Nancy and shawn power

Why I LOVE Doing Multiple Cruises/Land Tours During ONE Trip!

 

5-10% of my clients already do this regularly (as I do) but for those of you who don’t, I wanted to throw out an idea to you today to consider for some of your Future Vacations.

Have you ever done multiple Cruises or Land Tours during ONE Vacation?

If not, you may want to consider doing so in the Future as there are some GREAT benefits to doing back to back (and may even another “to back”) Cruises and/or Land Tours!

 

Now, in case you’re wondering what the heck I’m talking about, here’s an example:

In July, 2015 I flew to France & I did this 7 night “Paris & Normandy” River Cruise… one day after that Cruise ended I got on a 7 night “Bordeaux” River Cruise… the same day I finished that Cruise I got on a 7 night “Burgundy & Provence” River Cruise.

So, I did 3 back to back to back River Cruises plus I spent a few days in Paris before Cruise # 1.

Later this year I’m spending a week in Switzerland doing some hiking in the Mountains with my sister & sister-in-law and since we are there we also decided to add on this Southern France River Cruise followed by I’m doing this Tauck “Small Ship” Ocean Cruise in Venice & Croatia.

 

Here are a few reasons why I have done MANY back to back Cruises & Land Tours:

 

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1. Airfare

This is one of the biggest reasons I do trips like this year after year. It helps me get the BEST value out of my airfare!

As we all know, airfare isn’t cheap! Let’s say you spend $1,200 per person to fly to France to do the Paris & Normandy trip. Then, 2 years later you fly over to do the Bordeaux trip. Then, 2 years later you fly over to do the Burgundy & Provence trip.

That means to do these 3 cruises you’ve spent $3,600 per person in airfare rather than $1,200 once… financially, it makes sense to me to save $4,800 per couple.

And it’s an even bigger savings for those like me & many of my clients who always fly Business Class to Europe & spend $3,000-$3,500 per person or more for each flight… we’re saving $12,000-14,000, or more, between 2 people by doing multiple trips during 1 Vacation rather than doing these trips separately in different years.

So, if you know you’re going to do certain itineraries for sure within the next 5-10 years consider doing some of them at the same time to keep A LOT of money in your pocket rather than the airline’s so you can take that money & buy yourself an extra trip with those savings! 🙂

 

2. It makes the jet lag WAAY easier.

Maybe you’ve never flown to Europe, Asia or Africa and don’t realize what it’s like but jet lag is a REAL thing!! And I’ve tried everything to have it not affect me but in my experience time is the only cure. So, rather than fly to Europe or some other far-off place for a week and to have to turn around & come back home (just after getting over the jet lag) to another big time-zone difference, why not stay an extra week or two or three & see how nice things get once you’d been living in an area for a couple of weeks+ and not be tired… it’s a real plus!

My normal habit is I fly in at least 1-5 days early before my first Cruise or organized Land Tour (so I’m rested & relaxed by the time I start) & then ideally I stay in the area for 3 weeks or more… it truly makes my trips better as I’m not simply landing somewhere far off for 7 days, only to be tired for a good 1/2 of it!

 

3. I truly GET into Vacation mode!!

Again & again & again I hear people who go somewhere for a week say they wished they could have stayed longer… they tell me they finally get relaxed after being away from work/their normal routine, etc. for a week and then next thing they know they have to get back on a plane to go home… and they tell me they could literally cry.

Funny they say that as years ago MOST of my trips were 1 week long and I literally did cry on the final evenings as I couldn’t believe I had to turn around & go home already.

But these days, after being away for 3-5 weeks or longer, I’m ready to go home after being away for a long time as I begin to miss some of my familiar things… it’s a good mix though, I don’t feel I’ve been away too long nor too little as I did get into “Vacation mode” for the right amount of time!!

 

4. Earlier I mentioned saving money on airfare… there’s usually several other areas where I save $ as well when I do these big back to back to back trips.

Insurance for example can sometimes be not a whole lot more money when you go for longer… for example, I have A LOT of clients who do back to back trips with Tauck & they only charge them insurance on one of their trips & it covers them all… they can literally pay $799 per person in insurance for $20,000 per person, or more, worth of trips which is super cheap as that’s only 4% each for something that can easily cost 10%-15% of their trip’s cost… or more!

Parking is another thing I save money on… where I park at the Airport it’s $150 whether I go for 1 week or 1 month or longer so rather than pay $450 for 3 different Cruises at 3 different times I pay $150 once for the same 3 Cruises when I do them back to back. Same if you “Uber” it back & forth… you pay once/not multiple times!

Even things like SIM cards for my phone that I may pick up in other countries… many of them give me 30 days of access so why only use it for a week if I’m paying for a month!

Clothes… why buy that fancy dress to only wear it once on your Vacation when you can wear it 3 times… remember, if you do back to back to back Cruises for example, like I did in France, you only need 1 week’s worth of clothes since you’re only seeing fellow guests for a week at the most as most of them didn’t read this blog post so are only taking the 1 Cruise with you!! 🙂

 

Anyways, I’m sure you can think of other ways you’ll save money too but the overall point of this post is consider doing some back to back Cruises and/or Land Tours on your next trip to save money on airfare & other expenses & to make your jet-lag easier & to really get into Vacation mode!

And, for those of you who have this philosophy too and already do trips like this, let me know what benefits I’m forgetting so I can add them into this post! 🙂

 

Now, if you’ve never done this before and want some examples of back to back trip ideas, here’s some to consider:

1. As mentioned earlier a Paris & Normandy River Cruise followed by a Bordeaux River Cruise followed by a Burgundy & Provence River Cruise is a CLASSIC example!! And of course, you can do them in any order you prefer! 🙂

2. An Alaska Cruise or Cruise Tour followed by a “Rocky Mountains” train ride.

3. An Eastern & Western Caribbean Cruise

4. Don’t make the mistake I did years ago & only do a short Yangtze River Cruise in China… also add on side-trips to Guilin & Hong Kong

5. A Baltic Cruise to Russia, Stockholm, Helsinki, etc. followed by a Cruise to Norway

6. A Cruise to Canada & New England from New York followed by a Cruise to Bermuda from New York

7. A “Po” River Cruise from Venice followed by a Land Tour around Italy to places like Rome, Florence, etc.

8. An Upper Danube River Cruise followed by a Lower Danube River Cruise

9. A Nile River Cruise in Egypt followed by an Israel & Jordan Land Tour

10. A Tulip Time River Cruise followed by a Rhine River Cruise

11. An extension to Machu Picchu before/after doing a Galapagos Cruise

12. A Transatlantic Cruise from New York combined with ANY of dozens of options of Europe Ocean Cruises, River Cruises or Land Tours

 

The above are literally just a FEW ideas compared to the dozens & dozens of them you can combine together!!

 

If this idea of doing back to back Cruises and/or Land Tours really appeals to you, simply let me know the next 5-6 places you’d really like to visit & let’s see if I can come up with a smart way for you to join 1-2 of them (or more) together.

And then take that extra money you’re saving on airfare & other expenses and go enjoy another Cruise and/or Land Tour… you deserve it!! 🙂

 

I appreciate you!

Shawn Power
Your Trusted Cruise & Tauck Tour Expert!

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