|
Dear Traveler,
I hope you enjoyed your summer and were able to travel broadly to both explore the world and visit with friends and family. As you may have noticed, I took the summer off from writing my newsletter and blog posts. This allowed me to focus on a few summer trips of my own. I also had numerous clients take my advice to get ahead of the fall trip request crunch by reaching out in the summer to start planning. While some of these requests were for quick fall trips in 2025, many others were requests for 2026 trips (as far out as December 2026). As I've said many times, it's never too early to start planning a trip, and by planning early we can ensure better availability of accommodations, guides, and other activities.
For my blog post this week, I wrote about my summer trip with my wife and 16-year-old son, visiting many cities along the Baltic Sea. While we traveled mostly via cruise ship, it is just as easy to visit these cities by land, and travel by car, ferry, or airplane (depending on your preferred method of travel). I encourage you to read about each city. Some are wonderful for a quick visit while others could easily keep you busy exploring the local culture and sights for multiple days.
And as usual, I've provided a few interesting travel articles for your review. The Best Boutique Hotels in Tokyo is inspired by a few recent client trips to Japan, and because I'm planning my family's spring break trip to explore this interesting country. And it wouldn't be a newsletter if I didn't include at least one article about cruising, this one focused on seeing the Northern Lights (the opposite of the White Nights my family experienced this summer, where the sky never gets dark!).
But the most interesting article I think is the one focused on international phone & data options when traveling internationally. On my recent summer trip, I tried using an eSIM from Airalo for the 12 days we traveled around Europe. It wasn't quite as seamless as Verizon's Travel Pass, given my phone number wasn't tied to the eSIM. This meant I couldn't receive standard calls and texts until I connected to a Wi-Fi source to use the call over wi-fi feature of my phone's primary Verizon SIM. But I could use WhatsApp, which is how I normally communicate with others when traveling in Europe. And with a promotional discount I had, the eSIM cost just over $10 for the entire trip, compared to a cost of over $150 ($12 x 12 days + taxes & fees) if I had used Verizon's Travel Pass. An eSIM might not be the best option for all trips, and I may use a combination of an eSIM combined with a few days of Travel Pass when needed. But it does provide the option to save a meaningful amount when a seamless connection to the U.S. isn't required while traveling.
Best,
David
Owner, Barclay & Company Travel
| 
