-------------------------------------------------April 2024
Western Swing Trip
Mark and Gretchen Thompson and David and Edith Thompson
Day 1 Las Vegas
You can get turned around in Cesar’s Palace if you are a rookie like us. We were only there one day and enjoyed Frontier Street in old Vegas, Botanical Gardens at the Bellagio and real Mexican food at El Gordo.
Day 2 Travel Day to Cottonwood, AZ VBRO about 20 miles from Sedona and 15 miles from the mining town of Jerome
Day 3 visit Jerome & Sedona
Jerome is a tourist town with great views from the mountain. It’s an old copper mining town. From there it was about 25 miles to Sedona. Sedona has beautiful sites all around. The Mesas, artist venues, and a visit to the Chapel of the Holy Cross must see.
Day 4 to the Grand Canyon
Less than 2.5 hours from Sedona, it is an easy drive. Make sure you have your Senior Passes to the National Parks. You only need one per car. Pro tip to stay away from the crowds at the South Welcome Center, take the first road to the east just a couple of miles around the rim. Great views without the crowds and the crazies on the edge of cliffs. The Grand Canyon Lodge was comfortable on the level of a Hampton.
Day 5 More Grand Canyon to the east and then to National Parks in Utah
We drove east and north around the Grand Canyon. In early April the north gate was still closed for snow. We continued heading for Bryce Canyon. At the last moment we decided to take a left turn to go to Zion National Park. We were glad we did. My what beauty. You are down in the middle of the park snaking along the road. It’s hard to describe but it has completely different rock formations than any of the other parks.
It made our day a lot longer as we held off on Bryce Canyon for a day. It also made us late arriving to our Glamp & Camp in the geodesic domes. Still, we were able to see the clearest sky imaginable. We wish we had at least two days there. It is a neat property that has 12 domes, grills, disc golf, and star gazing.
Day 6 Bryce Canyon and through Monument Valley
If you’re a fan of old Westerns, Forrest Gump, amazing mesas and unusual rock formations, this drive is fantastic. It’s postcard after postcard. We ended our day in Bluff, Utah. A town of about 250 with a beautiful hotel, Desert Rose Inn. It’s built with a terrific view of cliffs, valleys and formations. A terrific meal awaits you at the Canyon Smokehouse.
Day 7 Four Corners and Gallup, NM
This is the day we should have taken one more right turn. We had a relatively short drive through more canyon land to make it to Four Corners. We did the obligatory photo of standing in 4 states at one time. Some cute unique trinkets were found. It was a windy and cool outpost, so we were there about 45 minutes. We then headed south towards Gallup NM. When we made it to I-40 we should have headed for an hour to the west before returning to Gallup. We would have found the Petrified Forest and Painted Desert. Missed that one because it was Sunday and absolutely zero to do in Gallup. The only saving grace was our motel. It was on Route 66 and served as the historic motel of the stars as they made their Westerns nearby. John Wayne, Errol Flynn, Shirley Temple & Jimmy Stewart to name a few. It had a nice restaurant and decent bar. However, we were ready to move on.
Day 8-10 Santa Fe
Absolutely gorgeous, the UNESCO Creative City for Craft & Folk Art is a place you don’t want to miss. Fantastic museums, handmade crafts of Indigenous Peoples, fine arts and wonderful gastronomy. It’s a clean walkable environment with something different around every corner. The Cathedral Basilica of St. Francis of Assisi and the impact of the sisters of Loretto are interesting sites and stories. We were here 3 days and wanted at least 7.
Day 11-12 Albuquerque
After a delicious breakfast in Santa Fe, we headed back south about 60 miles to Albuquerque. We thought we’d have a different kind of day. First stop was at Top Golf for snacks, drinks, and GOLF! A couple of hours of fun were had. Then off for lunch at a brewpub, the Canteen Brewhouse. Good food, good beer and an extra friendly manager who gave us hints on other food options and brew options. She was right on all recommendations! Le Cumbe Brewery and a Peruvian restaurant made our last night a success.
Honeymooners Brittany and Correy Schultz at Sandals Royal Barbados
-----------------------------------------------May 2024
Experience the epitome of elegant luxury, where extraordinary innovations and sublime indulgences abound at Sandals Royal Barbados!
We had a fabulous time in Barbados. Our room was very nice with our own personal pool. We had access to 21 different restaurants and room service. We loved the infinity pool as there were always activities offered.
We enjoyed relaxing and celebrating our new marriage!!
We enjoyed working with Penny as she was very responsive and answered all of our questions.
Let me introduce Mr. and Mrs. Kris Hilst
---------------------------------------------May 2024
Honeymoon in Paradise
Angela and Kris made the most of their time in Maui by enjoying a sunset dinner cruise off the coast of Maui with awesome island views and a tasty dinner.
Horseback riding which was a guided tour through the valley of the West Maui Mountains through gulches and enjoying the view along the oceanfront of the Pacific Ocean.
Riding in a limo-van to the Road to Hana with a stunning helicopter ride over the islands. AND to add a little more adventure they flew through the treetops on a zipline course amount the tropical landscape.
Angela said, "The hotel stay was wonderful. Very cool ambience when we arrived. A beautiful hotel with 5 or 6 swimming pools, palm trees, a beach right next to us (our room had a view of the ocean), restaurants within walking distance and even right inside our hotel. During the time we went temperatures were perfect. We enjoyed Leilanis on the water, Monkeypod and a couple other local restaurants. The ahi tuna was so fresh and incredible. We enjoyed all our activities but road to Hana and the helicopter ride were probably the coolest.
It was helpful for you to book our room and find us all the activities to choose from, plus booking our flights. I don't travel so I don't have any idea how to do any of that stuff on my own."
Honeymooners
Preston and Baylee Payne
----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------February 7, 2024
For our honeymoon we chose to go to Cabo, Mexico. Because we are currently living on the West Coast it is a pretty short flight to a beautiful location. Penny was great at giving us multiple location options that fit within our budget. We chose the Hard Rock All Inclusive to stay at for its variety of dining choices and just because we figured Hard Rock would put on a good time. Two things I appreciated about working with Penny was she responded even on weekends. We ended up deciding to change a flight to have a little bit longer lay over time, and Penny was able to do it within 24 hours. I also appreciated that she checked in on us while we were on the vacation to make sure everything was going as planned 😊
When we first arrived, the staff were very accommodating, they took our bags and provided a tour of the resort. We liked that there were multiple pool options, one being adults only. Each pool had its own swim up bar, and we loved that we could order snacks while laying by the pool. They also all had a beautiful view of the ocean! There were multiple cuisine options, too! We were there for 5 nights and had a different cuisine every night. Our favorite day was when we did the lunch cruise. We saw the well-known arch and went cruising along the coastline, which was so beautiful! We also stopped for a little bit to either do paddle boarding or snorkel (we were able to do a little of both). We thought about signing up for a second day because we enjoyed it so much! Another day we walked around Cabo San Lucas and had some delicious local food (shrimp tacos pictured above). The other days we just relaxed 😊 All in all, we had a wonderful honeymoon!
While we had a great experience, there are a couple things we would do different next time. Unfortunately, where the Hard Rock is the Pacific Ocean is very unpredictable, so we were not able to swim in the ocean while at our resort. We didn’t even go on the beach because the resort didn’t have anything set up for the visitors. Also, there were always vendors right outside the resort boundary. There are some places you can swim in Cabo, so if you do want to get into the ocean, make sure whichever resort you choose is in one of those places. The Hard Rock is also pretty far from Cabo San Lucas (45-minute taxi ride) and San Jose del Cabo (1-1.5-hour taxi ride). If you are wanting to do more local activities, I’d suggest staying closer. This was my first experience at an all-inclusive, so I wasn’t sure what I was looking for. I will say, the Hard Rock had activities through-out the day to do while sitting by the pool if you are not one that wants to leave the resort.
-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------December 1, 2023
My husband and I utilized Penny to plan our honeymoon and WOW, she knocked it out of the park! She made sure everything about our trip was stress free- from setting up the private transfer to and from the airport, adding special notes to our reservation and ensuring we received special touches throughout the week, to verifying all of our travel details. It was so easy on us!
Before telling you about our amazing resort, I have to include a unique situation that Penny helped us find a solution to! We had applied for our passports MONTHS in advance. Mine had arrived, but my husband's had not! We tried contacting every office we could to ensure his passport arrived before we left town. No one had an answer for us, even though we'd paid for expedited shipping. Penny had the idea to reach out to any state representative or similar that we possibly had any connections with. Luckily, we had one person we could reach out to that was a family friend. Because of Penny's suggestion, we were able to get my husband's passport sent within DAYS! She even had backup plans prepared in case we didn't receive it in time. She was a lifesaver when we were beyond stressed!
Now, the amazing honeymoon location!! We stayed at the RIU Palace Kukulkan in Cancun for 7 nights in September 2023. This is an adults only, all-inclusive resort. There are multiple restaurants on site, 4 pools, private beachfront, nightly entertainment, on-site spa and fitness center, multiple specialty bars, and a poolside grille. This resort was impeccable! This place was SO CLEAN! The staff was so friendly and accommodating. Upon arrival, we were greeted by their concierge, who took our bags while we checked in. The check-in process was simple and we were greeted with champagne. Then, the concierge led us to our room and made sure everything was to our liking. The only hiccup was MINOR. Our A/C was not running when we walked in the room. We decided to lock up personal belongings and put our bags in the closet and take a tour of the property while they came up and looked at the A/C. By the time we returned, it was nice and chilly in our room. We had zero issues the rest of the trip.
Every day was Groundhog Day in the best way. We started our mornings at the extensive breakfast buffet before heading down to the beach. Another employee greeted us and brought out chairs, a table and an umbrella for us. It wasn't long before a server was getting our drink orders. Then we would grab lunch from either the buffet or Pepe's poolside grille. The food was AMAZING! Then, we'd head to one of the pools. We spent the rest of the day there. Sometimes we'd pool hop and see which vibe was our favorite. We definitely loved the quiet, laidback pool the most. We'd get cleaned up, relax, and head down to figure out what we wanted for dinner. We loved that nothing was far away and all of the restaurants were in one section of the resort. No need to walk miles just to get to dinner. Also, no reservations needed! The most we ever waited for was 15 minutes, which we spent at the lobby bar. They also had a specialty cocktail cart with a different cocktail each night. Rough life, huh?! Each restaurant was wonderful. The food was delicious. We even did the buffet dinner one night as well and OMG, it has everything you could ever dream of. If you do want to leave the resort, there's a popular shopping area across the street. We ventured out one day and never felt unsafe. It's a simple walk and has a vast selection of stores and even has a casino. There's also an on-site area to book excursions if you want to head out on an adventure. On our last evening, we enjoyed facials and massages at the on-site spa. We were beyond relaxed! Highly recommend it. Let's just say, we will be going back to this RIU property!!!
Thank you to Penny for helping make our honeymoon absolutely PERFECT!
-Andrea & Brandon Vietor
Let me introduce you to
Brandon and Andrea Vietor!
"Everyday was groundhog day!"
In October 2023 Kelly and David Dixon and Greg and Robbie Spees went on a New England Adventure
Just got home from a bucket list vacation. David, Kelly, Greg and I spent 7 of the BEST days exploring Maine, New Hampshire, and Maine again. We rode in a plane, a car, a antique fire truck, a train, a sailboat, and a tour bus. We saw lighthouses and covered bridges. We stayed in the cutest little Inn. We saw the most amazing scenery that pictures do not do justice. We ate lobster rolls and lobster, and clam chowder, and blueberry pie, and whoopie pies. All so so good. Thanks to all the folks who gave us recommendations. My brother, Shelly, Robin Brewer, Edith Garwood, and our very own personal tour guide that sent us on our way with detailed instructions that we followed almost to the letter, Teresa Utley! And last but not least….thanks Kelly and David for being the best travel buddies!
It was a great trip! Glad we all got to go together! And thanks to Penny Knott and Limitless Adventures Travel for planning all the details!
---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------November 17, 2023
On July 29th Boyce and Resa Ross began their trek to Fairbanks Alaska for an 11-day cruise tour aboard the Sapphire Princess.
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Wow what a trip Penny put together for us to Alaska!
Starting with a four day land tour in Fairbanks and then Denali. The riverboat cruise in Fairbanks that included panning for gold among other fun things was great! We loved the Princess lodge in Denali and we did white water rafting that was a blast and saw some of the most beautiful scenery ever on our double decker train with glass top dome. It took us to Whittier/Anchorage where we got on the Princess Sapphire ship! We got to see DENALI while on the train for about 2 hours on and off! Absolutely mesmerizing beauty!
The ship was great and included a couple of specialty restaurants where we had great meals in addition to eating in the dining room and buffet a couple times. We got to see glaciers unlike anything I ever envisioned and even took an excursion where we took a helicopter up to one and spent about 30 min. walking around. Our ports were Skagway, Juneau and Ketchikan. Alaska truly is breathtaking beauty and we cannot thank Penny enough for all the work she did to make this bucket list trip happen! She went above and beyond on details and even alerted us to a delayed flight before the airlines did! That’s real customer service!
October 5, 2023
August 25, 2023
Meet Teresa Lillie, a flight attendant for a major airlines. I have known Teresa for a very long time. We met during my days of running around in Metropolis Illinois. I asked Teresa if she would share her story and offer some travel tips for my readers.
My name is Teresa Lillie and I have worked for a major airline for over 35 years. My first 3 years I flew domestic, but now I mainly fly international.
I live in NYC, but grew up in Metropolis, Illinois. It's a small town in Southern Illinois and honestly I wouldn't change my upbringing for anything. I’m very happy to have grown up there.
After graduating from Murray State with a degree in Criminal Justice, I worked as Assistant Director at Shawnee College’s Metro Center. I had always wanted to travel, so I got a job at a travel agency in Paducah, KY. My first familiarization trip was to Sanibel Island. I loved it so much that when I got back to the office, I felt like a caged animal. So, I applied to be a flight attendant and was hired. After going through 6 weeks of training, I chose NY as my base and planned to try it for 8 months. But I never left!
When I first arrived in NYC, I saw a lady with a walker carrying groceries. I ran up to her and asked if I could help carry them. I scared her, which surprised me. I apologized and told her that I was just out walking and wanted to help. I think she realized that I wasn’t from there and told me that she did this all the time.
I’ve learned a lot from traveling and would like to share a few things with you:
Make a copy of your passport. It takes a while to get one, so if you have an international trip planned, I would get the paperwork started. Your passport is good for 10 years.
I would also recommend Global Entry. It’s good for 5 years and costs $100. If you’re traveling internationally, once you arrive back in the U.S., you can walk to a kiosk, take your picture, and present your passport to the customs agent. It’s so much quicker than waiting in line.
If you’re in another country, I would go to an ATM and withdraw their currency. I mainly use my credit card because if it’s stolen, you have some sort of recourse. Also, it’s better to have no foreign finance charges on your credit card.
When you buy your airline ticket, if you want a seat together, you usually must pay for it.
If you’re traveling to Europe, get travel adapters. I have a dual voltage curling iron, so I just need an adapter. I once used an adapter instead of a converter in London and 5 security guards showed up! My smoking curling iron set the alarm off🙄
When I pack, I roll everything because most hotels have irons. I always pack a jacket or light wrap because the airplane gets cold and sometimes if you’re going to visit a church, they require your arms to be covered.
If you’re going to buy souvenirs, when my mom and I travel, I would take her to the supermarket and buy the local goods. I love supermarkets in Europe, especially chocolate! Lol
I’ve been to a lot of places and always find something interesting in every place I go. I enjoy meeting the locals because they are a wealth of information. But with any place you go, just be aware of your surroundings.
When I first started flying, we had a layover in Tampa and the Rolling Stones were in town. We were so excited, but they were sold out. As we checked into the hotel and stopped at a gift shop by the elevators, a man heard us talking about wishing we could see the Rolling Stones. We turned towards the elevator and the man said he heard us talking about wanting to see the Rolling Stones. I said “yes, but they’re sold out.” He said, “give me your room number and I’ll see what I can do.” So, I said #236 (I may not have been too aware at this time) lol. A few minutes later he called me to tell me he had two tickets!
August 5, 2023
I have been blessed with such great clients in this business so I will start sharing some of their feedback. This couple went to Punta Cana in May of this year to celebrate a delayed honeymoon.
Review of Secrets Royal in Punta Cana
by Jennifer and Brook Richard
So our trip was absolutely INCREDIBLE! I felt like I was in a dream the entire time… it was PERFECT from beginning to end.
FLIGHTS- I was a little worried about Frontier because we both have never flown with them before. I had done some research and some reviews said they were known for loosing bags with connecting flights. But lucky for us, you found us a direct flight and we had no issues at all!!! Brook booked us seats in the front row for there and back and early boarding and that was the way to go. Having the direct flight made it so much easier… and the flight times were perfect. We drove from Paducah the morning of and parked at The Parking Spot. I will definitely fly them again for direct out of Missouri. (PS- the detailed email you had send the week before was AWESOME! It was easy to have all of our flight info, resort info, diagram of airport, all in one place to just print and have with us. Thank you!)
Right when we got off of the plane in the DR and got our bags, we were lucky enough to have an airport worker come up to us and put our bags on a cart, cut a bunch of lines LOL, and brought us directly to the Amstar bus and unloaded our bags.
AMSTAR TRANSPORTATION- I was the most nervous about how the transportation would be to and from the airport. Amstar is SUPER safe. The bus we were on was huge, had great air conditioning, and all Amstar workers helping us were very informative. I am SO glad you booked this for us.
SECRETS ROYAL RESORT- If I could give this place more than 5 stars, I would. I am so glad that we went preferred. Right when we got off of the Amstar bus at Secrets, we were greeted with hand sanitizer and hot towels and immediately brought to the Preferred Lounge to check in where they had a bunch of snacks and a bar. We sat at a table and were wined and dined as someone came to bring all paperwork to us to fill out and then we met our Butler, Ruddy. Ruddy showed us around the resort as he brought us to our room. Our bags were brought us minutes later. Our room was PERFECT! You could see the ocean but could also see a perfect view of the beautiful hotel below. I liked being on the 4th floor so it wasn’t too noisy for us. I also was happy that the jetted tub was inside our room and not on the deck. (which I thought I would have wanted it on our balcony but we were honestly rarely in our room and I’d rather take a bubble bath inside instead). It was so sweet to have the Happy Anniversary Banner on our door and a cake inside our room when we got there. It really made getting there feel extra special. Our fridge was filled with all kinds of drinks and waters and snacks. We weren’t far from elevators either. Room #3447
I asked for Ruddy to blow up the pool floats that I brought and bring us an extra case of water and he had it brought it within hours to us. Having a butler was worth every penny for us… He added us to a groupchat on WhatsApp and every morning he would send us 2 pdf’s on there with a list of all restaurants times and locations, the shows for that day, and all kinds of info that not any other resort stayer would know without having to ask a bunch of questions to workers and do a bunch of digging. We learned with Ruddy that the more you tip ahead of time, the more of the extra mile he went. The first day we tipped him $20, but when we gave him $50 the next day, we had champagne sent up to our room and booked us a special private dinner on the beach, and then had turn down service for us every night. He also reserved every dinner reservation for us so we never had to wait and made really good suggestions on where to go. The day before we left, he came to visit us at the beach and secured a time to have our bags picked up from our room for the next day. When we booked an offshore fishing excursion, we felt comfortable enough to ask Ruddy is the excursion company was legit or not. Ruddy made us feel like royalty and made the trip extra special for sure.
The food was some of the best food I have ever had in my life. If you ever need recommendation for any other travel goers that you book, I will be happy to share our favorite places and meals! Breakfast we had at the same place by the pool/beach called Olio every morning. The view was stunning, and our servers were always happy… we loved to start our days here. For lunch, we ate mostly on the beach where they had burgers. The chef was so fun and always remembered us. The only place we didn’t like was the Mexican place. Its not that the food wasn’t good there but I think all of the other restaurants just blew this one out of the water. Blue Water Grill, Asian Hibachi, and The Oceana (which was next door at Dreams) were our favs!!!!
The service was top tier. They truly make you feel like family here. It was so clean, everyone was so happy and I felt like really wanted to make sure we were always having a good time. The beach had the seaweed barrier so we had no seaweed at all…. The chairs were further apart and had umbrellas, but my favorite part was having a server constantly bringing drinks to our chairs. We got to know him and his name was Jose B. He really made our beach time fun and would always bring us extra special drinks like a watermelon in the shape of a bird with my drink inside the entire watermelon. The preferred pool area was our favorite because it was quieter and had the preferred area that you could go into for snacks/bathroom/drinks/or just cool off. It never felt packed while we were there… so I really liked that. Oh, and the preferred area cabanas/lazy river is where we spent every late afternoon. There was a bar right next to our favorite cabana spot which just so happened to be right above our room, so again, the location was great.
When we were leaving and Brook and I talked about our next trip, we toyed with the idea of going somewhere else but honestly, I think we want to go back here next year because it was that great of an experience.
Thank yall so much… we got everything we wanted out of this trip and so much more! And because of yall, we never had to stress about planning it. THANK YOU THANK YOU THANK YOU!!!!
Jennifer Richard, REALTOR® ~ Office: 270.415.5557 Cell: 270.559.7557 ~Address: 140 North Friendship Paducah, KY 42001 ~ Email: jennifer@saragipson.com
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