Are You a Luxury Wanderlust Traveler?
Hank Schrader, USMA '71, Europe Destination & Europe River Cruise Expert
Anne Schrader, Certified Travel Counselor & Certified Luxury Cruise Specialist
There are a lot of reasons to travel and for me it has always been that I am curious about so many places.
I have always had a strong desire to wander and explore the world, which is the definition of wanderlust.
Have you ever returned home from a trip and immediately started to plan another one? Do you daydream about being in Europe often?
You are not alone—many of us face the same dilemma—why can’t I travel more?
You are suffering from wanderlust!
So, let’s explore together and learn about luxury wanderlust— a common aliment among many of our travel clients and friends.
Growing Up
I have been traveling all my life. My late father was a career Army Officer (thanks for serving our country for 33 years Dad!), so I started at a very young age to travel and learned to love it. My Dad also loved to travel, and US National Parks were very special to him, so our family had camped in and visited most of the 59 major parks by my early teen years.
My Mom and Dad on a hike in Shenandaoh National Park
I can also say I have spent at least one night in all 50 States in my lifetime and lived in 14 different states. Along with living on Okinawa and in Panama for several years, I have spent about 6 months total in Germany, so I have also experienced several different cultures for extended periods of my life.
West Point Founder’s Day in Panama with 2 of my 1971 classmates. From left to right Hank, Rich and Larry.
The breakdown of different countries is something like this-- all North America, all Central America (I drove down Highway 1 from the US to Panama in 1976), all but one in South America, 35 of 50 in Europe, 13 Caribbean Islands, 2 Middle East, 2 Africa and 6 Asia—maybe 82 or so countries in total.
The shaded countries that Anne and I have visited in Europe.
But this is not about where I have been, it is about what I have experienced. Unlike some travelers who want to see every country and brag about how many they have seen and even set criteria to make sure it “qualifies” as a new country or territory, I just want to experience how other folks live, work, play and the culture they have created for their lives, especially in Europe.
But this only is helpful to you if we can use our (mine and Anne’s) past travel experiences to help you have better trips. Let’s explore that further together.
Are Our Travel Experiences Important to Get You Better Trips?
I always seem to answer these questions by breaking them down into parts. Here goes:
1) Do we help you learn to love travel as much as we do?
The obvious answer is, yes of course, we have these 4 characteristics—a lot of it comes from our past travel experiences. I always say we travel to Europe until we run out of money, which we manage to do each year. Our passion is to help you—we just can’t stop talking about Europe and its benefits to you for travel. Who else would write 50 Europe City Guides and 51 River Port Guides—which are as good or better than most guidebooks!
2) Are we good at helping you get great trips?
We are great at helping you get the best value for your dollars. It is a combination of experience, knowledge of the vendors and matching you to the right trip at the right time. We have knowledge and relationships in place that you do not have—there is just too much to know and no real way for a consumer to get all that knowledge without hours and hours of study. The other problem is how reliable is the information you find—is it fact, sales hype or opinion? The point is why bother—we do it gladly for you and it is 100% reliable.
3) Do you need our help?
You need our help—you may not just know it. First, we spend your money like it was our own, looking for the best value and experience you deserve. Second, few travelers know what is possible, available and in your price range. We must be pretty good if we have so many of our written blogs and pages from our website as the top search features on Google. Unlike others, we earned this by our readers looking at our works and reaching out to us as clients. We have never paid a penny to advertise in search engines. Some of our works have been read by over 20,000 folks and we are # 1 in some river cruise searches.
4) Does it cost you more to use our services?
The best part is we do not charge any fees—we believe we are fairly compensated by our vendors. In a way, it is our complete trust in you that you trust us and use our ideas and advice and let us book the trip. You get us for free. Sometimes, folks take advantage of us, but it seldom happens. We like to say we are a high touch but low volume agency. What that means for you is we have all the time necessary to help you without rushing to the next client.
So, how did this all come about? It started with my first real travel on my own in Europe.
First Travel Experiences After Graduation from West Point
There is no doubt that my first transformative experience was a 6-week trip to Europe after graduating from West Point in June and July of 1971. True to nomads of that age, armed with my backpack, a EuroRail Train Pass, and a bunch of American Express travelers’ checks; with a classmate, we did a poor person’s version of the Grand Tour of Europe.
We managed to visit Hamburg, Amsterdam, Copenhagen, Munich, Vienna, Venice, Rome, Nice and Monte Carlo, Barcelona, Madrid, Paris, and London.
Post card of Vienna I sent my parents from my 1971 trip
Post card from Spain I sent my parents from the 1971 trip
All was on a budget, bathrooms down the hall, many long train rides, lots of short stays but fun. Not much luxury but I was hooked on Europe and started to look for value over price in my travels.
My Evolution to a Luxury Wanderer
Meeting and marrying Anne (the best decision of my life) opened my eyes to better travel. I helped her see the places; she taught me how to up my game with better rooms, better food experiences and travel with reservations to avoid searching for a new room and wasting precious travel time.
Hank before beard at the Tower of London holding Travel Bug in 1990. Anne took this picture
Soon this became the norm—there was no going back. Every trip got better without a whole lot more cost and we both learned together how important planning the trip was for us personally. By the time we started the business in 1996, we were already ahead of most in the industry experience wise, but Anne also quickly absorbed the constant need for professional education and certification, and she earn the gold standard of certifications, the Certified Travel Counselor. She now has over 20 professional certifications.
We have been always fans of the mantra to do what is best for the clients, not us. This might mean finding a promotion or sale which saves our clients some money but cuts our commission. To achieve this requires fair and honest treatment of our clients, with full disclosure—as it is said during the cadet prayer at West Point to “never be content with the half-truth when the whole truth can be won.” Not always easy but the right thing to do.
We slowly became experts in complex ocean cruise trips, tours and increasingly luxury experiences for our clients.
The next key step was in 2009 when we went on our first river cruise. We realized it was just the right experience for our many of our clients. This has grown to our best-selling product because it offers so much value to our clients. 21 river cruises later, we are among the best in our nation to guide you for a better travel experience.
Sailing on the Main River on our first river cruise in 2009.
Wine tasting on our Provence River cruise with Anne wearing her beret
The final step was leading tours on river cruises and tours as guides in key European cities, and our signature tours—the 2014 and 2019 D Day Anniversaries.
In 2018 we were presented a TravelAge West WAVE Runner Up Award for Best Travel Marketing Idea for our 2019 75th Anniversary of D Day tour we led for 33 clients.
Now Our Clients
I know many of our clients value our services for many reasons, but I’d like to highlight 3 reasons why they trust us and use us. We are humbled many use us for a good deal of their trips in the past and continue to use us in 2022 and 2023.
First, we can envision our client’s desired experience, so we can then properly prepare and plan their trip.
Second, we have excellent communication skills, and this helps us inspire and influence our clients—they trust our judgments and advice. We make travel easy by clearly giving out the next step in the planning process.
Third, we are natural luxury wanderlust people—our firsthand knowledge adds authenticity and value to their trips. It means better experiences and fewer mistakes or poor decisions.
Our Final Thoughts
I think you can see why we are in the business—it just is awesome to help folks have a great vacation. We are luxury explorers that have an unstoppable case of luxury wanderlust. Perhaps you might want to use our services to join our wonderful travel world—we will welcome you with open arms.
We hope you enjoyed this report—it was fun writing it.
We are travel experts, ocean and river cruise specialists, and Europe destination experts. We have first-hand knowledge of almost anywhere you want to visit in Europe. We know our products and the vendors who sell them to you. We have designed special tours for dozens of clients, led several and will continue to find just the right vacation that will exceed your expectations.
When you are spending your hard-earned money for a vacation, you want an advisor who can match you with the right trip. You want someone who will understand your expectations and fuel your anticipation (or excitement) to get you the best possible trip experience. And, you want someone who can help you with the decision making process. We think we have all these qualities.
Whatever your Dream Destinations are, we are here to help you get the best possible vacation based on what is important to you! We will provide you high quality, expertly planned travel. Please give me a call 713-397-0188 (Hank) or email me at hschrader@dreamdestinations.com. We want to help you: Savor life…make memories…Visit Dream Destinations! Your journey begins here!
ANNE has earned a degree from the University of Houston in Hotel and Restaurant Management. Serving as the President of Visit Dream Destinations, LLC, since 2016, she is uniquely experienced professional travel advisor with over 26 years’ experience in the travel industry. Among her numerous certifications, she is a Certified Travel Counselor (CTC) by the Travel Institute, considered the gold standard in travel agent certification and she is also an Accredited Cruise Counselor (ACC) by the Cruise Lines International Association (CLIA), as well Luxury Cruise Specialist also from CLIA. Having traveled often to Europe since 1989, she has expanded on her certification as a Destination Specialist in Western Europe (DS) with extensive first-hand experience in luxury vacations. She holds numerous other specialty designations from individual vendors. An expert photographer, she delights in capturing the true essence of destinations to share with all.
HANK is a certified Western European Destination Specialist (DS) who has been traveling to Europe for 50 years. He is also an Accredited Cruise Counselor (ACC), conferred by the Cruise Line International Association (CLIA). This recognized expert in cruise and leisure travel is a retired Army Officer, and taught World Geography for 8 years. He is a `71 graduate of West Point and has earned 2 master’s degrees. His other Certifications:
AmaWaterways River Cruise Specialist
Viking River Cruise Specialist
Scenic River Cruise Specialist
Emerald Waterways Specialist
Avalon Waterways Specialist
Brit Agent
