Santa Fe Sojourns, Slow Travel, and Savvy Cruise Deals

Today, we kick things off with an exhilarating announcement – new ways to enter our seven-night Virgin Voyage cruise giveaway! Then, hear about the captivating charm of Santa Fe through James' recent travels. Discover the cultural importance of food, the allure of Pueblo architecture, and the historical significance of spots like the La Fonda Hotel. Mike delves into the enriching insights botanical gardens offer travelers, emphasizing their window into a region's heritage.

Venture deeper with us as we champion the mantra, "Stay Longer, Slow Down," discussing the profound benefits of extended stays. Rediscover the joy of serendipitous discoveries with James' reminder to let yourself get lost. Cruises, you ask? Well, did you know October is National Plan A Cruise Month? We unpack some irresistible cruise deals for our listeners. From MSC's alluring offers to Seabourn's luxury sailings, there's something for everyone. And if river cruises catch your fancy, Mike's personal account of his time with AmaWaterways will inspire. Finally, we circle back to that tantalizing Virgin Voyages giveaway, with tips on how you can amplify your chances of sailing away on an epic adventure. Stay tuned, next up – Mike's travel backpack essentials! Don't keep these travel treasures to yourself – remember, sharing is caring. Thank you for joining us on this journey, and here's to authentic explorations!

Virgin Voyages Giveaway and Raffle Entry

James Ferrara: Hey, welcome back to No Tourists Allowed, where not only do we give you the best travel tips, stories, and deals, but we also give you the chance to win a real getaway of your own.

Today we're in the midst of an exhilarating giveaway: a seven-night Virgin Voyages cruise, where you get to luxuriate in a stunning sea terrace cabin with the liberty to choose from all available ships, dates, and ports, as long as you set sail before June 2024.

We've been unrolling new raffle entry options every week. You could score points by signing up for our newsletter, answering last week's poll about your favorite destination, and today we're tossing a new exciting challenge into the mix. This week's entry option is the charm of friendship.

Mike Putman: Oh, I like that.

James Ferrara: All you gotta do is refer a friend and bag yourself five points for every mate that successfully signs up for the offer. Head over to our website, jump into the raffle form, and you'll find options to enter a friend's email or share a special link directly to your social media platforms.

But there's a sprinkle of spice here. You'll only snatch those five points if your buddy successfully signs up for the raffle with a cap at five friends. So that's an opportunity to earn twenty-five extra raffle points.

Mike Putman: Five friends. I don't know if I have five friends, but easy peasy, right?

James Ferrara: And while you're sharing this incredible chance with your friends, remind them that they too can amass points through our challenges every week. All of the challenges, current and past, are available on our website where your info and points are neatly saved.

You might just be watching sunsets and listening to our podcast from the deck of a Virgin Voyages soon.

Mike Putman: Wow, snazzy cruise. Keep these entries coming and make sure to tune in to our enchanting travel escapades every week. Plus follow up on our social media and YouTube channel. You can see us now, isn't that amazing?

For some exclusive content and bonus entries, links as always are waiting in the episode description, which might be down below here or to the side. I'm not sure.

James Ferrara: Yeah, and what you want to do is set those sails and let's navigate through another captivating episode right here on No Tourists Allowed. Now let's jump into today's episode.

Introduction and Travel Updates

Announcer: Welcome to No Tourists Allowed, a podcast where two recognized travel industry executives with a combined 71 years on the inside of travel and technology give up their secrets to the thing everyone wants to do: travel better, pay less, and see more of the world. Here are your hosts, Mike Putman and James Ferrara.

Mike Putman: Good day, everyone. I'm Mike Putman.

James Ferrara: And I'm James Ferrara. And isn't it nice that we got to see our executive producer there, Mike? Nathaniel does a great job for us week in, week out. And we're delighted to have him shine in the spotlight.

Mike Putman: Yeah, he does do a great job. Well, welcome everybody to No Tourists Allowed.

James Ferrara: You know, last episode I was actually in Santa Fe and we tried to affect a little view for you, but I think I lost Wi-Fi. The desert is like that. And I was in the middle of a big event so I didn't get to spend a lot of time with everyone.

But Mike, there are a couple of specific things I would like to share about Santa Fe. On this podcast, we talk both generally about how to travel better and have a more authentic experience, but also we try to get real specific.

We go to a specific destination in the world and then share some recommendations for great food or a great experience. I do have some specifics for Santa Fe, if you'd like to hear, Mike.

Mike Putman: Let's hear about them.

James Ferrara: Well, by the way, while you were out enjoying yourself, I made the terrible mistake last week of taking the COVID vaccine and the flu shot at once and it put me on my ass for about a day and a half.

I'm still a proponent of getting the new COVID vaccine, but I would not suggest mixing it with the flu shot. It wasn't good for me at least.

Mike Putman: I did it the week before I went away and had the same experience. So Santa Fe made it all better though. Incredible destination.

The History and Culture of Santa Fe

James Ferrara: Those of you who haven't been there, Santa Fe, New Mexico, up in the mountains, I think seven or eight thousand feet above sea level, this incredible town of Pueblo architecture.

In fact, there are laws in Santa Fe that the buildings have to be made of that stucco-like Pueblo finish and they can only be up to two stories tall and they have these beautiful carved wood elements. The whole town looks like that and it's centered around a historic square, the plaza.

There are Native American jewelry shops and high-end stores and art galleries everywhere. And so it's not hard to follow one of our tenets here at No Tourists Allowed, which is to seek out the local culture. It is in your face in Santa Fe and beautiful and a riot of colors.

The other thing that Santa Fe is known for is the food. Mark Miller's Coyote Cafe. Mark Miller is one of the early celebrity chefs in the United States. His Coyote Cafe has been there for at least 30 years.

In fact, at our event, we did a dine-around one night and we had a table secured at each of 20 restaurants around town. We had a table of 10 hosted by one of our company executives or one of our travel brand partners at each of 20 restaurants, all on the same night, all around Santa Fe.

Mike Putman: That was pretty cool.

James Ferrara: The one that I was lucky enough to have my table at was the restaurant in a famous hotel called La Fonda, right on the plaza in Santa Fe. It is a hundred-year-old property built in 1922.

You may know of the Harvey Company. Some of you may remember the Harvey Girls. There was actually a musical movie made with Judy Garland about the Harvey Company and the girls.

Harvey partnered with the Atchison, Topeka and Santa Fe Railway to have restaurants and hotels along the railroad throughout the Southwest. The Harvey Company was the precursor to things like Howard Johnson's on all the roads, or more recently, Burger King and McDonald's.

The Harvey restaurants were the first chain restaurants in the United States. Harvey created that idea but took it even further because he built hotels right along the railroads throughout the Southwest to give people some place to go to use the railroad.

It was a great partnership with the railroad. He hired a couple of famous architects and designers and built these hotels in this Pueblo Revival style. Every hotel had what they called then an Indian room, a display of Native American handicrafts and pottery.

They even had live Native Americans doing artisan work. It's a little opportunistic, a little colonial, I get that, but also it wound up creating a great appreciation for Native American culture.

It created what we call today the Southwest style or Santa Fe style of decorating. It popularized it tremendously. It's still popular today, a hundred years later, and it actually helped preserve a lot of antique ceramics and handicrafts. There was a good side of it too.

Anyway, we're in the La Fonda Hotel, which is one of the original Harvey hotels, and still beautiful in that style. At our dinner there, we were visited by the hotel historian who actually told a lot of the story I'm telling you, and even more very interesting history over a hundred years.

Before the La Fonda Hotel, there had been other hotels, and before that, coach stops on this site of the La Fonda going back to about 1610. So it is considered the oldest hotel site in the United States. Very cool, right?

It's amazing what you can find even through food. As a strategy, when we talk about our manifesto about No Tourists Allowed, food is such an important strategy. It can take you to people and history and culture.

Botanical Gardens as a Regional Strategy

Another strategy I'll share with you from my trip, Mike, is that we took over the botanical gardens one day. We closed it down for a luncheon for our hundred and fifty guests under tents out in the botanical gardens.

Now you think you're in Santa Fe, which is like the high desert, there's a botanical garden, but it's actually quite beautiful. I've been to a botanical garden in Tucson, the desert gardens outside Las Vegas. There are gardens all over the world.

The Tuileries in Paris, very formal, or Tivoli Gardens, which is like an amusement park almost in Copenhagen, the beautiful Victoria Gardens in British Columbia. There are Kew Gardens outside of London. If any of you have ever been there, it's the Kew Palace and Gardens—beautiful botanical garden, spectacular really, just outside of London.

My strategy I'm going to suggest to you is to visit a botanical garden as a way into the regional culture. In Kew, you're going to see the palace and the history of George the Third. In Santa Fe, we got to see how beautiful the desert can be and how varied the plants can be.

There was really cool architecture there. And then it ended with a performance by an indigenous dance troupe doing traditional Native American hoop dances.

Dancers use hoops that look kind of like hula hoops, and one dancer gets up to maybe six or seven of these hoops, manipulating them into shapes, animals, babies in a basket, and big butterflies. It's incredible. These young women dancing to a drummer; the whole thing kind of came together for me.

I've talked before about perfect moments. My perfect moment was watching the hoop dance in the botanical gardens at Santa Fe. I want you guys to visit botanical gardens wherever you go as a way into the regional culture.

Mike Putman: That's a great idea. You may not even know this, but I studied horticulture in college and so I very often go to gardens when I'm traveling. It's a great way to get to know the place that you're going to and understand more.

There's always these stories that come off the plants. This is the oldest tree or this was some plant that had a lot to do with the culture or the income of people. It becomes some kind of industry, even winemaking of course.

James Ferrara: Anyway, I thought that was something that maybe doesn't get talked about a lot.

Mike Putman: Yeah, and the more you can do locally, again off the beaten track, the better off. I think the more fun you're going to have, the greater the experience you're going to have, the deeper experience you're going to have as well.

Using Local Transportation

James Ferrara: Speaking of our manifesto, Mike, we left off last time. The next one actually is the point you're just making. It's number five on our manifesto, and it is: use local transportation. Now why would you want to do that, Mike? Have you ever done that?

Mike Putman: That's almost all I do. Sometimes when I travel and I'm on extended trips I try to use public transport exclusively, especially when you're in a great city like London that has all types of public transport.

For a lot of reasons for me, one is it is the most efficient way to travel in terms of it's more carbon neutral than other types of travel. Also, if you're in a city that has a sophisticated public transportation system, it's typically as convenient as getting a cab or an Uber, and it can be less expensive.

But the great thing is you get to see a side of the city that the locals see. Going on the tube in London or the subway in Paris, that's how people move about every day. They don't get in their cars and drive to work in general. So you really get to see the other side of it.

Along with that, this is going to seem strange, but I love reading the advertisements in the tubes or subways because then you really get a sense of the products that people are using.

Oftentimes you'll find out about something that's not available in the US. The US does not have everything. There are some interesting product finds that you'll find, maybe even some talk about some local restaurants or things to do locally. I'm a big proponent of public transport and try to use it exclusively where I can.

James Ferrara: Absolutely. I couldn't agree more. You see more, and the place is more up close and personal that way than taking a flight from one city to the next city or traveling in a touristic motor coach.

You're just there and you meet more people. Going back to some of our other points, it's a great way to meet people, to hear the language, to run into kids, just the whole full experience of the culture.

Mike Putman: And traveling like a local. I've got some friends over right now that went over to London and they've never been. I asked how they're going to get from Heathrow to the city. They said, "Oh we'll just get a cab, we'll get an Uber."

A cab to Central London, a regular cab, is going to be about ninety dollars. An Uber might be sixty dollars. Or you could get on the tube, which goes right into the airport and costs you five dollars.

Or you could take the Heathrow Express, which is a little nicer train and certainly a more direct train, and you could be there into the city center quicker than you could be in a car. It's a much more enjoyable experience. It's about eighteen pounds, so about twenty-four or twenty-five dollars.

Look, this is just the way locals go. You don't see locals taking cars in general to the Heathrow airport; they're all taking trains or they're taking buses.

James Ferrara: Local transportation is often a little more colorful too. When I was in Central America, to go from one place to another through the mountains, we got on one of these local buses that was jam-packed, overflowing with people.

There were guys sitting on the roof of the bus. The bus was decorated, so there were pom-poms hanging and it was playing local music. There might have been a few chickens and goats on the bus with us. It was one of those great experiences. I wouldn't have gotten that if I took an Uber.

Mike Putman: Exactly. Travel like a local. That is definitely a big one.

Slowing Down and Staying Longer

James Ferrara: Another one on our list, and these all kind of flow from one to the other, is number six: Stay longer, slow down. To your point that you just made, this is also better for the planet.

Rather than going a day here or two days there, to minimize the amount of big travel like airplanes, it's better for the planet to have longer stays. But of course, longer stays and slowing down means that you're going to see more, you're going to learn more, and you're going to really take it in. Is this the way you like to travel?

Mike Putman: Yeah, I do, as I have time. While we're still working, oftentimes we can't go somewhere for two weeks or an extended period. But over Christmas break the last two years, I've taken my family to Europe and we have really slowed down.

We spent ten days one time and fourteen days the other. You get this sense of relaxation. It's not just being away from home, but it's settling into a culture and a way of life.

Settling into where the bus picks up or where the tube picks up, or finding a place right around the corner where you can go get a nice cup of coffee or a newspaper. Settling in for a bit makes my heart rate go down the longer I stay in a destination for sure.

James Ferrara: I hear of people who get someplace and get up early the next morning to make the motor coach to take the group tour. Nowadays the way I travel, there's a place in Paris that I like to go and sit at a sidewalk table and have my coffee and a croissant and maybe spend an hour or two just watching the world go by.

That's what the Parisians do. There's another place in Naples in Italy that I do the same thing. We were talking about Barcelona earlier today, Mike, and one of the reasons why Barcelona is so popular is because it's a big cruise port.

If you're going to cruise the Mediterranean, a lot of those cruises leave from Barcelona. I know people who have flown into Barcelona and they arrive either the morning of the cruise or the day before, but they hit the hotel, they wake up the next morning, and they're off to the cruise port.

Could you imagine Barcelona, one of the great cities of the world, and they didn't take the time to walk down La Rambla and do a tapas crawl?

Mike Putman: Yeah, there is so much to see in Barcelona. Look, some people have the luxury of time and other people don't. There's certainly nothing wrong if you want to go get on an escorted tour.

If you've never been to Europe and you want to see the city highlights, spending two days in London, two days in Paris, two days in Munich—there's nothing wrong with that. And there's nothing wrong with being on a cruise visiting a lot of different places.

But if your time does allow it—people talk about being time poor or time rich—try extending your vacation in these destinations. Your airfare is generally a large portion of what it's going to cost for your total vacation.

That airfare is going to be the same whether you stay two days or whether you stay twenty days, so try to extend a little bit and get a little more value out of the flight. Especially if you're traveling a long distance, you need a day to recover for the time change and just more live like a local.

There'll be plenty of tourist things you can do, museums, etc. For a big city like Paris or London, you could stay 20 days and not see everything. There's so much to do in these places.

The Art of Getting Lost

James Ferrara: From season one, I'll bring back one of my favorite tips that falls under this category. If you have the time to slow down a little bit, another great strategy is to get lost and then just find your way.

Serendipity will bless you in most cases. We want you to be safe, but you will happen upon things that you didn't look up in a guidebook and you didn't prepare for. They're just kind of there and they will delight you.

So let it happen; set the groundwork to let it happen by not being rigid about your schedule at some point. Make some time to just go and wander around and get lost a little bit.

National Plan a Cruise Month and MSC Deals

Mike Putman: Absolutely. Hey James, we got some special travel deals we want to talk about this week. Jessica Deverson is not with us this week, but she was kind enough to do the research for us and provide the deals to our listeners.

James Ferrara: Mike, before you jump in there, let's mention one thing that Jessica Deverson was kind enough to point out for us: October is National Plan a Cruise Month. It's a great time for travelers to book a cruise.

There are incredible offers around to celebrate this program. A lot of them have value-added amenities and all kinds of benefits. I think it's with that in mind that she gave you your first cruise there.

Mike Putman: Yeah, and I missed that, so thank you for catching that for us. MSC is one of our featured cruise lines this week. Great global cruise line, lots of new product, and they've got a great deal right now.

Now is the time to buy. For those of you who don't know a lot about cruises, from the end of Christmas through March is what's called the wave season, and that's when about 70% of the inventory is booked.

As a result, prices tend to go a little bit higher. They do offer some specials during that time. But if you've got an idea that you're thinking about taking a cruise next year, now is the time to buy because there are not as many bookings going on, and therefore they're offering special deals.

MSC is offering a special deal on all their cruises, which includes free drinks and Wi-Fi and a $200 onboard credit. They've got cruises to the Bahamas, Bermuda, Canada, New England, Europe, and many other places.

Don't miss the opportunity to book now for next summer. It could be this fall, next fall, or even a winter vacation somewhere warm. This is a special limited-time offer and it is a hell of a deal.

Luxury Cruising and River Voyages

James Ferrara: Or Mike, maybe you want to go a different direction with luxury small ships like Seabourn. They've got their set sail voyage event, and you can enjoy up to 1,500 US dollars in air credit per guest.

It's basically like free air and a reduced 10% deposit on select 2024 and 2025 sailings. This is a really incredible way to cruise. The yachts of Seabourn are six-star luxury cruising, and you're basically getting free airfare to some very exotic destinations.

Mike Putman: Even if you're not even sure you're going to take a trip, why not fork over the 10% deposit now? You're basically getting a free option because you'll be able to get that deposit back if you decide four or five months from now that you don't want to use it.

The last special we want to talk about is AmaWaterways. This is one of my favorites. We had them on the pod last season and I was lucky enough to take a Christmas market cruise over Christmas with my family.

This was my first river cruise, and I think I've taken 62 or 63 cruises before that. This was one of the most spectacular, most well thought through, polished cruises I've ever been on. I went on the AmaMagna, which is their largest ship.

It's the largest river ship in existence. Beautiful ship, beautiful hardware, but the service was what topped it all off. People know your name. The staff on the ship learn your name and call you by name, so you have that kind of intimate feeling.

A river ship, of course, is much smaller than the sea-going vessels. For a limited time, AMA is offering a 20% discount on select 2023 and 2024 Europe and Mekong River cruises. You can experience the wonders of France, Hungary, Netherlands, Vietnam, Cambodia, and beyond.

Take advantage of a 20% discount when you reserve by December 31st of this year. If you're a past guest, you'll enjoy their loyalty savings plus special rates on flights reserved through AmaWaterways. Their product is so strong they don't have to discount very often, so when you see an AMA discount, I would jump on it.

James Ferrara: One of the great deals out there. The owners are lovely people and that kind of filters down through the whole staff. This is a cruise line with very personal, warm service.

Mike Putman: I'll just give you one point of reference to that. When we went over at Christmas, we got over early and you're not able to get on the ship until 3:00 PM because they're cleaning up for the people who just got off.

We happened to get there early in Germany and it was pretty cold outside. I happened to walk up to the gangway and asked if it would be okay if I came on board. They said, "Absolutely, come on board."

This was at 11:00 AM. Now, you try doing that on another cruise line and there's no way. They said, "We're sorry, but your room's not ready." I said, "Oh, I know. I wasn't expecting it to be ready till 5:00 o'clock."

They said, "But look, we've got a beautiful lunch set up for you. This attendant will show you the lunchroom." Shortly after that, we're walking around the ship and somebody taps me on the shoulder and says, "Mr. Putman, your suite is ready."

Lo and behold, at 1:00 o'clock we were in our room when we weren't even supposed to be on board till 3:00 o'clock. That's the type of personalized service and attention that you get on AMA.

Closing and Next Week's Preview

James Ferrara: Excellent. Well Mike, I want to remind everyone something we told them at the beginning of today's episode, which is we're giving away a cruise. A seven-day Virgin Voyages cruise.

A very swanky adults-only cruise experience for two. We'll be drawing that after the next couple of weeks. We're giving everyone a chance every week to win more and more entries by following instructions like signing up for our newsletter or referring a friend.

Mike Putman: All you gotta do is pick out where you want to go and when you want to go. Next week I'm really excited because now we have video. If you choose to listen on Apple or Spotify, that's fantastic.

But if you would like to see, then you can go to our YouTube channel, which is No Tourists Allowed, or you can go to the website. Next week, I'm going to spend a little bit of time talking about my magical travel backpack for all you travel nerds out there.

I keep all of my things in this very backpack here, which I keep behind my desk. I'm going to walk our viewers through that backpack to show you what things I always keep packed in there that help make my travel experience much smoother.

It's not a big backpack, but you would not believe all the stuff I got in there. I could vanish for probably 45 days and take that backpack and a couple pairs of underwear and I'd be good.

James Ferrara: Sounds like a fascinating episode. Do you know anyone who likes to travel the way we're describing or who needs to learn how to travel the way we're describing?

If you do, please tell them about the podcast and go to the website and put them in the referral system. You get another chance or five chances in the drawing for a free cruise. Plus, then they can enter for a free cruise too.

Mike Putman: My strategy might be to invite five friends and tell them that if you do sign up and you do win, because I invited you, you gotta take me on the cruise. That increased your chances sixfold, if I did that math right.

James Ferrara: Very strategic. Well, everyone, that's what we have for you today. Really thank you for being with us and thank you for wanting to travel better in a more authentic way, to create more memories, and really learn about and immerse yourself in places.

Mike Putman: Thanks for listening to No Tourists Allowed and we'll see you next week.

Announcer: Thank you for listening to another episode of No Tourists Allowed. We'll see you next week for another episode. No Tourists Allowed is produced by Podcast Studio X.