Tasmin Rootman - Travel Counsellor, Theewaterskloof, SA

Tasmin Rootman - Travel Counsellor, Theewaterskloof, SA A Travel Agent with 15 years' experience. I specialize in Family Holidays, Honeymoons and Cruising, as well as dealing with small to medium corporate travel.

I spent the first 11 years in travel honing my service excellence in top travel agencies in shopping malls and corporate offices and this, coupled with the belief that the best client base is one that is referred to me by you, ensures my dedication and commitment to you as your personal Travel Counsellor. I have access to local and international deals, many of which are exclusive to Travel Counsellors. Being the owner of my own business makes me available to you at a time when it suits you and I am dedicated to giving you the kind of experience that will ensure that you make use of my services again and again. I have completed training on fares, procedural and destination courses. As travel is an ever-changing industry, I never pass up an opportunity to increase my knowledge so that I can be in a position to pass this on to you my valued clients. I have also become an expert in cruising as this is an aspect of travel that I have a great passion for! I have had the privilege of visiting a few destinations from around the world so as to gain first hand experience which you as clients value so highly. Some of the places that I have visited include: Mauritius, Zanzibar, Orlando, New York, London, Edinburgh, Birmingham and Buenos Aires. Drop me a line – I’m looking forward to hearing from you! En ja, ek praat ook jou Taal!

17/06/2015

What an amazing day at my desk today! Doing Europe, UK, USA, Dubai and Turkey... even an Eiffel Tower sightseeing tour :) Oh yes, and Mykonos! Love my job... especially that every day is different and challenging. I hope you all had a good day too xx

Interesting news from the latest ETNW:Airfares will continue to decline in 2015, with popular destinations in Asia Pacif...
11/06/2015

Interesting news from the latest ETNW:

Airfares will continue to decline in 2015, with popular destinations in Asia Pacific, Europe, Latin America and North America showing price drops ranging from 4% to 6% year-over-year. This is according to a mid-year study conducted by Expedia and Airlines Reporting Corporation (ARC), titled Travel check-up: Air Travel Trends 2015,

The study also reveals that ticket prices for the first half of 2015 declined about 2% on average across Europe and North America, while travellers in Asia Pacific experienced an average of 7% airfare price decline.

Over the years, similar reports have found that travellers tend to plan around the price of tickets.

It was found that travellers who had booked trips between June and September could potentially save about $648 (R8 000) across hotel and flight reservations.

The report found that travellers were more likely to save money when buying packages (flight + hotel + rental car). London, Maui and Paris ranked the top three cities where travellers could save the most by buying package deals. Travellers could save up to 30%, 22% and 24% respectively on these cities. It is expected that the frequency of package purchases will increase this year.

Another trend identified by the study, is that outbound travel from China is growing rapidly and that the Chinese Yuan is gaining strength against the US dollar. These factors are expected to increase the number of Chinese visitors to the US.

Exchange rates are also driving travel trends, specifically the length of a passengers’ stay. The study found that given the strength of the dollar, travellers from the US are planning to stay longer in Europe this year. Further, school trips from the US to Europe have shown a 6% increase from August 2014 to August 2015.

However, it was found that between Asia Pacific, Europe and the US, travellers are spending shorter times in local destinations. The study says that this could be a result of globalisation.

Overall, the length of stay for passengers in August 2015 grew 23% since August 2014 (trips from the US to Europe now average 25 days instead of 20).

The data used for the study considered other industry resources such as those from Iata and the Airline Tariff Publishing Company.

The study concludes that 2015 is shaping up to be a positive year for travel.

New requirement for UK passport holders for Canadian Visas The Government of Canada have advised they will introduce a ...
03/06/2015

New requirement for UK passport holders for Canadian Visas

The Government of Canada have advised they will introduce a new entry requirement, requiring all ** British citizens ** to obtain an online authorisation before flying to Canada.

Beginning on August 1st 2015, eligible travellers will be able to apply for their ETA in advance but it will not be mandatory until March 15th 2016.

The authorisation is electronically linked to your passport and is valid for five years or until your passport expires, whichever comes first.

Travellers who get an ETA early will have the benefit of knowing that they have been pre-screened to travel to Canada, streamlining their entry into the country.

Please share this post to spread the news!

29/05/2015

Visit a coffee plantation or tea estate, learn to make beer, or even go on a wine safari! Discover nine unique drink experiences around the world.

Scenario 1: You and your 16 year old daughter are travelling to the UK to visit your mother. You will need to take the f...
18/05/2015

Scenario 1: You and your 16 year old daughter are travelling to the UK to visit your mother. You will need to take the following documents with you, apart from your child's passport & visa:

* Your daughter's unabridged birth certificate showing the full names of both parents

* A Parental Consent Affidavit (PCA) - see the attached example from the Dept of Home Affairs

Contact me if you have any questions. [email protected]

** Unabridged Birth Certificates **Some children have the old handwritten unabridged birth certificates. These are NOT a...
05/05/2015

** Unabridged Birth Certificates **

Some children have the old handwritten unabridged birth certificates. These are NOT accepted for the new travel regulations. The unabridged birth certificate must be computer generated. You will need to go to Home Affairs with your child's ID number and both parents' ID numbers and apply for the computer generated one.

Please share this post with all your friends and family.

*** Great tips for using your smartphone on holiday ***It’s that time of year again when so many of us take a midyear br...
04/05/2015

*** Great tips for using your smartphone on holiday ***

It’s that time of year again when so many of us take a midyear break and head for our favorite or new vacation spots. However, for those heading oversees, data roaming charges are a genuine concern.

Before boarding that plane, take a look at what software expert Opera Software’s top ten tips for saving on data roaming charges.

1. Before you leave, check with your regular mobile operator to see if they offer international roaming packages, which can give you huge savings on data.

2. Switch to a browser that shrinks down webpages. If you load fewer megabytes, you'll save money, plus browse faster when you have poor reception.

3. When you touch down at your holiday destination, read in detail the welcome SMS from the mobile operator whose network you’ve roamed on to. It will outline the costs for calls, SMS and web data during your stay.

4. Many networks will send you updates on your data spending throughout your trip to help you keep track. So, pay attention to any operator messages.


5. Activate data roaming when you need to check something online and toggle it off when you finish your browsing tasks. Turn off notifications and close down non-essential apps to avoid them consuming large amounts of data in the background.

6. Skip the data-roaming drama by browsing via WiFi, typically available in hotels, airports and cafés. Apps like WiFi Finder can locate your nearest hotspot. Browsers that shrink data are also handy in slow, crowded WiFi zones.

7. Download a compression app like Opera Max that can shrink data, images and videos across most apps on your phone. Opera Max reminds you when you’re roaming, and even lets you block particular apps from using mobile data and restricts them to using WiFi only. Opera Max is currently available to most Samsung subscribers.

8. Rethink your getaway browsing priorities. Holiday roaming is not the best time for streaming videos, downloading files or adding new apps to your collection. Save this surfing for when you're browsing with compression or WiFi.

9. You already prepare your music playlists and movies for your travels, so why not pre-load your webpages? Some browsers, like Opera Mini, have a feature that enables you to save an Internet page for offline use so that you can read it later without activating roaming or having to enable WiFi.

10. If you’ve set up Dropbox, Facebook or Google Drive to automatically upload the photos taken on your phone, disable the syncing of these apps in the settings to curb data consumption. Alternatively, adjust your settings so that your holiday snaps upload only when you are connected to WiFi.

(Thank you to the eTNW who have allowed us to republish this article)

** BA offers gourmet meals in economy class **British Airways is offering customers traveling from 12 May the option to ...
04/05/2015

** BA offers gourmet meals in economy class **

British Airways is offering customers traveling from 12 May the option to buy an enhanced World Traveller meal as an alternative to the normal menu on 10 long haul routes.

The options are ‘Gourmet Dining’, ‘Taste of Britain’, ‘Great British Breakfast’, ‘Healthy Choice’ and ‘Vegetarian Kitchen’ which can be pre-booked from 30 days prior to travel, right up until 24 hours before departure at a cost of between £15 and £18.

The new meals will be available from Heathrow to Atlanta, Austin, Denver, Dallas, Houston, Mexico City, Miami, Phoenix, San Diego and Seattle.

Colin Talbot, Head of Catering, British Airways, said: “We’ll still be offering our complimentary menus on board, but we want to be able to offer our customers greater choice when flying with us. Whether it be a special occasion or just as a treat, these great new dishes are a way to make their flight even more memorable.”

Each dish has been specially designed to taste great at 30,000ft and has been created with British provenance as inspiration, with salmon from the ‘Taste of Britain’ sourced from Loch Fyne and the beef from ‘Gourmet Dining’ coming from Herefordshire.

The dishes combine current food trends and good quality ingredients to offer customers a variety of options.

The meals available to pre-order are:

Gourmet Dining

Poached king prawns with sliced mushrooms, lightly dressed in a traditional marie-rose sauce
Braised Herefordshire beef cheek with potato mousseline, roasted root vegetables and Madeira shallot jus
Chocolate ganache bar with passion fruit coulis and crushed toasted hazelnuts

Taste of Britain

Loch Fyne smoked salmon with crème fraiche and caper berries
Slow roasted Wiltshire pork belly with celeriac mash and sautéed broccolini
Summer berry pudding with Cornish clotted cream

Great British Breakfast

Seasonal fresh fruits
Freshly baked bread including selection of madeleines
Traditional British breakfast featuring Cumberland sausage and mature cheddar omelette
Chunky cherry compote with Greek yoghurt and homemade granola

Healthy Choice

Thai style rice rolls with sesame dipping sauce
Sustainably sourced poached cod en papillote with steamed seasonal vegetables
Greek yoghurt and honey mousse bar with grapefruit carpaccio

Vegetarian Kitchen

Glazed goats cheese with marinated beetroot salad
Polenta crespelle with mascarpone, wilted spinach, wild mushroom and truffle cream sauce
Lemon meringue pie featuring homemade lemon curd

31/03/2015

Important Schengen visa update....

31/03/2015

IMPORTANT SCHENGEN VISA UPDATE - DENMARK

PASSPORTS FOR MINORS: Please be advised that Denmark does not recognize the new South African passport which is issued to minors below the age of 16 and bears the phrase, 'too young to sign', instead of a signature. If the passport bears the phrase, 'too young to sign’, instead of the holders signature, the validity of the visa will be limited to ALL SCHENGEN COUNTRIES EXCEPT DENMARK.

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