Unique-Vacation-Ideas.com is the realization of a years' long dream. Frustrated with the stock cruise/resort option that is so often peddled to people, I have always loved the chance to help my friends craft the vacation of their dreams.
Independent travel is a creative experience. You are pushed to learn about the people and places that you are visiting so that you can decide for yourself what your itinerary will be.
You are not fed someone else's idea of what to do and how to do it, bound by their timeline and schedules. Independent travel also increases the likelihood that you will have meaningful encounters and experiences with local residents of the places that you are visiting.
José Portuondo-Dember; Founder
I've been incredibly lucky to have had two parents that value independent travel, and made it a point to include me and my sister on the vacations that they took. My first experience travelling on my own without any family was one of my worst vacations ever. Still, wanderlust is not easily shed, and I've taken many wonderful vacations since.
My favorite conversations have been the ones that start: "Jose, where should I go for..." I honestly think that I sometimes have more fun helping friends come up with a wonderful holiday than I do planning for myself.
Some of my favorite destinations are Barcelona and San Sebastian, in Spain; Amazonas, in Brazil; and exploring the highlands of Papua New Guinea with my family (this was one of the few times that my family went in on a fully organized tour). A personal highlight was when I crossed the Suez Canal shortly after my 22nd birthday. At that point I had been on every natively populated continent. It should come as no surprise that Antarctica is now very high on my list of places to visit.
I'm told that there is more to life than travel. I began playing Irish fiddle in 2006, and while I don't practice nearly enough, it continues to be a passion of mine. I love bringing it with me when I travel, and it once even got me out of a tight scrape in Jersey.
My biggest travel regret? I never took an extended visit to Gaza before the disengagement, despite being personally invited. One of the great benefits of travel is that it gives you a chance to witness how other people live. Whatever my politics were then or are now, I will never have the chance to see how the Jewish settlers in Gaza lived in their daily lives.