Q – First, thank you for keeping us up last evening. Love your sites and especially the “No Ads” policy. How refreshing. Kept waiting for the magical, annoying boxes to appear – but none ever did. My husband and I are planning to visit both Australia and New Zealand for up top three weeks but we are unsure as to whether we should do a cruise ship, one of the Top Ten, or an Escorted Tour with one of the firms you recommend. Sad to say, we’ve done neither. This is a big deal for us financially but we have money saved and now we’re just trying to figure out the “how”. We live in Chapel Hill and my husband will be retiring in June after 30 years as a financial planner. Is there anyone in Chapel Hill you would recommend or is there a way to speak to you directly? Love to know your thoughts regarding our quandary. Thanks so much for your expertise, insights, and recommendations.
A – We would be pleased to speak with you and we will forward some propaganda about our firm and services. If you would prefer working with a neighborhood travel consultant we will help you with that as well. Our feeling, based on the facts at hand, is that you should lean toward the escorted tour. The better ones that cover both countries in some depth are about three weeks long. Water-based touring in Australia and New Zealand includes a fairly high percentage of days at sea when you would essentially be seeing nothing. Given that this would be a “first” for you, we would suggest you save cruising for Europe, Alaska, South America, Antarctica, or Asia. You will love the tour itinerary, it will give you multiple night stays, and you will not feel that you have any “wasted” days at sea. Sure, we love cruising, we love reading a book in a deck chair with nowhere to go. We love not packing and unpacking at sea. But to this part of the world – on your very first experience, we would strongly recommend the land tour.
