There are several benefits of working with a professional when planning a Greece Tour… they are best equipped to manage all the unknowns you might not know:
… where to go
… best time of the year to schedule
… best places to stay and visit.

When it came to deciding to design a custom cruise and tour of scenery, I made my decision based on my belief that Greece can easily meet the expectations of even the most demanding travelers… lacking little; offering a lot! Beautiful scenery… a panorama of sea and mountains, archaeological sites that are a living tribute to the abilities of man to create, and a broad array of activities from busy, noisy nightclubs to quiet moonlit walks on the beach. All in all, Greece is easily recognized as a traveler’s paradise.

[caption id="attachment_1235" align="alignright" width="200" caption="Elegant accommodations on Greece Tour"][/caption]

Elegant restaurants, exquisite hotels, and luxurious accommodations fill any traveler’s greatest expectations. If your taste runs more to the less crowded places… they are there, hidden among the crowded, popular locations, but not heavily promoted. It is normally these quaint places that get you to the heart and soul of the Greek people, offering “hidden treasures” throughout the islands.

While on a Greece Tour you can avoid mass tourism and enjoy the simple nature and hospitality of a country not caught up in the rush of life, leaning more to an experience of where nature is pure, food is fresh, and the atmosphere is unspoiled. In many of the off-beaten areas, your accommodations may not be the luxury you would find in other settings throughout Greece, but as a custom designed cruise and tour, you can be assured this will not be representative of the choices made on your behalf… thus, giving you the best of both worlds!

Traveling at the right time of year is an important decision when custom designing a cruise and tour to Greece… much thought goes into avoiding the rush of Greeks taking their summer vacations in August, weather conditions in other parts of the year, and off-peak pricing. Thus, May 2011 it is!

There are alternative connections into Greece, such as the Ionian Island and Turkey, which has daily boat traffic to the islands of the Aegean, but connecting through Athens gives travelers an opportunity to experience Athenian lifestyle and the marvels of the Acropolis.

I hope you have gleaned a little more about the thinking and work that goes in to designing a custom cruise, and that questions you may have about the Greece Tour May 2011 will have been answered here.

January 30^th already… where did this month go?  I know mine has been an absolute whirlwind of activity, with only a small part of it devoted to getting better organized and/or eliminating clutter.  Which prompts the question, “Are you really sure you don’t have time to get organized?”  I’ll bet you do!  What if your organizing issues could be resolved by taking a better look at how well you manage your time?

At the end of the day, being organized must include being “structured” in the use of your time, as well. By taking a better look at how you actually spend your time during most any week in the year, I have no doubt you can find a number of opportunities to better prioritize activities and arrange schedules to, yes… block out time to rid your life of some of that annoying clutter and create a more organized environment.

I have a friend who recently shared with me her doctor’s having required her to keep a food journal to monitor nutritional levels for a cancer treatment program.  This made me think about how any important information is better used when it is documented. You might be pleasantly surprised to find using this idea of a dieter’s journal to log your activities will assist with easily taking a good, hard, honest look at how you spend your time. If you feel mastering your time would make a difference in being better organized, you can reference the following link(s) to learn a new skill by using the Time Use Log, available either in PDF or Excel spreadsheet form.

Before you think, “Oh, no! Not another task to add to my already feeling overwhelmed.” Consider the fact that you really only need to exercise this discipline for one week 1/52^nd of your entire year; there are 8760 hours in a year – of which you need monitor only 168, and of which 56 are mostly likely sleep!  I wanted to point out how often our perception clouds our reality to encourage you to at least explore this process.

This new skill, of knowing how you spend your time, and knowing how to make SMALL adjustments to reduce low-priority activities in favor of higher-valued ones will make a BIG difference in more areas of your life other than freeing up a consistent use of your time for “staying organized so that this time next year, getting organized in January won’t seem such a monumental task!”

What will you do differently this year to get and remain organized?  It may be something as small as checking out the PortaVault and organizing your vital documents.

Jan Vitale, always providing vital essentials in life!

[caption id="attachment_1222" align="alignright" width="200" caption="Greece Tour May 2011"][/caption]

Today I feel compelled to give over “some” of my research for the Greece Tour May 2011 and just give you a list of some pretty amazing sites online where you, too, might want to go and spend time just looking around and getting an opinion other than my own that this will be the most amazing custom designed cruise and tour you could hope for!

Ready, set, go!

1. Hellinic Resources A great collection of news and services.
2. The Guide To Athens The essential guide to the capital city of Athens, Greece.
3. Travel Advice Latest travel advice for those travelling to Greece.
4. Travel State.Gov Includes information on entry requirements, security, local laws and health.
5. Video – Beautiful panoramic shots… and the music… ah!  that music!

Click here… Today is the last day of the HUGE discount for the Greece Tour May 2011.

If you or a friend has any interest in joining us … today would be a good day to make that decision.

Thinking about my Greece Tour when I first woke up this morning, I wondered just how much Greece relies on the influx of revenues from tourists?  I found, through several resources, that I am not the only one with an avid interest in visiting there!

[caption id="attachment_1208" align="alignright" width="200" caption="Greece moorings..."][/caption]

Over 16 million tourists flock to Greece each year, and contribute roughly 15% of the GDP.  According to Wikipedia over 6,000,000 tourists visit Athens on an annual basis.  Between 2005 and 2010 surveys in the countries of Austria and China selected Greece as the favored tour destination.  Tourism is good to Greece… it has generated money and jobs, and doesn’t appear to be diminishing with other world and economic considerations.

Other interesting Greece Tour trivia:

1. On any given day Greece can offer 693,252 beds for sleeping.
2. 51 marinas offer over 14,000 mooring spots, replete with fuel, water, repairs and other amenities.
3. Over 700 thermal springs offer therapeutic relief and relaxation.
4. The Greek government, in a show of supporting “Conference tourism” offers cash grants and other leasing, tax and employment incentives to retain its standing in conference tourism, which recently was number eight in the world.
5. Greece holds a standard of providing its tourists an “experience” – wanting to stand above other favored destinations in tourism.
6. Greek government has shown itself more than willing to establish key partnerships with countries that favor Greece, such as that which was developed between Greece and China, by opening a Greek National Tourism Organization office in Shanghai.

These are all leading indicators of the value Greece holds for its visitors, both the governing bodies and the people who share their country and their culture.  It appears, in what might otherwise be a discomforting time for Greece, tourism may well be the bright, shining spot in the day.  Feast your eyes on this short video!

Are YOU ready to book for the Greece Tour May 2011?  Check out the discount pricing- ends January 28th.

[caption id="attachment_1198" align="alignright" width="104" caption="The AZPortaVault - - the perfect storage for ALL your Vital Documents"][/caption]

Keeping in the groove for providing information pertinent to January’s being National Organization Month, I got to wondering… what IF a disaster were to occur BEFORE you had all your vital documents organized and stored in a manner that gave you quick access?  What WOULD a person do in trying to reconstruct all those destroyed or missing documents?  Since my passion is to provide you with the Vital Essentials of life, I thought this resource list would prove invaluable to you… during January’s National Organization Month,  and many years to come.

• Address Change – When you move, be sure to change your address with a few government agencies so that you’ll continue to receive mail and any government benefits at your new location.
• Bank Records – Financial tips and resources for disaster recovery.
  (.PDF | requires Adobe Acrobat Reader )
• Birth, Marriage, and Death Certificates – Get records based on the location of the birth, death, marriage, or divorce.
• Damaged Money – The Treasury Department will exchange mutilated or damaged U.S. currency.
• Document Restoration–Fire – The Library of Congress offers information on restoring fire-damaged documents and collections.
• Document Restoration–Flood – The National Archives offers information on how to care for your flood damaged photos, books, papers and more
• Drivers’ Licenses and Vehicle Registration – Find your state’s motor vehicle department to get or replace your driver’s license and register your car.
• Federal Civilian Personnel Records – Go to the National Archives for guidance on requesting personnel records for former federal civilian employees. Current federal workers can get personnel records from their Human Resources office.
• Green Card Replacement – Get instructions on how to replace a lost, stolen, or damaged permanent resident card (green card).
• Medical Information Form – The AZPortaVault contains forms where you can record medical conditions and other health information for use in an emergency situation.
• Medicare Card Replacement – How to replace a lost, stolen or damaged Medicare card
• Military Service Records – How to get copies of military service records, to prove military service or for genealogy research
• Passport – Lost or stolen passports should be reported immediately. Contact the nearest U.S. embassy or Consulate if your passport is lost or stolen overseas.
• Savings Bonds Recovery – Cash and replace lost, stolen, or destroyed bonds.
• School Records – Contact your former school, or the appropriate school district if the school has closed.
• Social Security Card Replacement – How to replace a lost or stolen Social Security card
• Tax Return – Request a copy of your federal tax return from the Internal Revenue Service