TravelWeek 2014 is the annual week-long conference that All Aboard Travel attends. It’s a smorgasbord of news, information, and travel inspiration. Attending is an important part of our Virtuoso membership. It’s so essential we move our office to the Bellagio in Vegas and take as much of our staff as we possibly can. We learn so many valuable things for you that it truly is mind boggling. You see, each staff member meets with about 400, yes, I said it correctly, four hundred, of our suppliers (hotels, tour and destination guides, airlines, tourism boards, and more) during tightly scheduled, highly focused meetings. We have, during the week, about 1200 appointments.
When we return, after a period of recovery, we meet and discuss as much as we can of what we learned. We collaborate and share. As clients, most of you are aware of Virtuoso, because you get benefits as a result of our membership. V. also provides the technology for you to critique us, and more. You know, those upgrades we all love?
Here are 5 notes from TravelWeek to wet your imagination and appetites. (I could have included 1005 but I’m being judicious.)
- The Flying Bicycles at Manoir Hovey, in North Hatley captured my imagination. New to our network, the hotel is a charming Canadian inn, beautifully appointed with award winning chefs. As if that were not enough, it also features bicycle rides through the fall foliage on a elevated track, so you are suspended among the trees. I imagine ET.
- More and more hotels offer bikes for getting around towns. (Portrait Florenze) provided a bike for me every day, a great way to navigate tons of territory without experiencing exhaustion.) Butterfield and Robinson, famous for their bike tours, are upping the game with Scott E-Venture bikes, regular pedal bikes with electric assistance whenever you want it.
- Instead of the typical “rainbow,” full moon nights at Brasil’s Belmond Hotel das Cataratas takes guests to view “Moonbows,” or lunar rainbows. The hotel is in the Igaussu National Park at the site of the spectacular falls on the border of Argentina and Brasil.
- National Parks Revealed works with us to take care of any requests regarding booking the National Parks, a far more civilized way to book the National Parks instead of going to the Government website. Plus, they and their “gifted” guides can set up activities and tours you might, otherwise, never consider.
- From the new Four Seasons Orlando’s Bippity Boppody Boutique, to a reliable short rentals company in major cities such as Paris, London, and New York, to our new ability to arrange tours in Cuba, the list of ideas and opportunities is boundless.
I encourage you to always ask your advisor about the latest news we gathered to foster ideas and also to keep in mind that there’s an annual client photo contest you can enter. Two of our clients received honorable mentions in the last two years. The grand prize winners receive wonderful travel as prizes.