New travel insurance coverage

For those that are interested in purchasing travel insurance, we have a link on our website that will directly connect you to Travel Guard. We have had very positive feedback from our clients about the cost and the customer service. They offer a toll free telephone number if you have any questions (1-800-454-7107 ).

What's new from Travel Guard is that they have announced coverage for involuntary termination or layoff. All four of their core plans now include this trip cancellation coverage. They require one year of continuous employment with the same employer and doesn't have limitations on your departure date.

We have been hearing that many folks have either postponed or canceled their summer vacation plans due to uncertainty about the future with the economy and their jobs. We hope that the announcement of this new coverage will help those feel more comfortable with starting the process of planning a great summer vacation to our National Parks in the western US or Canada. As always, if you have any questions for us at Tracks & Trails, give us a call on our dime at 800-247-0970.

Go West Summit travel conference

Dan and I just got back from the 2009 Go West Summit in beautiful Albuquerque, New Mexico. We spent a couple of days in a 15 minute "speed dating" format, meeting with representatives of various visitors & convention bureaus, hotels and outfitters from throughout the western United States.

This is a great opportunity to get updates on what's new at many destinations that we recomend to our clients. We get ideas for new itineraries, evaluate new excursions and find out about little out-of-the-way activities that enhance your travel experience. This summit was the 20th annual conference. As you can imagine we have much to share and include in our itineraries for the future. Be looking here for information about some of the new, fun stuff that we will be including in our vacation packages based on what we learned this week!

Here's one tidbit: Did you know that the largest flamenco school in the United States is in Albuquerque? Check out the website of The National Institute of Flamenco. At Go West, we were treated to a performance by nine of the institute's members at the Albuquerque Art and History Museum. Just fantastic! For more on Albuquerque, check out www.itsatrip.org!

Stay tuned! More to come!

Spotlight on Lake Powell Resorts & Marinas

Lake Powell Resorts & Marinas, managed by Aramark, is an authorized concessioner of the National Park Service, Glen Canyon National Recreation Area. From camping at the Lake Powell Campground to renting jet boats and water toys, boat tours, fine dining at the Lake Powell Resort and houseboat rentals – they offer something for every one of our families to enjoy at beautiful Lake Powell!

Michael and I recently attended a tour operator “familiarization” conference with representatives from Lake Powell Resorts. This was in part to discuss houseboat rentals and operation and to meet with other tour operators. Our very generous hosts also treated us to a tantalizing dinner at the Lake Powell Resort, a day of jet boating in and out of the beautiful canyons at Lake Powell, an evening on houseboats moored at the beach in Warm Creek Bay, and a ½ day boat tour to Rainbow Bridge National Monument.

The water was like glass in this canyon – you can hardly tell where the water begins and the canyon walls end.

Opportunities to visit with suppliers give us first-hand experiences to pass on to our clients - and the opportunity to experience what our clients will do on their vacations? - priceless! Sound like fun? Check out these trips on our website: Exploring the Southwest's Canyons and Lake Powell; and Utah's Amazing Canyons and Lake Powell.

These are our charming Lake Powell hostesses Sarah Bailey, Assoc. Director of Sales, and Laura Litke, Group Sales & Conference Services Mgr. With 10 years of combined experience, they help us make sure that your visit to Lake Powell is all that it can be!

Review of our excursion outfitters

As a staff, we just spent some serious time reviewing the performance of many of our excursion suppliers. These are mostly mom-&-pop companies that provide great activities for our clients while they are out visiting the National and state parks. They provide excursions such as horseback riding, whitewater rafting, whale watching, guided hikes, fly fishing, surfing lessons, ATV & jeep tours, jet boat river trips, guided kayak trips and much, much more.

We understand that each and every one of these outfitters has our clients' families in their hands during their fun and exciting activity. We listen to our clients, read their surveys and review their emails for good and bad comments. We also consider how easy or difficult it is for us to work with them as well.

With that, we specifically looked at the new outfitters that we added last year. With these new outfitters (at least new to our clients), we paid particular attention to every client's experiences to ensure that our future clients have the best vacation possible. We also look at outfitters that we stopped using in 2008. Some went out of business, some areas had less travelers than others and some simply weren't requested by our clients.

On each trip in our catalog, we list optional excursions on our website that we think our clients will want to add to their vacation plans. Unfortunately, due to extreme specialization or their location being more out of the way than most, we do not post every outfitter on our website. So if you are thinking of taking a road trip by RV with Tracks & Trails and you don't see a favorite activity associated with a trip on our website, just ask. You never know what we may have up our sleeves!

RV rental company spotlight

Pierce RV in Billings, Montana is the newest RV supplier joining the Tracks & Trails team of RV partners. We use them primarily for a beautiful trip via the Beartooth Highway to Yellowstone & the Grand Teton National Parks (here's a link to the trip on our website if you want to read more Beartooth Highway to Yellowstone and the Grand Tetons). Although it adds some miles traveling to Yellowstone and The Grand Tetons from Billings rather than Jackson Hole, the scenic Beartooth Highway is worth it according to many of our clients. Charles Kurault called it “America’s most beautiful highway.” Some of our adventurers were also able to include Cody, Wyoming in their itineraries and enjoyed the Buffalo Bill Historical Center which includes 5 museums.

Pierce RV's location in Billings is also a great starting point for heading up to Glacier National Park (see Yellowstone, Glacier and Grand Teton National Parks). Pierce RV provides the best RV’s and top notch service to all of our Tracks and Trails patrons who have chosen these routes in Montana and Wyoming.

Terry Larson is the rental manager for Pierce RV in Billings, Montana. Terry is in his 9th season in the rental department. His attention to detail and his “First Class” customer service is unsurpassed. We have the utmost confidence of his care for our clients and know that each family that begin their RV adventure in Billings, are going to enjoy some true western hospitality.

I recently had the pleasure of visiting with Terry and India, his “gal Friday” last week while I was in Billings. At Tracks and Trails we like to get to know the suppliers and outfitters we partner with so that we can assure our clients a great experience for their family vacation.