Why You Should Use A Travel Advisor To Plan Your Next Trip
source: unsplash
As enjoyable and memorable as traveling is (meant to be), it requires equally as much work to make each trip a reality. Travel isn’t all about getting it right, hitting the most popular attractions, or cramming in as much as possible – it’s about making the most of your unique vacation.
Because traveling should be a completely personalized experience that looks different for everyone.
So whether you’re a seasoned traveler who knows how to plan a good vacation or you’re frankly overwhelmed by the seemingly never-ending logistics, here are the top five reasons why you should use a travel advisor to plan your next trip.
Reason #1: A travel advisor is a person just like you
Sometimes you need a human on the other end of the line. No computer booking system, no fancy algorithms, no automated messages. One of the best things about using a travel advisor is having access to a real live person!
You have access to someone who’s literally made it their business to help you create your ideal vacation.
You have someone to get to know you, your travel preferences, your likes, and dislikes. Someone to use that information to make your experience the absolute best it can be, with an itinerary curated specifically for you. And to ensure you head back home feeling like you got what you came for, whatever that is for you — solace, rejuvenation, adventure, nostalgia, or anything else under the sun.
Reason #2: Planning. Is. Exhausting.
Let’s be honest, planning a vacation is no simple task. To do it well, planning takes a lot of research...and research takes a lot of time. And who has the time to spend hours upon hours researching? Travel destinations, hotel and restaurant reviews, activities to do, sights to see, food to eat...
What sources do you trust? Is that review even real? How do you know what’s worth it and what’s not?! Not to mention everything that comes after the research — planning every detail down to flight arrangements and transportation schedules, hotel bookings, tours and activities, restaurant reservations, budgeting, and so much more. Even if you love to plan, the amount of research, decision-making, and logistics that go into planning a vacation make for an exhausting and time-consuming undertaking.
That’s precisely why travel advisors exist: so you can skip all the work, save loads of your precious time, and fast-forward to the fun part.
Reason #3: Recommendations you can trust
In addition to offering tailored, personalized service and saving you from the abyss of online search engines, a travel advisor will give you honest advice and recommendations along the way. They can tell you why that cruise doesn’t sound like the best fit for your family, what restrictions that hotel currently has in place, when’s the best time of year to visit that city, or whether that expensive show is worth the hit to your budget.
Rather than trying to decipher countless contradictory reviews from strangers, you have access to someone you can actually trust!
Someone who’s an expert in their field. Someone who’s already done the research. Someone who’s keeping all of the important things in mind so you don’t have to.
Reason #4: Perks of being in the biz
Travel advisors are professionals, and you get to reap the benefits of their knowledge, connections, and access.
Their exclusive relationships with suppliers plus their access to industry resources and tools = lots of perks for you.
Perks like being able to secure the best rates for whatever it is you’re booking (hotels, airfare, events, etc.), and on top of that, save money you didn’t even know you could save. Perks like room upgrades, better seats or tickets, extra amenities, and more value-adds to your trip. Perks like exclusive access to exotic or premium travel experiences that are only available through a professional. You can be sure you’re getting the quality you want and deserve, and thanks to your travel advisor’s expertise and partnerships, at a great price. Everybody wins. Especially you!
Reason #5: At the end of the day, you’re still in charge
You get to be as involved (or uninvolved) as you want in this whole process, and at the end of the day, it’s still your vacation. You can be a part of every decision along the way, adjusting plans and itineraries with your travel advisor as you go. You can tap them for inspiration, budget options, or travel advice and run with it yourself. Or you can leave them every ounce of grunt work and logistics and just approve the final plans. But no matter how you use your travel advisor, ultimately, you’re the one in charge.
You’re the one with the final say. And — the best part — you’re the one that gets to go on the best vacation ever.
source: unsplash
by Carly Weaver
Carly, a New-Jersey-native-turned-Los-Angeles-local, has worked in digital marketing for the past decade doing everything from copywriting to creative production to brand strategy. But she’s always had three great loves: food, travel, and writing. That’s where Ogden Pacific comes in.
All-time favorite travel story? That time she slept in a drawer in a Florence hospital. All-time favorite meal? Well, as a decidedly unemotional person she’s been moved to tears by a single bite of food more than once...so let’s not even go there right now. All-time favorite destinations? The Jersey Shore for Springer’s Homemade Ice Cream and pure nostalgia. The British Virgin Islands for endless crystal clear seas and some of the nicest people on earth. Montana for that clean, crisp, mountain air and $2 Moose Drools enjoyed over dive bar shuffleboard. And Italy for literally...every...single...thing. Including that bite of burrata she cried over.
She’s here to help inform you, guide you, entertain you, and inspire you to find your next all-time favorite trip. (And also to help make sure you don’t end up in a drawer while you’re there.)