Is your Christmas shopping done? Let Village Travel Help!

This holiday season, consider giving a memorable experience to your loved ones instead of more things to clutter their home. Village Travel Gift Certificates are available year round and are perfect for the person on your list who has everything! Village Travel can plan a winter warm vacation, a family vacation to Disney World or even a short getaway. Let us ease your Christmas shopping, give us a call at 1-800-373-8747 or email us at Villagetravel@sbcglobal.net.

Are you booking your travel online?

The economic crisis has hit the travel industry also. There are airlines, hotels, tour companies, cruise lines and travel agencies that are feeling the pinch. If you are booking on line what do you know about that company? How long have they been around - could it be a scam outfit that just started up? If it sounds to good to be true, it probably is.

We at Village Travel are members of the American Society of Travel Agents - we get emails from them daily - the keep us updated with companies that may be in financial trouble. We are also a member of a consortium Results - we also receive updates daily from them. The travel insurance we sell has a watch list that we check - they will list what companies we should not sell. It is part of our customer service to advise our clients of a potential trouble spot.

During these tough times it is better to stick with someone you know and an actual person you can talk with if there is a problem.

Remember you are on your own without a travel agent!

Do you have your passport yet?

If you don't have your passport now is the time to get it. I am constantly deluged with updates concerning travel security from Homeland Security. The latest is the government is looking at requiring a passport anytime you leave the country (including cruising) by June 2009. They are also looking at raising the price of passports. As of right now they are $97 and good for 10 years.

So get your certified copy of your birth certificate from the county your were born in. We recommend passport pictures be taken at Walgreen's at $7.99 each. If you live in Macon County the place to apply for your passport are either the Post Office downtown or on Mound Street in Decatur. You can also print out an application at http://travel.state.gov/passport.

Get it now - then you will be ready to travel when that great deal comes through.

The Ritter Family Vacation

To celebrate our youngest son's birthday, his wish was for our entire family to go to Hilton Head S.C. for a week. We rented a villa in Palmentto Dunes. We had a 4 bedroom 3 bath 2 story villa with a lagoon in our backyard with a deck for fishing. The beach was just across the street, about a 2 minute walk. Our villa also had 2 bicycles, beach chairs and a beach umbrella. We could not have been more pleased with the location and the villa itself. If any of the 7 adults or 1 dog needed space of their own it was not a problem to find. (Yes, our villa was even pet friendly.)

The highlight of the trip was our shark fishing expedition. Except for 2 members suffering from sea sickness it was a great evening. (See c3 and j I did not mention your names.) Four of us were lucky enough to actually catch sharks, I was the first one on a boat of 35. I am a typical fisherman when you ask me how big it was I will say 10Feet and it was a hammerhead. Don't look close at the picture though.

The guys also did some fishing from the beach and were very successful. Cory, our oldest caught 2 stingrays and then Cory and our middle son Cole also had luck pulling in several sharks. They became know as the Ranger Ricks of the beach. All the little kids would follow them around to see what they caught.

We did take a day and drove down to Savannah. After just spending a long weekend with my mother and sister in Charleston, I was very disappointed in Savannah. We did see many of the spots were Forest Gump was filmed.

Of course the highlight of Savannah, for the girls was stopping in Paula Deen's store. We did not go to the restaurant - we just don't usually do buffets and it is a buffet.

It was a very restful week and the consensus was that in two years we were all going again!

Oh, what a wonderful summer!!

A long awaited weekend with my Mother and Sister finally took place in June. We left on a Thursday for 4 nights. Flew from Indianapolis to Charleston S. C. We rented a car and away the three of us went. I was driving (the one with a fear of bridges), my mother was the navigator (which worked fine if she paid attention to the map and road signs) and my sister in the back with a broken arm. By the way did I mention this trip was to take place last summer but with the diagnosis of my mothers cancer last April this was put off for a year. The three of us together still feel we can do anything together - I don't know why my Father called us everyday though.

We loved Charleston a beautiful city with so much to do. We all are antebellum buffs so our big thing was to see the lovely plantations. First stop was to the visitors center, and what a great staff. We bought a 2 day pass to see 7 plantations and a hop on hop off trolley ticket for 2 days in Charleston. We also took the ferry out to see Fort Sumter. Another must is the market, which is building after building of local crafts.

Restaurants are wonderful and we tried to sample all we could in a short amount of time. Of course the seafood is great. I love crab cakes and tried to sample them everywhere we went.

Check out our pictures and if you want more info please stop by Village Travel or email me!!