Home At First — Custom, Independent, International Travel.

Realizing Your International Travel Dreams —

Custom, Independent, International Travel from Home At First.

Your journey begins in the immense sky.
Over the vast ocean, you sleep
high above the storm.

SIX STEPS TO MAKING YOUR Custom, INDEPENDENT, international Travel DREAMS COME TRUE —

1. DREAM

Do you dream of Custom, Independent, International Travel?

Do you dream of custom, independent, international travel?
• Maybe stories you have read or movies you have seen have inspired you.
• Or, maybe tracing family roots is your ambition.
• Or, maybe music, theater, or sports are your focused goals.
Whatever your reasons to travel overseas, your travel dreams can come true. This is where the travel experts at Home At First come in.

2. dESIGN

Tell us your travel dreams. We will plan your custom, independent, international travel to make your dream trip a reality.

Tell us your travel dreams. We design a free trip proposal for you, with all the right flights, lodgings, & ground transport you need to turn your international travel dreams into realities, efficiently and economically. Only when you accept your personalized trip design is your deposit payment due. Once your deposit is received, we put in place all the arrangements to make your dream trip come to life.

3. dAYDREAM

Reading & Daydreaming about your custom, independent, international travel destination will prepare you for the real thing.

Read & daydream about your trip! Before your trip begins you receive a comprehensive guidebook keyed for your destinations. Thirty days prior to your departure you receive all necessary trip documents (tickets, vouchers, passes) plus detailed arrival information, including your overseas addresses, contact information for your lodgings and your hosts, and specific meeting plans for arrival day.

4. dEPART

Departure Day: Your custom, independent, international travel begins in the sky as you fly away from the familiar to a new land of adventure.

Departure Day. Check-in and Security and two hours of Waiting-to-Board (sorry). Then the big bird soars, and the wise flier snores. Too soon breakfast interrupts rudely, signifying the approaching landing. Terra Incognita appears out the cabin window. A new world appears as if out of your airplane slumber. Dreams begin to transform into first impressions, but not yet hardened enough to be considered realities.

5. dECOMPRESS

Decompressing when you arrive at your destination: stress falls away and magic begins: your custom, independent, international travel dreams are coming true.

Arrival Day. In some prearranged way — train, bus, taxi, rental car — you find your foggy way to your first night’s lodging. Bed’s invitation wrestles with your curiosity to explore, and bed mostly wins, at least for a couple of hours. You wake in a new place where you barely remember arriving. Time seems as fuzzy as your mind is groggy. You are hungry. Your first meal will help reestablish order. Relaxation begins, and Peace happens.

6. dISCOVER

Discover: a first stroll lets you explore your surroundings. Everything is new, including you. Your custom, independent, international travel takes you to the places you have dreamed of.

Your custom, independent, international travel dream begins. A new morning — the first day of your new life. Take a walk. Eat a fresh pastry with a reassuring coffee or a change-up tea. Watch & listen closely. Hear strange language: even English words now sound foreign. Observe all around you. Dare to speak, to order, to shop. Can you find your way home? Home. Your new home. Comfortable. Roomy. You’re Home At First.

FIND YOUR CUSTOM, INDEPENDENT, INTERNATIONAL TRAVEL DREAM DESTINATION HERE:

Home At First Destinations

Our World of Custom, Independent, International Travel

Featuring Quality Hosted Lodgings

Jump ahead to see our Current Travel Bargains.

Open to visitors. No Covid tests or locator form required.

LONDON

SUPERBLY LOCATED CENTRAL LONDON APARTMENTS:

• Tower Bridge North

near historic Tower of London & Tower Hill tube.

• Tower Bridge South

in fashionable riverside Bermondsey.

• London Bridge North

near Monument tube station.

• London Bridge South

near London Bridge station.

Open to visitors. No Covid tests or locator form required.

ENGLAND

COTTAGES IN FOUR
ENGLISH REGIONS

•The Cotswolds

Heart of England

•Cornwall & Devon

The West Country

•The Lake District

Northwest England

• The Yorkshire Dales

North Yorkshire

& by SPECIAL REQUEST:

• Cambridge • Oxford
• Cheshire & Shropshire
• The Midlands

Central England

Open to visitors. No Covid tests or locator form required.

SCOTLAND

LODGINGS IN THREE SCOTTISH REGIONS:

• The Central Highlands

Scotland’s Heartland

• Edinburgh

Scotland’s Historic Capital

•Inverness & North

The Northern Highlands

& by SPECIAL REQUEST:

• Glasgow
• The Borders
• Isle of Skye
• Mull & Iona
• Outer Hebrides
• Orkney & Shetland

Open to visitors. No Covid tests or locator form required.

WALES

COTTAGES IN TWO
NATIONAL PARK REGIONS OF WALES

• Mid-Wales

Brecon Beacons Nat’l. Park

• Northwest Wales

Snowdonia Nat’l. Park

& by SPECIAL REQUEST:

• Southwest Wales
Pembrokeshire Coast National Park

Ireland & No. Ireland open to visitors without Covid restrictions.

IRELAND

COTTAGES & APARTMENTS IN FIVE IRISH REGIONS:

• Central Ireland

Tipperary & Clare

• Southwest Ireland

Cork & Kerry

• Northwest Ireland

Donegal & Sligo

• Northern Ireland

Antrim & Londonderry

• Dublin City Apts.

Dublin

Open to vaccinated North Americans without Covid restrictions.

PARIS

LEFT & RIGHT BANK
PARIS APARTMENT LOCATIONS:

Central Paris
Apartments

in safe, attractive, desirable neighborhoods near attractions, the Métro, restaurants, and services:

Arrondissements 1-8, 11, & 18.

& by SPECIAL REQUEST:

• Provence
• Normandy
• Alsace

Open to vaccinated Americans & Canadians. No testing or restrictions.

ITALY

ROME, TUSCANY, & 5 SPECIAL REQUEST REGIONS:

• Central Rome Apts.

• Tuscany: Siena Estate

• Tuscany: Hill Country

& by SPECIAL REQUEST:

• Amalfi Coast

• Cinque Terre

• Florence

• Venice

• Sicily

Open to all visitors. No Covid testing or other restrictions.

SWITZERLAND

APTS. & CHALETS ACROSS THE SWISS ALPS:

• Bernese Oberland Alps:

Mürren & Kandersteg

• Italian Switzerland:

Locarno & its neighbors

• The Valaisian Alps:

The Matterhorn & Zermatt

& by SPECIAL REQUEST:

• Eastern Switzerland:
Pontresina, the Bernina Alps, & the Upper Engadine

Open to all visitors. No Covid testing or other restrictions.

ICELAND

CIRCLING ICELAND:
THE RING ROAD TRIP

Boutique Hotels, Inns,
& Apartments around
Iceland’s Ring Road
including Reykjavik,
volcanoes & glaciers.

Independent discovery set itineraries of 3, 7, & 10 day lengths, or custom-made for your budget, interests, and time constraints.

Iceland is combinable with most European destinations.

Open to vaccinated Americans & Canadians. No testing or restrictions.

DENMARK

LODGINGS IN THREE DANISH REGIONS:

• Zealand: Copenhagen & Roskilde

• Odense & Funen

• Aarhus, Aalborg, & Jutland

Classic lodging locations in Copenhagen & Roskilde. Special request locations throughout Denmark.

Open to vaccinated Americans & Canadians. No testing or restrictions.

NORWAY

OSLO, BERGEN, &
THE FJORDS

Plus Stavanger, Kristiansand, Lillehammer, Ålesund, Trondheim, Lofoten, & Tromsø

Lodgings at 8 classic & 5 special request Norwegian locations including the World Heritage Site fjords.

Open to vaccinated Americans & Canadians. No testing or restrictions.

SWEDEN

LODGINGS IN FIVE CLASSIC REGIONS:

• Stockholm

• Uppsala

• Gothenburg

• Lakeland

• West Coast

Boutique Hotels, Inns, & Apartments at 5 classic & 4 special request locations across Sweden.

Open to vaccinated visitors. Pre-entry test, 2 on-site tests, & visitor locator form required.

NEW ZEALAND

NORTH & SOUTH ISLANDS — A ROAD TRIP OF DISCOVERY:

Individually planned itineraries using boutique lodgings with outstanding hosting in:

• 7 North Island regions

• 7 South Island regions

Vaccinated US, UK, & Canadian visitors welcome with pre-arrival test & form.

BERMUDA

BETWEEN BRITAIN &
THE CARIBBEAN:

Bermuda offers much
more than its famed pink sand beaches. We offer cottages & inns across the island.

OPEN to vaccinated Americans & Canadians: Denmark, Finland, France, Germany, Greece, Holland, Iceland, Ireland, Italy, Norway, Portugal, Spain, Sweden Switzerland, & the UK.

CUSTOM EUROPE

COUNTRIES WE CUSTOM-PLAN DREAM TRIPS TO:

• Britain • Ireland

• Finland • Iceland

• Germany • Holland

• Greece • Italy

• Portugal • Spain

• France • Switzerland

• Denmark • Norway • Sweden

A Letter from Home…

Spring, 2022. Spring reminds us of the fleeting essence of time. Spring inspires new life, graduations, weddings – and travel. For travelers, spring is a time of urgency: the time to convert winter’s travel dreams into firm plans, lest another season of opportunities passes. But, given the world’s worrisome realities, should we dare to travel?

The Risks of Covid: We encourage you not to postpone realizing your travel dreams again. Covid has already stolen two years of international travel opportunities. We can expect future waves of Covid to flow and ebb again. Scientists have found ways to protect us from its worst ravages. If we stay vaccinated and take reasonable care, we can travel internationally with minimum Covid risk, just as we do at home.

The Risks of Waiting: Next year, or the year after, will you still be this young? Will you always be as healthy and fit as you are now? Will your kids or grandchildren still be interested in traveling with you? Will airfares and other travel costs be lower next year?

The Risks of War in the Ukraine: Freedom to travel across borders is a right of free expression always under threat by autocratic governments. Now Russia’s Putin is trying to reverse history. But there’s no putting the genie back in the bottle, unless the genie goes back voluntarily. And that’s where travel comes in. If we all stay home, globalism stops, unity with other democratic nations disintegrates, and autocracies become empowered to expand. We will not cower from dictators and trade our freedom for fear.

The Risks of Doing Nothing: Hiding from these threats, ironically, only increases their risk. By choosing to live, and to let live, and to care for one another and our environment, we have the best chances for prolonging human history, and, indeed, life on earth. Empathy springs from our getting to know each other. International commerce and cooperation help this process along. Importantly, so does international travel. Even the “bucket list” kind that individuals pursue.

Are you with us? When you want to travel — and following two years of pandemic that time may be 2022 — remember, Home At First is ever ready to make your travel dreams come true.

— Ron Fahnestock, Editor

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