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Shopping and Travel: Make it Meaningful not Material
Make your travel shopping meaningful and don’t fall for tourist junk. Here are ideas and experiences to help you. Crafts are irresistible for stitching, unusual clay work, glass opaqueness, and utility. There are pricey crafts like English china. There are areas where some crafts are dime a dozen: China. There are areas where prices are low and items cute: India. Finally, there is Morocco, where crafts are so well-made and different, it is hard to resist. Many items sold internationally are actually from Morocco.…
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Welcome to a 1st Exotic Trip
How To Prepare for Your First Exotic Trip: The Women’s Travel Group.
This photo of Marrakech from Morocco Tourism Office April 7-20 2019 The Women’s Travel Group offers Morocco and we have a few spots left: from sophisticated Mediterranean coast (Casablanca, Rabat, Fez etc.) over the Atlas Mountains to the Sahara Oasis of Marrakech. From Roman towns to tribal villages. From rolling hills to snow capped mountains.
If you have never traveled outside of North America and Europe, this is a perfect first exotic trip. Here it is: Here is the full itinerary: click this link
Exotic and Exciting Morocco Photo from Morocco Tourism Office Preparing for Morocco
Fabulous Fez Photo from Morocco Tourism Office People dress in original photogenic ways; they might be camera shy so respect with permission before taking photos.…
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OUR PARTNERS AWARDED BEST TOUR OPERATOR TO INDIA
DISCOUNTS ON AIRFARES, WHILE IT LASTS
AWARD-WINNING TRIP: FESTIVALS OF INDIA TRIP THIS YEAR WITH TIGERS
OCT 29-NOV 10 PLUS ADD TIGER VIEWING
5 Reasons Women Avoid India and 5 Reasons They Can’t-Wait to Return.
Fear of the Unknown Fear of Poverty Fear of Beggars Fear of Exotic Food Fear of Bathrooms
Five reasons women cannot wait to make their second trip.
Spectacular sites, even tigers in the wild Fabulous hotels with spas Colorful people in brilliant garb Terrific international food Amazing bargains in fun markets
PLUS THIS YEAR SOME OF THE BEST AIRFARES AND DIRECT FLIGHTS TO INDIA. …
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Sicily: Is it Catholic? Jewish? Greek? Arab? Mafia? Jetset?
Our next Sicily trip is during festival and Christmas markets season! Here it is. Photos in this blog post are mainly taken by our travelers on the last Sicily trip.
Sicily is a the most magnificent part of Italy with the best food, untouched villages and Greek/Roman ruins with no crowds. Agriturismo farms like the ones we eat at, are internationally known. Oil Mill and Farmhouse, Baglio Fontanasalsa will change your palate: rated 5 stars producing some of the best olive oil in the world.…
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The Bargain Gifts for YOU
Many women who travel with us are obsessed with buying gifts for others, even though we earned the money and earned the gift. Here are some of the best bargains we saw last year. We do not stress shopping in our trips, but there is always some time to forage. Ask us for our Bargaining Tips. www.thewomenstravelgroup.com. We did not include India as shopping in India would take 50 pages more. Our next India trip includes Diwali Festival!
Mexico: Frida Kahlo designed sneakers and $4 bags, bought at the entrance to the Pyramids where there are endless stalls selling super cheap merchandise you will love.…
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Today our Yucatan Group Departs-Tips for Mexico
Here are a few smart tips for travel to Mexico with The Women’s Travel Group or anyone else.
Bring $100 in singles, the peso is 19 to a dollar making the dollar king in Mexico. Bring unmarked bills, hopefully new from your bank’s teller.
Contact your phone company, ATT for instance now includes Mexico for free. But you need to call ATT and put that option on your service. Others charge a small fee, again you need to ask for it or you will be charged roaming.…
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Travel Shopping: Is it a Waste?
The women who travel with The Women’s Travel Group want to bring home something tangible. Our tours are full of experiences, sights, talks, and walks; however if there is a shopping experience truly unusual, we include it. We just added the high-quality Sabato Crafts Market to our Mexico City tour.
What are our favorite ‘worth the time’ recent stops?
The Grand Bazaar in Istanbul November 2015
Handmade jewelry or fabrics spread on animal skin in Southern Ethiopia! March 2016) One spot left
Florence Central Food Market April 2016 (one room left for 1-2)
Dilli Haat in Delhi Annual India tour December 2016,
Balaaro Market in Sicily December 2014
Cashmere Markets in Mongolia ( Mongolia is part of our upcoming China trip).…
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5 Tips for Navigating a Street Market
On some Women’s Travel Group tours we include a street market if it is exciting, local and has good products. Those might be Florence on our Tuscany Cooking/Seeing trip, an organized and both local and tourist market. Or they might b the Sabato market included in our Mexico City trip, the best crafts market in Mexico’s capital. Or finally it might be one of the more upmarket street scenes in Delhi on our India trip. You will never have either enough time or energy to feel you really ‘did it’.…
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How To Bargain without Embarassment
Women are uncomfortable paying for something that does not have set price. Tips, discretionary donations and bargaining make us squirm. Yet 48% of all Americans tried bargaining in the last 3 years according to Consumer Reports.
A few guidelines on bargaining might help you:
Do not be intimidated by a fancy store or an aggressive salesperson. Know that in some countries bargaining is part of the normal process. Everyone wants to make a sale. In cities like Paris where we go Dec 21-28 2015, ask up front for discounts for tourists and or tax rebates.…
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Robbery on Overseas Trips
The Women’s Travel Group has experienced very little crime during our 23 years of tours. But it can happen in rare instances. Here are a few examples and how we handled them happily:
A lady was pick pocketed in a major European city. She was called at the hotel from someone purporting to have her wallet. We went with her to a public place to meet this person. Yes, he had found it minus the cash, but with all credit cards in place.…
