Are you a couple with enough toasters and dish towels who’d much rather experience a “sunset cruise” or a “luxurious honeymoon suite” as a wedding gift? Would you prefer to have the honeymoon you have always dreamed of instead of more “stuff” for your already overcrowded home? With the unveiling of Largay Travel’s new, innovative Honeymoon Registry, couples can have all of that and much more. This complimentary honeymoon registry, http://largaytravel.honeymoonwishes.com/ enables couples to create their very own, personal wedding website that tells their story, share photos, and even blog about their romantic journey towards marriage. Couples can create their own ‘ wish list’ of things they want to experience on their honeymoon; like breakfast in bed, a dinner cruise, or perhaps a couples massage – even the cost of your trip. It essentially works like a gift registry, in which guests purchase portions of the dream honeymoon as a wedding gift. Guests can then print a personalized gift card which can be presented to the couple on their special day.
“With more and more couples living together before getting married, we’ve found that traditional wedding gifts are no longer needed, and often times many people feel it’s impersonal to give cash. Our new honeymoon registry allows family and friends to give what truly matters to couples…..the memory of an amazing honeymoon” says Amanda Klimak, Vice President of Largay Travel.
It takes about fifteen minutes for couples to register their honeymoon and there are no set up fees for using the website. Once registered, couples then have access to online & printed announcement templates, email blast suggestion and wedding website announcement cards. There are thousands of honeymoon ideas and photos on the website as well.
“This is an easily accessible, fun way for couples to share both their wedding day and the amazing trip that follows. For those couples unsure of where they want to travel, or perhaps want to keep it a secret, there is the option to exclude the details” says Vivian Leonard, a recently married Largay Honeymoon Travel Specialist. “The thing I love about the registry is that it’s fun and allows couples to share their honeymoon with their loved ones.”
Emmy-Winning Team Expands Client Service Capacity for Exceptional
Equestrian Vacations with Virtuoso Travel Agency
Washington, D.C., January 2, 2012– Equitrekking Travel, which features exceptional equestrian vacations from the Emmy Award-winning Equitrekking PBS TV show, has announced Largay Travel, a veteran Virtuoso travel agency, as their new Preferred Provider of Travel Services.
The Equitrekking team, who started their business with a single Virtuoso agent two years ago, joined forces with Largay Travel to keep up with the demand from travelers for their riding vacations. Much of this interest is spurred by the popular Equitrekking TV series, which broadcasts nationwide on PBS stations and internationally in over 65 countries. At their interactive website, EquitrekkingTravel.com, equestrians and those seeking to horse ride while on vacation can choose from a variety of hand-picked riding holidays, many of which have been featured by equestrian travel expert and three time Daytime Emmy nominated TV host Darley Newman on Equitrekking. Photos, videos, traveler reviews, blogs, travel tips, detailed itineraries and more engage travelers with personal insight into each special vacation.
“After riding horses with local people all over the world and receiving inquiries from travelers who wanted to ride with the guides they saw featured on our TV show, we launched EquitrekkingTravel.com to feature these unique experiences that combine horse riding with other adventure, culinary and cultural travels,” said Darley. “We are excited to work with the highly regarded team of travel consultants and horsewomen at Largay Travel as we expand our offerings and welcome new travelers.”
Largay Travel, one of New England’s premier travel organizations, has been arranging exclusive travel experiences since 1969. Their dedicated team of 30 skilled advisors have been recognized for four consecutive years by Conde Nast Travel magazine as one of “America’s Top 100 Secret Travel Agents” and for the past 8 years has made the A-List of the world’s top travel agents published by Travel & Leisure magazine. With 26,000 eligible agents competing for these honors, Largay Travel continues to stand out and bring clients the best in adventure, family, cruising and African safaris.
“We are excited to carry through our goal of providing life long memories from travel to the equestrians and their non-riding partners who take Equitrekking Travel’s featured tours,” said Amanda Klimak, Vice President of Largay Travel. “Our expertise in adventure and luxury travel and our ability to customize experiences paired with Equitrekking Travel’s extensive equestrian travel expertise makes for a winning combination for travelers.”
By working with Largay Travel, clients have the option for a full service experience from start to finish. This has been of special interest to equestrian groups, who receive special discounts and travel deals when booking a trip found on EquitrekkingTravel.com. Travelers also have access to trips found nowhere else, including EquitrekkingTravel.com’s exclusive Maui, Big Island and Cappadocia, Turkey horse riding vacations, a medieval village trek in Ireland and a special tour of Wales featuring riding Welsh Cobs in the breathtaking Cambrian Mountains, a visit to the Derwen International Welsh Cob Centre and a traveler favorite… a horse ride to the pub.
Equitrekking Travel continues to rapidly grow its client base, increasing its revenue three fold in its second year of operations. In addition to being featured on television in North America, Asia, Africa and Europe and earning high praise from travelers, Equitrekking Travel has been profiled in USA Today, The Boston Globe and Martha Stewart Radio.
With an already popular TV series, Newman continues to spread the word about her personal passion for eco-friendly horseback riding exploration and supporting locally owned, sustainable small businesses, all the while working to serve a growing niche community of equestrian enthusiasts and their families.
Founded by Darley Newman, an equestrian travel expert and the three time Daytime Emmy nominated host, writer and creator of the Emmy winning Equitrekking TV show, EquitrekkingTravel.com features exceptional horseback riding vacations. Visitors may watch video clips, view photographs and get first hand accounts of riding with the local guides in each destination as they dream, plan and learn on the website, which features detailed itineraries, travel deals and upcoming departures. Visit www.EquitrekkingTravel.com for itineraries and upcoming departures.
About Largay Travel
Largay Travel was founded in 1969 by Roland F. Largay. Paul Largay, Roland’s nephew, joined the organization in 1982. Together they have traveled the world and built one of New England’s premier travel management organizations. Largay Travel, headquartered in Waterbury, Connecticut, employs a staff whose average tenure with Largay exceeds 15 years. The company is strategically divided into three separate divisions: leisure travel, group & incentive and independent agents, to ensure all the respective, unique needs of each sector are satisfied.
If art is your passion, then the Swatch Art Peace Hotel in Shanghai, China is just the place for you. This historical hotel offers guests the architecture of the early 1900’s, mixed with the most cutting edge and stylish designs of today. Visitors to The Swatch Art Peace Hotel may attend a variety of exhibitions on the premises. The top floor of the building hosts the Shook! restaurant and a multimedia space that can be used for concerts, press conferences, movies and various other public and private events. From the roof terrace, guests can admire a panoramic view of The Bund and the spectacular sights of Pudong across the Huangpu River.
In addition to guest rooms, this hotel offers gifted artists from around the world, including China, a chance to live and work in studios in the Hotel for a four month period. Artists are chosen by the Selection Committee, includes Nicolas G. Hayek and Georges N. Hayek, Chairman and CEO of the Swatch Group; Esther Grether, Board Member of the Swatch Group; George Clooney, actor; François-Henri Pinault, CEO of PPR; Mikhail Kusnirovich, Chairman of the Strategic Development Committee of GUM; and Sir Francis Yeoh, Chairman, YTL Group.
As a travel specialist I am always in search of the most fun and unique experiences I can find. In Shanghai, China I was able to find just that and it was called, Shanghai Sideways. With this tour, guests enjoy a two, four or full day tour of the city in a WWII motorcycle with sidecar. Of course the bike is driven by an experienced guide but each bike can take two passengers, one on the back and one in the sidecar. While moving about Shanghai, your “Insider Guide” stops to give you a bit of history and take you to the more off the beaten path locales.
It’s fun…..it’s exciting…and it’s one of the coolest things we did in Shanghai! Check out our video below..
As a travel specialist, I am always in search of unique and memorable experiences and lunch on the Great Wall of China is just that. Hosted by St. Regis Hotels, our day included cocktails, phenomenal entertainment and a gourmet lunch. Truly spectacular!
This evening we had a truly amazing experience, dinner in Summer Palace in the Garden of Harmonious Pleasures. Our evening was hosted by Aman Resorts and their hotel is adjacent to the Summer Palace and truly spectacular in and of itself. This was an evening that will be with me for the rest of my life and one that I will look forward to planning for my own clients and groups.
Today we had the opening session of the Virtuoso’s Chairman’s Event in Beijing, China and it was a completely eye opening experience to me. Our speakers included a government official from the Department of Tourism, Lijia Zhang, author of a book entitled Socialism is Great and David Ben Kay, who was a liaison for Microsoft located in China, who now has a company in the 798 Art District helping people outside China start businesses within China. They also had two college students speak about their lives growing up in China and how different they were from their parent’s lives. Each person’s perspective was unique and it was truly enlightening for me both as a travel specialist and as an American.
To be completely honest, and I’m almost embarrassed to say this, prior to this meeting and prior to my trip to China, my perception of China had been somewhat warped by television and a lifetime of education on communism. Even though China was a destination full of culture and history, it was a country with a government with an agenda. A country of people who ate anything that walked, crawled or flew and a destination with people who had little to say about their lives and their future. A country with an agenda to take over the world, by continually loaning money, like a loan shark, who will eventually use that power to control everyone else’s destiny. Although some of that may have been true in the past, I am quickly discovering that is not the case in China today nor with the citizens of China.
With over 1.3 billion, yes that’s billion with a ‘B’, citizens in China, things are changing. Young people are able to make choices. Choices of careers, of schooling, of what they wear and how they think. They are able to aspire to become something other than what their parents and grand parents were. Lijia Zhang talked about how in her parents lifetime in China, they lived like ‘A frog in a well’ or someone who could not escape their destiny and could not see anything more than what was in the well. She talked about how much that has changed and how different things are in only the past twenty years. One of the college students spoke about how his primary goal was to be happy in life and find a career that was truly fulfilling to him, a concept that was unheard in the past. The other student was studying journalism and was planning to teach at a college in the US next year, as long as she gets the job, before returning to China to become a professor of English to Chinese students. David Ben Kay spoke about entrepreneurs and artists coming to China to build businesses. All of these realities were something completely incomprehensible to the people of China years ago but are exciting opportunities for the people of China today.
With these changes, there is a growing upper class in China, that is hungry to see the world and hoping to travel abroad and there is a sense of innovation that is truly exciting. Matthew Upchurch, the CEO of Virtuoso and host of our trip, gave several statics in his portion of the opening session. One statistic that stuck in my mind was that last year alone, over 79 million visa applications from foreigners to visit the US were not processed, primarily due to inefficiencies within the US government and a lack of emphasis on tourism in our country. He continued by talking about how the processing of those visas would have resulted in over over 606 billion dollars and a half a million jobs in the tourism industry in the United States. As a person whose career depends on tourism both within and outside of the US and as someone who is witnessing an economy in need of jobs, I see an opportunity that shouldn’t be passes by. The opportunities to both embrace the ‘New China’ and embrace our the opportunities for tourism are exciting and should not be overlooked.
Our meetings wrapped up with a talk from Guy Rubin of Imperial Tours and Patrick McCloud of A & K about China as an emerging destination. They spoke about improvements to roads and airports and an increase in the number of upscale hotel options available to visitors. They focused on how China has become a destination worthy of not just one, but many visits. From river cruises, to small villages, to emperors palaces and tombs, China has something for everyone. It is safe, it is unique and the history and culture will not disappoint even the most well traveled individuals. The food has been amazing and i have yet to be served even one bug, cat or lizard.
China is an emerging destination and in my opinion, one that is worth visiting. For you know that when Starwood hotels commits to opening a new hotel in a country every two weeks for the next two years, that something amazing is happening and you don’t want to miss it!
Most visitors arrive in Xian looking forward to seeing the Army of the Terracotta Warriors but soon discover that Xian has so much more to offer. As the former capital of China, the history is some of the finest and most interesting. From biking on the wall that surrounds Old Town, which is a about seven miles, to visiting The Great Mosque and market, Xian offers plenty to do and see. The key, I have found, is to work with a specialist who has connections, like Eastern Journeys. From moving past lines, to meeting the archeologists who are excavating the emporors tumb, every moment was truly special because of their expertise and connections.
Over thirty years ago a farmer digging a well discovered one of the most amazing sights in the world, The Army of the Terracotta Warriors. Today, visitors to Xian, China marvel at the shear number of life-size soldiers, each hand crafted over 2,000 years ago and each completly unique.
Our Eastern Journey guide, Henry, knew everything there was to know about this World Heritage Site and had the VIP access to make our visit truly unique. From a special parking area to access to a private viewing platform away from the crowds, our tour of the Terracotta warriors was truly special.
