Recommendation Report

MEMORANDUM

May 6, 2013

TO: Miles Espley, Father, and Shelley Espley, Mother

FROM: Kevin Espley

SUBJECT: Recommendation to Travel to England.
 

At your request I have thoroughly researched two potential locations for our annual summer vacation. The sole purpose of this report is to clearly state my recommendation of a location for my high school graduation trip. After countless hours of researching and talking to travel agencies, I have decided between two very good destinations: England and the Hawaiian Islands. Using your suggestions and concerns during this process I have come up with the following criteria for the ideal vacation spot:

1. Cost
2. Attractions
3. Time

Recommendation

After careful consideration I recommend that we travel to England for our annual summer vacation. This destination overall will only cost about $2,500 per person which fits perfectly into our intended budget. It has thousands of different tourist and local attractions for us to choose from while we're there including Dad's childhood home. Finally, with the time frame we have there is enough do to keep us busy for the extent of our trip with minimal wasted time.
 

COST

Due to our savings that we have accumulated over the past several years, we came up with the family budget of $3,000 per person for whatever we choose to do.
 

England:The flight there will be $600 round-trip in business class. While there we will generally travel by car or train which roughly translates to about $400 if we are inclined to travel vast distances. After searching the possible hotels along our route, there are a variety of cheap motels and even hostiles that we will be able to stay in inexpensively depending on how we feel. If we choose to only stay in motels, and sometimes nicer hotels, we will need just above $600. Meals will range in price, but taking into account the number of times we'll eat and the average price of food the cost should come out to approximately $500. After everything is said and done, our overall expenditure will add to about $2,100. Since we will be so far below budget there will be plenty of spending money, but I suggest we take $500 or less.
 

Hawaiian Islands: The flight there round-trip will cost about $450 in business class. While there we will have to go from our hotel to different parts of whichever island we're on by car. Going from island to island we'll either have to take a short flight or go by boat which will go up anywhere from $400-500 depending on how much we want to explore. There are generally going to be three star hotels or better on the parts of the islands that we would be going to which will end up hurting our budget. The price for that will end up being very close to, if not more than, $1,300. Meals are trickey to calculate, but the general cost for us to eat regularly and well will be anywhere from $450-600. Without spending money for miscellaneous items our total comes to $2,850, so my suggestion would be to go to $3,000 at most.
 

Conclusion: Both locations fit into our budget, and both seem very worthy of the price. However, the Hawaiian Islands will require us to spend a significant amount more than England and comes very close to being over-budget. England not only gives us a financial safety cushion in case we have unexpected costs, but it also will save us well over $500!
 

ATTRACTIONS

We will be spending a large amount of time at our desired location. Therefore, we need to pick a place that can entertain and excite us every day that we'll be there. It must not seem repetitious or boring in any way because our adventure will quickly lose its luster.
 

England: First and foremost, the greatest attraction in all of England for all of us would be the Isle of Wight where Dad was born and raised. He knows the area very well so he'll be able to provide us with a sentimental and in-depth tour. Next would be Portsmouth where my uncle, Adrian, currently lives. I have never had the chance to meet him, and it has been years since either of you have seen him; this is our opportunity to change that. After that of course would be London. Mom would especially enjoy visiting this bustling city and look through the different shops to see the foreign fashion trends. Along with all of that we'll all be able to go to a plethora of other places on our journey as well. We can see the Westminster Abby, Buckingham Palace, the Prime Minister's residence, Big Ben, and many other incredible sites.

 

Hawaiian Islands: The main attractions that the Hawaiian Islands are known for are of course their tropical weather and beautiful beaches. There are tours that we can go on to explore various areas on the island, both by jeep and on foot. We can go hiking on many of the enchanting paths and see the exotic plants as well. We can individually explore the gorgeous landscape so long as Mom's back stays pain free and mobile for long enough. We'll have to find activities that put less strain on her bad disks, so the time between hiking and exploring has to be very spread out. We can snorkel in the clear ocean and even learn to surf, but we'll have to leave Mom back on shore. She will have time to relax on the warm sand, but we'll need to included her as often as we can.

 

Conclusion: The Hawaiian Islands would be a blast to say the least, but due to the physical part of most of the experiences there, Mom would, more often then not, have to be excluded. There are many tours and breathtaking scenes, but they are limited and similar; after long enough they will start becoming very monotonous. On the other hand, England offers a more broad selection of options for us to take part in. Most activities won't put too much pressure on Mom's back, and if she starts to get worn out there are plenty of places to sit and relax. Dad's heritage and memories reside in England, so that is the biggest reason out of them all as to why it is necessary for us to go there.
 

TIME

We only have three weeks to fit in everything that we want to do so we have to go somewhere that allows us to do as much as we can in the time we have. We don't wont the travel to take up a majority of the time, but we also don't want to waste time by doing the same thing over and over.
 

England: The flight to get here takes about fourteen hours, so we will be starting off with about a day gone if you include the time to go back home. There is more than enough to make up for it though. If we do as we planned and start at the Isle of Wight, that alone will fill up a little over two days to tour and see what Dad's experiences were like. We can spend another full day with Adrian in order to catch up and see the way that he lives his life. Once the family matters are taken care of, there is still about two weeks left to head Northeast to London and all of the places on the way. We can spend days in London wandering the shops, seeing the historic monuments and places, and intertwining ourselves with the community. That leaves us plenty of time to drive from one miscellaneous spot to another and taking in the wonders that will no doubt befall us. 
 

Hawaiian Islands: Taking into account the time to fly there and back only about half of a day is wasted. We will start on the main island and allocate a few days to each island so we'll have plenty of time to explore each. With days to spend on each island there will be no rush and we will no doubt be able to relax. The only issue will be trying to find enough activities to keep us entertained from island to island because we'll essentially be doing the same thing day in and day out. We can spend some days on the beach, others in big parts of town, and definitely leave time to explore, but we will have to get creative so that we do not stick to the same schedule every day.
 

Conclusion: All in all both places have good reasons to go to them. The islands will leave a lot of time for relaxation, and England will be filled with all sorts of different events. Because of the almost inevitable possibility for the Hawaiian Islands to drag on and repeat form one day to the next, I believe that England is the clear choice. There is always something new and interesting to do, so the chances of our vacation becoming dull is nearly impossible.