12 Steps to Becoming a Travel Addict

1. Admit that you want to travel more. There’s a whole world out there that you haven’t seen. You know you can’t really see it on your iPad or on Discovery Channel. Watching other people travel on TV or reading about it is not going to satisfy your need to see more for yourself. Admitting it is the first step. 

2. Acknowledge that you can get help returning to sanity. The Internet has put travel planning within your reach. You can see almost every detail of hotel rooms, cruise cabins, and campgrounds online. You can research places to visit that you never thought you could. There are deals and bargains just waiting for you. You can get schedules for planes, trains, and buses. And the best part? You can research at your leisure, in your jammies, on your lunch break, and on your phone.

3. Decide that you will travel more. Until you make the decision, you are still just dreaming. You aren’t traveling. Start marking a calendar with the following: at least one week of vacation, two or three quarterly retreats in the non-vacation quarters of the year that involve at least two nights away from home, and a minimum of one night away in all the other months. It may look like quite a lot at first, but refer to step 1 if you start to waiver.

4. Take a travel inventory. Where have you been? Where have you been longing to go? Make the lists. Your commitment to the addiction will not be complete if you don’t keep a list that you can adjust every time you find a destination of interest. Try using technology—a Pinterest board maybe? That way you can share your list with fellow addicts.

5. Admit to someone else that you haven’t been traveling enough. When you say it out loud to another human being you’ll often find a partner in whom you can confide and share ideas.

6. Start surfing the Internet and let your travel dreams go wherever they will. Give in and let the addiction take hold. If you don’t look around, how will you ever know what waits for your next trip?

7. Practice shopping for bargains. Part of the reason you don’t go more is fear and the thing that often scares people most is how to pay for their addiction.

8. Admit to those you have wronged by not traveling, and prepare to make amends. This step may cause you to stumble, but it is through your connections with others that you truly enjoy travel. Here’s a list of possibilities:

• Your children—broaden their education. They will learn more while traveling than in an average month sitting in a classroom.
• Your spouse—your other half deserves time away from the world with you.
• Your parents—you haven’t been home in how long?
• Everyone who works in the travel industry—there are jobs at stake here.
• The American people—Travel addicts have the power to turn around the economic crisis.
• Third World countries—your travel dollars really do have a global impact.
• Your cousin in Utah that you only talk to on Facebook—she would really love it if you came for a visit.

9. Start living your amends. Make plans to make up lost time traveling.

10. Continue to work on your travel inventory. The easiest way to get addicted here is to travel with a purpose.  Join a car club, start a collection that requires travel to complete, or set a goal to visit all of something—states, countries in South America, wineries in your state. 

11. Digest and learn from what you encounter. Whether you are camping or staying in luxury resorts, travel is more than an exploration of the world around us. It’s about exploring who we really are and what we are capable of. Keep a journal or log while you explore and return to your words often. You’ll often be surprised at the depth of the feelings you expressed while traveling.

12. Spread the word! Your travel addiction is not something to be hidden. Share your stories with the world and you enjoy the bonus of knowing that your insight may help other travelers as they find their addiction.

Making the A List: Get Free Stuff by Being a Great Guest

Insider Secret:
The owners of small lodging facilities keep lists of the guests they like, and we share the lists of guests we don't like with others in the business.

These are the types of notes we keep on guests in our reservation system. 

What we do with the lists of great guests ranges from simple acknowledgement to piling on the free stuff. At our resort we always do little things for our favorites like rushing them through check-in, leaving them cookies or flowers in the room, or allowing late checkouts at no charge. Our best customers get discounts, free night stays, and even free boat rentals. We know of one facility that gives an entire family reunion a free weekend in the offseason because they have been such good customers during the busy season for so many years.


So how do you get on the A-List? 

• Be respectful. This applies to our property, our rules, and our other guests. This is our home and we love sharing it with you, but leaving messes, playing music so loudly that the whole place is forced to endure it, or allowing your children to terrorize the place will never get you on our Christmas card list.

• Be friendly, but don't monopolize too much of our time. As much as we love to chat, innkeepers are busy people. We all try to make this job look easy, but it can be grueling during our busy times. Brighten our day with a quick friendly conversation, then go enjoy your stay. Guests frequently invite us to join them for meals, but what we really appreciate most is when someone fixes us a plate and brings it to the office. Those people move right to the top of the list. 

• Don't be needy. There's a difference between asking for assistance during your stay and calling five times between check-in and midnight for information that is available to you in the guestbook found lying on your dining table, or that you could have asked for at check-in.

Note the discount. Code x13 means this year's Christmas card list.

• Use onsite services. Obviously not every place you stay will have services to offer, but if they have a restaurant, equipment rentals, movie rentals, sell ice, or have a gift shop, spending your money with your hosts is a quick way to make a good impression. 

• Repeat. If you enjoy a place, making it a habit is good for you as well as for the owners of the establishment. Even regulars that aren't the perfect guests get perks that others don't. 

• Write a good online review, or leave us a personal note. These two things go farther than almost anything you can do to get on our A-list. Public acknowledgement of our place helps us build our business and private acknowledgement keeps us going from week to week.

• Remind us. As hard as we try to remember names and faces, we simply cannot keep up with everyone. When you call or email start by telling us when you stayed with us last. It keeps us from embarrassing ourselves by not remembering your name and helps us help you to those A-list perks.  

Happy New Year!

Traveling with Pets

People traveling with their pets often claim to have more rewarding experiences than those traveling with friends or family members. (Maybe because the dog doesn’t complain?) We once had a family traveling with a parrot stay at the resort. We never saw them without that bird sitting on someone’s shoulder. It was part of their family.

Our friend Chris' dog, Beacon, probably has her own frequent flyer account she travels so much. Here's a real insider tip: cute dogs often score their owners seat upgrades on airlines. Of course it's dependant on the counter agent's feelings about pooches, but sometimes just a peek of a sweet face is enough to make the day more pleasant for a weary airline employee and you could reap the rewards. Even if you don't get the upgrade, your time at the counter may be more pleasant.

Don't think that dogs have exclusivity when it comes to traveling with their owners. We have friends who take their cat camping with them. And we once saw a young woman at a highway restaurant traveling with a horse trailer in tow. Not an unusual sight in Texas, but we noticed that as she opened the door of her pickup truck a cat jumped out. At first we were alarmed, thinking that now she was going to be scrambling to catch her runaway cat, but while the woman tended to her horse in back, the cat calmly walked to a nearby patch of grass, did his business, returned to the truck, and waited patiently for her return. He jumped right in when she opened the door again and off they went. (Disclaimer: Don't try this one with your own cat without a harness and leash at first.)

Got horses? Plan a trip with them. There are campgrounds across the country with equine facilities and trails to ride. There are also accommodations like ours where you can stay in a cabin and your four hoofed friends get a barn, pasture, or pen nearby. Alyssa used to be quite expert at finding the most incredible places she wanted us to go as a family with the horses.

Here's a cool car seat saver for pets who shed.

Here are some tips from friends and family members who travel frequently with their animals:

1. Get the animal used to it's carrier well in advance of a long trip. Kennel trained pets travel the best.

2. Same thing applies to new feed/water bowls. Don't expect them to drink from that new-fangled drinking thing in a busy parking lot if they never tried it at home.

3. Shop for pet travel gadgets. Pet super stores have an enormous selection of things to make you both more comfortable.

4. Pay attention to you pet's bathroom needs. Our friend Chris even works Beacon's pooping schedule into his travel plans. Seriously. We don't make this stuff up.

5. If possible, try to take several short trips before taking a long one. 

6. Stop as often as your mode of transportation allows.

7. When all else fails and you must travel with a nervous animal, seek veterinary advice.

The real key to traveling with pets is to do your research regarding accommodations and transportation. You should do everything necessary to ensure your pet’s safety and comfort, but the number one rule: never, ever assume that your pet is welcome somewhere just because you are. This means parks, hotels, campgrounds, and Aunt Jane’s house. Not everyone loves animals and some people have severe allergies. Even people with pets of their own may not appreciate visiting animals, so ask first, then enjoy exploring with your beloved pet

Silly Sunday

Happy Travelers know that there are times when you just have to let your hair down. What better way than with a camera in hand. Thus we begin the thread titled Silly Sunday. We hope you will join us each week.

Fixin to what?

Now this is a happy traveler!

It's always fun to play with perspective when you take travel photos.

Dang it! It took my dollar again!

This is Roxie Dog. She is one happy traveler, practically living on the road, traveling from one horse show to another. Read our Traveling with Pets post for tips to keep your pet happy.

This is our miniature horse Crystal. She blogs at www.theminimares.com.

Don't Use the Threat of a Bad Review to Get What You Want

Things go wrong. There are times when you actually deserve a refund or an upgrade or maybe just an apology. As someone who has been on the other side of the check out counter, let me tell you how NOT to get what you deserve.

1. Make sure you are right. You'd be amazed by how many times people get cranky about things that they are wrong about. We have had people swear to us that there was no hot water in their shower, when they had hot water at the sink just two feet away. Plumbing is not that complex people.
2. Don't threaten a bad online review. That tells me immediately that you are a person that cannot be satisfied and I most likely will stop wasting my time trying. I would rather let you post the review and use that as a marketing opportunity to address your concerns to potential customers. I have been known to spend hours writing public responses to negative posts, generating far more positive feedback from potential customers than I could have generated on my own. Remember the old saying, "There's no such thing as bad publicity." That does not mean that anyone in the industry wants bad reviews, just that good business people know how to spin one to their advantage. 
3. Don't raise your voice. Same theory as above. By the time you raise your voice I usually have tried my best offers and you are beyond my help. My goal at that point will be to get you out of my lobby, not satisfy your needs.
4. Don't attack anyone personally, staff or owner. Nobody responds well to that tactic. And in today's litigious atmosphere, you might actually land in court if you personally attack the wrong person.
5. Don't blame the business for things beyond their control. The fact that you got lost and didn't call me for assistance is not a reason for a refund. Take responsibility for your actions and I will do the same.