Travel Planning: Where Do You Start

With so many places to see and even more ways to get there, how do you even begin to start planning a vacation?  It can be overwhelming, but I share with you our method to plan an unforgettable journey.

I talk about the three factors to consider when planning a trip: the destination, the best way to get there and managing the budget.  I use our most recent cruise on Silversea Cruises' "Silver Spirit" to the Seychelles and beyond to illustrate the process including when to book air travel, whether or not to book a hotel before and/or after a cruise or organized tour.

My travel mantra is "stuff happens" and I talk about what to do when things don't go as you had planned.

Links:

Priority Pass

1,000 Places to See Before You Die 2025

Cruise Critic Article

Chapters

• 0:00 Introduction
• 2:17 Steps to planning a vacation
• 2:57 1000 Places to See Before You Die
• 13:08 Flying Business Class
• 14:40 "Stuff Happens"
• 22:14 The Cruise
• 28:38 What We Loved on Silver Spirit
• 32:14 When Things Go Wrong

Transcript

Travel Planning: Where do you start?

Hey there.  I’m Russ.  Welcome to Explorations All Over.

I’m so glad you joined me.  In the last episode I took you back to the first trip Duncan and I took together to Greece in 1995.  Today I want to share with you our latest adventure: a 26-day journey that began in the Seychelles, in the Indian Ocean, where we boarded Silversea Cruises’ “Silver Spirit” for a 19-day cruise that stopped in Mauritius, Madagascar, and Reunion Island before making two stops on the East Cape of South Africa and ending in Cape Town.  Our trip included a stay at a resort for a few days before the cruise and a boutique hotel in Franschoek, one of South Africas amazing wine regions, for 3 nights after the cruise had ended.

If you’re not familiar with The Seychelles, and a lot of people aren’t, the island nation is located off the east coast of Africa in the Indian Ocean and is a somewhat lesser, well-known cousin to the more popular Maldives.  

So, how the heck did we decide to go to the Seychelles?  When we tell people where we are going, especially places like the Seychelles, they’re curious as to how Duncan and I make our travel choices, so today, in addition to telling you about the cruise, I want to share with the steps we take to arrive at our travel decisions.  In addition to offering some great tips on how to find hotels, restaurants and attractions, I’m also going to give you a few pointers as to selecting an airline for your vacation, including when to book your flights before and after the cruise, a topic that not everyone agrees on. 

Let’s start with how we decide on a particular vacation from all the wonderful options available.  Here are the three main considerations that we use that you can apply to your own travel planning: the destination itself, the length of the trip and the overall cost.  Several factors come into play with regard to the cost, and I’ll break those down for you.

So first, the destination - or in this case destinations.  Is it a place we are even interested in visiting?  Like many people we have a bucket list.  I’ve spoken before about the book “1,000 Places to See Before You Die” by Patricia Shultz, which offers in depth information about both well known and out of the way destinations throughout the world.  I’ve included a link to the book in the show notes.  Using this as a resource and other guides, we do lots of research and read up on what there is to do and see, and helps us decide if this particular destination is a place we want to travel to.  When you’re looking at taking a vacation, maybe because you saw an ad online, the first question you should ask yourself is, “Is this someplace I want to visit?”

Secondly, the length of the trip plays a part in our decision making.  Some trips are too short.  For example, if you were to travel a long distance, which for us in New York would be Hawaii or South America, a 7-day trip wouldn’t be worth the time it would take to get there and back.  Similarly, there are trips that are too long.  This might be an unpopular opinion, but we’ve been to Las Vegas and three days there was enough.  The longest we’ve been away has been 28 days.  That’s a long time, and by the end of it we were ready to get home.  We’ve been traveling for over 30 years, so we’ve built up to taking longer trips  When we first started traveling we were, like the majority of working people, limited to a 7 day vacation, maybe adding a couple of days on either side if we could squeeze in the weekend.  Gradually over the years we began extending our time away, little by little.

The third consideration, of course, is the cost and three elements play a role in this part of the decision making process: the flights; what airlines fly to where we need to go and are they airlines that we enjoy flying with?  What are the flight schedules?  In other words, how many connections, if any, do we have to make?  Finally, the cost of the flight.  I told you in the first podcast about our flight in First Class on Trans World Airlines back in 1995.  We were able to use Duncan’s frequent flyer miles for that flight, otherwise we would have been in Economy (what used to be called Coach) as First Class would have been cost prohibitive.  After that, we were always in Economy.  We were young and didn’t mind being a little more cramped but our flights were shorter because we were traveling to places that were closer like Fort Lauderdale, Florida to board a Caribbean cruise.  And economy was what our budget would allow.

With the exception of short flights, these days we only fly Business class and if we can’t find an affordable Business class fare that fits into our schedule we don’t book the trip.  We start out at travel websites like Travelocity or Expedia to a general idea of schedules, fares, and airlines that can get us to where we need to go.  Then we check the specific airlines’ websites to see if they are offering a lower fare for the same flights.  Let me say up front that, for longer flights we usually opt for an international carrier.  Our favorites are Qatar and Emirates because their product including food, service and aircraft comfort are excellent in all classes of service and they fly to most destinations around the world.

What about U.S. carriers like United, American and Delta? The problem we’ve found is inconsistency in all of the things I just mentioned; food, service and aircraft comfort, whether on domestic or international routes.  I will say that they seem to have discovered that they have to up their game if they’re going to compete on the more lucrative international market, and the product they are offering is getting better.

For this trip we found reasonably priced Business class seats on Turkish Airlines, so to get to the Seychelles we had to fly from New York’s John F. Kennedy airport to Istanbul, Turkey a roughly 9 hour and 45 minute flight and connect to a flight from Istanbul to Mahe, the largest island in the Seychelles which was another 7 hour flight.  Our return from Cape Town connected back through Istanbul to JFK.  Both the outbound and inbound flights were expected to be about 24 hours total travel time each way including layovers, which admittedly is a long time to be on airplanes.

While I’m on the subject of airlines and flights, I posted an article from Cruise Critic on the Explorations All Over Facebook page, which - by the way, if you haven’t already done so - I encourage you to follow and like.  The article was titled “When is the best time to fly in for your cruise?” and talked about whether you should fly in early or not when taking a cruise.  I posted the link to the article in the show notes, too, so you can read it there.  It’s a topic that has merits on both sides: Yes, save yourself the worry and get there a day early and No, you can book a same day flight and make it to the ship on time.  

My opinion, Even if your flight gets in with lots of time to get to the pier, there’s never a guarantee something unexpected won’t happen that will delay your arrival, most often weather related.  That actually happened to my sister and her husband.  They were flying to Florida on the same day their cruise was to leave and, due to mechanical difficulties, their flight was cancelled.  They missed the ship and had to catch up to it 2 days later in San Juan, Puerto Rico.   That kind of stress really put a huge damper for the start of what is supposed to be a fun and relaxing holiday.

So my advice? Fly in a day early, book a hotel for the one night (or more as I’ll talk about in a minute) and have peace of mind and save yourself the worry should anything happen.  

Another element of the cost of the trip, and this applies to any type of scheduled vacation like a cruise or guided tour, is whether to book a hotel before and/or after the trip.  For us, if we feel the destination is someplace we want to spend more time in, we decide how much time we want to spend there, read up articles about what there is to do and see, and then research hotels.  In the case of this trip we opted to stay for 3 nights before the cruise, allowing us time to not only recover from the flights, but to explore Mahe.  We found a hotel, the Fisherman’s Cove Resort, on the northeast corner of the island.  They were having a promotion “stay two nights and get the third free”, which we took advantage of.  

The third element is, of course, the cost of the cruise itself.  Silversea, like almost every cruise line, sends out promotions all the time with cruises that are “on sale”.  The cruise we selected was one of their promotions.   Duncan checked the website and saw that our preferred cabin type, a Deluxe Verandah Suite, was available and reasonably priced.  On Silversea, like on several other cruise lines, all of the suites, with the exception of the really expensive ones, are essentially the same size and layout.  The difference in price is dictated by the location of the suite on the ship; front, middle rear and what deck the suite is on, the higher the deck usually means the higher the fare.  In an upcoming episode I’m going to have a discussion with a travel advisor who specializes in cruising, and we’ll talk in detail about the specifics of cruising like how to pick a cruise that’s right for you, what are the do’s and don’ts of cruising and more.  Make sure to subscribe to the Explorations All Over podcast so you don’t miss the episode.

So the three factors came down to this: The destination:  This was a part of the world we had never seen before and places that we hadn’t considered before and, we were fairly confident, we most likely wouldn’t want to return to.   The length: All in the trip was 26 days long, including travel time to and from the region.  And I was excited to try Turkish Airlines, because I had heard good things about it.  I’d watched a lot of YouTube videos of people that had taken the same or a similar flight and it looked very nice and had friends who had flown with Turkish and recommended it.  Finally, we felt the cost/value comparison made the trip worth it.

I spoke earlier about flying Business Class and one of the perks of traveling in Business class is use of the airline’s lounge or that of a partner airline.  The ability to access a lounge complimentary is based on one of three criteria, either class of travel, frequent flyer status or if you are a holder of certain credit cards like American Express.  You can also purchase a day pass to a lounge but that is usually pretty expensive and not necessarily worth it.  Lounges typically offer beverages both soft drinks and alcohol, various food items that can range from snacks to full meals, complimentary WiFi and charging ports.  There are times when the lounge is quiet and others, not so much, depending on how many flights the airlines has departing at any particular time.

Another option is to join Priority Pass which you pay an annual fee and get access to both Priority Pass lounges and limited access to airline lounges.  I’ve included the link to Priority Pass in the show notes.

Having said all that I will say that Turkish Airlines’ newly opened lounge was a huge disappointment, limited food and soft drinks (no alcohol) in a small space.

We boarded the plane just after 1:00 in the morning, an hour late.  Another perk of flying Business is the meal service, complete with a printed menu of the food being offered, wines and spirits, and a table cloth and proper glassware and cutlery.  We were tired and decided to skip the dinner.  Another perk that’s now common on most airlines are lie-flat beds with pillows, mattress toppers and duvets.  Qatar and a few others like Qantas offer loungewear as well, which makes for much more comfortable sleeping.  The flight attendants made up our beds and we fell asleep.  We were woken up when we heard breakfast being served which was nice; a step up from what is served in Economy.  I don’t usually take a lot of pictures on the airplane simply because I usually forget.  There are several great reviewers on YouTube, just search by airline, aircraft and class of service to see what you can expect on a flight.  Keep in mind that this is their experience and their opinion, just like this podcast is my experience and opinion and yours may differ.

The Turkish Business Lounge at the Istanbul airport was huge and completely in contrast to the one at JFK.   We had a 7 hour layover, so there was no chance of missing our connection, despite the massive size of the airport.  Our flight to Mahe was also delayed 5 hours, so we would be there a while.  The lounge had showers available, which we knew beforehand, so we booked a shower a couple of hours after arriving in the lounge to help relax and rejuvenate us.  Let me tell you something, if you are in a lounge, or going to be in one, that has showers available - do it!  Showering and changing into fresh clothes makes you feel like a new person.

We waited out the delay and 12 hours later we took off for the Seychelles. The flight was uneventful and we were even able to get some rest.  Just before landing the captain announced that we had to circle as there was a storm going through Mahe, but it wasn’t long before we landed, got our bags - it was a really small airport - and looked for the car the hotel had arranged for us.  And we waited, and waited. Finally, Duncan called the hotel and they had no record of us requesting a car.  So we grabbed a taxi and were happy to driven to the hotel by Victor, a very friendly and welcoming native gentleman.  On the ride to the hotel he told us a bit about the island and the country, the people and the culture and before we knew it we were at the resort, albeit in the pouring rain.  We thanked Victor who asked if we needed a ride to the port to board the ship, and we arranged for him to pick us up a few days later.

I’d like to stop here for a second to tell you my travel mantra, and I’m giving you the PG version: “stuff happens”.  Flight delays, weather, lost luggage and so much else that can happen that is out of your control.  My advice is to roll with it and try to make the best of the situation.  If there’s a way to solve the issue, great, but most of the time it’s out of your hands.  Take a deep breath and focus on the amazing journey you’re about to take and not on the situation you currently find yourself in.  You have a much better vacation if you do.

We checked in with a very lovely lady and made our way to our room.  I should mention at this point that from here on you’ll find photos and videos on the Explorations All Over Facebook page that follow along with the journey, starting with some photos of the room and the view.  Fisherman’s Cove Resort is the sister property to the Story Resort right next door and they offered reciprocal sharing for room charges, which was super convenient.  Fisherman’s Cove was built in 1943 and was the first resort on Mahe.  It was last renovated in 2004.  Story was built in 2021.  The difference between the two is marked; Fisherman’s Cove is showing its age and could use a little TLC whereas Story is obviously newer.  So why didn’t we book at Story?  The room we booked at Fisherman’s Cove was an ocean view room, which Story doesn’t offer, and Fisherman’s Cove, despite the resort’s age, still had charm with authentic thatched roofed buildings that Story lacked.

When we travel, the one thing I am always responsible for is making the dinner reservations, which I do before we leave and as far in advance as possible.  As with other aspects of our travel, I do a lot of research on available restaurants, trying to focus on places that offer local cuisine.  I should probably mention that Duncan and I are foodies and really enjoy trying food that we can’t usually get at home and discovering new flavors and tastes is a passion of ours.  The Seychelles was a French colony for almost 40 years in the the late 1700’s, and the island still has a very strong french influence as do the restaurants and therefore the cuisine.  In the last episode I talked about “going local”; experience the local culture by meeting the people and tasting the food.  I try to find off the beaten path places that are most of the time not necessarily the top rated.  Some of the best restaurants you will find are on page 3.  One of the restaurants I chose was at Fisherman’s Cove and the other two were at Story; they were all excellent.  Despite the fact that it rained almost the entire time we were on Mahe, we had great time, our room was lovely, breakfast each morning was delicious and the staff was very friendly.  One day we took a taxi in to Victoria, the capital, to walk around and grab lunch.

On the day of departure, boarding for the Silver Spirit wasn’t to start until 1:00.  At most hotels check-out is between 10:00 and 11:00 a.m., but you can request a late check out, which we did and they were able to accommodate us.  Always ask the front desk if you need it.  They said we could stay in the room until noon, which was perfect.  Victor picked us up and we headed to the ship.  We learned more about the Seychelles, including the best place for deep sea fishing - not that we’re into deep sea fishing - and more about the people of the islands.

These days when taking a cruise, here’s a tip:  When you get your paperwork from the cruise line it will tell you your boarding time, which is staggered to handle all the passengers in an orderly fashion.  If you arrive at 9:00, because you booked an early flight, understand that you’ll have to wait in the boarding area of the terminal, which can be not very comfortable and, in warmer climates, some are usually not always air conditioned.   If you’re tired from your flight, hanging around the terminal for hours might not be the best start to your vacation.  My suggestion is to drop your bags off and find a place to go have something to drink or eat until it’s your time to get on board.   Better yet, fly in the day before and arrive at the pier accordingly. 

It was raining when we arrived at the terminal, so we sat in the car in line for a few minutes until we could get out.  Our bags were taken, we thanked Victor for his kindness, giving him a well-earned gratuity.

A word about tipping: tipping is very personal and there are no hard and fast rules, but if someone gives you great service I think giving them a tip to thank them is completely appropriate, no matter the amount.  It shows appreciation for their effort.  OK, I have to tell you a funny maybe not-so-funny story as it relates to tipping.  We took a white water rafting excursion in Puerto Montt, Chile in 2008.  The guy who accompanied us, and basically just sat in the van, as we returned to the ship said, “Just remember, tipping is not a city in China.”  OMG!  Did he just say that?!  Needless to say I don’t think anyone felt obligated to oblige.

Once on the Silver Spirit we completed the necessary paperwork, were directed to the Venetian Lounge, given a glass of champagne and asked to wait.  It wasn’t long before we were given our card keys and headed to our suite.  If you’re like I am and read reviews of the ship before the trip you’ll see a lot of comments about boarding are often made, many of them not positive.   It’s important to understand that every cruise line, bar none, has a process for getting passengers on the ship and they want to get you on as fast as you want to get on, but keep in mind the number of passengers they are trying to process and be patient.  

Most Silversea ships have a very similar layout, so we were familiar with how to get around.  Our suite was exactly as expected in every way since we had an almost identical cabin two years ago when we sailed Silver Muse around Japan.  I’ve posted a video walkthrough of the suite on the Explorations All Over Facebook page.  Make sure to have a look.  We love the colors of the room, the space and the layout.  The bathroom is a nice size and, on Silver Spirit, the shower was designed in such a way to offer 50 more space.  The walk in closet has plenty of storage, the bed is super comfortable and Silversea offers a pillow menu so you can get the best sleep possible.  The mini-bar/fridge is stocked twice a day with your preference of beverage.  The balcony is a nice size, although I’m not sure you can have breakfast out there, but if you asked your butler, they would figure out a way to make it happen

Now you may have heard about butlers on ships wonder what a butler does, and the answer is just about anything you need them to do, but a butler’s responsibilities vary from cruise line to cruise line.  Most of the large ships don’t offer butlers, or, if they do, it’s only for the higher end cabins.  

As we were getting settled in our butler, Chokhoni, came in and introduced herself and we knew instantly that she was going to be amazing.  She asked if we had any special requests, I said that we would like two orders of caviar brought to the suite each evening at 5:00 so we could have it while getting ready for dinner, and every night at 5:00 she was there with a smile and set up the caviar complete with all the traditional accompaniments, a table cloth and mother of pearl spoons, which is how caviar is supposed to be eaten.  It was fantastic.  Chokhoni handled everything from taking care of laundry when we needed it to booking dinner reservations and so much more.   The staff on Silversea, and other smaller ships we have been on, make it a point to learn your name and your food and beverage preferences quickly.  It’s what makes Silversea standout.

We were a little concerned because we had read online that the ship was “feeling tired”, “in need of dry dock”, “showing signs of wear and tear” and other complaints.  Let me say that neither Duncan nor I saw anything that would lead us to that conclusion.  I want to mention once again that  an upcoming episode will be dedicated to talking about reviews and review sites, not just for cruises but for hotels, restaurants, tours, and everything associated with not only travel but almost all aspect of life these days.  Make sure to subscribe so you don’t miss it.

For the cruise itself, I’m going to break down the next part of this episode into 3 sections: What we loved, what could have been improved and why we would or wouldn’t choose Silversea again.

What we loved: I wrote a review on Cruise Critic, the link for which I have included in the Show Notes and kept it very simple.  We loved everything with a few exceptions.  Our suite Butler, Chokhoni, was exceptional.  Absolutely exceptional. We don’t use some of the ships amenities like the Spa, it was SUPER expensive.  The staff was beyond outstanding at every level.  One of the reasons we love Silversea is that it is all inclusive; alcohol, WiFi, gratuities, and most food venues are all included in the price of the cruise so at the end of the cruise you don’t end up with a huge bill, unless you use the Spa a lot or gamble in the (very small) casino.  When you look at the per person daily cost of the cruise, understanding that everything is included, the price value ratio is fairly good. 

The food everywhere from the buffet, to the Grill, to the wood fired oven pizza cafe was outstanding.  Being all-inclusive, when you order a drink whether at a restaurant, bar or cafe you don’t have to sign a slip of paper or worry about adding a tip.  There is a fantastic coffee place, Arts Cafe, where you can get a latte or cappuccino, pastry or small sandwich throughout the day.

As for entertainment, to be honest we’re not really into the shows, but we went to one of the Cast productions and it was very good.

We took a couple of nice excursions: two snorkeling and one island tour.  The highlight of the first snorkeling adventure, at Big Sister Island in the Seychelles, was that right when Duncan and I got into the water and put our heads down, a hug whale shark swam right beneath us.  It was incredible.  The second in Mauritius was okay, although due to a cyclone in the area the water was churned up and there wasn’t a ton to see.

The bus tour took us around Reunion Island to a beautiful waterfall in Salazie and then to a vanilla bean plantation in Saint Andre.  It was nice to see the island and various communities.

The “safari” experience we had in Port Elizabeth on the East Cape to the Pumba Private Reserve was outstanding and I encourage you to go to the Explorations All Over Facebook page to check out the pics and videos.  We saw wildlife that we had never seen before, the highlight for me were the white lions and the elephant that literally walked right past our jeep; so close I could have touched her.  The lunch too, not that it matters, was authentic South African cuisine including Kudu stew, made from wild deer.  It was an excellent outing.

What we thought could have been improved:  One of the for-fee specialty restaurants was lacking, but I don’t want to bore you with that.  One of the shore excursions we took was not up to Silversea standards and I want to share with you the experience we had.

We were docked in East London, South Africa and were booked on a “safari” experience to Mpongo Private Game Reserve.  (btw - I’ve included the photo of the Reserve’s logo on the Facebook page so you can see what I am going to be talking about.)   So as we are arriving at Mpongo the guide tells us that we are not guaranteed to see all the wildlife, since they are free to roam around.  Understandable.  We get checked in and board the Jeeps.  Once we are in the guide make a similar announcement about not seeing all the wildlife.  Someone asked, “Will we see lions?”  “No,” he replied, “we don’t have lions here..  The reserved isn’t large enough for lions”  “Will we see elephants?”  “No,” he replied, “we don’t have elephants here.”  “What about hippos, will we see them?”  “No,” he replied, “we used to have hippos, but they escaped and now we’re not licensed to have hippos.”  With that it started raining as we headed off to see, well, nothing.  Honestly, we drove around for 2 hours and saw some impala, a tower of giraffe and various birds.  Then we got back to the reception area for lunch.  It was as sad as the “safari”.  We got back on the bus, looked at each other and Duncan and I said in unison - that stunk.  Truly it was one of the worst excursions we had been on.

Duncan went to the Shore Excursion desk and told them how incredibly poor the excursion was.  We understand there are things that the tour operators can and can’t control, the lunch wasn’t great, oh well.  We didn’t see any wildlife, that’s a different story altogether and for the price we paid we felt we needed to say something.  In the end not only did Silversea credit us the full cost of the excursion, but the corporate office indicated that they would remove Mpongo from future cruise itineraries.  So what could have been a “ding’ against the cruise line was addressed and turned around.

In general you have to manage your expectations, but no matter the vacation you are taking, the experience you are provided should match the description for the excursion.  If it doesn’t then you have a right to lodge a complaint.   

Here’s another tip: when you’re on an excursion, no matter how near or far, take the opportunity to meet your fellow travelers.  Find out where they are from, what they are enjoying most, where they have traveled that they enjoyed and what is on their bucket list.  We met a young couple from North Carolina.  This was their first time on Silversea and, while they were really enjoying the trip, felt that their fellow passengers were older than they were expecting.  Understandable, since the demographics for Silversea skews toward an older clientele.

In an upcoming episode I’m going to have a conversation with a travel advisor that specializes in cruises and we’re going to talk about the various cruise lines, the type of customer they attract and how to match up your style with the right ship.  Make sure to follow the podcast so you don’t miss it.  If you’re listening on Apple Podcasts, you’ll see the follow button at the top.  And remember to check out the Explorations All Over Facebook page for photos from this adventure.

The cruise also included several days at sea - our favorite.  Why?  It’s a chance to just relax and enjoy the ship, read, swim, lay in the sun  - OH! - and eat, can’t forget to eat.  Some cruises have port intensive itineraries, where the ship stops someplace every day.  That can be fun, but it can be exhausting as well.  I’m not a fan of needing a vacation after the vacation.

So, we arrived in Cape Town and were really excited about discovering this part of the world we knew nothing about.

I decided to save the South African part of our journey in Cape Town and Franschhoek for the next episode.  There is so much amazing stuff to tell you all about, and I think this podcast is already too long.  I want to make sure you get an understanding of what makes a destination for Duncan and me some place we want to return to.  After you hear about our experiences you’ll understand why Cape Town and Franschhoek are two such places.

I’ve tried to share with you some personal insights and tips on making your travel decisions.  We have our process (the destination, the length of the trip and the cost, of which several factors come in to play) but you’ll have to define yours.  Choose an airline that fits your budget but also provides the on board experience you enjoy, and - if you can swing it - research Business Class fares.  These days there are plenty of websites that offer Business fares at a significant discount.  If you’re taking a cruise, or any trip that has a start and end, decide whether you want to spend more time in either place.

Most importantly, remember my mantra when traveling: stuff happens.  

I hope you found the episode not only entertaining but that you got some helpful tips.  I’d love to hear your feedback, questions and comments on the podcast.  Head over to the Explorations All Over Facebook page and share your thoughts.  I’ll feature them on the next episode.  If you’re enjoying the podcast, don’t forget to tell your friends about it and share on your socials.

For now, thank you for joining me on our adventure to the Seychelles and beyond.  

Once again, I’m Russ and thanks for tuning in to Explorations All Over.  Until next time, I’ll see you soon.