CAA can help you get ready for your first group tour. | PHOTO: HOVERSTOCK/ENVATO
Tips for the First-Time Traveller
Whether it’s your first time travelling internationally or your premiere flight on a plane, this advice from a CAA Travel Consultant will help you spread your wings and explore the world.
By Joseph Stewart
There are many things to consider when making plans to embark on your first big trip — and it’s always handy to have some wise advice from an expert. We asked Shaukath Fattah, group tours manager with Journeys by CAA Niagara, about how to find your travel comfort zone and how to get ready for your first group tour. Why are some people reluctant to travel?
Fattah: The unfamiliarity of a new culture, different food, another language — fear is often what’s holding people back. Perhaps they’ve had a bad travel experience that has kept them from trying it again. Some older travellers might worry about getting lost. Safety concerns can also be an issue.
How does CAA Niagara work through that?
Fattah: Our Travel Consultant team will help first-time travellers get comfortable with their plans, having conversations about what they want to get out of their trip and determining what their physical limitations may be. About two weeks before the [group] trip, we have a get-together where we distribute the paperwork to everyone and talk about the itinerary. The group gets to meet each other.
Shaukath Fattah Group Tours Manager with Journeys by CAA Niagara
“With advice from our Travel Consultants, you really have to match the tour with your expectations, preferences and capabilities. If you do that well, you’re going to have a lot of fun.”
What are the big benefits of your tours?
Fattah: We spend a lot of time researching the destination and curating tours based on the feedback we get from our guests. It’s also key that we select the right time of year. We start and end our tours at our office, and you have a CAA tour director with you the whole time. We try to make travel as easy as possible by including all gratuities, taxes and incidentals in the pricing. And if anything goes wrong, the tour director is right there to handle the situation on the spot, with a dedicated team back at the office for support.
What’s the most important consideration for a first-timer?
Fattah: Honestly, it’s picking the right trip. This is going to set your expectations for the future. With advice from our Travel Consultants, you really have to match the tour with your expectations, preferences and capabilities. If you do that well, you’re going to have a lot of fun. CAA
Top Tours
Journeys by CAA Niagara offers a number of guided trips that are perfect for the first-time traveller.
