As fall returns and we usher in increased schedules and routines, now is a great time for relaxation. Discover seven properties below with featured wellness and spa offers. From Florida, Hawaii, Mexico, or Arizona, SELECT has a stay to satisfy your wellness needs and capture some moments of zen.

Whether you are an experienced traveler or first-time cruiser, river cruising appeals to a wide range of travelers with cultural engagement, culinary exploration and authentic moments. This guide encourages you to explore the broad range of experiences river cruising offers and to identify the river and cruise line that best fits what you are looking for.
 
Inside the guide, you will find an overview on River Cruising with helpful details on:
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• Why You’ll Lover River Cruising
• Ocean vs River Cruising
• Rivers of the World
• River Cruise Partners

​I love creating new traditions, so when I first started traveling, I came up with three ways to create lasting memories from my traveling endeavors.

Travel Tradition No. 1: Save a Bill
Whenever I am traveling, I always keep the lowest denomination paper currency and take it home with me. One day, I found a double-sided clear frame and decided to get crafty. I laid the bills I had collected throughout my travels inside the frame and hung it on my wall. If you visit my home, you can take it off the wall and check out the backside of the bills too! It’s a super simple and fun way to remember your trip.

Travel Tradition No. 2: Discover New Music
When I travel, I appreciate listening to local music, so when I hear a song I like, I purchase one of the musician’s albums. I try to find contemporary, classic and traditional folk music. When friends visit me, we'll talk about my travels, eat some traditional foods from the place I visited and play music from the area to set the mood. Collecting music is a fantastic travel tradition!
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Travel Tradition No. 3: Buy Art
​I'm not looking for anything fancy. In fact, I typically prefer something sold by local street artists. I've purchased small sculptures, ceramics, freshly created paintings and wooden carvings during my travels. Whenever I look at a piece of art I've brought back home, it reminds me of where I was, the person who created it and how I felt at the time.
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Consider implementing these three travel traditions or start your own traditions the next time you travel. Creating traditions is a terrific way to build long-lasting memories and makes it easier to take a trip down memory lane.

I love discovering ways to do things more efficiently. In fact, in another lifetime, I was a business analyst where part of my job was to help my co-workers work smarter.  Read on to learn about my two favorite travel apps that help me travel with ease. 

A+ Gallery
For those who want organized photos, but don't want to spend the time actually organizing them, this is the travel app for you. It automatically sorts your photos by time and location. It also includes a map view! Simply explore the map as your photos pop into view. Not only can you search for photos by date and location, but you can also search by color. Plus, it includes a feature that allows you to hide an album from prying eyes. If you love to take photos when traveling, this app will become your new best friend.

Learn more about this incredible travel app here.

Hopper
With airfare constantly fluctuating, it's hard to know when to buy your ticket to get the best rate. You can check one moment and by the next moment, the rate has already increased. Hopper has a data science team mining through trillions of archived flight records to spot trends and predict when you should book your flight to get the best rate possible. It also has a 95 percent accuracy rate! If you are traveling while on a budget, this travel app is perfect for you!

​Download it here.

If you have questions about getting vaccinated, talk to your healthcare professional or visit the CDC website for expert medical guidance. An amazing 97% of physicians offered to be vaccinated have done so.

Not sure where to get vaccinated? Visit this site for local options. 

Of course, our expertise is in travel, not medicine. When you are ready to travel, we are here to help you sort out the various entry restrictions and requirements for vaccinated (and non-vaccinated) travelers, cancellation and refund policies and safe travel protocols. This wonderful world is a pure joy to explore, we hope you take every opportunity to do so.

​Luxury Travel Offers from Matt Travel

Road trips hold a special place in our hearts. They’re in our favorite TV shows, movies, and even books. My first road-trip was with my parents the summer before I entered High School.

We roamed all over the western United States visiting National Parks and exploring everything we could. We drove to the high Sierra Mountains and the low Death Valley dessert. In fact, the first time I drove a car was on this road trip. My dad pulled over on a lonely stretch of highway and let me take the wheel. The road was as straight as could be, but you couldn't tell by my driving. We went as far south as the Grand Canyon all the way up to the Grand Tetons and beyond.

Many of my clients are itching to travel, but not ready to commit to a trip abroad. This makes 2021 a great year for a road-trip. I took a short road trip a month or so ago. I picked up my car in California to drive it to our new home just outside of Dallas (after living in Puerto Vallarta for six months, we decided to find a home-base back in the US). We passed through Solvang to walk through town and collect a box full of pastries, made an unexpected stop at an Ostrich farm, and couldn't help taking videos as we travelled through varying landscape.

Not only does a road trip put you in control of the destinations and the sights, it gives you a chance to make memories together, both in your destination and en route that you’ll treasure for years to come.

Whether you’re asking Siri for directions or going old school with a paper map, navigating on a road trip is part of the fun. It’s all about tracing your route, taking a detour to a roadside attraction (who doesn’t want to take a selfie with the world’s largest ball of yarn?), and stopping at a family-owned diner for the best (and maybe greasiest) breakfast you’ve ever had.

​Music connects us. It helps us convey our feelings and emotions to one another. It makes us want to dance. It turns us into karaoke singers behind the wheel. Before setting out on a road trip, build playlists for each other that tells a story about your relationship through song. Or perhaps you choose an audiobook or new podcast series to keep you guessing about what will happen next.

Road trips offer the chance to travel safely and comfortably, especially in light of COVID-19. That also means there may not be other travelers to snap photos of you and your travel companions together. Practice using your camera or phone’s self-timer so that you can snap photos together at every destination along the way. Consider packing a selfie stick to capture your smiles in front of the scenery. These are a few of the best ways to make sure the memories of your adventure last for years to come!

Ready to plan your road trip adventure? I’m here to help you with hotel and excursion recommendations, destination knowledge, and everything you need to know about travel policies between states! Let’s plan this adventure together.

I crowd sourced this itinerary with a bunch of my fellow Travel Advisors who live in each location. Check it out here!

There's a lot to remember before heading out on your next adventure. That's why I always use a checklist to remind myself of all the things I need to pack before I embark on my next trip. Keep reading to discover the three must-have items you need while traveling!
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​Click here for a handy packing list to make sure you are prepared for all of your traveling needs!

After all the packing is done and just before I head to the airport, I double-check to make sure I have these three things on me. Without these items, I may not even make it to my destination, or at a minimum, my traveling experience will be considerably more difficult. If all I have are these three things, I'll be able to get by and can always purchase anything else I need. 
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#1. Don't forget your passport
If you're traveling internationally, you won't even make it on the plane without your passport. Even if you somehow manage to slip through all the check points and make it to your destination, they’ll put you on the next flight home as soon as you land. I've seen it happen a number of times. The traveler who forgets their passport has to go back home to get it, no exceptions. Their travel plans are delayed, plus, they incur stiff fees from the airline to re-book their airfare. 

Bonus Tip: Make sure your passport doesn't expire until six months after the date you return home, or they might not let you go abroad.

#2. Don't forget your money/credit card
I was pickpocketed while traveling once. They took my wallet with all my money and credit cards. They were so talented that I didn't even realize it until the next day! The worst part? I was only halfway through my month-long journey. I begged my parents to send money via Western Union at each new city I went to, so I didn't have to come home early. Thankfully, they agreed, but it was quite the process. The time difference between us was about 10 hours, which made communication while traveling extremely difficult. I wasn't sure how much money I needed for the rest of the trip and typos in my name made it difficult to collect the cash. All-in-all, lesson learned: do not forget your money or credit cards while traveling!

#3. Don't forget your phone
With the world’s shift from paper to digital almost complete, your most important travel information is now on your phone. Plus, your family and friends expect to hear from you frequently while you travel to make sure you're alive and well. We've grown so dependent on our smart phones, it's hard to travel without them. To top it off, many of us no longer use a physical camera; it's now just an app on our phone. Can you imagine traveling to all these beautiful sites and not being able to take pictures of any of your food? Lame!
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Before you leave for your next trip, double-check to make sure you didn't forget your three most important travel items: your passport, money and phone.