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Reserve Cruise

First Travel Company

Bringing innovation & luxury to all your Travel needs

with a tailored selection of experiences

so you can experience the best, your destination has to offer!

What we Do?

First Travel Company gives you a Luxurious Travel Experience you'll never forget, personalizing your tour package and arranging everything you wished for your tour.

We assist you in finding flights, reserving a hotel, booking villas, renting cars, and experiencing cruises that will help you to explore the world.

Whether it's a honeymoon tour, a first-class cruise, a business tour, or simply another tour abroad

At First Travel Company, it's already been taken care of!

Our Services

Corporate travel management.

For the corporate sector, we provide a tailored travel plan meeting the complete requirements of their trips. We help businesses save money, improve efficiency, and stay safe on their global travels. If you are looking for a customized travel management solution that provides excellent customer service, cutting-edge technology, and a measurable return on investment, First Travel Company is the place to be!

Luxury VIP Services

Our luxury VIP services enhance your travel experience in the most unexpected ways that one could have ever imagined. We will prepare your travel itinerary with the surprises that only an insider travel expert can provide. Prepare yourself for magazine-worthy boutique hotels, private chauffeurs waiting to whisk you away from the airport, and a trip itinerary that spells out every detail. Thanks to our relationships with top luxury travel suppliers, we can stretch your dollar as far as possible.

Business Tourism (MICE)

Meetings, incentives, conferences, and exhibitions are a big hassle to manage for any business. We offer MICE travel plans for businesses to cater to their abroad meetups with ultimate ease. Pre-trip approval workflows enable risk identification and management prior to travel booking. Enhance your business traveler's safety with our suite of intuitive and integrated risk management tools and travel carefree.

Flights Booking

Enjoy the new level of service, convenience, and affection. From comparing flight quotes to choosing from 400+ airlines, it is all about your preferences. Book a flight and pay online in a few taps. Our technology is designed to be as adaptable as your needs are diverse, putting transformation tools at your fingertips 24/7 for maximum value and peace of mind.

Hotels Reservations

Book the accommodations of your choice and enjoy your time there without breaking the bank. Thanks to our cordial relationship with top luxury travel suppliers, we are able to stretch your dollar as far as possible. We have partnerships with over 2,000 properties worldwide where you will receive value-added benefits such as priority upgrades, breakfast, spa/resort credit, wi-fi, and more.

Cruises Booking

With knowledge & expertise in premium and luxury lines, we offer onboard benefits and shipboard credits and will gladly assist with all pre and post-trip arrangements. Reserve a cruise to experience tourist facilities like fine dining, swimming pools, entertainment programs, cinemas, shopping stores, and a large theater to present exclusive shows. Our friendly ties with trusted cruise lines will provide you with the most competitive rates in the industry.

Personlized Tour Packages

Be it your first tour abroad, a special occasion, or the annual vacation party, we've got you covered for all your travel needs. We understand the unique and complex travel needs of our individual customers, businesses, industries, and geographical locations. That’s why we design highly customized travel solutions based on your specific travel needs and objectives. Whether you are an individual, a global enterprise, a national corporation, or a fast-growing start-up, we have a travel management solution that will meet your needs.

Our House of Brands

Enjoy a 360-degree travel solution with our trusted brands. Either book flights and hotels, car rentals, or luxury cruises—we have you covered. For us, it is all about connecting today's travelers to the world with smart and seamless travel booking solutions.

At Reserval, you can search for flights from our range of 450+ airlines, compare prices, and choose the one that best suits your budget and requirements. You can easily find luxury as well as cost-effective hotels, check their ratings, select services, and pay via multiple payment options, all within a single platform. Mobile App is available on both iOS & Android.

With Reserve Cruise, get ready to explore the timeless beauty of the seas and oceans. Reserve Cruise is a digitally leading cruise booking platform that allows voyagers to embark on a unique and unmissable cruise voyage. Find the best cruise tours—we've tailored specially for you with over 50 of the world’s best cruise lines.

Reserval Business

Reserval Business provides solutions that digitalise the corporate communications and long cycles in one application. We finds solutions for Mega Corporate partners to get their missions completed in a glance. Through Reserval Business, Corporate partners would feel the ease of work and simple operation, that will diminish long cycles of approvals and follow-ups

Reserve Saudi

Reserve Saudi will unleash the hidden treasures of Saudi Arabia like never before (Saudi 2023). With our Adventurous Experiences, you’ll be able to delve into rich Saudi culture, get an insight into Saudi history and experience leisure activities. At Reserve Saudi we tailor each travel Package with experiences, you would need to know about and Places you would want to Explore more of. Our aim is spotting the diversity of natural and cultural experiments inside the Kingdom and we will be your real partner towards a lightening-speed growth for biggest Inbound Travel destination in the Middle East.

Our top Clients

We always aim to provide the highest level of customer service to all of our clients. We've worked with world-class companies, providing exceptional services and making their trips fun and hassle-free. Some of our prestigious clients are:

Protect Your Travel Investment!

What if you had to unexpectedly cancel your trip and you are left holding non-refundable airline tickets? With Travel Guard's Air Ticket Protection Plan offered by First Travel Center, you're covered!

Secure Flight Program Announced

The mission of the Secure Flight program is the enhance the security of domestic and international commercial air travel through the use of improved watch list matching to identify known and suspected terrorists.

Great Group Tour Specials

Travel with others in a fun group to great events like the Maple Syrup Festival, Carolinas and many other fun destinations, including specials for area Senior Citizen Center members.

Home At First

International travel for the global citizen.

• DESTINATIONS:
• •SWITZERLAND
• •NEW ZEALAND
• •SCANDINAVIA: DENMARK, NORWAY, & SWEDEN
• •CUSTOM-MADE EUROPEAN TRAVEL to: FINLAND, FRANCE, GERMANY, GREECE, HOLLAND, & SPAIN

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• PORTUGAL : Save 28.8% ($862/prs) for full-package SEP —NO V travel to Portugal to Lisbon/Cascais, Porto, &/or the Algarve . • NORWAY : Save 24.8% ($849 per person) for 1-week, full-package travel to experience the Best of Norway during late-AUG into NOV 2024 . • LONDON & ENGLAND : Save 24% ($717-$832/prs) for 1-week, full-package summer & autumn travel (JUL—NOV 2024) to London or the Cotswolds . • SCOTLAND : Save up to 26.5% ($788/prs) below 2024 rates for 1-week, full-package travel for late-summer & autumn in Scotland SEP—NOV 2024 .

See details, realizing your international travel dreams — .

Home At First makes travel dreams come true with high-quality, excellent-value, full-service, personalized, custom, independent, international travel planning. Next time you plan to travel from home, travel with Home At First.

Your journey begins in the immense sky. Over the vast ocean, you sleep high above the storm.

Begin your dream journey here…, six steps  to making your custom, independent, international travel dreams come true —.

Do you dream of custom, independent, international travel? • Maybe stories you have read or movies you have seen have inspired you. • Or, maybe tracing family roots is your ambition. • Or, maybe music, theater, or sports are your focused goals.       Whatever your reasons to travel overseas, your travel dreams can come true. This is where the travel experts at Home At First come in.

Tell us your custom, independent, international travel dreams. We design a free trip proposal for you, with all the right flights, lodgings, & ground transport you need to turn your custom, independent, international travel dreams into realities. When you accept your personalized trip design, send us your deposit payment. Then we arrange all the elements to make your dream trip come to life.

3. DAYDREAM

Read & daydream about your trip ! Before your trip begins you receive a comprehensive guidebook keyed for your destinations. Thirty days prior to your departure you receive all necessary trip documents (tickets, vouchers, passes) plus detailed arrival information, including your overseas addresses, contact information for your lodgings and your hosts, and specific meeting plans for arrival day. 

Departure Day. Check-in and Security and two hours of  Waiting-to-Board (sorry). Then the big bird soars, and the wise flier snores. Too soon breakfast interrupts rudely, signifying the approaching landing. Terra Incognito appears out the cabin window. A new world appears as if out of your airplane slumber. Dreams begin to transform into first impressions, but not yet hardened enough to be considered realities.

5. DECOMPRESS

Arrival Day. In some prearranged way — train, bus, taxi, rental car — you find your foggy way to your first night’s lodging. Bed’s invitation wrestles with your curiosity to explore, and bed mostly wins, at least for a couple of hours. You wake in a new place where you barely remember arriving. Time seems as fuzzy as your mind is groggy. You are hungry. Your first meal will help reestablish order. Relaxation begins, and Peace happens.

6. DISCOVER

Your custom, independent, international travel dream begins. A new morning — the first day of your new life. Take a walk. Eat a fresh pastry with a reassuring coffee or a change-up tea. Watch & listen closely. Hear strange language: even English words now sound foreign. Observe all around you. Dare to speak, to order, to shop. Can you find your way home? Home. Your new home. Comfortable. Roomy. You’re Home At First.

FIND YOUR CUSTOM, INDEPENDENT, INTERNATIONAL TRAVEL DREAM DESTINATION HERE:

Home At First Destinations

Our world of custom, independent, international travel, featuring quality hosted lodgings in a large number of set destinations., • 1-week full packages    • ground arrangements only    • lodging only, jump ahead to see our current travel bargains ..

SUP ER B LY LOCA TED CENTRAL LONDON APARTMENTS :

• Tower Bridge North

near historic Tower of London & Tower Hill tube.

• Tower Bridge South

in fashionable riverside Bermondsey.

• London Bridge North

near Monument tube station.

• London Bridge South

near London Bridge station.

COTTAGES IN FOUR ENGLISH REGIONS

  • The Cotswolds

Heart of England

• Cornwall & Devon

The West Country

• The Lake District

Northwest England

• The Yorkshire Dales

North Yorkshire

& by SPECIAL REQUEST :

• Cambridg e   • Oxford • Cheshire & Shropshire • The Midlands

Central England

LODGINGS IN THREE SCOTTISH REGIONS:

• The Central Highlands

  Scotland’s Heartland

• Edinburgh

Scotland’s Historic Capital

• Inverness & North

The Northern Highlands

& by   S P ECIAL REQUEST :

• Glasgow • The Borders • Isle of Skye • Mull & Iona • Outer Hebrides • Orkney & Shetland

COTTAGES IN TWO  NATI ONA L PARK REGIONS OF WALES

• Mid-Wales

Brecon Beacons Nat’l. Park

• Nor thwe st Wales

Snowdonia Nat’l. Park

• Southwest Wales Pembrokeshire Coast National Park

COTTAGES & APARTMENTS IN FIVE IRISH REGIONS:

•   Central Ireland

Tipperary & Clare

• Southwest Ireland

Cork & Kerry

• Nort h west Ireland

Donegal & Sligo

•   Northern Ireland  

Antrim & Londonderry

• Dublin City Apts.

LEFT & RIGHT BANK  PARIS APARTMENT LOCATIONS:

  Central Paris   A partments  

in safe, attractive, desirable neighborhoods near attractions, the Métro, restaurants, and services:

Arrondissements 1-8, 11, & 18 .

& by   SPECIAL REQUEST :

• Provence •  Normandy •  Alsace

ROME, TUSCANY, & 5 SPECIAL REQUEST REGIONS:

• Central Rome Apts.

• Tuscany: Siena Estate

• Tuscany: Hill Country  

& by SPE CIAL REQUEST :

• Amalfi Coast

• Cinque T erre

•  Florence

•   Venice  

•   Sicily  

APTS. & CHALETS ACROSS THE SWISS ALPS:

• Bernese Oberland Alps :

Mürren  & Kandersteg

• Ita lia n Switzerland :

Locarno & its neighbors

• The V alais ian Alps:

The Matterhorn & Zermatt

• Eastern Switzerland: Pontresina, the Bernina Alps, & the Upper Engadine  

Fly/Drive or Fly/Rail Choose 1, 2, or 3 Regions:

• Porto & the North

Apartments in central Porto with choice of rental car or rail pass

• Lisbon & beachy Cascais

Apartments in historic Lisbon city or in seaside Cascais town. Choice of rental car or rail pass

• Algarve, the sunny south

Apartments right for the beach, for golf, or touring by rental car.

 LODGINGS IN THREE DANISH REGIONS:

•   Zealand: Copenhagen & Roskilde

• Odense & Funen

•   Aarhus, Aalborg, & Jutland

Classic lodging locations in Copenhagen & Roskilde. Special request locations throughout Denmark.

OSLO , BERGEN , & THE FJORDS

Plus Stavanger , Kristiansand , Lillehammer , Ålesund , Trondheim , Lofoten , &   Tromsø

Lodgings at 8 classic & 5 special request Norwegian locations including the World Heritage Site fjords.

LODGINGS IN FIVE CLASSIC REGIONS:

• Stockholm

• Gothenburg

•   Lakeland

• West Coast

Boutique Hotels, Inns, & Apartments at 5 classic & 4 special request locations across Sweden.

  NORTH & SOUTH ISLANDS — A ROAD TRIP OF DISCOVERY:

Individually planned itineraries using boutique lodgings with outstanding hosting in:

• 6 North Island regions

• 6 South Island regions

BETWEEN BRITAIN &  THE CARIBBEAN:

 Bermuda offers much  more than its famed pink sand beaches. We offer cottages & inns across the island.

AMAZING ROAD TRIP

Small Hotels & Inns along Iceland’s Ring Road , starting from Reykjavik. See volcanoes, geysers, glaciers, waterfalls, & black sand beaches.

Independent fly/drive itineraries combine with most European destinations. 

CUSTOM EUROPEAN TRIP PLANNING  

Do you have a unique travel goal for Europe? Home At First researches and custom-plans individual itineraries to your specific dream destinations, with all the lodgings, flights, and ground transportation needed to accomplish your goals.

WE CUSTOM-PLAN DREAM TRIPS TO:

• England • Scotland • Wales •  Ireland •   Isle of Man

•   austria • france • germany • greece •   italy, • netherlands •   portugal • spain • switzerland • iceland  • denmark • finland  • norway •   sweden.

A Letter from Home…

Are You Rich?

          “I’ve been rich, and I’ve been poor, and rich is better.”           I like the quote, which I first heard as a college student. It was then attributed to Mae West, which probably added a certain suggestive sly humor to its audacious obviousness. Later, when I heard the same quote attributed to Sophie Tucker, its flavor changed from daring to simply loud, and lost its appeal. Now I read that many others – including silent film actress Fannie Brice – all have been tied to the quote’s origins. So, I’m back to square one – I like the quote but am completely unsure of its origin.           Equally, I’m not sure of its application. As a personal financial statement, its value addresses the practical economic realities of human existence, especially in modern times. Money, for many, is the root – not just of evil, not just of success, not just of lasting fame. Accumulating money becomes the point to living. One judges and is judged by one’s accumulated wealth. One’s legacy is tied inseparably to one’s bottom line. Ascetics, hermits, and other renouncers of personal riches who seek meaningful lives apart from possessions, power, and press are viewed as outliers, oddballs, or simply as the exceptions that prove the rule: trading all of one’s potential to gain riches for a life of poverty and suspect hygiene convinces most observers to throw their hats in with the Kardashians and not with the Gandhis.           Organized religions often speak ill of wealth. But many religious organizations display their ostentation zealously. The Vatican is much less about sackcloth and ashes than it is Michelangelo and Bernini. St. Francis and Buddha are revered for their renunciation of lives of material pleasures and their acceptance of lives of basic subsistence. But despite our admiration for these spiritual and intellectual models, few of us have known anyone who has purposely made this lifestyle trade. Moreover, almost none of us believes that anyone who is homeless is seeking enlightenment.           If being rich is the better option in the minds of most moderns, then what defines rich? Many of us know of people for whom their estates, possessions, and bank accounts are burdensome complications. Tales of fame and fortune being ruinous to character are commonplace throughout literature, probably because they surprise us as unexpected, convince us we are correct believing that too much of anything is probably bad for you, or let us enjoy a healthy feeling of Schadenfreude . If comedy celebrates common people achieving unexpected success, then tragedy often recounts how the mighty have fallen.           If being rich means courting disaster — there’s nowhere to go but down — then maybe being rich isn’t all it’s cracked up to be.           But maybe being rich isn’t just about money, power, and fame. Maybe being rich is just as much about being unsatisfied, unfulfilled, unsure, and unrecognized, while at once being curious, challenged, and daring, and then becoming intrigued, inspired, and amazed. But most of all being rich is about being and staying positive.           I’m rich. I explore the world and wonder at what I find. I sample the prized foods and traditional customs offered me by welcoming strangers I meet. I share conversations with people whose different lifestyles and locations introduce me to new points of view. I see marvels on the largest and smallest scales. I am honored by the acceptance of others in their homes. I walk in beauty – other persons’. And they share it willingly.           I live simply. I require little. What money I have provides for my practical necessities. I take great pleasure whenever the world reveals its mysteries to me. And I seek opportunities for that magic to occur.           I’m rich. I travel.

_____________________________________________________________________________

How to Get Rich: Independent, International Travel, Simplified.

          We anoint 2024 with a theme we believe fundamental to Home At First  travelers, and the motivation behind independent, international travel:  “Life, Simplified.”

What’s this all about?           Modern life bombards our senses with a daily diet of stresses — health, financial, political, and more — as we attempt to navigate across a minefield of electronic distractions, social obligations, career demands, and family & social obligations.           For for many people travel offers a way to temporarily take up residence in a life we would like to lead, a life optimized, a life simplified.           We spend our lives searching for our happy places, where our interests are piqued, our relationships renewed, our energies invigorated, places where our numbed senses — paralyzed by the stresses of everyday life — reawaken with the thrill of discovery.

Travel is our purposeful search for happy places.  We take the minimum with us: a few clothes, almost no food or drink, only basic medications. Half of us take mandatory make-up. Most of us — and this only for the past 25-30 years — bring one or more electronic lifelines (phone/camera with/without laptop). Otherwise, we abandon much of our lives: our cars, our houses/apartments, our work schedules, our hobbies, our shopping rituals, our social circles, and we deregulate our religious practices, eating habits, TV watching, & our sleep timing.           In place of these vacated routines travel fills the vacuum, and does so according to whim, impulse, curiosity, instinct, and native urge. When traveling, we sleep, eat, drink, and bathe not according to the rigid schedules of our real lives, but only when we physically must or when we casually want. Almost nothing is done by rote repetition.           Nearly everything is new, unfamiliar, and interesting, as when we were children or young adults just starting out. And our attention to the details of this newness brings us alive. Food tastes bigger; smells are more intense; colors appear more vibrant; new sounds command our attention as new sights turn our heads and demand focus. Even the tactile requires careful inspection: the feel of leather, of fabric, of stone, of wood. Suddenly we are in Wonderland where things apparently familiar are markedly different and draw us to them.

Overwhelmed with newness, travelers have little time for complexity. When green is suddenly greener, water sweet, morning dew bejeweled, and lingering evening light soft, there’s no time for incestuous political squabbles on TV, the neighbor’s dog on the lawn (again), rushing to the drugstore before it closes, or getting that coveted 8AM tee-time. When everything is new/weird/attractive/confusing — from the language you hear (I wish I paid more attention in French class in high school), to the signage you don’t understand (no parking? one-way? pedestrians only?), to the food that smells inviting but you’re not so sure of (snails, goat, wild boar, horse, whale, reindeer), to tipping (yes? no? when? where?), to finding aspirin (you mean they don’t sell aspirin over the counter in drugstores?!) — life becomes simple again. Successful travelers experience the delight of the new, the euphoria of the different, and the fresh start joy of living simply.

Importantly, living simply and traveling well — and affordably — begin with a phone call or email to   Home At First .

— Ron Fahnestock, Editor

Sign up for Travel Bargain Alerts!

  We’ll send you breaking news of special bargains for custom, independent, international travel to your favorite Home At First destinations — like the ones in the right-hand column. Notices come as we discover them — usually 1-3 times monthly — and typically offer savings of 17-30% off full-packages with flights, lodgings, and land transportation.

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FIND OUR BEST VALUES HERE:

Current Travel Bargains

 4 OUTSTANDING DEALS

FOR CUSTOM, INDEPENDENT, INTERNATIONAL TRAVEL DURING 2024!

• N E W! BEST of NORWAY – AUG-NOV 2024  

•  SCOTLAND – LATE-SUMMER/FALL 2024   

• PORTUGAL – LATE-SUMMER/FALL 2024  

• NEW!   LONDON & ENGLAND – JULY-NOV 2024  

1ST TIME EVER ON SALE!

    The BEST of

in Late-Summer & Autumn!

Cross Norway by Scenic Train & Fjord Ferry, overnighting in Oslo (3-4 nites); the Mountains & Fjord Interior (1-2 nites), and Bergen (2 nites)

Here’s a preview of this active 7-day itinerary:

DEPARTS DAILY 30AUG-1NOV24

The Itinerary in a Nutshell:

• DAY 1 – FLY TRANSATLANTIC TO OSLO, NORWAY: the high-speed rail transfer to central Oslo. • OSLO: 2 or 3 nights lodging in a central hotel. Comes with Oslo transpass. Explore Norway’s beautiful & very walkable royal capital city. Sightsee, shop, cruise, dine, & more. • THE INTERIOR: Scenic trains from Oslo across Norway’s mountainous Hardanger Plateau. Stop for an optional night at this high point, Next: rail steeply down to the Sogne Fjord, deepest & longest in Norway. Ferry across the Sogne to your hotel in a waterside village. 1-2 nights here. • BERGEN: Cruise the Sogne Fjord 4 hours to Norway’s 2nd city on its west coast. Your hotel is walkable to Bergen’s World Heritage Site Bryggen Harbor and its historic Old Town. You have 2 days here to explore, shop, dine, people-watch, and relax,  • DAY 8 – FLY HOME: Depart Bergen early on a connecting flight to your transatlantic flight. Arrive home late the same day.

This 7-Day, Independent, Full Package Travel to Norway Includes Transatlantic Flights, Lodgings w/ Breakfasts, Most Ground Transport.

UNIQUE OFFER EXTENDED!

BOOK BY MAY 2, 2024

• Daily Departures 30AUG–01NOV24

SAVE 24.8%; SAVE $849/prs!

PER PERSON DOUBLE OCCUPANCY

NORWAY SPECIAL — FULL DETAILS

7-Day Independent Travel Full Packages to:

TRAVEL 6SEP24 — 8NOV24

• Independent Travel with r/t Transatlantic Flights • Departures Fridays between 6SEP24 & 1NOV24 • 7 Nights Lodgings — Cottages & Apartments • 7-Day Car Rental – Airport Pick-up/Drop-off • Includes Detailed Scotland Activities Guide

LATE-SUMMER & AUTUMN SPECIAL!

$AVE UP TO 26.5% – $788/person!

RARE PRICE REDUCTION!

SUPER OFFER!

SCOTLAND SEP-NOV ’24 SALE : DETAILS

RARELY ON SALE!

LATE-SUMMER & FALL in

TRAVEL between 13SEP-02NOV 2024

— 7-Day Independent Full Package —

CHOOSE FROM 3 REGIONS:

• Porto & The North  

(upper Portugal)

• Lisbon & Cascais

(west-central Portugal)

• The Algarve

(Portugal’s south coast)

INCLUDED IN THE INDEPENDENT TRAVEL FULL PACKAGE:

• 7 Total Nights Cottage/Apartment Lodgings in the Porto Region, or the Lisbon/Cascais Region, or the Algarve Region. • Round-Trip Transatlantic Flights USA to Portugal. • Your Choice of either a 1-Week Car Rental or a Portugal Rail Pass. • A Detailed Printed Guide geared for your trip.

OFFER EXTENDED!

BOOK BY MAY 5, 2024

• Depart Fridays 06SEP–25OCT 2024

SAVE 28.8%! SAVE $862/prs!

PORTUGAL SPECIAL DETAILS

E X P A N D E D   OFFER!

PRIME-TIME ENGLAND!

NOW! TRAVEL JULY 19 thru NOV. 2, 2024

CHOOSE FROM APARTMENTS IN CENTRAL

• Independent Travel with Transatlantic Flights • Central London Apartments near Tower Bridge • London Transport Pass Included

OR IN CLASSIC ENGLISH VILLAGES IN THE:

• Independent Travel with Transatlantic Flights • Cottage Lodgings in England’s classic Cotswolds • 1-Week Car Rental Included

SUMMER & AUTUMN SPECIAL!

DEPART FRIDAYS — 19JUL–23AUG 2024

$AVE 24.5% – $832/person!

DEPART FRIDAYS — 30AUG–25OCT 2024

$AVE 24% – $717/person!

EVEN BETTER OFFER!

LONDON/COTSWOLDS SEP-NOV DETAILS

HOW TO BUILD, PRICE, & BOOK YOUR CUSTOM, INDEPENDENT, INTERNATIONAL TRAVEL —

how to buy your trip

get a free trip proposal

“instant discounts”

get “travel bargain alerts”

Contact HOME AT FIRST: (800) 523-5842 (toll-free USA & Canada) • +1 610 543 4348 (worldwide) •  [email protected]

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TRAVEL FIRST

Sports travel services, hotel & travel packages, team and club booking options, get started .

• © 2024 3Step Sports LLC
• [email protected]

BRING US TO YOUR CITY REPRESENTING OVER 90 EVENTS IN 2019!

Who are our Partners

First Travel Solutions

We want to deliver better experiences for you and your customers.  

We are leading experts in transport management, coach hire and travel and transport strategies for major sporting events, airlines, rail support services, festivals and more! 

We offer simple coach hire solutions and major event planning from our team of in house experts.

How we do it

Festival Travel Support

Bespoke Employee Shuttle Buses

Major League Baseball

Who we work with.

Associations

First Coast Travel

Signed in as:

[email protected]

• 203rd_Reunion_10072023

We do the planning for you

Let's book the vacation of your dreams!

Meet the Team

Lead Traveler

I founded First Coast Travel as my way of giving back to a lifestyle that motivated me as a child, thrilled me as an adult, and satisfies my curiosity and restless nature. My first travel experience was a flight to Istanbul, Turkey courtesy of Uncle Sam in 1981 and I haven't stopped traveling since. I have extensive travel experience in Europe, my home for six years, the Middle East, Africa, and Alaska. My happy place is the Cinque Terre with my daughter.

Our Host Agency

As a small independent travel agency, you need a relationship with a host agency to provide the means to access, research real-time pricing, and to book directly with the travel providers such as the cruise lines, hotels, tour operators, and airlines. We have chosen the Avoya Travel Network as our partner in this endeavor. 

Our Product

While we can certainly book your next vacation immediately, if you already know what you want, but we prefer to have a conversation first and let you share your vision and expectations. We typically, discuss and explore your expectations adding our experience to open new possibilities and offer options. We then use our understanding of your vision to curate that unique experience you are expecting. Give us a shot and see what we can do. 

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Pay to enter: Venice becomes the first city to implement a tourist ticket system

Venice became the first city in the world on Thursday to introduce a payment system for visitors in an experiment aimed at dissuading tourists from arriving during peak periods.

However, it isn't the only place in Italy that has recently introduced new measures aimed at slowing tourist flows.

Here are some of the initiatives currently in force.

Venice tourist tax

The lagoon city has introduced 5 euros (about $5.35) tickets for day trippers, valid from 8:30 a.m. to 4 p.m. The experiment came into force on April 25, a national holiday in Italy. Tickets will be needed for the following 10 days and thereafter for most weekends until mid-July.

Venice residents, students, workers, and homeowners are exempt from paying or booking a slot. Visitors aged under 14 and tourists with hotel reservations will need to register, but access for them will be free of charge.

Other cities, such as Como, have said they are considering introducing a similar measure but are waiting to see how the Venice initiative works before deciding.

In addition, Venice has said that from June, it will limit the size of tourist groups to 25 people and ban the use of loudspeakers by tour guides.

Florence tourist measure

Florence announced in October that it was banning new short-term residential lets on platforms such as Airbnb in its historic center. It also offered three years of tax breaks to landlords of short-term holiday lets who start offering ordinary leases for residents.

The city's famous museum, the Uffizi, offers discounts to people who arrive before 8.55 a.m. and lower prices off-season. To spread out crowds, it also closes at 10 p.m. once a week.

Cinque Terrer overtourism

The five villages that make up the Cinque Terre on the Italian Riviera regularly get swamped with visitors.

To try to reduce the overcrowding at peak periods, the authority which oversees the area said this week it would charge visitors 15 euros (about $16) to walk the most celebrated coastal path. In addition, the path can only be walked in one direction.

Capri tourism measure

The picturesque small island that lies across the bay from the southern city of Naples has doubled its entry fee, which is automatically added to ferry tickets, to 5 euros. The fee will be charged from April 1 to October 1.

Capri, Ischia, Procida, Lampedusa and Linosa changes

These islands have introduced limits, or outright bans, on cars for non-residents during the main tourist season.

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This Quaint Town in Portugal Was Just Named the Best Place to Invest in Europe — and It Has Stunning Beaches

Lush pine forests, cobblestone streets, endless ocean views, and low real estate prices await in this quaint community in northern Portugal.

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Portugal is on everyone's mind these days. The country's sunny weather , many beaches , and affordable cost of living have made it a popular choice for retirees and digital nomads. However, as is often the case, real estate prices in some of its most sought-after regions, like the capital, Lisbon and Algarve , have soared. But that doesn't mean you should give up on your dream of owning property in Portugal.

A new report by International Living ranked the small, under-the-radar- town of Caminha the best place to invest in real estate in Europe for its value and growth potential. 

The community is located in the northwest along the mouth of the Minho River, which separates Portugal from Spain, and is home to about 16,000 residents. International Living gave Caminha a perfect score of 10 in the relative value category and nine for quality of life and stability.

"Caminha, which is only separated from Spain by a river, completely charmed me," Ronan McMahon, founder of Real Estate Trend Alert and author of International Living's Global Real Estate Index, told Travel + Leisure . "It has a beautiful Old Town surrounded by a verdant and bucolic countryside, with mountains, rivers, forests, and fields overflowing with brightly colored flowers and fruit trees heavy with their bounty. And then there are the stunning Atlantic beaches."

The ancient town has plenty of character, with fountains, churches, and other buildings dating back to the 16th and 17th centuries. And it's easily accessible from Porto, which is just an hour and 15 minutes south, providing access to an international airport. 

Jeff Opdyke, International Living's personal finance editor, called Caminha a "holdover of Portugal before tourism and modernity swept over Lisbon, the Algarve, and Porto," where affordable real estate is still the norm. 

Potential buyers can find apartments downtown for as low as $150,000 and stand-alone houses for $280,000 .

And while Caminha is the best place to invest in Europe, another destination took the top prize for global real estate value: Mexico's Los Cabos. International Living ranked first with almost perfect scores in categories such as income potential, climate, and international appeal. Riviera Maya and Estepona in Spain, a town in the country's famous Costa del Sol region, are tied for the third place.

You can see the full ranking at internationaliving.com .

New Greek Resorts, Golden Visa Countries And More Travel News

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5 New Greek Hotels For Summer

W ith summer fast approaching, there are recently opened hotels and resorts in Greece to consider. From popular escapes such as Mykonos and Santorini to the lesser-known islands across the Aegean chain, here are five new Greek hotels worth checking out —and into.

10 Incredible Cruise Ship Features

For many years, the trend in cruise ship design has been that “bigger is better”—with vessels such as Royal Caribbean’s Icon of the Seas setting new passenger records. But many cruise lines are also competing by offering innovative features to the high seas. From kart racing on multi-level courses to multiscreen movie theaters, here are some of the most incredible activities on cruise ships right now.

Disney World Earns Its First Michelin Star

Victoria and Albert’s at the Grand Floridian Resort—which has been a Forbes Travel Guide Five-Star restaurant since 2018—added a new star to its constellation this month: It became the first Disney restaurant to be awarded a Michelin star . Located at the Grand Floridian Resort at Walt Disney World, Victoria and Albert’s is known for its opulent Victorian era-inspired meals. A prix-fixe dinner is $295 per guest, with optional wine pairings starting at $155 per person. Unlike the rest of the theme park, a formal dress code is encouraged for all diners, who must be 10 years of age or older.

Golden visas—which grant residency and/or citizenship through an investment—may be disappearing from Europe, but many EU countries are now luring travelers with digital nomad visas, which grant travelers the legal right to work remotely for an extended period. Italy recently became the latest country to offer the visa and here are other EU countries with digital nomad visas .

America’s Best Airlines 2024

The personal-finance website WalletHub recently announced its annual ranking of the best U.S. airlines . The study evaluates the nine largest national airlines and one regional carrier across a range of criteria, including safety, on-time records and overall service. This year, Alaska Airlines was named the best airline in America, beating out Delta, which ranked first in 2022 and 2023. The survey also ranked U.S. carriers based on reliability and comfort.

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Skamania Lodge offers first look at its fancy new glamping tents

• Updated: Apr. 27, 2024, 7:10 a.m. |
• Published: Apr. 27, 2024, 7:00 a.m.

A private soaking tub is found inside the new glamping tents at Skamania Lodge on the Washington side of the Columbia River Gorge. Jamie Hale/The Oregonian

• Jamie Hale | The Oregonian/OregonLive

This May, visitors to the Columbia River Gorge will have a new, luxurious glamping experience to try.

Skamania Lodge , the 175-acre Washington resort near Stevenson, offered a sneak peak this week into its new glamping tents, which will open to the public May 1 and are available to book now through the end of the season.

The wood-framed safari-style tents, which come with king beds and private bathrooms, are built on a hillside surrounded by trees, giving visitors the chance to sleep, relax and even bathe in the comfort of nature. While perhaps a step down from the lodge’s luxury treehouses or cabins, the glamping tents are certainly a step up from your basic hotel room, while barely resembling camping at all.

Jack Hansen, director of sales and marketing for Skamania Lodge, said the glamping tents are expected to be available from May through October, though the full extent of the season won’t be clear until after this first year.

“I do think that it’s a bit of an experiment,” Hansen said. “We’re going to see what the appetite for them is.”

The new glamping tents are perched in the trees at Skamania Lodge on the Washington side of the Columbia River Gorge. Jamie Hale/The Oregonian

A fire pit on the deck of one of the new glamping tents at Skamania Lodge on the Washington side of the Columbia River Gorge. Jamie Hale/The Oregonian

Inside the new glamping tents at Skamania Lodge on the Washington side of the Columbia River Gorge. Jamie Hale/The Oregonian

A forested view from the deck of one of the new glamping tents at Skamania Lodge on the Washington side of the Columbia River Gorge. Jamie Hale/The Oregonian

Glamping at Skamania Lodge starts at $519 per night on offseason weekdays, rising through the summer and peaking at $1,069 per night over the Fourth of July weekend. Visitors can find slightly discounted prices in October, when the nightly rate dips down to $499 for a stay in what could be colder and wetter conditions.

“We’ll probably test them a bit this fall and see how it is to stay in there in October,” Hansen said of the new tents. “You don’t know until you know.”

Unlike traditional camping, the glamping tents all come with running water and electricity. Each comes with a small space heater and fan, though that is the extent of the climate control. The front flaps zip up and down, allowing guests to seal themselves in or be open to the fresh air. There is furniture inside, as well as an outdoor couch and chairs by a gas fire feature.

Guests can still enjoy the many amenities at the main lodge nearby, including yoga classes, a golf course and putting course, disc golf, an adventure park, ziplining and axe throwing, as well as meals at one of two dining rooms – a necessary amenity for glamping guests, who will only find a microwave and mini fridge in their tents.

Hansen said the new glamping experience will be part of “Treehouse Village,” where the new tents join the luxury treehouses, cabins and a villa. More of each type of accommodation may be built there in the future, depending on popularity, he said.

The new glamping tents have already been booked up through most of May, but a lot of availability remains through the summer . Hansen said the lodge has been excited about the new offerings, and is looking forward to seeing how popular they become.

“There’s a lot of buzz about them,” he said. “Glamping over the last decade has really come into more peoples’ vocabularies, everybody knows what it is, so it’s really nice to see our owners put their spin on it – you know, glamping Skamania style.”

-- Jamie Hale covers travel and the outdoors and co-hosts the Peak Northwest podcast . Reach him at 503-294-4077, [email protected] or @HaleJamesB .

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The Maya Train Will Get You to All of Yucatán’s Best Spots. But Not Yet.

In December, the train began running on its first route through Mexico’s Yucatán Peninsula. On a five-day journey a few months later, the author encountered enthusiasm, and scheduling hiccups.

By Elisabeth Malkin

Elisabeth Malkin has been visiting the Yucatán Peninsula for three decades.

I stepped off the platform at the gleaming new Maxcanú train station, eager to see the magnificent Maya archaeological site of Uxmal. All I needed was a taxi to take me there, a trip of about 30 miles away.

There are no taxis, said the stationmaster, as we stood on the polished limestone floors of the high-ceilinged station, which was cool and breezy despite the brilliant late-morning sun outside. And I was the third person in two weeks to get off at Maxcanú expecting to reach Uxmal, he said.

I was midway through a five-day trip to explore the brand-new Maya Train and several of its destinations in the Yucatán Peninsula of Mexico . Designed to run 965 miles (1,554 kilometers) around a loop of 34 stations when completed, the train will whisk passengers in cool comfort through colonial cities, archaeological sites, splashy resorts and tropical forests.

Now I was stunned. Wrangling a taxi has never been a problem in Mexico. But the drivers gathered in the main square of Maxcanú offered only beat-up vans that hopscotch through small towns, where I might or might not find a taxi to Uxmal. The next van was leaving in 45 minutes.

Yucatán’s layers of history have long held me spellbound. During earlier car trips, I have clambered up deserted Maya temples and palaces, stepped into the cool naves of massive 16th-century churches and visited restored haciendas, testaments of the ostentation — and hardship — of the peninsula’s 19th-century plantation economy. Traveling by train, I thought, would allow me to steep myself in more of that history.

But as I found in Maxcanú, a train won’t necessarily get you to where you want to go.

During my February trip, I traveled on the only route then available, an east-west leg that opened in December and runs from Cancún to Mérida, and then south through the port city of Campeche to the Maya site of Palenque (a short route between Cancún and Playa del Carmen opened last month, with three trains a day). I encountered scheduling confusion, unfinished stations and a dearth of trains — just two operating daily each way between Cancún and Campeche, and only one to Palenque. Overnight sleepers and special dining trains seem years away.

President Andrés Manuel López Obrador considers the Maya Train his showcase development project, and wants to inaugurate the rest of the train before he leaves office on October 1. Based on my experience, that goal seems elusive.

A $29-billion route through the jungle

I started my journey in Cancún, where in the pre-dawn gloom the station hovered like a glowing spaceship. An attendant scanned the ticket I had bought online and a half-dozen more pointed me toward my tourist-class car, which was about a quarter full. I planned to go to Campeche, about 300 miles away, stopping once each day. At 120 kilometers (about 75 miles) an hour, the train covers the route in about six hours, the same as a car. (When construction is complete, the train’s speed should increase to 160 kilometers an hour.)

The car’s wide windows looked out at a wall of low jungle. The blue-green seats were comfortable and there was ample space between the rows. I bought a very good cappuccino at the snack bar, but declined the plastic-wrapped sandwiches. The rest of the merchandise was fruit cups, milk boxes and junk food.

The train will ultimately cost much more than the $29 billion budgeted so far, and it’s not the first time ambitious planners have alighted on the region. Cancún was once a tiny fishing village, selected half a century ago as a tourist hub. Last year 10 million international tourists flew into its airport, more than the airports of Mexico City, Los Cabos and Puerto Vallarta combined.

But uncontrolled growth has stressed the Caribbean coast’s fragile environment. The Maya Train, scientists warn , will push those problems south, threatening the area’s water supply, its unique system of underground limestone caves and its vast nature reserves.

Mr. López Obrador has charged ahead, handing the train over to the military , and arguing that it will spread Cancún’s wealth and attract new visitors. Mexico received more than 42 million overseas tourists last year and they spent almost $31 billion .

Local governments see an opportunity. “The train will allow people to disperse throughout the peninsula,” said Michelle Fridman, the tourism secretary for Yucatán state, which promotes dozens of attractions far beyond highlights like Mérida and Chichén Itzá .

Now that the train is operating, transport companies will begin to connect stations with lesser-known sites nearby, she said.

It’s fair to ask whether the train is the most effective way to develop the peninsula’s tourism. Tour companies already run trips to many sites from major cities, which are well served by buses. Driving a rental car through most of the area is considered safe , according to U.S. State Department travel guidance .

Route of Mexico’s Maya Train

Canceled trip.

It took two hours (and one time-zone change) to reach Valladolid, a colonial city of handsome streets and ancient churches, where I bought the rest of my tickets at the station. A tourist-class ticket from Cancún to Valladolid costs 472 pesos (around $28) for foreigners and 355 pesos (around $21) for Mexicans. First class, with wider seats, costs 755.50 pesos and 566.50 pesos, and discounts are available for older travelers and residents of the five states along the train’s route. (A first-class bus from downtown Cancún to Valladolid costs between 222 and 344 pesos, depending on the time of day, and takes half an hour longer.)

It was impossible to run the new Maya Train tracks into dense city centers and the Valladolid station, like the rest, was outside the urban core. A waiting bus took disembarking passengers downtown, a 15-minute ride for 35 pesos.

That day I toured Ek Balam , the site of a ninth-century Maya kingdom that is dominated by a 100-foot palace distinguished by a facade of carvings depicting winged warriors, stylized animal features and geometric patterns bordered by giant fangs. Admission to the site includes entry to the X-Canché cenote, one of thousands of limestone sinkholes that were sacred to the Maya.

Later that afternoon, I was wandering through the Museum of Ethnic Clothing, a private collection of traditional dress, embroidery and hats, when a WhatsApp message from the ticket office blinked on my phone. My train scheduled for the following day was canceled.

I decided to deal with the problem in the morning and enjoy the city. As I wandered past the antique shops and boutique hotels of the elegant Calzada de los Frailes, it was clear that Valladolid’s tourism, and the infrastructure to handle it, was well established. The Maya Train is simply an alternative way to reach a city that tourists discovered years ago.

‘We’re on the Tren Maya!’

In the morning, I found that my train had not been canceled, but the station for which I had a ticket, Tixkokob, was closed. I got off instead one stop earlier at Izamal, known for its ocher streets and the giant Franciscan convent of San Antonio de Padua, built atop the ruins of a pyramid.

During the 90-minute ride, I heard widespread enthusiasm among fellow travelers who expressed a willingness to give the train time to work out the kinks. “We’re an experiment,” said Oliva Escobedo Ochoa, 64, who was vacationing from her home in central Mexico.

Leticia Iliassich, 57, who is Mexican, was traveling with her Croatian husband along with relatives from Mexico and Croatia. They had initially been scheduled on an earlier train to Mérida that had been canceled. “We knew that it was a new project,” she said. “We don’t mind.”

The group had already sent a video to friends declaring, “We’re on the Tren Maya!”

At the Izamal station I hitched a 15-minute ride into the town center with a man who had asked me to take his photo alongside the train and his father. From there I negotiated a taxi to Hacienda San Lorenzo Aké, a working hacienda that still turns the fiber from an agave plant called henequén into coarse rope. Global demand for henequén, known as Yucatán’s “green gold,” brought fantastic wealth to the region in the mid-19th century, speckling the peninsula with more than 1,000 haciendas. ( Many are now sumptuous hotels.)

Where geometry, nature and the divine merge

It was during my third day that I found myself stuck in Maxcanú, after a 90-minute train ride from Izamal. The stationmaster, an army captain, offered me a ride to Uxmal, just as he had to the stranded tourists before me.

Eying Uxmal’s 4 p.m. final ticket sale, I accepted.

My situation made it clear just how distant the Maya Train’s promises are for tourists seeking to explore more of Yucatán. In time, that will change, said Ms. Fridman, the tourism secretary. “The idea is to have more hotels along the train line,” she said. “That will happen little by little.”

But Uxmal , among the most stunning of the Maya sites, made up for the inconvenience. Uxmal’s grand buildings are faced with intricate decorative masks as well as friezes in which geometry, nature and the divine merge. New plaques at each structure offer detailed information in English and Spanish, part of the government’s investment in improving displays at Maya sites for the train project.

Most tourists either take day trips by car or bus to Uxmal from Mérida or stay at one of three nearby hotels. As I finished dinner at my hotel, the dining room began to fill up: 47 Polish tourists had arrived.

Panama hats and a cramped van

My plan for the day was to go by taxi to Bécal, a town where Panama hats are woven in limestone caves to keep the fibers soft, and then pick up the afternoon train in nearby Calkiní for the port city of Campeche.

But I spent so much time watching the hat-making demonstration and then fitting my new hat and buying gifts that we set off with little time to reach the station. To my chagrin, I missed the train, the last one of the day.

On Calkiní’s central square, I found a van that was leaving for Campeche. Cost: 65 pesos. Time: about 1 hour and 20 minutes, similar to what I would have spent on the train. Of course, I was trapped in a cramped seat and had to listen to the driver’s choice of sentimental ballads, but I was dropped off in downtown Campeche, close to my hotel.

The next day, I toured the Museum of Maya Archaeology , an expertly curated collection that included haunting jade funeral masks, glyphs and delicate ceramic figures.

José Madrigal, 45, an engineer from Fremont, Calif., was trying to make Maya pottery interesting for his twin sons. The boys had just turned 5 and their birthday present had been a ride on the Maya Train. “They love trains,” Mr. Madrigal said. Then the family moved on, keeping up a brisk clip through the museum. They had another train to catch.

Should you take the train?

Yes, if you are traveling between larger stations. The train also offers a way to get to Palenque, which is harder to reach and has roads with security concerns. Travelers can stow bicycles on board.

To see train times, check the destinations on the website . You cannot buy tickets online more than a week in advance. But when you finally board, the ride is smooth — and the coffee is excellent.

Follow New York Times Travel on Instagram and sign up for our weekly Travel Dispatch newsletter to get expert tips on traveling smarter and inspiration for your next vacation. Dreaming up a future getaway or just armchair traveling? Check out our 52 Places to Go in 2024 .

Open Up Your World

Considering a trip, or just some armchair traveling here are some ideas..

52 Places:  Why do we travel? For food, culture, adventure, natural beauty? Our 2024 list has all those elements, and more .

Mumbai:  Spend 36 hours in this fast-changing Indian city  by exploring ancient caves, catching a concert in a former textile mill and feasting on mangoes.

Kyoto:  The Japanese city’s dry gardens offer spots for quiet contemplation  in an increasingly overtouristed destination.

Iceland:  The country markets itself as a destination to see the northern lights. But they can be elusive, as one writer recently found .

Texas:  Canoeing the Rio Grande near Big Bend National Park can be magical. But as the river dries, it’s getting harder to find where a boat will actually float .