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Ideas, suggestions and recommendations that can help you choose from a more limited palette of options that we know — both from professional and personal experience.

Luxury — Silver Muse by another name!

Like many words in the English language, there are many different definitions and interpretations of the word ‘luxury’. The website www.dictionary.com defines luxury as being ‘indulgence in and enjoyment of rich, comfortable, and sumptuous living. Something that is considered an indulgence rather than a necessity’. It also seems a fitting description of what I experienced last week when I had the pleasure of being invited to enjoy Silversea’s latest addition to their fleet — Silver

What is value and why is it more important than price? — Part 2

Take me for example: I don’t particularly like Ryanair or their customer ethos but I do acknowledge that they — and low cost carriers like them — revolutionised the international aviation industry and thus allowed more of us to travel, and more often. Whilst I do put a value on comfort and convenience, I also put an almost equal value on cost so when the price differential is high and the length of time that

What is value and why is it more important than price? — Part 1

Before I answer that question, let me first state that the difference between value and price (a matter I’ll come to in a moment) really depends on the context in which the latter is being experienced. In recent years, more and more products and services have become increasingly commoditised, by which I mean that they have come to be sold more by price point than by any other measurable criterion. (more…)

Prediction is difficult — especially if it is about the future!

So said Neils Bohr, The famous Danish physicist. Indeed, predicting anything nowadays is particularly difficult, given the fast pace of change and the number of variables at play. Notwithstanding that fact, I am going to make one anyway and it’s this — cruising is going to be the next big thing in travel! Why do I say that? Because all the signs are there: the number of new ship builds scheduled over the next eight

The beauty of Lourdes — How perceptions sometimes do us no favours.

As someone who has worked at the coalface of travel for more than 40 years, one phenomenon that I encountered on a regular basis was that of the over-expectation of clients concerning their resort, cruise or other holiday experience. On many occasions, such over-expectation was clearly the fault of the client themselves; building up an image in their mind’s eye as to what they could expect when they arrived and then being disappointed when the

The 10,000 Hour Rule.

One of the basic lessons that people tend to learn in life is that if you want to get a job done properly or get good advice, then you need to engage with someone who has built up their expertise over a long period and with some degree of repetition and refinement — whether that be a bricklayer, a lawyer, a physiotherapist or a doctor. The modern world has become so complex that people tend

What budgets reveal about how much we spend.

There have been several occasions in my life when money was tight and I had to literally count the pennies to make ends meet. Two of the things I had to discipline myself to do was work only with cash (the rationale being when it was gone, it was gone!) and record details of every single penny that was spent. What was interesting about those episodes was how easily money got frittered away in small,

Would you like to win €2,500?

The phrase, 'Lies, damned lies and statistics' is generally attributed to have been coined by Benjamin Disraeli, the famous British Prime Minister. The standard definition of statistics is 'the practice or science of collecting and analyzing numerical data in large quantities, especially for the purpose of inferring proportions in a whole from those in a representative sample' The bigger the sample, the greater the likelihood of the inferences that are drawn from that sample in

One mans’ meat …

What is your ideal holiday? Is it lazing by a pool with a cold Pina Colada in your hand or is it walking along a deserted palm-fringed beach with warm azure waters lapping at your feet? Or is it trekking the Inca Trail or tracking some wild animal in the South African bush? The fact of the matter is that there is no universal size (or type) that fits all! And that’s one of the

Be careful what you wish for!

At a time when most other retailers are recovering from the madness of Christmas and counting their profits, travel agents start to crank up their staffing levels for their busiest time of year. Traditionally, January (and to a lesser extend February and March) has always been the busiest time of year for people booking their annual sun holiday and although business did take a nosedive during the recession, things appear to be on the ‘up’

Timely Advice

    It’s that time of year again when most people’s minds turn to New Year resolutions, the next credit card statement and of course the inevitable where to go on this year’s holiday and, equally importantly — when to book it? Many people still mistakenly think that if you are flexible in when you can take your annual leave and are also a bit of a gambler then it is always worth your while

The art of getting a quote that is both competitive in price and relevant to your needs starts with gathering all the right information about what you want to do (or think you want to do!).

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