All year long, our team of planners are on the road. Whether it’s a site inspection or a program for thousands of incentive winners, they’re constantly on the go. You’d think they’d want to stay home in the slower summer season, but that’s not the case! They travel because they love it. So, where do travel planners go on vacation? Here’s what some members of our team are up to this summer:

The Grand Tour

After a busy year, one of our planners is headed to Europe with her family. She’ll be spending time in both Paris and Rome, seeing the sights and enjoying some of the world’s best cuisine. Despite being neighbors, France and Italy have very different cultures and she’s looking forward to exploring both.

In quite possibly the biggest rave of the season, one of our planners just wrote, “I would have no problem if the only place I ever vacationed again was back to Greece, we loved it that much.  Between the Greeks, their food, their traditions, the history, and the breathtaking beauty, it surpassed any vacation we’ve taken.” She visited Athens, Mykonos, and Santorini on a whim and now we all can’t wait to go, just hearing about how wonderful the experience turned out to be… In fact, we’re seeing a trend towards Greece as a number of our friends and colleagues have vacationed there this year.

The West

Rocky Mountain National Park beckons for one of our teammates. She’s headed to Colorado for some time outside. Her plans include hiking in the national park, a visit to Boulder, and a concert at Red Rocks amphitheater. After a busy season here in bustling New Jersey, she’s sure to enjoy the quiet and the clean mountain air.

Another colleague is heading to New Mexico for the Albuquerque International Balloon Fiesta. It’s a pretty breathtaking view across the desert, with the colorful balloons rising into the sky.  While she’s there, our teammate can head out in to the desert to check out the Acoma pueblo atop a dramatic mesa, or to El Morro where the conquistadors left their 16^th century graffiti.

After travel programs in Hawaii and the Caribbean, one planner headed to Vancouver for her holidays. The cooler weather and northwest landscape appealed. From Vancouver, it’s easy to head up in to the mountains around Whistler, or take a ferry over to Victoria for tea at the Fairmont Empress followed by a walk in the Butchart Gardens.

I’m headed west, too. We’ll be visiting Seattle and Vancouver (looking forward to a great stay at the Fairmont Vancouver) then will head to Olympic National Park and Mount Rainer for some hiking. We’ll spend our nights in the national park lodges and our days on the trails. My dad, an avid hiker for 80 years, tells me that the best trail he’s ever been on was near Sol Duc Falls at Olympic and I’m on a mission to find it!

Travel changes your state of mind. It takes you out of your routine and gives you a chance to see things differently. Research shows that taking time away from the day-to-day even helps our brains to process more efficiently. Check out the article in Inc on how time off makes you a better worker. Whether you’re a beach person, a solo backpacker, or a guided tour aficionado, we hope – like our travel planners – you’ll have the chance to enjoy a getaway vacation this summer.

For information on my all-time favorite vacation destination, you can read about Iceland here.