Travel-savvy secrets

Many of Washington’s elite tend to travel over the upcoming summer holidays and they have their choices of travel agencies to use. Portfolio Travel and Carroll Travel are two of Washington’s finest travel agencies, with many packages to choose from.

Portfolio Travel
3408 Wisconsin Avenue NW, Suite 210

Lorna Zimmerman, president of Portfolio Travel, has been in the travel industry for 32 years. She first opened Portfolio Travel in 1984, and the agency specializes in luxury travel, cruises, tours and honeymoons. In 2002, Portfolio was invited to become members of Virtuoso, the most prestigious organization in luxury travel.

According to Zimmerman, this membership strengthens relationships with the finest hotels and cruise lines in the world. The membership also gets Portfolio special relationships with airlines.

Zimmerman has seen travel trends migrate toward cruising in the past year. “It’s an interesting thing — several months ago my answer would be different than it is today,” Zimmerman said. “Cruising is dollar-guaranteed travel, meaning that the prices are not changing because of the drop in the value of the dollar.”

Zimmerman also mentioned that many European packages are offering a guaranteed-dollar rate, meaning that clients will pay a rate in Euros/pounds equivalent to a set dollar amount.

Despite the threat of recession, Zimmerman said that she doesn’t see change in travel for this summer. Instead she predicts that if the dollar continues to drop, summer 2009 may experience a large drop-off in vacationing.

Although clients tend to not come to Zimmerman for packages, many are booking trips to Southeast Asia and Croatia. All of Portfolio’s bookings are very personalized, Zimmerman said.

One of the most popular tourist spots in the summer is Italy, according to Zimmerman. “I always joke that Italy is going to sink under the weight of all the Americans in the summer,” she said. “Everyone wants to go to Tuscany.”

Many of Washington’s elite tend to travel to more obscure places in the summer, Zimmerman said. “Most travel a great deal on business to places like England, Paris and Germany, so recent destinations include Prague and Croatia,” she said.

Although Portfolio does not do very many domestic destinations, Zimmerman notes that Canyon Ranch in Lennox, Mass., and Tucson, Ariz., are popular among Washingtonians.

Zimmerman recommends booking travel with Portfolio six months in advance. Croatia, Istanbul and Berlin have been popular destinations lately.

Portfolio is typically the busiest during the summer and Christmas and New Year’s seasons, when the majority of people travel with families.

For more information on Portfolio Travel, call 202-966-4111 or visit www.portfoliotravel.com .

Carroll Travel
201 Massachusetts Ave. NE

Stuart Carroll, owner and president of Carroll Travel has been in the travel industry for 26 years. His agency, Carroll Travel, located on Capitol Hill, has been open since 1988. Most of his clients include members of Congress, lobbyists and other non-profits.

Carroll said that his agency doesn’t tend to have in-house packages, per se. “As an agent, we typically sell packages put together by other vendors and destinations,” he said. Popular destinations lately include the Riviera Maya near Cancun, honeymoons at Peter Islands, and the Virgin Islands.

Carroll said that European travel can be difficult because of currency and airfare. “Going to Europe in the summertime, it can be over $1,000 per person,” Carroll said. “The biggest consumer rip-off is the fuel surcharge; it goes straight to the airlines.”

Recently, Carroll saw a one-way ticket to London for $101.50. Fuel surcharges for the ticket were around $200.
Carroll Travel’s location on Massachusetts Avenue, a block and a half from the Hart building and two blocks from the Capitol, makes a lot of his clientele members of Congress. “I get mostly Senate, some House, and even some former Cabinet members,” Carroll said. “People know I’ll bend over backwards for them. I’ll do whatever it takes to get things done, kind of like in “The Office” when Dwight shuns Andy.”

Popular destinations that Carroll’s clients tend to visit in the summer include Martha’s Vineyard, Monte Carlo and the South of France. Carroll’s personal favorite place is St. Lucia in the Caribbean.

“Business is really picking up now, especially vacations,” he said. “The trend lately is that people are booking less in advance, for more shorter durations.”

Carroll has been on Fox News and is set to appear on CBS’s “The Early Show” in the near future. For more information on Carroll Travel, call 202-543-8118 or visit www.travelroom.com .