Lisa & Melissa at the Boca de Inferno, Cascais, Portugal

We arrived early morning and once situated at Hotel Estoril Eden (and the view of the ocean from our room was heavenly), we opted to fight the jet lag with a walk along the promenade to Cascais. Sunny and warm – we worried that we had packed too many cold weather clothes. 

View of promenade from our hotel., Estoril

There were many people taking advantage of the beautiful day, families, young lovers, retirees, and lots of unleashed dogs (the Portuguese love their dogs as does my room mate Lisa and I’ve got the photos to prove it). The walk from the hotel to Cascais was a mere 20 minutes and it felt good to stretch the legs after our transatlantic flight.

Cascais is a resort town and though fairly quiet now (it is November after all), you can sense the crush of masses that must descend on its shops, cafés, and sandy bays and beaches during the summer months. I admired the lace and linens and other handicrafts at roadside stalls just off what appeared to be the main square. Our walk took us as far as the harbor with its fishing boats and yachts, not realizing that a bit further up the road was the most visited attraction in the area, the forbiddingly named Boca de Inferno (mouth of Hell), a natural grotto tucked in the rugged coastline.

Bounty from the Sea - Yum!

Fortunately on a return trip to Cascais, we took advantage of stormy weather to photograph the sea show of waves crashing the cliffs and to enjoy the day’s fresh catch at a lovely restaurant overlooking the Atlantic.

Quintessential Portugal

I’ve just returned from Collette Vacations’ Sunny Portugal tour, a 10-day leisurely-paced journey that took us from the capital city of Lisbon to the Estoril Coast then south to the pristine Algarve.

My travel companion was Lisa from Collette’s Groups department and together with our tour manager and leader, Emily, and a group of 33 other fun, engaging travelers we set out to discover Portugal… the historic land of great explorers, Fado, azulejos and bacalhau. From the Portuguese Riviera to the world famous Fatima and the many fishing villages that dot the Atlantic coastline, I’ll try to give you a sense of what I saw and experienced as well as all things quintessential Portugal.

As Emily told our group early on, “This tour is a like a sampler platter; we’ll give you a taste of a lot of things, in the hope that you’ll come back and visit Portugal for more.”

Check back in the coming days!

I woke up this morning with snow in my front yard. November 8th feels a little early for that. Hats, gloves, brushing off the car – it didn’t feel right.

Just a few days ago I was out on the golf course. But such is life in New England. So, if you are like me and thinking of someplace balmy today (or at least without any snow) here are 5 Traveling Well posts to keep you warm:

• Video: Italy & Greece
• Cure spring fever with a trip to Palm Springs
• Top 10 Sunny Destinations
• A Bunny Hop to California
• 10 Reasons to Travel to Costa Rica Now!

Keep your skin and thirst quenched
Drinking water is an obvious health travel tip, especially in an airplane. Ordering water from the flight attendant is not enough. You need to drink water the day before your trip – 6 to 8 glasses is a good rule to follow. And avoid alcohol and caffeine until you’ve arrived at your destination.

Keeping your insides hydrated doesn’t mean you should neglect the outside. I always apply a thick layer of moisturizer to my face and hands the morning of travel and I keep a small spray bottle of rose water in my carry-on which I mist on my face when I start to feel like I am drying out.

Keep it light

Ladies, go easy on the make up the day of travel. I find it much more beneficial to simply use a tinted moisturizer and lip balm and wait until I’ve reached my destination before applying makeup. Remember the nearest airport rest room I mentioned earlier? Or, if you simply can’t wait that long, squeeze into the plane’s lavatory and put your face on before the initial descent begins.

Remember though if you are bringing a cosmetic bag of toiletries on the airplane, make sure you know what’s allowed—and what’s not— by TSA. There’s nothing worse than having expensive cosmetics confiscated during security screening.

Wash often and well

This seems so obvious. Now that school has started I find myself constantly telling my three kids to wash their hands with soap and water - or use hand sanitizer regularly throughout the day. To no avail apparently as each of them has already missed a day at school due to illness…and it’s not yet October.

Washing your hands often and well (meaning at least 25 seconds) can help you avoid getting sick on vacation.  And while this tip may seem basic, I find that simple back-to-basics beauty routines are what keeps us looking the most refreshed when we arrive at our destination.

Share (Your tips; never cosmetics!)

Do you have tips for warding off the travel-weary look that comes from being a road warrior? Please share as I’ll be taking to the skies again soon.

Why Journal?

I never used to keep a journal or diary when I’d travel, and when I got home, I could recite everything to my friends and family because it was all fresh in my mind.  The good thing is that I have a good memory, but the little details that happened in my travels years ago, are lost in the cyberspace of my mind. 

Little details may not make a big impact on a tour, but they could be funny anecdotes or little stories that happened quickly and if you don’t jot it down when it happens, you do tend to forget. Especially as time goes on.

That’s why over the past 3 years (I wish I’d started much sooner), I journal every trip I go on.  In the past three years I’ve gone to Antarctica, Egypt, California/Napa, and Paris/Provence & Tuscany.  I journaled through all of those trips and when I was asked to start blogging, I actually had the trip at my fingertips.  It’s a great tool when you want to tell your children or grandchildren, friends and family about where you have been and what you did while you were there. 

Kathy’s Tips for Successful Journaling

• Buy a Journal that reflects the destination! It gives you something to look forward to – and you don’t ever have to remember to pack yours before the trip.

What I do when I travel is arrive at my destination and buy a journal that has the name of the destination on it.  For Egypt I bought a notebook that has a picture of a pharaoh with pyramids.  I bought it at my hotel in Cairo.  In Antarctica, the notebook had a penguin on it and “Antarctica” scrawled across the top.  Of course,  you can take a journal from home, and add to things you’ve already written about if you prefer to keep all your travels in one spot.

• Find other uses for the journal. It doesn’t just have to be about your travels!

I have a second use for all of my journals.  I am a card player, and my friends and I have been journaling for more than 10 years about what happens in our lives in between each time we play cards.  We also use these journals to chronicle all of our score sheets and we track our wins and losses.

Since we started journaling during our card games – many years ago – so much has happened! Mostly happy times sometimes mixed with sad… In between stories of our world travels are stories about our families, weddings, births, our pets; it is life as we know it and we have it all documented. 

It’s a good way to keep track of all of the things that happen in our lives.  We would love to write a book and/or make a movie from our journal stories.  But that’s another story for another day.

Building awareness about what’s really important about travel:  discovering great places, experiencing them fully, and broadening horizons. We want to help you enjoy the connection between travel and well-being.

To celebrate the occasion, I’ve compiled a list of my favorite posts and topics the team has covered:

• The South America Reality Tour - which kicked off the blog. (A new Reality Tour is coming soon!)
• Travel Tips of all kinds, including The Art of Packing.
• News from the road and Sullivan family trips.
• Our multimedia posts.
• Jetsetter’s unique perspective.
• Pop culture themed posts like wishing a happy birthday to Elvis.
• A sit down with Dan Sullivan and the chance to meet the rest of the executive team.
• Even the occasional link to an offer at collettevacations.com

Yes, from the personal to a San Francisco Top 10 that sparked a flare up in the twittersphere we’ve covered a lot of ground.

Thanks for reading.

Bill Dziura in Africa

 Here are some of his “favorites”.   

All-Time Favorite Destination: 

I have too many destinations that I love to choose just one.  Many destinations offer such unique experiences that it is impossible to pick just one.  For example, you have the great nature experiences such as the majestic views of the Canadian Rockies in Banff, to the breathtaking views from the cliffs at Mykonos, Greece, to the great adventures of doing a Kenya safari and seeing amazing wildlife up close and personal.  Then you have the great history and cultural destinations like Paris, France and Prague in the Czech Republic, Beijing, China or Hong Kong.  This is a tough one to answer.

Favorite food experience while traveling? 

I was in Paris, France, when I first joined Collette back in 1992.  I went to dinner with a vendor and good friend of Collette to a very small and quaint restaurant on a back street of Paris.  We were very jet lagged and tired from a couple of long days but we had the most spectacular meal at this restaurant and were personally visited by the chef to ask us how we would like our meal prepared.  I will never forget the experience.   

Best adventure? 

My best adventure was a challenge issued by Dan Sullivan [Collette President and CEO] when we were in Amsterdam at a manager’s meeting.  We were handed a map with the destination of Bruges, Belgium.  He split us into teams and said “meet me there as soon as you can”.  We got to experience what it is like to find your way around a country without a bus driver and Tour Manager to guide you.  Basically, it was an “amazing race” to find our way and see who truly was an experienced travel professional.

 Best View? 

The best view that comes to mine from a more recent trip is the beautiful island of Maui.  I was up high on a ridge overlooking the volcanic mountain, the high surf and surfers riding the  waves up and down the beach, and whales breaching in the distance off the shore.  It was absolutely amazing.

What’s on your bucket list? 

Places I still want to visit are Egypt, Vietnam,  and Machu Picchu, Peru.

Why do I love my job? 

I have always loved a job that is challenging.  My position is one that has new challenges every day.  There are an endless list of new projects and new technologies to explore every day.  I also work for a Company that brings peoples’ dreams to life and is full of people who are energetic and fun.  And in addition to that I get to visit and enjoy many places on this earth that I would probably never have been able to see on my own.  What’s better than that?

Meet more members of the executive team.

France, here we come!

I guess you could twirl a globe and point your finger, but then you might end up in the middle of a jungle or on top of Mt. Everest.  I think there are two clear ways to approach the matter:

1. Do a little research, checking your budget and travel wishlist.
2. Listen to your family and friends and hear where their dream vacation would take them. 

Last year, my mother-in-law, Alice (Dan’s mom) told my daughter, Nicole, that one of her “Bucket List” destinations was Lourdes, France.  Alice is a very religious person and I was surprised to know that she hadn’t been to Lourdes before.  When Nicole told Dan his mom’s wishes, he immediately decided that this would be her summer trip in 2010.  Usually the Sullivan family plans a trip each year and when I say the Sullivan’s, I mean a lot of people.

Dan’s mom and dad had seven kids and all of their kids had 17 grandchildren between them.  So with just immediate family, we can usually fill a bus. In the past, the Sullivan family has been to Ireland, Scotland, Italy, Prince Edward Island, and on a cruise to Alaska, just to mention a few of our family trips.

For our trip to Lourdes with Alice, Dan invited only his siblings, their spouses and his mom, so this year we will be a smaller group than usual, it will be more personal for her, something to share with her kids and their spouses. 

When Dan decided to go the France (we leave July 28), he thought it would be fun to incorporate Paris into the itinerary as well as Lourdes, so we are really looking forward to our trip to France. Paris is such a fun city, with its sidewalk cafes and culture. I’m especially looking forward to taking a nice walk along the beautiful Seine. 

Lourdes is a wonderful place to visit.  It is the home of Bernadette Soubirous who saw the apparition of “Mary” in a grotto.  Alice has read the book The Song of Bernadette and has also watched the movie by the same name many times. 

I personally have been to Lourdes twice.  The first time I went was in 1969 and then again in 2005.  Both times, I was moved to tears by this wonderful place.  I look forward to going again, and I am very excited to be sharing it with Alice.  I know that this will be the trip of a lifetime.

So there you go. It’s easy to plan where your next vacation can be.  Just listen to your mom, or your grandmother, or your husband or wife.  What is on their “wish list” of places to go and things to see?  If Nicole hadn’t listened to Alice, chances are we would be going somewhere else. 

Choosing and planning this trip is a dream come true for all of us, but will mean more because of Alice and her desire to go there someday.  Someday is almost here!

Australia’s Great Barrier Reef

I personally think that travel is one of the greatest educations we can receive. You learn about geography, the social dynamics of different areas of the world, trends, and basically walk through history – which is so much more fun than just reading about it.  

Let’s take a trip like Australia.  The Great Barrier Reef is one of the Seven Wonders of the World.  You can’t see that from your backyard.  Or the pyramids in Egypt.  I personally have been to both of these places, and I can tell you that seeing them and hearing the details of how these magnificent places came to exist, is positively the best way to expand your mind, body, and soul. 

Expand your mind by choosing a destination you have always wanted to see.  Read up on where you want to go and learn all you can before you actually step off the plane.  Learning about the destination itself is a great lesson, but there is so much more; the people, the restaurants, the local flavor, what is different about this destination, from other places you’ve been to.  Learn what you really want to know about where you are traveling to.

Expand your body by walking and exercising.  When you are on a vacation, you can often take a swim, or stroll the avenues of the worldy city you’re in, or even just go shopping on a free day. Food-wise, my favorite destination the world is Italy, hands-down.  So walking off a meal is probably a good thing to do in bella Italia!

Expand your soul by choosing a destination that you have always dreamed of.  Fulfilling your own destiny gives you a feeling of purpose.  It will give you something to look forward to, something to plan.  It will give you something to remember. Don’t wait, start now!

John Galvin, Chief Financial Officer for Collette Vacations, serves on the company’s Executive Committee and Board of Directors. He has held the position of CFO since joining Collette Vacations in 1989.

All-Time Favorite Destination: The lake crossings from Southern Chile to Argentina. It is a pristine and beautiful destination.

Favorite Pastime: In my free time I enjoy working out and reading. I also like to ski and play golf.

Favorite food experience while traveling? I went on a Collette vacation to Italy with my family and some close friends and it was the best food experience I’ve had. Every meal was terrific.

Best adventure? My wife and I have had the best adventure in raising three great kids.

Best View? There are many ‘Best Views’ that come to mind but Lake Louise in the Canadian Rockies, and sunset from a rooftop bar in Santorini probably top the list.

What’s on your bucket list? I haven’t been to Egypt or Machu Pichu and look forward to both.

Why do I love my job? I love my job because I work in an environment where giving back to others is very much a part of the corporate culture. Everyone in the organization gets involved at multiple levels at helping others. It makes coming to work a joy.

Meet more members of the executive team.