There are many reasons for families to plan a reunion. It can be as simple as spending time with the people you love. Maybe it’s a celebration vacation for a milestone birthday, graduating from school or retiring. Destination weddings are also a great way to have a family reunion.
One company that does it well is Hermes Travel, a family-run storefront agency in the heart of Astoria, New York. This Greek-American business was started 40 years ago by Anastasia Damianeas’s mother.
“Greeks are all about family, it’s just a part of our DNA,” says Damianeas. “Our neighborhood is a Greek immigrant community. People here have two motherlands. As families here grew, every year they would travel back to their ancestral villages in Greece to visit parents, grandparents, uncles, aunts, cousins, second cousins, neighbors….and vice versa. This is how we became experts in family reunions.”
Hermes Travel specializes in coordinating reunions in Greece. They arrange flights, hotel reservations and airport transportation for everyone to remote villages sometimes located up to three hours from the airport. In many cases, some islands are not serviced by an airport, and ferries may only run a couple days a week — which can be a logistical nightmare for one traveler. Imagine it for a family of 10, 20 or even 30 people.
That’s where Hermes Travel comes in. They understand what needs to be done so that all guests are happy, safe and comfortable. They negotiate the best group rates for the family, which will save them money. Then they block space with airlines, ferries, shuttles and hotels. They have partnerships with trusted local suppliers, ensuring travelers have a local contact every step of the journey. An experienced travel agent can also bridge the gap between the two countries, reuniting families overseas and making the experience as seamless as possible.
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Family reunions that take place closer to home — the Caribbean or Mexico, for example — can present the same type of challenges. In the qualifying process, Hermes Travel helps the family narrow down a location and a resort. They also coordinate the flights from various cities in the United States (and abroad) to get everyone there on the same date and around the same time, in order to maximize family time together.
Another challenge is coordinating rooms. A family with two adults and three kids needs different room types than a family of two adults and one child. And grandparents need ground-floor accommodations close to restaurants, as they cannot navigate stairs or take too many steps. “We know which hotels offer accessible options and big suites, or which hotels have guaranteed connecting rooms, and when making recommendations to our clients, we factor in all this information,” says Damianeas. “Our wealth of knowledge and constant training and resort visits help us recommend the best option for each family reunion.”
Another benefit of using a travel agency like Hermes Travel: They have the experience to prevent travel problems that most people don’t even understand. That said, even with the best-made plans, travel problems can happen. “Do you want to be the one handling problems and complaints from your relatives?” asks Damianeas. “Chances are you would not be able to help, but a travel agent can. Our long-standing travel-industry relationships ensure that you will be taken care of if a problem comes up We often make the impossible possible because of our experience and expertise. We’ve seen it all, and we’ve handled it all.”
Damianeas points out that travel agents are still relevant, despite today’s apps and online booking sites. “Travelers are bombarded with too much information online,” she says. “One search on a consumer website for ‘the best resort’ yields hundreds of conflicting reviews. Should you really trust that guy that this is ‘the best resort’ on the island? It may very well be a great resort, but if it only has 50 rooms and you’re traveling with 200 people, it’s not the best resort for you. And it may not be the best hotel for grandpa, if he has problems walking and there are a million stairs to navigate.”
Navigating the logistics and other complexities involved in planning a family reunion is what Hermes Travel does best.
“I always like to say that a twenty-minute conversation with me saves you at least three hours of online research,” says Damianeas. “My knowledge, expertise and professionalism, before, during and after the vacation is invaluable to traveling families.”
Indeed, Hermes Travel’s experience, expertise and advice is key when it comes to creating a family reunion. “Vacation time is precious and you should always use a trusted expert in the field when planning your trips,” says Damianeas. “What we do is not brain surgery – but we give you peace of mind.”