AAA South Jersey Exclusive Vacations offer the opportunity to experience the world without the stress that usually comes with traveling. These thoughtfully curated trips are planned to ensure that every traveler has everything they need and more. Plus, there’s no need to navigate a different country alone; AAA’s travel experts are with you on-site every step of the way.
Debbie Szafranski, who is the travel manager at AAA South Jersey, plans and attends these unique vacations to maximize opportunities for both sightseeing and leisure. Therefore, instead of worrying about transportation, meals, hotel, translators, or leaving for your flight home on time—you can focus on one of the best experiences of your life.
One such trip that has become a member favorite is the Tuscany Adventure, where you will go to Rome, Florence, Lucca, Siena, Cinque Terre, and the Chianti Region. Szafranski has attended the Tuscany Adventure trip three times and sat down for an interview to enlighten prospective travelers about the culture, the exciting itinerary, and more.
AAA South Jersey: What is AAA Travel doing to accommodate flights for travelers? Debbie Szafranski: We book our group space for flights for all AAA South Jersey Exclusive Vacations almost a year in advance, and the rates are locked in until the travel departure date. A major area of concern from travelers right now is the increasing cost of flights, and with our fixed group air, you can avoid the last-minute stress of uprising costs. You can book with a AAA Travel Advisor to get these group rates.
AAA: Could you share one of your best memories from the Tuscany Adventure trip? D.S.: I think the most memorable day on this trip is the cooking class, because it is a family-run school, and they're just very personalized. They're a lot of fun. The chef is the mother, and she works with her two sons and daughter-in-law.
You make your food from beginning to end, and they have a beautiful charcuterie table set up and wine. Then, after that, we also had entertainment after the meal. Most of our clients just think that's really one of the best days. We made gnocchi one time; one time we made regular spaghetti with sauce and meat—and they had the meat simmering for hours. We also made dessert.
AAA: What were your favorite wines from the trip? D.S.: We had wine included in every one of our meals. My personal favorite is white wine—white, sweeter wine. We always say to people that, when you go to other countries, they include one or two glasses of wine with your meal. In Italy, they include bottles. So, it's unlimited wine when you go there.
AAA: In what ways can the itinerary options appeal to any traveler based on their unique interests? D.S.: Well, I think that it’s a more relaxed itinerary. So, you do have free time to spend; even though every day we have an itinerary of where we're going and when you get there, you have free time. So, if people want to go to museums, they have that time to do the museums. If you want to shop, you have the time to do that. Or if you want to go sightseeing, or you just want to walk through the old towns with the cobblestone streets and sit and have a drink or pizza out on the sidewalk cafes. So, I think it appeals to a lot of different people.
AAA: What is your ideal personal itinerary? D.S.: I think it's very important that you have more free time, a more relaxed itinerary, so that you're not up at the crack of dawn or moving your luggage around. We stay at one villa for six nights, so you're able to unpack and relax back at the hotel a little bit. So, I think that that's really important.
AAA: What top things should every traveler know before they depart? D.S.: Travelers should know the itinerary. They should be aware of exactly what they're getting. You know, there shouldn't be surprises on the trip. We never have an issue on the trip where they have to pay for something that's not listed. If we list what the trip entails, that is included. With some tour operators, you'll see an itinerary, and they have options if you want to pay for this extra tour they have. We never charge anything for the itinerary that you're seeing. So really, you shouldn't have bad surprises.
What is nice is that you always have someone with you in the group. You're not attached at the hip to them, but we have a travel agent that goes from airport to airport, and then we have our professional tour guide over there to answer any specific questions on the country itself. They can be on their own if they want to, but they also have the security of the group, which I think people who travel with us really like that—and they make friends. There are people that will go on one trip and then, year after year, they're traveling with the same people.
Some people like that security, especially nowadays, going to another country, I think that's really important. We do get a fair amount of single people who travel, and I think it's mainly for security.
AAA: Could you share some details about various elements of the culture that you experienced? D.S.: In Italy, even though they speak Italian, anyone that deals with tourism—whether it's in the restaurants, in the shops, touring—they all speak English. That's very important to really ask questions and get answers.
For me, I am more interested in scenery, the experience of just walking through the streets, enjoying the little towns. I'm not so much into history and museums, but you have the option of doing that, and the country is just full of historical landmarks and museums.
The shopping is incredible, incredible. The leather—oh my gosh, I have had to buy a suitcase to come home every time I go. The leather, the gold, and the silver are so very different than anywhere else. I can talk a lot about the shopping.
As far as the beauty of the country, there are tall cypress trees, and just being able to walk through a countryside, or walk into the towns through the ancient gates. You know, it's just amazing, it really pushes you back to that time when they were built.
The transportation is obviously all by motorcoach. They are usually a 50-passenger motorcoach, unless we have a small group. If we have a small group, they can give us a smaller bus, but it's always deluxe. It always has air conditioning, always has a bathroom on board, that kind of thing. When you go to Europe, it's really great because they actually have two doors on the bus, so the bus opens up and quickly disembarks in half the time than a bus with one door.
AAA: What has been the feedback from people who went on the trip? D.S.: We have never had anyone come back and complain about it. When we first started this trip back in 2018, we did tweak it somewhat. For example, we now go back into Rome on that last night because we are about three-and-a-half hours away from the airport, and that last day, the flight leaves early. When we started out, we would be leaving at like 3 a.m. to go all the way back to Rome. Now, we take a leisurely trip that last day into Rome, stay in an airport hotel and have a beautiful dinner down on the water for that last night. And, people get to see a taste of Rome. We drive past the Colosseum, we stop for lunch, so they can say that they've been in Rome, and they've seen a couple of the sites.
We tweak the trips as we see fit, so the itineraries of our trips are very different. Nobody has had this particular Tuscany trip where you stay in one hotel for six nights, or what we have included—the different places we go. I think that's really important. Everyone has had very, very positive feedback on the trips, and then what happens is that a lot of the same people will go on our other trips, years down the road. Peace of mind is really important. Just knowing, first of all, that it’s AAA, they feel a lot of security in that—also knowing that we're there with them from the beginning.
AAA: What else do you want people to know about the AAA South Jersey Exclusive Vacations? D.S.: One of the experiences of our exclusives is that they are unique itineraries. We try to make them a little bit different than what you would find in most other tour operators. When we go to Switzerland, we stay in one hotel for seven nights, and people love to be able to do that. We're not packing every other night and having to take our luggage out at 6 a.m. A lot of trips have started as a CEO trip. Tuscany started in 2018, Switzerland was the same way, Ireland—and then we've carried it on year after year.
Experience our Tuscany Adventure AAA South Jersey Exclusive Vacation this September!
