Magical Destinations

Travel must commence by September 30th, 2012 (excluding Adventures by Disney bookings, which can be booked through 2013.).

This offer applies to new bookings only with a value of $2000 or more(excluding airfare) 

• These offers cannot be combined with other promotional offers from Disney Destinations.

There are so many places in the world to see, and within those destinations there is a plethora of things to do. If you are looking for a truly unique experience for your upcoming vacation, read on...

 Many years ago I had the opportunity to spend time barging for a few days on the Thames River near Oxford, England.  That old barge did not have many ammenities.  The sleeping accommodations were tight, there was no cooking onboard, and not much of a deck to hang out on, but I was hooked.  I loved the slow pace and  watching the beautiful countryside go by. The captain allowed me to steer the barge and help with the canal locks. On our first day we tied up at a spot in the middle of nowhere and disembarked right onto the back lawn of a pub that was over 100 years old. Lunch was sheperds pie and some warm ale ( the pie was good the ale was not) There were bicycles onboard that we were allowed to use to ride on the footpath that was   next to the canal.  My traveling companions and I had a leisurely ride from one town to the next where we met our barge and got back onboard and traversed the next part of the river. This was back in the early nineties, my how things have changed! 

Today, barging is a vastly popular vacation style in Europe, expecially in France.  The barges are like floating hotels with appealing accommodations. One of the barges is owned by the Orient Express whose high standards are well known. They have full kitchens that serve gourmet meals (which are included), alcohol and wine bars,outdoor sun decks and a full crew to see to your every need.  They stop in a variety of places and the shore excursions are all part of the price.  They can house anywhere from 6 or 8 people on up to 40 person barges.  You can rent out an entire barge ( some of the 8 person barges are not that expensive) They are great for a family, a group of girlfiends, a few couples traveling together.  They provide a much more intimate vacation than big, or small. ship cruising. The barges stop in a variety of towns even some that have famous wineries.  At each stop you will disembark do some sightseeing and then get backonboard the barge and float to your next destination.  If you stop in a town with a winery you most likely will view the winery and have a tasting session.  Depending on which canal route you take there are a variety of things to do and see.

This summer there is a trip on one of the ultra deluxe barges  that is perfect for oenophiles. It boasts all 33 Grand Cru wines of France will be tasted by each guest! You will be floating all through the picturesque Burgundy regions, meeting winemakers at hosted dinners aboard; exploring wine caves and vineyards; and visiting such historic towns as Beaune and Dijon for sightseeing and shopping. Every day, another selection of Grand Cru vintages will be presented, culminating in the most famous of them all: La Romanee Conti!

Barge cruises usually only last one week, so consider a few days in Paris before the trip and maybe a few in southern France after the trip are in order.  If you are interested in really seeing the country from a different perspective perhaps a barging trip is for you.

If you have any questions or would like further information contact your LBAC Travel Dream Vacation Maker to help you make all your vacation dreams come true!

I always advise my clients to book any vacation that they are contemplating as early as possible.  The reason for doing this is you always will get the best availability  and usually the best pricing.  Plus I monitor pricing, so if the price decreases and the vendor allows it  I will get the discount get applied.  Thus when a client comes to me less then a month before the April break, one of the most expensive times of the year to travel, I usually advise them availability and pricing may not be the best, but let's see what we can do.   So just like the shoemaker whose children have no shoes, so goes it in my family with regard to a vacation for April break. 

 This morning my husband said to me "Honey, what should we do for this April break?"  I immediately answer, "Paint the back bedroom."  "No, No" he says "I mean what should we do for a vacation"  Oh Boy, I am thinking to myself, when I asked him in October, November, December and January (stopped asking by February) " Honey, what should we do for April break?", each time he responded , "I don't think we can get away in April this year."  OK, I am always interested in going on vacation so I ask, "What's the budget?"  "Under $2500." he immediately responds.  "Are you taking this vacation by yourself or are Juli and I coming with you?  $2500 is not much to go on."  His response was  "Don't be ridiculous, of course we are all going!"  OK, so I ask a few more qualifying questions.  "Do you want to leave the great state of NY?"  he laughs and proceeds to tell me he wants to go somewhere hot, prefferably a Caribbean island, with white sand and turquoise waters. Somewhere we have not been before, between 5 and 7 nights.  It does not have to be an all inclusive resort and we can leave anytime April 4th or later. Oceanviews and non stop air are prefferable, but not a requirement.  "Don't overthink this, I am sure you will find something" were his parting words to me. One thing that I know and he doesn't is that my daughters passport expired in March. I did not get it renewed because I knew we were not going away in April. So that immediately leaves out all those gorgeous Caribbean islands whose airfare alone would blow his budget.  I am down to looking for pricing and availability in Puerto Rico, The Virgin Islands, Florida and California. 


 We have been to the Virgin islands before but he and my daughter love both St Thomas and St John, so they are a definite possibility.  They also both love Puerto Rico.  Between airfare and hotel we could actually get to St. Thomas and Puerto Rico, but if we wanted to eat during the week that would be a problem.....Hmmm, what to do?  I know, what about a short cruise?  We all LOVE cruising, plus food, entertainment, and  basic beverages are included.  After a quick check to see what is available I come up with Royal Caribbean's Majesty of the Seas.  She does a 4 night itinerary with stops in Nassau, Bahamas, Key West Fl. and  Royal Caribbean's private island of Coco Cay.  So a little flexibility on his part is in order.  We have been to Nassau and Key West, we will not have an oceanview or balcony stateroom, and we need to drive and not fly down. On the flip side, we enjoy those ports of call, the weather is usually gorgeous this time of year, the seas are stunning and will hopefully be calm, it is 5 days and 4 nights on a beautiful ship, entertainment and meals are included, and we are within budget (actually quite a bit under!) .  Is this acceptable to my other half?  It is!


 So we ARE going away for April break.  I stayed within budget, it might not have been the exact experience he was looking for but it had enough of the elements "my client" required to book it. Not bad for last minute.   There are still vacations out there for April 2012 and a Dream Vacation Maker at LBAC Travel  will help  find the right one for you, so give us a call at 631 648 8032.

Today was our final day in Peru, the plan was catch a one hour morning flight to Lima, have a final lunch with the group at one of the oldest homes in Lima, do a quick walk around the main square,  check into our hotel and then my roomie Kathryn and I were going to head to the beach for a few hours (and of course do a little shopping on the way back!) before our late night flight back to JFK.

                                                     A Hidden Mickey in Peru!!!

Things started out well on our final morning, our bags were placed outside the door of the hotel room and magically wisked away, next time we will see them is in our hotel room in Lima.  We got to the Cusco airport and it was time to say goodbye to our van drivers.  Abel, who was the driver in our Mercedes van, could have drove in the Lemans Grand Prixe!  He was fabulous, he negotiated hairpin turns, drove up and down mountainous dirt roads with no guard rails, passed cars at lightening speeds, and always kept us entertained with Andean panpipe hits of the 60's and 70's.  He also was one of the most courteous drivers I have ever  met in all my travels and always kept us safe.  As with all things Disney, Chris and Ernesto, our guides, already had our airline boarding passes available for us, so all we had left to do was pass thru security.  Unfortunately our flight was delayed, first for 1 hour, then for 2 hours and finally after more then 3 hours we boarded our flight to Lima.  Immediately upon landing we were escorted to a big bus that held our entire group and off we went to downtown Lima for our final luncheon.Our luncheon was held at the House of Aliaga.

 This house was constructed in 1535 on a pre-Columbian sanctuary. It is still inhabited by the descendants of the first proprietor, Jerónimo de Aliaga, standard-bearer and exchequer for Francisco Pizarro. This home is the oldest mansion of the city and faces the government palace.


We were treated to music, coctails, mocktails and hor's douevres in the foyer.  We then were able to take a quick self guided tour of some of the public rooms in the mansion.  There was alot of ornate woodwork and grand entryways, heavy mouldings, beautiful carved chests, stunning artwork and finally a 2 story courtyard, which is where we ate lunch.


Coffee, and my final cup of coca tea, was in the drawing room where Chris and Ernesto asked us to share some final thoughts on our Peruvian Adventure. Words such as amazing, adventure of a lifetime, fantastic, fabulous, were all thrown about.  One of my fellow travel agents summed it up so perfectly " I have been on many trips around the globe, nothing compares, or even comes close to this adventure. Thank you Disney for showing us Peru in such a magical way."  That statement really resonated with me.  I was in a room of all travel agents, travel writers, food writers - people who are all well traveled and we each felt the same way.  We did not have time to go to the beach it was getting late and after a very brief stroll around the central plaza we headed to our hotel to freshen up (yes a room is reserved for the night , even if your flight does not leave the next day.  The entire group was leaving that evening but it was great to be able to have a hotel room even for a short time. We tried to say our goodbyes in the hotel, in the bus, in the Lima airport and at JFK - but we didn't have time to connect with everyone. The great thing is that many of us are now connected on facebook and via email.  We have shared photos on a shutterfly account set up just for the trip, plus our guides took a ton of photos along the way and we will soon be receiving in the mail a disk with their photos on it.  We have been keeping in touch and some of us will even get to see each other on Disney's newest ship in the fleet, the Fantasy, at the end of March. We started out a group of strangers and quickly became friends who have wonderful memories of this shared experience.

 If you are considering taking a trip of a lifetime, having a shared experience with your family or friends and making marvelous memories the best way to do it is with an Adventure By Disney! Call your LBAC Travel Dream Vacation Maker to make this a reality.

Post Script:  I am posting this blog page almost 3 weeks after my return from this amazing trip to this beautiful country. I continue to talk about my trip daily and sometimes multiple times each day - it had that much of an impact on me.  I can't remember the last time I enjoyed a vacation so much.  I chalk it up to the outstanding tour company I traveled with, the beauty of Peru, the fabulous archaeological sites, and the new friends I made.  I recently finished the book  Turn Right at Machu Picchu: Rediscovering the Lost City One Step at a Time by Mark Adams. It was recomended by my fellow traveler Tom. I am so glad I waited until I returned from my trip to read it because it was like re-living my grand adventure.  I have been thinking quite a bit about returning to Peru, perhaps next summer, to attempt hiking the Inca Trail.  I hope my family is up for that adventure! 

Safe and happy travels my friends.

The beautiful city of Cusco ( previously spelled Cuzco and soon to be Qosqo - which is the native quechua spelling of the city) was formerly the Incan capital and is currently Peru's historical capital. Today we are taking a quick 15 minute ride from our hotel in Cusco to the Incan archaeological site of Sacsayhuamán (it is pronounced like Sexy Woman) .  While Macchu Picchu is revered for its beautiful location and splendid views, Sacsayhuamán is admired  for the remarkable architectural engineering skills that were needed for its creation. 


The complex is similar to many other Inca constructions, made of large polished dry-stone walls, each boulder carefully cut to fit together tightly without mortar.  The stones are so closely spaced that a single piece of paper will not fit between many of the stones. This precision, combined with the rounded corners of the blocks, the variety of their interlocking shapes, and the way the walls lean inward, is thought to have helped the ruins survive devastating earthquakes in Cuzco.  What is so unbelieveable about this site though is that some of the boulders are as large as a car! 

So what was Sacsayhuamán? According to our guides it was a temple.  Sacsayhuaman has a very special design with walls that zigzag.  This design is rather uncommon and is similar to some castles in Europe, Spanish invaders believed that Sacsayhuaman was a fortress. The locals say the Sacsayhuaman Temple was dedicated to the Andean God Illapa (the Ray or Lightning), which was very important to the agriculture rituals; this deity is the true reason of the zig zag lightening bolt shape of the Sacsayhuaman.  It really is a sight to behold!

It was still early in the day and we took a quick 5 minute ride to our next destination, which was a labrynth used by the Incas for certain rituals that was carved into the rocks.  Harvey, our local guide, told us that in the center of the labrynth was a chamber that was perhaps used to prepare bodies for the next life.  He showed us the altar that was used for this ritual, when we touched it it was very cold (like a morgue).  We also noted the shape of the opening to exit the center chamber it was shaped like a llamas head!

We headed back to Cusco where we had the afternoon to explore.  My roommate, Kathryn and I decided to go wherever our feet took us.  Here is where we went:
                                  Through the gates of city, to San Pedro's market.

In the market we saw:
 I was not sure what festival the masks were used for, but I though they were interesting, and not too much money either.


The very fresh homemade chicken soup looked yummy, but Kathryn reminded me I was just starting to feel better and it might not be a good idea to partake in the local lunch.

Loved the fruits, vegetable and grains....

The breads were as big as platters and were only about $2 US dollars

Peeling some potatoes for the chicken soup - I still had my eye on it, my stomache was starting to grumble at this point, and Kathryn reminded me again why I should not eat it.......
I took many more pictures in the market, there were beef hearts for sale, pigs, camel lips (not sure what those were used for) lambs heads, frogs, chickens etc.  But I thought that dead animals was not a sight most people would be interested in seeing in a travel blog!  We finally left the market, without any purchases but with some very good memories.  As we were walking back to the hotel, we spotted this woman selling her potatoes


She must have had 10 different types in her bag, she even had some purple ones! 

The architecture in Cusco is a cross between Spanish colonial, moorish and Incan, but one thing is for sure there are some of the largest and most beautiful doors I have ever seen in this city.

We were starving by the time we were heading back to the hotel, it must have been seeing all that food at the marketplace, so when we go to the center of town we stopped for some pizza, for a New Yorker who is used to great pizza, it wasn't too bad! 

We were reenergized after our meal and  decided to do some last minute shopping as we were leaving in the morning for our flight to Lima and then home.  Lo and behold, I found a store specializing in religous art!   Guess what is now hanging in my living room!



Tonight in our last evening meal together as a group, the reality of going home is setting in.  We had a private dinner at the hotel this evening in their beautiful dining room.  We had a fantastic time playing the white elephant game, I wound up with a beautiful pair of alpaca socks ( thanks Bonnie!) that my daughter confiscated immediately upon my arrival home.  We said our goodbyes - the first of many - to our local guide Harvey.  Time for one last drink with the group in the hotel bar and then pack for the trip home.

I was sorry to see our time at Sol Y Luna come to an end but I was eager to do some major shopping as well as to go to the city of Cusco, capital of the Incan empire. This morning as we were just about to board our "chariots" for the ride to Pisac Marketplace, our guide Chris handed each of us 10 peruvian soles (about $4 US dollars) and told us to do our best bargaining and purchase something for our white elephant gift exchange that we would be having at tomorrow nights dinner. I love a challenge!

It was not that long a ride to Pisac marketplace, which was a riot of color!  We had 1 1/2 hours and I had some money burning a hole in my pocket.  There was all sorts of textiles, sweaters, silver jewelery, alpaca rugs, artwork, etc.  The market was fairly big so I needed a strategy to get most of it in.  I also knew from my discussions with our guides that bargaining was the best way to get a good price.  As soon as we stopped I was off and ready to go.  I had a mental note of who I had to buy for and what I was thinking of purchasing. Many of the stalls had the same things that we had been seeing at previous stops, so I was prepared. First up was a t-shirt for the hubby with the logo of Peru on it.  Thanks to my fellow adventurer Jen she already negotiated a price of $9 US dollars so I rode her coat tails and got the same deal.  I purchased an alpaca shawl for my mom, a Christmas ornament for the white elephant exchange, leggings for my daughter and some cute llama key chains for girls at the office. My favorite find of the day was a lovely piece of artwork, a watercolor of some llamas, that I purchased for Liz, my friend and boss at LBAC Travel.  On the way back to the bus some gorgeous religious artwork done in oils caught my eye. I absolutely love religious artwork. The deep colors, lots of gold embellishment, heavy gilded frames.I loved each and every one of them, but I could not think of how I was going to get them back to the US.  So after after much contemplation I had to let it go and board the bus.  UGH!  I think I should have bought one.  Maybe I will see them in Cusco.


Our next stop was the Awana Kancha Camelids Center, this is what all the kids (Big and small!)  have been waiting to see - The Llama, Alpaca and Vicuna Farm!  As we entered the farm  we were each given a large bunch of  green grasses to feed the animals.  There were a few different pens, each holding Llamas or Alpaca.  the Vicunas were not penned but roamed freely on the hill top above the center, they do not do well with other animals or penned up. It was great fun trying to feed the animals except when one very agressive llama pushed his way in front of the llama I was feeding and then proceeded to "spit" at me because he had to wait his turn to eat.YUK!  Llama spit is gross!!!  Our guides Ernesto and  Harvey explained that the llamas have faces similar to camels, the alpacas looked like sheep and the vicuna looked like themselves (!!!!) but goods made from their wool was the most expensive and finest in the world.  Hmmm, I still have some spending money left maybe I could get a vicuna shawl?  After we fed the animals, there was some weaving demonstrations going on as well as a shop which sold all things made from the camelids wool.  I did check out a lovely vicuna shawl, it cost well over $900 US dollars - I would up buying a pen and pencil set for my daughter with dolls on top in peuvian costumes. Total expenditure $4 US dollars.



We were now on our way to Cusco to have lunch, take a brief tour of the city, and check into the Hotel Libertador.  On our way to Cusco we had to pullover to take one last photo of the sacred valley.


Our lunch was a buffet of typical local Peruvian food, it all looked good but I was still a bit under the weather from yesterday and wound up having some chicken soup and a teeny bit of rice pudding. All the foodies in our group were loving the vast selection of Peruvian specialties.

After lunch we did a quick walking tour of Cusco just to get our bearings, and then checked into the hotel.  As with all our hotel check ins, our keys were ready and waiting for us, and we had the rest of the afternoon to explore the city.  Since we were going to have the next day to explore also we decided to walk around the hotel area and then venture further out tomorrow. 
As we were walking I saw these 2 young girls just chit chatting in the doorway, heads close together.  It reminded me of my own daughter and her friends.  I just had to snap the photo.

There are alot of Catholic Churches in Cusco ( really all over Peru) one is even built upon the Incan Temple of the Sun called the Koricancha.  It is said that inside the temple the walls and doors of the rooms were covered with gold and silver plates, when the Spanish Conquistadors invaded Peru they relieved the Incas of their treasure.  The Catholic Church was built over the temple in the late 16th century, some of the original Incan structure still remains. 



I was especially facinated with the Cathedral in the Plaza de Armas, it had some interesting statures on top of the towers.  This is my personal favorite.....
We were starting to run out of steam (maybe it was because we were at an altitude of about 12000 feet again!), so we decided to head back to the hotel for a brief respite before going to dinner at Limo, a local restaurant recomended by our guides. 
Tomorrow we can explore this gorgeous city some more and even fit in another archaeological ruin or 2!
I absolutely love this trip!  I also love the way Disney breaks up a long drive with fun stops in between.  Here is a BIG shout out to Martha, who the South American trip planner for Disney and to Patricia who is the local tour operator regional director!  Awesome job ladies!!!