Sylwia Majtczak – Reasons You Should Travel More Often

Sylwia Majtczak has worked in the travel industry since 1997, during which time she has helped many clients arrange trips that suit their needs and allow them to experience new things. As an avid traveler herself, she enjoys going to places that she has not been to before, often going outside of her comfort zone in the process. There are many reasons why you should travel more often, including the following.

New Food

Foodies love to travel because it gives them the opportunity to sample dishes that they may never have discovered if they didn’t step outside of familiar surroundings. Almost every place you go will be able to offer up a range of cultural delicacies. You may not like them all, but you will expand your palette and will often come back with recipes that become part of your regular rotation.

Seeing Important Landmarks

There is so much art, architecture, culture in the world that you would be doing yourself a disservice if you didn’t make an effort to see as much as possible. By traveling you will be able to see important landmarks up close and personal, often learning more about what makes them so essential to the cultures of their countries in the process.

Relieving Stress

Traveling allows you to get away from the issues at home that may be causing your stress or anxiety. It offers a perfect escape that will allow you to focus on the things you enjoy, rather than the work and personal issues that can hamper your progress at home.

Sylwia Majtczak is a Senior Corporate Agent at Altour.

Sylwia Majtczak – Advice For Your First Cruise

While Sylwia Majtczak primarily works with corporate clients in her work as a travel consultant, she is able to provide advice to regular travelers too, should it be needed. A cruise provides a unique twist on the regular travel experience, as it offers people the opportunity to see many different places in the space of a single vacation. However, a lot of people are understandably wary of cruises due to the prospect of spending so much time at sea. If you are considering this type of vacation it is important that you keep the below in mind to make the most out of the experience.

Research The Cruise

While steps will be taken to make the cruise experience as simple as possible and you should receive fairly detailed itineraries that tell you where you will be going and when, it is still a good idea to read as much as possible about the trip before you take it. Ideally you will check out every cruise destination before you are on the boat, so you get a feel for what each place will be like and what you should try to see during your time there. Doing so will mean you don’t get overwhelmed by the options and can actually enjoy the time you spend in each destination.

Be Wary of Tipping

Many cruises build gratuity into the bills that you pay for drinks and other services, which means you don’t have to feel obligated to tip. Check the receipts and see if there is some sort of service charge included. If there is then you can save a lot of money by not tipping double on everything you purchase on the ship. This may feel a little odd to some people, particularly those who come from cultures where tipping is an everyday thing, but it will allow you to save money.

Pack Well

You may be going for a cruise in a location that is known for being warm, but that doesn’t mean you shouldn’t prepare for any eventuality. This is especially the case if you cruise in tropical areas, as they are prone to rain and other temperamental weather conditions. At the very least you should make sure you pack some lightweight waterproof clothing, as getting caught short when you are exploring one of the cruise destinations can put a literally dampener on the experience.

Enjoy The Experience

Take your time and explore the ship, taking in everything that it has to offer. Acclimatize yourself and take the trip at your own pace. Remember that this is your vacation and you don’t have to do what everybody else is doing all of the time.

Sylwia Majtczak is an experienced traveler and Senior Corporate Agent at Altour.

Sylwia Majtczak – Tips For Choosing The Right Hotel

In her role as a Senior Corporate Agent at Altour, where she has worked since 2004, Sylwia Majtczak is tasked with helping clients locate suitable hotels for their travels. This is often harder than it sounds, as without knowledge of the hotels you are considering it is possible that you may choose one that is not right for your needs. If you are not working with a consultant to book your trip you should keep these pointers in mind before you start searching for hotels.

Sylwia Majtczak

Know Your Budget
You need to understand how much you are willing to spend before you start searching. If you don’t, you may end up falling in love with a hotel, only to find out that it costs more than you can afford. Most hotel comparison sites allow you to filter based on price, so make sure you use that to stick within your budget.

Make A List of What You Want
Before you can start creating a list of potential hotels you need to understand what you actually want from the place you stay in. Some are happy with just having a bed to sleep in, whereas others will want all sorts of extras to make the trip more comfortable. Create a list of what you would want in an ideal world and base your search around that. You won’t always find hotels that offer everything you want, but the list will help you to cut out those that definitely won’t suit your needs.

Check The Reviews
Once you have a list of potential hotels you should dig a little deeper and find out what people are actually saying about them. While the hotels’ own websites will give you some of the basics and show you the absolute best of the hotel, you can’t always be certain that this is what you are going to get when you travel. Instead, make use of websites like TripAdvisor to find out if the hotel actually provides what it claims to offer.

Check For Wi-Fi
Most hotels will have in-built Wi-Fi connections that you can make use of, which is often essential for corporate travelers who need to do work when they are away from home. However, these services do not always come as part of the booking package. Make sure you confirm whether or not free Wi-Fi is included and check to see if access is unlimited. Fees can build up if you are unaware of restrictions that the hotel may have in place.

Research The Local Area
You should know where your hotel is located in relation to the place you want to go on your trip. Ideally, you will be as close as possible, but if you are a little out of the way spend some time researching the local neighborhood as well.

Sylwia Majtczak is a Senior Corporate Agent at Altour.

Sylwia Majtczak – Mixing Travel and Family

For many businessmen and women who must travel regularly it is hard to keep a strong focus on their family. As a corporate travel consultant for Altour and working mother, Sylwia Majtczak knows how hard it can be to leave family behind for a business trip. However, it is important to ensure a proper balance between traveling for your career and prioritizing family.

Many regular business travelers say the need to be constantly on the move between locations and the inability to spend time with family creates stress and frustration. Family members that are unable to join business trips can feel jealous of the business traveler or excluded from the traveler’s experiences. For a business traveler, each trip rarely includes time for sightseeing or vacationing and is generally filled with meetings and work instead. This can create tension and lead to more frustration and stress.

While away on a business trip, it is often difficult to call family every day. However, a call every two to three days can help everyone feel more comfortable. As well, directing the conversation to include activities the family is doing in your absence can build a sense of interest in them, minimizing the feeling of exclusion.

Most importantly, when you return home from a trip, make sure you are spending out of work hours engaging with family and friends. Sylwia Majtczak spends time with her daughter as often as they can, even if it is only over the phone. She knows this not only builds strong family ties but helps relieve the stress of a hard day at work.

Sylwia Majtczak – Where to Go Next

Most travelers have a favorite destination they like to return to when they can, but it can also be exciting to visit a new location. Researching and planning a vacation takes a lot of time and work, but with preparation a trip to a new destination can be more exciting than a trip to a favorite vacation spot. Sylwia Majtczak, a corporate travel consultant at Altour, loves to travel to new destinations and learn about other cultures. Some great vacation spots are:

• San Francisco, California, United States. San Francisco offers great views of the ocean, impressive historic scenery, and exceptional dining.
• Cortina d’Ampezzo, Italy. This small village in the southern Alps is in the Veneto region of northern Italy. Like all of Italy it is steeped in hundreds of years of history, and this town offers beautiful views and great skiing in winter.
• Anchorage, Alaska, United States. Anchorage has a wealth of museums and historical sites.
• London, United Kingdom. Although London is a well-known vacation spot, the city offers a lot more than many visitors encounter. Along with the standard attractions, London has great shopping, many parks to visit, and
• Krakow, Poland. Krakow has castles, historical sites, and beautiful churches, as well as a free walking tour of the city.

When planning any trip, it is important to consider the culture of your destination and prepare accordingly. Sylwia Majtczak enjoys studying the cultures in various destinations and uses that knowledge to advise her clients when they are visiting a new location.

Sylwia Majtczak – Agent or Consultant

When most consumers think of using a professional to book travel, they use the term travel agent. In the travel industry, however, there are different roles and different client types handled by travel agents as opposed to travel consultants. The distinctions may seem slight to a consumer, but Sylwia Majtczak is proud to be a corporate travel consultant rather than a corporate travel agent.

Sylwia Majtczak

The main difference between a travel agent and a travel consultant is in the type of representation they provide. An agent will listen to a client’s preferences for a trip and then locate airline tickets and hotels to meet those needs, as well as recommending restaurants and attractions. A consultant can and will do all of that for a client, but also looks at the planning of the trip as a whole. Where an agent might recommend a different hotel than the client initially requested because it has better access to a business venue, a consultant might recommend a different business venue because there are better hotel options nearby and have a secondary recommendation in case the venue cannot be changed.

Travel agents are valuable professionals in the industry and help a lot of travelers plan great trips every year. Nonetheless, Sylwia Majtczak knows the real difference between her job and that of a travel agent is in the level of trust placed in her by her clients. As a result, she works hard to ensure every client is comfortable with a trip before, during, and after their travel so her clients will know their trust is well placed.

Sylwia Majtczak – Challenges of Travel Planning

When first planning a trip, most corporate travelers know what they need to accomplish while they are at their destination. Many, however, do not think of the broad range of needs that might arise during their time away from their office. Sylwia Majtczak, a corporate travel consultant at Altour, takes pride in considering every aspect of a trip to ensure overall success. Every corporate traveler has different needs, and as a result each trip needs to be tailored to the specific activities expected.

A common need for corporate travelers is space to work where they will not be interrupted. While many travelers use their hotel room for private work space, this is not always ideal. As well, the availability of work space will often depend on the type of business trip. If you are traveling to another office to work with local employees most companies will have space you can use to work in.

Sylwia Majtczak

However, if you are traveling for formal training or certification it is common for the training space to be rented and unavailable outside of training time. It is important to consider the availability of work space and find other alternatives if the office you are traveling to does not have space set aside for visitors to work.
Finding sufficient space to work is only one of many potential challenges in planning a business trip.

Sylwia Majtczak has worked with corporate travelers for almost 20 years and knows each trip has unique challenges that need to be addressed.

Sylwia Majtczak – It’s Time to Dance

There are different forms of dancing, from ballroom to disco and tango to barn dancing, dancing has always formed an integral part of human culture, celebration, and ritual. However, today dancing is more for recreation and self-expression. Dancing is also a great way to stay in shape and keep fit. Sylwia Majtczak likes dancing and has found that it helps her relax. Here’s why it could be time to dance.

Stay Young
Everyone wants to remain young for as long as they can, and dancing seems to be one of the physical activities that help in staying young. Dancing helps delay the aging process and benefits the cardiovascular system. The heart rate and muscle exertion experienced by dancers is equivalent to those of swimmers and cyclists.

Lubricated Joints and Strong Bones
Dancing helps in lubricating and keeping the bones strong. It helps in preventing osteoporosis in both men and women. Post-menopause women who took up dancing were found to have a substantial drop in estrogen levels which hinders calcium from being absorbed in the bones. Dancing helps prevent arthritis by keeping the joints lubricated.

Lose those Calories
Dancing is a great way to lose those extra calories as it helps increase circulation and burn calories. Dancers can lose up to 10 calories per minute depending on the intensity and speed of dancing. Several fitness centers use various dorms of dancing to help people lose weight and stay fit.

Sylwia Majtczak also believes that dancing helps her get rid of work-related stress.

Sylwia Majtczak – How to Enjoy Photography Without Getting too Technical

Sometimes it can be quite intimidating when you hear photographers speak about how to capture great pictures using the latest equipment and advanced techniques. If you have just taken up photography as a hobby, don’t let yourself get stressed about the technicalities of photography. Photography is meant to be enjoyed, learn to enjoy it first, and then learn the technical stuff. Sylwia Majtczak is an avid photographer and has a collection of beautiful pictures.

Camera Quality

Do not let your camera quality worry you. If you start worrying about whether your camera is professional enough to take good pictures, you will not enjoy your hobby. It is easy to get distracted about digital camera quality and lose the fun of taking pictures. The success of a photo depends more on what you choose to include in the frame and what you choose to exclude, and how you choose to arrange it in the frame.

Choose the Right Shooting Mode

The camera’s digital scene mode is perfect for snapshots, but if you are looking to take some creative photos, then you will need to move to semi-automatic shooting modes. If you want to control the depth of field you will need to use Aperture Priority. This is a semi-automatic mode and allows you to set the aperture which causes the camera to set a corresponding shutter speed for the correct exposure. There are several settings you can work with, take the time to explore the various settings and learn how to use them.

Manual or Automatic Setting

Do not feel pressurized to use the manual settings of the camera, as the automatic settings provide good results. For example, the Auto White Balance (AWB) setting on the camera is quite capable of doing a good job in most situations. So playing around with the settings could make you take more time and eventually not make any difference with the manual settings.

Sylwia Majtczak makes it a point to use her camera to capture pictures of places she travels to.

Sylwia Majtczak – Essential Apps for Your Business Trip

Business travel can be interesting, but it can also be exhausting. Most people traveling on business trips spend quite a considerable amount of travel time working. Many use the time to work on reports, send last minute emails from the airport or even while flying, as many airlines no offer Wi-Fi services to passengers. There are several apps that can help make your business travel a pleasure. Sylwia Majtczak has been in the travel industry since 1997 and has worked at several top travel companies.

TripIt

TripIt is a must-have app is you are a business, traveler. It is a great app that keeps all your travel itinerary in one place. All the information you need regarding you flight timing, hotel booking, and meeting information can be stored in one place with this app. The app integrates with a calendar and can sync your confirmation emails with your TripIt account. The paid version of the app is the best choice because of its features.

iTranslate

If you are traveling to another country where they speak a different language, you might want to get the iTranslate app. It will help you overcome any language barrier and carry on your business meeting without any trouble.

Maps.Me

If you are going to be driving around in another country or city for your business trip, you might want to get the Maps.Me app. This is a great app that allows you to get directions to any place in the world without a data connection. All you need to do is, download the app on your phone prior to your departure and download the city map where you are traveling to. Once the map downloads, you can use the app to find directions.

Sylwia Majtczak is a full-time working mother of one child and is the Senior Travel Agent at Altour.