Quivertree Family Expeditions Summer 2012 Newsletter

Dear fellow traveling families,
Quivertree joining PURE Life Experiences 2012!

We are thrilled to announce that Quivertree has been invited to join PURE Life Experiences 2012 - the world's leading network in experiential and transformational travel. Pure Life Experiences operates on a strictly invitation-only basis.

The PURE badge of approval is confirmation that Quivertree is recognized globally within the travel industry as a high end, inspirational, experiential and transformational leader in the field of Family Travel.

PURE2012 With our ability to access and partner with other members of this elite group, our clients can be confident that the trips they take with Quivertree will be of the highest possible quality!

In this month's newsletter we have a report from a family trip to Guatemala, an update about Myanmar which is quickly becoming a Quivertree favorite, and some more of our popular signs seen around the globe.

Quivertree Myanmar now a popular family destination!

2012 has been a momentous year in Myanmar. Political freedoms, Aung San Suu Kyi in Parliament, recognition by major world governments - it's all happened in the past six months or so.

MyanmarG&D

As a result travelers from all over the world have been beating down the door to get in before everyone else and all of a sudden the country has been flooded with tourists and enquiries - at Quivertree too. Following Gideon's pioneering trip with his family in 2011, we are perhaps the only travel company in the world offering family trips to Myanmar.

Myanmar2 Myanmar4 While Myanmar has some outstanding hotels, the country simply does not yet have sufficient quality hotel rooms to cope with the demand. So if you are thinking about going, book as early as possible - at least 6 months before the high season (Oct-March) and even longer if you plan to go over Christmas-New Year. We highly recommend low season travel (July-August) when choices are greater and crowds are fewer.

Guatemala family trip report

David, Sandy and their two kids, Jordan and Garrett recently traveled with Quivertree to Guatemala. Here is their trip report.

Market hopping

We had a wonderful time. Everything was great. The hotels were all good - clean and very pretty.Transport was timely and always waiting for us. The kids did great. Jordan ( our almost 12 year old daughter) was a "natural" and took everything in stride---very comfortable in the crowded markets and pretty jazzed about the "bargaining". We brought home way too many bracelets--but she had a good time getting them. Garrett (8 year old son) also did well - the fact that he is Korean and was with a very "white" family was curious to a lot of people. He is also much smaller than the rest of us so had a much different "view" of the markets than we did. The guides were wonderful about keeping track of everyone and Garrett kept them pretty entertained. We really enjoyed Antigua and made it there in time to see one of the Lent processions which was a treat. We also spent a lot of time at the local Monday market there. Solala and Chichi were great as well--think the kids were getting a little tired of mom's "photographic" excursions.

David and the kids at Lake Atitlan

We had a wonderful experience and so appreciated all of your help and suggestions along the way. It was a pleasure to deal with Quivertree and we would be more than happy to pass that on.

Notes, tips and observations

Here is a list of the Top 20 Travel Books of all time, according to Britain's Daily Telegraph.

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/travel/artsandculture/travelbooks/4932008/The-20-best-travel-books-of-all-time.html

There's nothing quite like interesting and yummy desserts worldwide to excite the kids! So here are 15 incredible desserts to try while traveling.

http://www.bootsnall.com/articles/09-06/15-incredible-desserts-you-should-try-on-the-road.html

Many of our favorite Quivertree family destinations are featured in the New York Times' list of places to go in 2012.

http://travel.nytimes.com/2012/01/08/travel/45-places-to-go-in-2012.html?pagewanted=all

And here at Quivertree, we recently posted our favorite family travel tips. Here's the link

http://quivertreeworld.com/pdf/Quivertree-Top10-TravelTips.pdf

And finally a few photos that represent the surprises and joys of traveling. First, from a public bathroom in China. I think we will decline this kind offer, thank you.

China used toilet paper