Credit where its due

Me, I'm a planner, itineraries are my thing, detail is important to me.

So it was with some surprise that after booking this vacation with Complete North America and spending the last few weeks pouring over the locations and potential routes we could travel using traditional reference sources and of course Google, I discovered today that some companies go that extra mile to provide a quality of service sadly lacking on the high street.

It was apparent immediately on taking delivery of the travel document package that here was something extraordinary.

The FedEx courier arrived shortly after 07:30 in the morning bearing a substantial packet; in fact to call it a packet is a misnomer, for within the FedEx vinyl ‘Large’ envelope was a large plain cardboard box.
Within the box a professionally printed ring binder whose cover portrayed American vistas and the words ‘Dream, Explore, Discover’.

Within the binder a brief letter introduced the contents and provided contact details for their representative in the USA.

Held securely by the binders’ rings, a see through, embossed, plastic envelope contained a variety of vouchers and tickets for accommodation and transport, along with the obligatory attraction flyers and discount vouchers.

Behind the envelope a Rand McNally ‘Green edition’ road atlas clipped into the binder provides extremely detailed road maps in American ‘letter’ size, San Francisco being one of the 10 ‘walkable’ US cities it describe in additional detail.

The coup de grace though is the personalised spiral bound journal, which from its transparent vinyl cover and hard cover which echo’s that of the larger binder reeks of quality and consideration.

A series of introductory pages welcome us personally and provide advice and basic travel information specific to the US, covering such details as; currency, climate, time zones, driving and national holidays.

Beyond these pages, each state we will pass through has a detailed section providing history, local colour and additional current information to help us appreciate the locations more easily.

Then an overall map summarises our itinerary, before the pages turn to become specific advisories on our stop overs, providing details on hotel addresses and contact information, route details along with journey times and mileages covered and local area maps of the destinations, these create a smile as the detailed streets of San Francisco are compared with the paucity of pavement in Furnace creek.

Each day of the holiday is broken out in this guide come journal and lined space provided for personal jottings or journey notes.

The time I have spent in preparing and planning may not have been wasted, but the professionalism presented through this package is hard to beat.

So for the record, if you’re a planner and you respect detail, then there is only one place you should shop for Complete North American holidays. If you’re not a planner and prefer to be cosseted and comforted by a professional travel company then you would be hard pushed to find one with a more professional approach.

For more details, click here to go to their website, or here to find their blog.

Posted in: map,Plan,Route