planning, right? We don’t have to do all the research that takes up so much time. So, for that reason, we have an appreciation for what Amy does and deals with. That’s one thing. But the biggest thing is knowing that there is someone to rescue you when you are stuck in a foreign place, because you’re pinging Amy and saying ‘what’s going on?’ and she would just fix it. If I did it all myself, I would have to fix it myself, and then it would just cost me a lot of money, so that’s the top two things of why we work with Amy. And, she picks the best places and gives the best advice. You never have to worry.”