What is comprised in a vacation package? Well, it is required to include travel connections, accommodation and some meals. Some people prefer the minimal version which supplies a single meal per day so they are persuaded to explore the local environs and discover native cuisine. Others need the all inclusive vacation packages where their entire day is organized for them. The first vacation packages was created by Cookes Travel Services of London for the affluent classes. They would set off on the Grand Tours of India and Egypt. The package would include luxury travel on the Orient Express and splendid elephant rides to the bejeweled former Rajahs palaces. This is where the term POSH was first created. It stood for Port Out Starboard Home. In this way you could have a luxury room on the port side of the ship on your way out to India and a starboard luxury room on the way back. This way you wouldnt have to be inconvenienced by the roasting sun on your journey. It was several years later that the vacation packages we now demand came about.

So how do you assess cruise vacation packages? Ooops, I made a presupposition there. Many years ago, you would collect a return air-ticket, arrive at your destination, grab a cab and say where is good place to stay in this town! Those were different times. Today, in peak season, that question will elicit in the cabbies mind the word fall guy. You just stated that you have cash in your pocket, you dont now what you are doing at this location and you are prepared to blindly hand over your holiday spending money. And the cabbie will expect a generous gratuity for divulging this local experience. Hopefully those days are far behind. Today people to not want to jeopardize their precious and limited time. They need a vacation PACKAGE. People would rather not concern themselves with exchange rates of local currencies, if the water is safe to drink and where they should eat. They want all-inclusive vacation resorts that ensure them the fundamentals of any good vacation. They need to know that there is transport to take them to and from their hotel and that the pool can be accessed without having to change into street clothes. They also need to understand that the suite has a safe that they can leave their passports and money while they are eating in the restaurant.

Vacation resorts are regrettably an escape from our every day work demands. I say regrettably because it presupposes resistance to the majority of our wakeful day. The pattern of expending 85 per cent of our wakeful day just to pay bills is not logical to me. The conceptualization that we wont have sufficient in the coming years and therefore have to keep working for a living, doesnt add up. Personal experience has been that if you follow your passion, something fortuitous always shows up. As the old saying goes if you do what you have always done, then you can expect what you always get. There is no room for modification? Certainly, if you halt banging your head against a brick-wall it feels wonderful when you stop, but that doesnt justify knocking your head in the first place!