Out of the mouths of babes and kidders! As we were explaining our website
and how it was going to work our youngest daughter cooed her praise
and then asked "Why would any one want to learn about where you
traveled?"
Here is what makes ACOUPLEONTHEGO Web site special:
- We are unique - ACOUPLEONTHEGO have actually been
to the breathtaking destinations, timeshares, hotels, restaurants
and spas - we don't just write about them. ACOUPLEONTHEGO takes
"real life" photos, NOT freshly painted, custom
detailed room portraits taken by professional photographers with a
wide angle lens. We will tell you if what they advertise
is what you actually get. And we love what we do, as long as
we travel, our entire life is always an adventure.
 We
create value - this is a demanding business/career environment
with very little time to call your own. Using the ACOUPLEONTHEGO
Web site will help ensure your travel adventures are great experiences
from leaving for the airport to enjoying that last dinner the night
before you head home. We can help you select everything from
destinations to hotels to tours using our first hand experience.
If you only travel for one week out of the year or if you are on the
road 75% of the time, ACOUPLEONTHEGO Web site will help you travel
well, love lots and laugh often.- It really is the quality of your experience
- ACOUPLEONTHEGO knows there is a great difference between
just visiting something and experiencing it. Our focus is on
the experience and spans a great range of ideas from how to park at
rock concert venues to getting the VIP treatment at a 5 star hotel.
Move outside your travel comfort zone– ACOUPLEONTHEGO Web site
will help you do more, see more, go more and thoroughly enjoy your
time as a couple. ACOUPLEONTHEGO Web site is not for the budget
minded travelers, in fact we will advocate spending a little more
money, just spending it very wisely.
- Keep the focus on you - Our success comes from
satisfied readers who frequent our website for travel information
that will be very useful, timely, practical and actually tested by
ACOUPLEONTHEGO. ACOUPLEONTHEGO Web site keeps the focus squarely on
couples and works to ensure you have the very best travel adventures
possible. (Weather notwithstanding of course.) Go ahead, bookmark
this website!
- Great new travel ideas - ACOUPLEONTHEGO Web site
is about exploring the world on your terms, whether that means a hidden
island gem where you are more likely to bump into Sean Connery than
find a cell phone signal, and you just want to enjoy your own hometown
more. But ACOUPLEONTHEGO Web site doesn't stop there - we will
fire your imagination and ignite your passion for travel. If
you pick up a typical travel magazine it will list exotic faraway
destinations with unbelievable boutique hotels. You can get
there, or to places just as fabulous. Whether you spend your
hard earned dollars well or let ACOUPLEONTHEGO Web site help you earn
your airline and hotel bonus points faster - we know you want
the best and we will help you get it.
 Exclusive
access - readers get up-to-date information on a host of
destinations and the very best travel ideas - restaurants to savor,
how to get treated like VIPs, exceptional hotels and spas not to miss.
You can learn from our experience and even from our mistakes …
and we have eaten at some truly awful places and paid good money for
stupid, crowded tours and dumpy hotel rooms, all that were nothing
like the advertisements. Don't be disappointed, use the ACOUPLEONTHEGO
Web site and be exhilarated! Travel
Planning Calendar - Readers get access to the ACOUPLEONTHEGO
planning calendar with wonderful ideas from right around the
world to right around the corner so you can plan your travel within
your demanding schedules. Readers have access to E-zines brimming
with inside information on adventures both at home and abroad.
Whether it's a three-day weekend, special anniversary surprise get-a-way,
or that post retirement six-month journey of a lifetime, ACOUPLEONTHEGO
Web site has value for you.
 We
disagree with Robin Leech; you don't have to be rich or famous to live
the good life. Tim & Shelley travel well and often and always
thoroughly enjoy life. We aren't rich; in fact, we are just ordinary
people like you who do extraordinary things on every trip we take!
We have been to 64 countries. Taken VIPs tours of everything from
Windsor Castle, the Smithsonian Institution and even Graceland.
Strolled through markets in London, Hong Kong and Marrakech. Visited
Cathedrals, Temples and Mosques. Snorkeled off countless beaches
and watched the sunset from more locations than we can honestly remember.
How do we do it? We use our imagination, a little bit of planning
and lots of organization. ACOUPLEONTHEGO is our website and we
want to help readers to live out their dreams without mortgaging their
house! We have done it, we continue to do it and want you to do
it too! Whether it's an overnight trip, planning the ultimate
wedding on the sands of Tonga at sunset or that burning desire to experience
an African Safari adventure - life is truly wonderful and the world
is full of great and interesting things to do and savor!
Tim and Shelley are ACOUPLEONTHEGO and this is the website that will help couples put the fun and adventure back into travel.
Our core beliefs are:
- We have merely average means to finance our travel adventures and
we never, ever go into debt to travel. There are no millionaires
in our families either and we have had to work hard just about every
day of our lives. We have scrimped and saved only to spend
it on a poor vacation. Never again!
- We always travel together, no trips with the guys or the girls,
no separate vacations. Having traveled so widely and so often
we have scores of ideas on what works and what doesn't and we are
eager to share these with our readers. ACOUPLEONTHEGO always
travel well, learning, loving and laughing often.
- We have actually done what we have written about. Before we
rate something we will, wherever possible, visit twice doing something
different each time. If it is a beach, we will visit it at both
low tide and high tide or maybe during a weekday and on a weekend.
If it is a restaurant we will visit once for lunch and another time
for dinner. We know what we are talking about because we were
there! When we answer your questions the information comes right
from our own experiences. If we have never been, we will
tell you.
- We use the same reservations systems or websites you will. We don't
slip the Head Waiter a $100 bill for better anything. We walk in just
like ordinary folk and pay our way. They don't know who we are or
that they are being evaluated until perhaps our experience is over.
We know you can do this because we have done it. We know what it costs
because we have paid the bill ourselves.
- From time to time, we are invited to try something. We never tell
the staff when we are coming or who we are when we arrive. We want
to be treated just like they would treat anyone else. In all other
circumstances our travel adventures are ones we locate for ourselves.
- Our travel reports are always written independently from our own
perspectives, so you get two distinct and separate views. We
never compare notes until right at the end and it always amazes us
the things one of us catches the other doesn't or how differently
we can view the same event! After we have written our reviews
we discuss our rating. Occasionally we will disagree and this
is in our reports as well.
 Perspective
is a very individual thing. Our perspective, of a married couple
traveling around the world together, is very unique. Tim views
travel as an adventure and will pay more attention to the experience
than the cost. If it is a phenomenal thing to do for $50 it
is probably a phenomenal thing to do for $500. Shelley is an
accountant and she sees the world with a different eye. Tim
always looks for a quiet room in a hotel with wired Internet.
Shelley agrees, but she dislikes being near the ice machines and often
says she can smell the smoke in a non-smoking room or the strong fragrance
of air fresheners, a plant or flower that Tim does not notice.
When it comes to eating, Tim was in the military and still has his
cast iron stomach. Sometimes all you need is "fuud!"
And sometimes you really want to savor a spectacular gourmet meal.
Shelley on the other hand has a very sensitive stomach and she has
to be careful where she eats and what she eats. For those of
you with an eye for cleanliness you have a friend in Shelley.
In fact Shelley has a unique perspective being an accountant, travel
agent and clean freak! - ACOUPLEONTHEGO Web site is NOT about saving you money when
you travel. Our emphasis is on the experience and enjoying every
moment you travel. In fact, we will advocate the wisdom of spending
a little more, just doing it wisely. The focus is on traveling
well, enjoying what life has to offer and doing things as a couple,
with experiences other couples only dream about or sadly have not
thought about at all. It is never too late to plan a great vacation
or take a weekend away as a couple. The world is waiting and
it is a beautiful place, we want you to enjoy it as much as we do.
As you consider your travel options, ACOUPLEONTHEGO Web site has six
ratings we provide as guidance:
"Travel like a rock star"
- This rating denotes a great experience where you are treated like
royalty and it is something you simply have to try for yourselves!
Traveling like a rock star means it was worth every penny regardless
of what it will cost you. For example we found a great 4-room
suite at a major hotel chain in Anaheim just outside Disneyland that
cost only a little more than staying in a traditional room at a similar
hotel that was some distance away. We could watch the fireworks
in the comfort of our hotel suite! We could spend all day at
Disneyland or come and go between the park and the hotel as we wished.
The rooms were large and the amenities were excellent, consequently
we were well rested and had the opportunity to do a greater number
of things well as opposed to if we had saved a few dollars and stayed
further away from the park. Traveling like a rock star does
not mean extravagance or economy it means great value and something
that added immeasurably to your comfort and experience. If you
get the chance, always travel like a rock star!
 "So
So, That’s All" – well honestly, what
did you expect from a $99 red eye junket flight to Vegas. These experiences,
while quite acceptable, did not go that extra mile or provide special
service. They represent a fair travel value and a modest or expected
experience. Think of it like a drive through fast food restaurant.
No, it's not gourmet, but it is what you expected and it is priced
pretty fairly too.
 "You
get what you pay for" - Our experience here was
a real let down. Like when you have to suffer through two warm-up
bands before the main act comes on stage two hours late. Or when 5
minutes from the beach means by taxi not walking. We knew this was
not going to be a Rock Star experience but ACOUPLEONTHEGO were
misled, or the quality of the activity was exaggerated. It was not
awful enough to rate “Whew What a Stinker” but there are
much better things to do with your time and money. Let’s put
it this way, ACOUPLEONTHEGO would go here again if the choice
was that or a poke in the eye with a Hot stick.
“Give ‘em some tourist lovin’!”
- ACOUPLEONTHEGO Web site don’t just travel to find
the exotic, exceedingly lavish, absolute must-see destinations; we
are also very curious about destinations where people have suffered
a great  deal
of trauma put on them by forces greater than themselves. We believe
whole-heartedly in seeing the world as it is, not on how others choose
to see it. So, having experienced firsthand how these people have
survived, we are here to tell our readers to go there. Don’t
wait until you think it’s perfect, because they need us
to get them going even better on the road to recovery. ACOUPLEONTHEGO
Web site are not suggesting you take two weeks and go spend it right
there and nowhere else; instead we are saying to give them a few days.
We are saying spend some money, go and eat some food, take a carriage
ride, just GO…and Give ‘em some tourist lovin’ NOW!
"Unrated" - we reserve
this rating (and it's not really a rating) for when our experience
went poorly and it might not be fair to trash the place because of
it.  We
will try these places again and hopefully have something positive
to say. For example, Tim & Shelley tried an exclusive, highly
recommended restaurant perched high on a mountain. The meal
we ordered came with a salad, we both told the waiter to just skip
the salad. He did, but in not ordering our salad with the kitchen
staff he forgot to order our main course. So there we waited
for over an hour until I complained we had not been served.
Recovery from a bad experience is an important consideration too and
this restaurant did nothing to repair the situation so for now this
travel experience is unrated. To be fair if we had ordered a
salad and not touched it our meal would have been served right on
cue.
Unlike our Mother's "if we cannot say something nice..."
advice, we will tell you the truth with the rating of....
"Whew what a stinker" 
- avoid these places wherever possible as it was an experience
or expense we would rather forget! Awful food, lousy service
or worse they were dishonest about something. For example we
recently flew on a new airline. They were not a major flag carrier
with first class service however we paid more than $2000 for our airfare
so we did have some modest expectations. What we got was terrible
ground service, lousy and expensive in-flight meals and consistently
late departures (as much as two hours and never less than an hour).
In short, even though our expectations were low, these guys stunk!
When you plan your travel experience we hope these ratings will help
you to always travel like a Rock Star!
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