Portwood Travel - NJT

Name: Portwood Travel - NJT
Address: Colwyn Bay, GB
Telephone: +447572654097

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Portwood Travel - NJT

Think of us as your knowledgeable travel expert who is also a good friend who gets just as excited as you do about your next adventure. That's us!

Travel is part of our DNA, and over recent years this has been our everyday passion. New places, experiences, friendships, it's what life's about, and that has been our life in work and play. For many years our biggest passion was for organising Orlando holidays for clients dialling down into every minute detail and having experienced just about every type of holiday (onsite and offsite) in Orland

o we know a trick or two! Having this wanderlust eventually proved too much to resist and we decided to take all this experience and business nouse and create further travel experiences we'd love to go on ourselves. And Portwood Travel was born...

Think of us as your knowledgeable travel expert who is also a good friend who gets just as excited as you do about your next adventure. Whether it's to the land of the mouse or the rest of the world we're going to look after you every step of the way, delighting you with little surprises throughout your Portwood Travel experience. Portwood Travel are proud members of the Not Just Travel Group. Fully ABTA and ATOL protected.

05/09/2026

“Only nonsense is ever spoken here”

Day 1

After our pre-flight night in Manchester, it was a 2am wake up call for our long journey of Manchester to Amsterdam and Amsterdam to Seattle but, somehow, everything just worked! The way you hope and the way it should!

Both flights ran to time, we landed in Seattle slightly early and had one of those rare airport experiences where baggage, immigration (MPC app helped) and collecting the hire car all went exactly as you’d hope.

Around two hours after landing, we were on the road! Rather than doing the ‘sensible’ thing of staying in Seattle before an Alaskan cruise, we’d decided to hire a car and head east into rural Washington for a few days.

And off we went. American freeways, mountain pass roads, a ‘half way’ grocery stop in North Bend and then a nice little detour into Snoqualmie for coffee and a much-needed stretch of the legs!

And that coffee stop might have been my favourite part of the whole day!

We walked into this lovely old, dark-stained coffee shop and found two locals sitting at the counter, deep in conversation with the chap serving them. Nobody else in there.

As two fairly reserved Brits walking into completely unfamiliar territory, there was a split second where it felt like we’d wandered into an old Western saloon. The doors swing open, the conversation stops and everyone turns around to see who the strangers are. 😂

The chap behind the counter apologised for being so engrossed in their conversation. I asked whether they’d been discussing complete nonsense or something deeply scientific. “Only nonsense is ever spoken here! We spend hours doing it, just putting the world to rights!”

Well, that was me hooked!

We ordered the biggest coffees we could find in an attempt to get us through a few more hours of what was beginning to feel like a six-day-long day.

Then came: “So what brings you two here?”

And off we went! For the next 20 to 30 minutes, five complete strangers stood around talking about accents, geography, castles, medieval Britain, ancestry, travel, the weather and all the places we needed to see while we were in and around the Ronald & Roslyn area!

It was absolutely lovely!

Eventually we finished our coffees, said our goodbyes and carried on exploring Snoqualmie before getting back into the car and heading up and over the pass.

The weather was coming in behind us, so we decided against trying to squeeze in any further sight seeing and carried on towards the reason we’d come this way in the first place.

By about 5.15pm we were pulling up at our little cabin in the woods near Ronald.

And it is beautiful!

Tall pine trees everywhere, ridiculously peaceful and exactly that tucked-away-in-Washington feeling Neil had hoped for when he booked it!

We’d been awake for around 25 hours by this point but somehow convinced ourselves we should stay awake a little longer, so headed down to the ‘one and only’ local, The Old #3 for something to eat.

I’m not entirely convinced either of us was still conscious while we were eating. 😂

By about 8pm we’d admitted defeat and were tucked up in bed!

So that was day one.
North Wales → Manchester → Amsterdam → Seattle → American freeways → mountains → coffee with strangers → weather → woods → Ronald → food → unconscious!

And thinking back on it now, that completely unplanned 20 minutes in a little coffee shop in Snoqualmie probably summed up why we love travelling in the first place.

Sometimes it’s the places you go to see.

Sometimes it’s the people you happen to meet when you get there. ❤️

Karen and Neil x

02/09/2026

I’ve had quite a few people asking me about EES and ETIAS recently, usually because they’ve seen something online and aren’t quite sure whether there’s something they should be doing before their next trip to Europe.

And I completely understand why.

We’ve been hearing about these changes for such a long time now, the rollout has happened in stages, and to make matters worse there are two different systems with very similar sounding names that are often talked about together.

It’s hardly surprising people are getting confused!

The good news is that it’s actually much simpler than it sounds once you separate the two.

EES is already here. It’s the new European border system that records British travellers entering and leaving the Schengen area. The best bit is you don’t apply for it and you don’t need to buy anything beforehand! You simply encounter it as part of the border process when you travel.

ETIAS is the one that’s still to come. That will eventually be an online travel authorisation that most British travellers will need before visiting participating European countries.

But importantly, ETIAS isn’t open yet.

So if you’re travelling to Europe now, there is no ETIAS application you need to complete and no ETIAS fee you should be paying.

When it does launch, the current official fee is €20 and an authorisation will normally last for up to three years, or until the passport you applied with expires.

There are a few extra quirks depending on how you travel too. Cruising is a good example because sailing from the UK, visiting European ports and returning to the UK can be treated differently for EES purposes from flying into Europe to join your cruise.

That’s another reason I think people have found all of this confusing. There isn’t always one answer that fits every journey.

So if you’re thinking you should have done something about this already, don’t worry, you haven’t missed anything!

For now, the easiest way to remember it is:

EES is here.
ETIAS isn’t.

And when ETIAS does finally open, I’ll make sure I explain what’s changed and what you actually need to do then!

Karen x

01/09/2026

Disney Wish is coming to Southampton in 2027, but one of the itineraries that's really caught my attention this week is what happens when her UK season ends and that's because instead of simply heading back across the Atlantic, Wish will leave Southampton on 17 September for a 12-night cruise to New York, calling at Greenock, Reykjavik and St John's in Newfoundland along the way!

And that's where my holiday-planning brain starts wandering a little...

The thought of boarding the Disney Wish here in the UK, spending 12 nights crossing the Atlantic and arriving in New York before adding a few cheeky nights in Manhattan before flying home. Yes please!

There are also a few different options to consider because once the Wish reaches New York she's sailing to Bermuda, Canada and New England, and there's even a later cruise from New York to San Juan!!

These are the sort of cruises where personally I would always look beyond the cruise fare itself. One-way flights, hotels before or afterwards, transfers, luggage and where you're actually flying home from can completely change which itinerary makes the most sense and that's also part of the fun!

A lot of the time the most interesting holiday isn't the obvious package sitting on the shelf. It's the one you build around an itinerary you hadn't even considered before.

And Southampton to New York aboard Disney Wish? I could definitely build a holiday around that. 😍

It's been 10 years since we sailed on a Disney ship and this might be an itinerary to get us back on one!

How about you? Would you sail across and fly home, or would you rather fly to New York and cruise from there?

Karen x

30/08/2026

What's Brewing? September always feels like a fresh page.

One thing I've noticed over the years is that something always changes around this time of year and it’s that people's conversations start to sound different.

Only a couple of weeks ago it was all about squeezing one more holiday into the summer.

Now...

Some of you are looking for a bit of late sunshine while everywhere's a little quieter and some are already talking about Christmas markets, Lapland and winter sun whilst others have quietly started saying, “Let's get next summer sorted."

I always think September feels like a fresh page.

Not because the calendar says so, but because so many of us start looking ahead again.

Is it that the children are going back to school and perhaps it's getting back into that routine, or maybe summer simply reminds us how much we enjoy having something to look forward to.

Whatever the reason, I genuinely love this time of year!

The conversations become different and the ideas get bigger.

And somewhere along the way, somebody always starts talking about that holiday they've been thinking about for years.

Maybe that's exactly where your next adventure begins?

And that's what's brewing in my mind this week!

Karen x ☕️

23/08/2026

What’s Brewing? - Where are my whales at?!

Help me out!! 🙏

Neil

16/08/2026

Neil takes the mickey out of me for this ALL the time!

Apparently, I know more about your holidays than I do about my own.

And, much as I hate admitting when he’s right, he might have a point!

I can tell you which hotel somebody is staying in, what room they’ve booked, when their flight leaves and probably what they’re doing when they get there.

I’ll set an alarm for silly o’clock to make sure someone is checked in for their flight.

I’ve taken calls late at night because something hasn’t gone quite to plan.

And I can spend hours looking at hotels, excursions and all the little details that will make somebody else’s holiday just right.

Then Neil asks me something about OUR holiday…

And I haven’t got a clue! 😂

The truth is, Neil plans pretty much all of our holidays.

I normally get involved in deciding where we’re going and when, and then somehow I leave him to sort everything else.

We’ve got Alaska coming up and I know more about some of your holidays next year than I do about my own in just a few weeks!

He’s been looking at where we’re staying, road trips, car hire, excursions and all sorts!

In fact, he’s now stopped telling me some of it and decided I can have a few surprises instead!

I suppose there is a bit of irony in a Travel Consultant turning up for her own holiday without knowing half of what’s been planned.

But perhaps there’s something quite nice about it too.

I spend so much of my time making sure everyone else can relax and enjoy their holiday that, when it comes to mine, I get to be the one who just turns up and enjoys it.

So perhaps I should take my own advice and just enjoy having someone else do all the planning for once.

Although I might need to check Neil’s remembered the flights, hotels, car, road trip and excursions.

And booked the whales!

…

He’d better have booked the whales! 👀

Karen x

09/08/2026

What’s Brewing?

When did a week become too short?

One thing I’ve found myself thinking about over coffee this week is how much our cruise conversations seem to be changing.

Not that long ago, seven nights felt like the obvious choice.

Lately, I’m not so sure…

Now I’m regularly chatting to people about two weeks, back-to-back cruises and even some incredible world voyages.

It made me wonder…

Have we all started looking at holidays a little differently?

Perhaps we’ve realised that if you’ve unpacked once, wake up somewhere new most mornings and somebody else is looking after the cooking, why rush back home?

I’ve even been surprised by how many people have asked me about some of the really long itineraries.

One that’s come up in conversation recently was an 87-night voyage!

I’ll admit, when I first saw it I smiled and thought, “I wonder who books something like that?”

Turns out, quite a few of you!

Not because everyone is about to disappear for three months, but because it got people thinking differently about what a holiday can be.

I think that’s one of the things people are starting to realise about cruising.

If you’ve got the time, you can see an awful lot of the world without constantly packing, unpacking and moving from hotel to hotel.

And perhaps that’s why the question seems to be changing.

Not…

“Where shall we go?”

But…

“If we’ve got the time, why not see a little more while we’re there?”

I’m not saying longer cruises are for everyone.

But I do think they’re becoming part of more conversations than ever before.

And that’s what’s brewing in my mind this week.

Karen x

07/08/2026

GREECE

The holiday that keeps finding me.

Greece seems to keep popping up at the moment.

Especially when I’m talking to people about cruises. The Greek Islands seem to be very high on quite a few wish lists, and I completely understand why.

The more I find myself looking at different itineraries and islands for people, the more I keep thinking that Neil and I really need to go back.

We’ve only ever been to Kos, and that was about 30 years ago when we were very young newlyweds!

And we really were young and naive!

We’d worked out our spending money for the week, divided it into a sensible little daily budget… and then pretty much spent the whole week’s allowance in the bar on the first night!

We were absolutely skint after that, but I remember us laughing our way through the week and just having the best time together discovering this beautiful little Greek island.

Perhaps that’s partly why Greece is getting to me now.

Because every time it comes up, I’m reminded of that trip, but I’m also realising how little of the country we’ve actually seen.

There are so many islands, and they’re all different. Then there’s Athens, the mainland, island hopping, cruises that take you from Greece into Croatia and other parts of the Mediterranean…

There isn’t really one Greece holiday at all.

And I think that’s what has put it so firmly back on my radar.

As you know, we’ve already locked in Alaska as the next trip for us, but Greece is making a very strong case for what comes after it.

Some holidays you go looking for.

Others seem to keep finding you until eventually you take the hint!

I think after 30-odd years, Greece might be trying to tell us something!

Karen x

31/07/2026

There’s something about a weekend that makes people start thinking about holidays.

Maybe you’ve just been paid.

Maybe you’ve finally planned an hour to yourself with a coffee.

Or maybe you’ve decided this is the weekend you’re going to see if there’s still time to squeeze in one more break before summer starts to disappear.

The good news is, you don’t have to spend your weekend jumping between websites comparing hotels and wondering if you’ve found the right one.

That’s what I’m here for.

If you tell me roughly what you’d like to spend, when you can travel and who’s coming with you, I’ll do the searching and help narrow down the options.

That way, you can get back to enjoying your weekend instead!

If holiday planning is on your mind, just send me a message.

Karen x

28/07/2026

One email landed in my inbox this morning that immediately caught my attention.

There's a new TV series starting on E4 this Thursday (30 July) called Cruising Paradise: Above and Below Deck.

Normally I'd just think, "That looks interesting."

But this one feels a little different because it was filmed on Star Princess... and that's the ship Neil and I will be sailing on in just a few weeks' time!

I always find it fascinating seeing what goes on behind the scenes.

We all see the beautiful restaurants, theatres and pools, but there's a huge team of people working incredibly hard to make every cruise run smoothly.

I think it'll be really interesting to watch it now and then step on board ourselves shortly afterwards.

So yes... I think Thursday night's TV has just been decided! ☕🚢

If you end up watching it too, let me know what you think.

Karen x

Address

Colwyn Bay

Telephone

+447572654097

Website

https://portwoodtravel.notjusttravel.com/

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