Fundraising vacations provide the best of both worlds – travelers get a wonderful vacation experience while at the same time donating to a worthy cause benefited by the vacation. How does this work? The travel company picks a charity or non-profit which they would like to benefit with this particular trip. They then work with the organization being benefitted to determine the amount to be contributed by the trip as a whole. We then pick the vacation – often a cruise, all-inclusive or tour as they include features such as meals, drinks or activities.

The price for the vacation includes the trip (usually land only), their donation to the charity and often value added features exclusive to the group, such as a private cocktail party or a wine tasting, for instance. Often times, these trips will have a theme – chocolate lovers weekend, culinary cruise, ancient history tour, which increases the appeal and value-added offerings for travelers.

As a final bonus, certain vendors will offer a complimentary room/ship berth/tour or credit towards once the group reaches a certain size. This can be used for someone from the organization benefitted so in addition to the donation, they often get a free or steeply discounted vacation!

Do you have a favorite non-profit or charity that you’d like to help? Let us know! We are always looking for knew organizations to benefit!

Helicopter Iceland excursion

Maya: What differentiates ShoreTrips from other shore/land excursion companies?

Susannah: ShoreTrips shore excursions are smaller, more creative and better priced than the cruise lines. Each and every Shoretrip is licensed, insured and chosen personally by us. Ex travel agents, Barry and Julie Karp, owners of ShoreTrips, know what clients want: price, selection and service.

Maya: What is the average experience level of your guides (ie how were they trained, how long have they worked in this destination)?

Susannah: ShoreTrips offers both day activities as well as guided sightseeing, operated by the very best vendors we can find in each port. People who have years of experience. Many of our operators actually used to work for the cruise lines years ago, prior to the cruise lines’ need for super large group movements. Remember, our shore excursions are small.

Maya: What are your 5 most popular or favorite excursions?

Susannah:

1. Caribbean – Cave tubing Belize

2. Caribbean – Our multi-port package… 3 great excursions bundled together for one low price.

3. Alaska – Helicopter Dog Sled Tour

4. Baltic – VISA FREE Multi Day St. Petersburg excursions

5. Mediterranean – Pre Reserved Vatican Tours – eliminates the 2 hour wait in line!

Zip line Roatan

Maya: What are your 5 most unique excursions?

Susannah:

1. Caribbean – Sailboats of St. Thomas – 3 separate ShoreTrips captained by women offer the quintessential Caribbean experience, 6 pax max assure a day of tranquility!

2. Chachobbean Ruins – Costa Maya– where you experience true indigenous culture

3. Alaska – Skagway, Rail and Bus. Our unique approach to the White Pass Rail excursion, where we combined the scenic train trip up, followed by a comfortable and interesting motor vehicle return.

4.  Baltic – BERLIN BEHIND THE IRON CURTAIN tour. Operated by East Berlin historians who pepper the day with anecdotes about life in the socialist world.

5. Egypt overnight tour. 2 days of extensive sightseeing with overnight accommodations in deluxe hotels. These tours make the most of your time.

Maya: Can you give us a sneak peak at upcoming destinations or excursions?

Susannah: We’ll be ready with Cuba as soon as it’s legal for US citizens.  We will be prepared to make our travel agents experts in Cuba with our future planning guides and webinars. Cuba will be big and ShoreTrips is dedicated to making the American travel agents fully knowledgeable about this fascinating country. Cross your fingers!

Also on the horizon…. Southeast Asia (Pacific rim)!

XRail buggy tour Cabo San Lucas

This week’s featured value – alternative shore excursions. Shore excursions are not in themselves a unique concept. Most cruise lines have offered them for years. If you’ve ever been a participant in one, you may notice that the descriptions by the cruise lines often leave some details out – the fact that the hike “for highly active participants only” is 60 people large and does not discriminate based on activity level, that your trip may be sold out well before you have a chance to sign up, and that you may have to stand in a long line to register therefore missing fun activities on the ship. The also do not tell you that you are probably paying a higher rate for a less superior service. This is not a knock on the tour companies that service the cruises, it’s just the nature of mass shore excursions in a port.

So what’s the solution? Private shore excursions offered by a company that specializes in just such a product. ShoreTrips provides small group and private activities for cruisers in port or land vacation day trips. These expert guides know the destination inside out and can provide you with the exclusive experience that you can’t find in a large, generic group tour. ShoreTrips is available in virtually every major cruise market and isn’t just for cruisers – those taking FIT land vacations can also utilize ShoreTrips for day excursions.

Check back later Thursday of this week for more details on the destinations and experiences as we interview one of the owners of ShoreTrips.

For now it’s your turn: What was your favorite shore excursion or day tour and why?