Meet Angela Di Feo, Great Getaways newest family member! Angie hails from Ohio (think Akron and Kent) and moved to the Kansas City area last month to be closer to her fiancé.
Angie, who is an active member of the Air Force National Guard, has garnered many awards, honors and degrees including Associates Degree in Hospitality Management, Fitness and Lodging (graduated with honors); National Collegiate Scholars for Academic Excellence; and Airman of the Year and Air Force Achievement Medal.
Her volunteer efforts include being a Founder of the Skye Jany Humanitarian Assistance Private Organization; participating in Homerun for the Homeless; Breast Cancer Awareness; and Harvest for Hunger.
Angie is well traveled and will be a wonderful addition to our staff. Please welcome Angie, angela@greatgetaways.travel, and let us know how we can assist you with your vacation plans.
A couple of years ago we sent out a YouTube video of the song "Stand by me" from "Playing for Change". The message is as valid today as it was in 2009, perhaps even more so.
Experiencing our world and making new friends wherever we go is our passion and our mission is to help you enjoy the same joy.
Our friends at Micato expressed our truth in their holiday wish to us and we happily pass it on to you: Wherever we are in the world or in life...our hearts beat together.
May your actions touch those around you with love and kindness and may peace embrace our souls...
Ready to see the world from a different perspective? Let me help you reserve a seat aboard a Virgin Galactic's Suborbital Space flight! Talk about a gift that will be remembered!
Below is a video of the recent dedication ceremony at Spaceport America in New Mexico. Enjoy!
I used to live in a world of "Yes, but...", of the half-empty glass, and all the sayings that scream "Barbara, you have a negative attitude!" Why I changed or how it occurred is not nearly as important as the fact that I have had a profound change of attitude. "And why," you ask, "is this relevant here on your blog?"
I travel a lot, a whole lot. I am constantly learning about new destinations, new properties, experiencing places so I can create a magical vacation for you as well as fulfill my passion to explore our planet (and Space, too!). I have visited places of enormous material abundance and those of enormous emotional abundance. Sometimes they are one and the same, often they are not. And, for all of those experiences, I am grateful.
In the past several years of my life, gratitude has switched from a noun to a verb. Daily I review my actions to see whether I demonstrated gratitude or if I indulged in entitlement. Was I "giving" or only interested in "getting"?
Even here, while writing this blog, what is my motive behind my motive? Of course, I want you to remember Great Getaways Travel and call on us to help you plan your next vacation. Yet, there is more than profit motive at work. As we begin to celebrate our 20th year in business, I find my passion for travel has not ebbed; rather, it has increased. There is always a new place to experience, a new food to try, a new friend to make and I want to share my joy of discovery with you. My wish for you is that your life is filled with what we, at Great Getaways Travel, call the "luxury" of experience.
I invite you to celebrate our 20th year of business with us. We are truly grateful to those of you who have experienced our vacations, to those who have helped us created memorable moments for our clients, to those who are reading this blog, and to the many souls, known and unknown, who have made this journey so satisfying.
The video below by Louie Schwartzberg, award-winning cinematographer, from a TED Conference in San Francisco, is our gift to you:
We are searching for a personable, energetic, detail-oriented individual to assist one of our top travel advisors. Experience in the travel industry would be great and LOVE of TRAVEL a must! You'd be working full-time and your benefits include health insurance.
Great Getaways Travel, celebrating our 20th anniversary in business, is a boutique vacation planning company headquartered in Leawood, KS, and we are proud members of Virtuoso, Specialists in the Art of Travel.
Some of you have asked if we have photos of Michael’s trek to Base Camp Everest. We’ve included many photos with the blog posts. For those with an aversion to the written word or have a passion for the amazing beauty of nature, here are links to the photos Michael has sent from Nepal.
WARNING: THESE PHOTOS MAY ENTICE YOU TO PLAN A TREK OR, FOR THOSE WHO THINK ADVENTURE MEANS STAYING AT A HOLIDAY INN WITH A BLACK AND WHITE TV AND NO POOL (LIKE BARBARA KING), THESE PHOTOS MAY CAUSE YOU TO PLAN A PAMPERED WEEK AT CANYON RANCH MIAMI BEACH!
We left at the usual time – 7:00 AM and trekked across Phulangkarpo Pasteur which is the wide valley to the north of Pheriche; along the way my right nostril started bleeding a bit- the air is very dry and cold and my nose does not do well in very dry climates. I tried to stop it while walking and was able to at least pack it so it didn’t bleed over any of my clothing – but it wasn’t until we stopped for lunch that I was able to really attend to it.
After the valley we began to climb up a steep ascent to the terminal moraine of the Khumbu Glacier- the same one that Everest climbers have to negotiate on their route up the mountain. The climb was more a bit more challenging because we did it in a steady cold rain follow by a changeover to ice crystals.
One woman in our party was unable to climb much higher than Pheriche so she decided to hire a horse and ride up to base camp. I wasn’t aware that this was an option but it is. The woman felt confident because she rode horses and she was showing any signs of altitude sickness. Well in retrospect it turn and bruised has backside a bit. Still she decided to go on after the strap was fixed and at the top to the climb on a fairly level path the horse spooked a bit because there were many trekkers on the trail and threw her again and this time she was also dragged a bit. She suffered some trauma and additional injuries and she is now awaiting a helicopter to fly her out and back to Kathmandu.
This is a serious trek and people who attempt it must be in good physical and mental shape and be ready for difficulty along the way. I honestly tried to appraise my own condition and mental ability before I left and I felt strongly that I can do this trek – but I also held no allusion how hard it would be, and it has lived up to as hard as I thought it would be. My biggest variable is altitude sickness- I have been as high as we are going on this trek but that time it was much less strenuous and the weather was basically warm during the days with no rain – not the case here.
So tomorrow we are going to set out for base camp in the middle of the Khumbu glacier and I am hoping I can do one more day and get to Base Camp and maybe even see the famous Khumbu ice falls from a distance!)
As we were leaving Khumjung the skies cleared a bit and we saw both Ama Dablam (21,670 ft.) and Kantega (22, 240 ft.) – both were spectacular in the early morning sunlight! We headed down hill to the river Dudh Khosi (Milk River) so named because it is glacier runoff and not clear at all. The going was not difficult and we made good time arriving at Phunki by 9:15 in the morning. This was our designated lunch stop so even though it was early – we stopped and had soup, potatoes, and a cheese pie of sorts.
After lunch we had a hard climb gaining 1600 feet of altitude in just under 90 minutes to the top of the saddle between Ama Dablam and Kantega and this is our stop for the night. I am now sitting here at about 1:30 typing this and we are all hoping the skies clear again so maybe we might see Everest.
Hundreds of handshakes, thousands of air kisses, and the most amazing networking event of the year---yes, it's that time again---we’re off to Virtuoso’s Annual Travel Mart! Compare this to a fashion buyer going to Milan to discover the newest and latest trends, we head to Virtuoso’s Travel Mart to see what’s new in travel. Think of this as speed-dating on steroids because, in addition to the meetings, the parties, the dinners, and unsurpassed training, we meet with hundreds of vendors 1-on-1 daily for several days.
So, why do you need to know about this? Because we know you’re dreaming about a vacation and if you tell us your wishes, we’ll discuss them with the vendors we meet. If I know what kind of vacation and where you envision going, I’ll be sure to be on the lookout for the perfect experience, designed, exclusively for you.
Our clients, Jeff and Katy Wald, enjoyed visiting an elephant up close and personal at the Elephant Sanctuary!
As we depart Johannesburg for Duba Plains, Botswana, I want to leave you a thought, written by Nadine Stair:
If I had my life to live over again, I'd try to make more mistakes next time. I would relax. I would limber up. I would be sillier than I have been on this trip. I know of very few things I would take seriously. I would take more trips. I would climb more mountains, swim more rivers and watch more sunsets. I would do more walking and looking. I would eat more ice cream and fewer beans. I would have more actual problems and fewer imaginary ones. You see, I am one of those people who live prophylactically and sensibly and sanely hour after hour, day after day. Oh, I've had my moments, and if I had to do it over again, I'd have more of them. In fact, I'd try to have nothings else. Just a moment, one after another instead of living so many years ahead each day. I have been one of those people who never go anywhere without a thermometer, a hot water bottle, a garlge, a raincoat, aspirin and a parachute. If I had it to do again, I would go places, do things and travel lighter than I have.
If I had my life over, I would start bare-footed earlier in the spring and stay that wya later in the fall. I would play hockey more, I wouldn't make such good grades expet by accidnet. I would ride more merry-g--rounds. I'd pick more daisies.
