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November 24, 2025 13 mins
Despite years of rising prices, Americans are ready to pack their bags and go. The latest Consumer Pulse Survey from ALG Vacations® shows that value is top of mind for travelers in 2026, with many turning to expert travel advisors to lock in early bookings and find the perfect all-inclusive resorts to stretch their budgets while keeping vacations elevated and stylish. And one person who knows exactly how to travel smart without sacrificing style is Carson Kressley. As ALG Vacations’ Travel Advisor Champion, Carson regularly hears from advisors across the country about today’s travelers’ top concerns and what they are most excited about when planning their next year’s getaways. He will share how to make every trip feel indulgent while staying mindful of budget, from booking during off-peak times to taking advantage of timely holiday offers.

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Episode Transcript

Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:00):
You see it all the time on the commercials. Go
to this side, go to that website. Hey, if you
go here, you'll get more and more, more and more
and more. But wait, there's even more. No, there's only
one place. When it comes to the podcast aro dot
net a R R O E dot net, seventeen different
podcasts to choose from. Thanks for being a part of
the journey Aero. Hello, how are you doing, Carson?

Speaker 2 (00:22):
Never better? How are you?

Speaker 1 (00:24):
Absolutely fantastic? Dude? We have talked before, and I'll tell
you one one of the things that I've always loved
about you is is your transparency and honesty when it
comes to how we can get a better, big swing
out of life and what doctor Ronald McK and I
from Wake Forest University, we used to live by one rule.
What would Carson do in this situation? And to this day, well, dude,

(00:45):
because you get it. You totally understand realism. Thank you.
How is it that you're able to do this? It
is it because when you see things happening in front
of you, did your imagination say, well, my god, they're
getting more value without breaking the bank here, but how
can I give them even more value and do it?

Speaker 2 (01:03):
The Carson Way, Well, I just like to zurege things up,
and I think you know, that's been my mantra in life.
It's like, how can we make this better? And I also,
you know, like to get a lot of bang from
my buck. I like to get a good value. I
always have, and so whether it's fashion or interior design

(01:24):
or travel, I love helping people and showing them ways
where they can do a little better with you know,
not spending any more money.

Speaker 1 (01:34):
So what is it like for you though, when when
it seems like that what we're wearing today is either
so dang tight you might as well not be wearing anything,
or you're wearing clothes that really it's like dressing down,
but it's going to cost you four hundred dollars for
that pair of jeans.

Speaker 2 (01:48):
No, no, I know, you know, the ath leisure thing,
which I have never been a big fan of that
stuff is like super expensive now. It's like, I, you know,
part of my job is to go through malls and
stores and online and checkout pricing. And I'm always amazed
that like you know, stretch you track pants and little
you know nylon workout t shirts are like ninety five

(02:11):
dollars that just seems not right to me. So I'm
waging a war against you know, stupid purchases.

Speaker 1 (02:19):
Yeah, I would still love to take you on a
camping trip here in Carolina, only because I know that
you would walk through that campground going. You could have
done better with that. I could have saved you money
on this, And because I really think that there's a
lot of fashion in the way that people are r
vin we just don't have a Carson.

Speaker 2 (02:36):
Well, I'll put that on the list, because I.

Speaker 1 (02:39):
Mean, you really do bring forward and elegance without offending
other people, if you know what I mean. It's it's
like you, everybody wants to look and feel great, but
we don't want people to think that we're better than them.
We want people just to think, oh, I'm yeah, that's
my buddy over there. Yeah.

Speaker 2 (02:55):
I think it's just about you know whatever it is
like how you travel, how you decorate your home, how
you dress. It's about expressing yourself in a way that
makes you feel confident and happy. And that's not necessarily
about it being super elevated. It's just about it representing
you and you taking the care to kind of curate
a look or an outfit that makes you feel great.

Speaker 1 (03:17):
You get very real when it comes to having luxury
for less, and that includes lunch and dinner because you know,
people will dump their entire bank account into a lunch
because they want to look good at that table.

Speaker 2 (03:31):
No, No, I get I get that, and I you know,
I love a good, you know, dining experience. But I'm
also pretty thrifty about that as well, Like I know
when to go and where to go, and you know,
I'll cut corners here so I can spend more elsewhere.
I think there was a great Frank Wood right, I
think had a quote saying I'll gladly forego the necessities

(03:53):
to afford life's luxuries.

Speaker 1 (03:55):
Wow, So now do you think I mean, I realize
that we're all in the mood and to travel, but
have we forgotten how to travel with with TSA and
all the struggles that we're getting at airports and side however,
you got to do, do whatever you got to do, Just
get me out of here.

Speaker 2 (04:10):
No, I know it has to come a little bit
utilitarian and not fun, and that's something I'm trying to
you know, come back and you know, ALG vacations. So
have had the pleasure of working with They just sit
a survey recently, a consumer survey, and what they found
was that people still want to travel. People love the

(04:31):
experience of travel, they love the escape of travel. Ye,
but they want to make sure it's a good value.
Everybody's really budget conscious right now. And that's what I'm
trying to help people with is get that elevated experience.
They keep it easy and keep it fun. I think
that's the most important thing, is that we go on

(04:52):
vacations to escape and have fun and recharge our batteries,
and we don't want any part of it to be
a drag.

Speaker 1 (05:00):
One of the things that I've noticed with travelers that
come to this country from all over the world's they
don't come in here saying I'm from Greece, I'm from
Hong Kong. No, they like to fit into what we're doing.
Why is it Americans like to go, I am from America.
You should see me. Me me, me, me, me me.
How How can we break this cycle? Oh?

Speaker 2 (05:20):
I mean, I think there's a little bit of good
in napakas. I you know, I love being a proud
American and being patriotic and of course all of that,
and I think sometimes you know, maybe that gung ho
attitude gets us in a little bit of trouble when
we go to.

Speaker 1 (05:38):
Maybe more.

Speaker 2 (05:41):
Maybe more quiet places. But I think, you know, the
best thing to be a respectful traveler is to, you know,
embrace the local culture and you know, you don't have
to necessarily blend or fit in, but just I think
be respectful of where you're going.

Speaker 1 (05:58):
When we take these trips. Is it okay to take
a spur of the moment trip, although airports are different
these days. You can't just go in there and say
I'll take the next ticket to the next flight.

Speaker 2 (06:06):
Yeah.

Speaker 1 (06:06):
Is it better to plan it out because sometimes I
write a story before it happens, and I worry myself out.

Speaker 2 (06:13):
Yeah, no, I think that. You know, I love the
excitement of a last minute trip, but I think for
most people, I think you get a better deal if
you use a travel advisor because they know where to go,
when to go, they know when you can get the deals.
They know if off season in a certain country or
location or state is worth the savings. So that's the

(06:36):
first thing I suggest to people. And then the second
thing I always say is book early, and it's not
the last minute thing. I mean a lot of resorts,
a lot of all inclusives, even places like disney World
and Disneyland. They want to make sure they're busy all
year long. So if you're booking early, they're generally going
to offer better rates because they're hoping to fill up

(06:59):
their books earlier in the fistful year. So early it's
the way to go.

Speaker 1 (07:04):
Please do not move. We'll be back with Carson Kresley
coming up next. Hey, thank you so much for coming
back to my conversation with the legendary Carson Kresley. Is
there a better way than just doing the fad and
the fan thing? And say, I mean because when somebody
once told me, if you truly want to experience Los Angeles,
get off the main street.

Speaker 2 (07:24):
Yeah, I think. I think I prefer to travel like
a local.

Speaker 1 (07:29):
Yeah.

Speaker 2 (07:29):
And I think if you you know, if you know
somebody in a particular city, that's always great. Get the
local recommendations. I think when you find the local restaurants
and the local stores, that's really important. And again that's
another place where a travel advisor can help you know,
you know, what are the best places in a particular destination,

(07:52):
what are the places you should avoid?

Speaker 1 (07:54):
So with somebody who does travel the world the way
you do, and you're introduced to so many absolutely incredible
things you bring to us, how long does it take
for you to incorporate them in your life? Because I'll
buy something, but I won't touch it because the memories
of that something and the experience of it are far
greater than me taking it outside this house and doing
something to it or I might damage it.

Speaker 2 (08:16):
I mean, I am a blend of that. I mean,
when I'm traveling, I love to buy souvenirs from that
place that I can that I can use. Like we're
coming up on the holiday season, I'll oftentimes, you know,
I don't need soap dishes or bottles of tequilla law
or you know, multi colored iguana sculptures. But I do

(08:37):
always use Christmas ornaments. So I have a tree that's
nothing but ornaments that I've collected from all of my
travels around the world. And then every year when I'm
putting that up, I get to, you know, recall the
memories of going to Bermuda or going to Quebec City,
just trying to think of some of the ones I
have on my tree. My my double decker bus from London,

(09:00):
so I think that's a great thing to buy when
you're when you're looking for a souvenir, something useful and
has great memories and you can kind of, you know,
relive those memories every year.

Speaker 1 (09:11):
The one thing I would love to hear from you,
Carson one day is that all of these experiences that
you've had in television and traveling around the world, I
would love to either read your poetry or I would
love to hear music from you, because I know that
emotion is everything and it would come out in either
one of those.

Speaker 2 (09:31):
Well, I don't know about music. I don't have any
musical talent, and you know, I thought, you know, it's
just not my forte. But probably maybe the art that
I would express my travels invest would be photography and
I love to kind of document that on my Instagram
and all this, you know, take beautiful pictures of all
the places we go. And now that you can do

(09:53):
it with your phone, it's so easy.

Speaker 1 (09:55):
Now as that person that travels around the world, and
we are in this AI technology d world, but people
are already tired of that. Is it best to go
to a real human advisor and get them a travel
advisor and say Hey, look, can you just help me out.
I want to make sure that I get the best experience.

Speaker 2 (10:13):
Yeah. I think using a travel advisor is my number
one travel tip.

Speaker 1 (10:18):
And you know, they are more.

Speaker 2 (10:20):
Than just a travel agent. They're not just looking the
ticket or getting your hotel reservation. They are out, you know,
boots on the ground. They're exploring these locations, they're doing
site visits. They have relationships, and I think that's really
important too. They have relationships in the destination with the hotels.
They can help get you a better room, get you

(10:40):
an upgrade, get you a bottle of wine in your room.
And they also know, you know, sometimes seeing pictures online
and then actually being there is very different. So they're
going to help you avoid some of those online pitfalls
of doing it yourself.

Speaker 1 (10:57):
Yeah, because one of the things when I went to
New York City, the travel advisor said, do you want
us to get you a driver? Yes? I know nothing
about New York City. Please, Yeah, I don't want to drive, man,
And so do you run into the same thing and saying, ah,
I'm not driving, not happening.

Speaker 2 (11:13):
Yeah. If I'm going to a destination that I don't know,
I'm not going to drive I've done the thing where
I could rented a car like in Rome and it
makes me Jersey look like you know, easy driving. So
Rome is very treacherous in a car. So again, those
are tips that a travel expert, a travel advisor is

(11:33):
going to be able to give you before you've open.
And also, you don't want to waste a day of
your trip realizing you made a mistake and having to
return the rental car and go through all that, all
those hurdles. You want your trip to be smooth and
seamless and get as much value out of it as
you can.

Speaker 1 (11:49):
Doctor Mack. And I used to call you the Indiana
Jones of modern day treasures. You've lived up to that.
You know that, right?

Speaker 2 (11:57):
I love that, Thank you. And I look good in
a in a fedora, so thank you.

Speaker 1 (12:03):
See. And you're not afraid to wear things I get
when people look at what I'm wearing. I just go
leave me alone. I'm an artist. Just leave me alone.

Speaker 2 (12:11):
I say that. I'm going to start saying that as well.

Speaker 1 (12:13):
Just I love that I'm an artist. Just let me go.
Just you know, we we can do it. We can
do And to me, that's what's missing from this generation.
Is that show off your art, be like Carson. You
know what would Carson do right now? Carson would be
Carson exactly.

Speaker 2 (12:28):
Be an individual. I think that's really important, and I
think you know, online and social media and all of
that has kind of gotten us into a herd mentality
of like, we have to do what's trending, we have
to do you know what's right for you.

Speaker 1 (12:42):
Where can people go to find out about what you're
doing right now? Carson, because you're always on the move
and I don't want people to think that you fell
off the front page because you have not.

Speaker 2 (12:50):
You're always I appreciate that arrow. If you want more
like great travel tips, traveler advice, packing tips, all of that,
how to travel stylishly, how to travel with great value
on you can go to travel Advisors. Get you there
dot com. And if you want to see those pictures

(13:12):
I was talking about and all the places I'm going
and all the TV shows I'm working on, you can
just follow me at Carson Kresley on all social media,
but I prefer Instagram. That's the one I use the most.

Speaker 1 (13:23):
I love it, man, I love where your heart is
and I love that you've got the courage to share
it with the rest of the world, because so many
people would make it so personal. But you're going no,
I want to share it exactly.

Speaker 2 (13:34):
You know, we don't have a lot of time on
the planets. We might as well have fun and express ourselves.

Speaker 1 (13:39):
So true. Please come back to this show anytime in
the future. The door is always going to be open
for you.

Speaker 2 (13:45):
Thank you, Erro, I appreciate it.

Speaker 1 (13:47):
Will you be brilliant today? Okay, I will, and you
do the same
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