When our kids were young we took very simple vacations that were easy for Andrew to travel. A road trip here or there and long weekends in the florida keys. As our kids have gotten bigger and we have wanted to maximize school breaks and memories as a family, our vacations have turned a bit harder to plan.
Andrew actually loves being the vacation planner and researcher but with his work schedule we kept pushing out vacations due to lack of time for the effort to plan a great trip. 4 years ago I traveled with HC Travel Firm on a work trip. Every detail was perfect for our group of women and I knew I needed to add this for our family also!
Our first trip we planned with Heather was in 2019. We planned a full trip to Scotland for April 2020….. Well, you can imagine what happened here.
In the summer of 2021 we tried again. With Heather’s help we planned a trip to Yellowstone and Grand Teton National Park. Heather has a national parks expert on her team so the expertise of both Leah and Heather made this trip fantastic!
In summer 2022, with Heathers help we planned a Roadtrip from Virginia up to Boston, and then all the way to Maine to visit Acadia National park. She planned our route, hotels and stops along the way.
In summer 2023 we were finally confident enough the world would not close and we tried for Europe again. We planned a 7 day trip to Ireland with the kids. Heather planned our full itinerary and helped us with a driver which was one of our favorite parts of the trip.
We have some fun trips planned for 2024 and I cannot wait to share the destinations! Common questions I get about working with a travel agent is mostly about the cost associated with their services. They do charge a planning fee but they have a free consultation available so that you can decide if they would be a great fit for you.
Andrew and I generally sit down first and set a budget for our trip. From there we give 75% to Heather for hotels, rental cars and excursions and keep back 25% for flights and food. If you aren’t familiar with budgeting for travel Heather can absolutely help you ballpark destinations. Their website is a great resource for common questions.
We choose to work with a travel agent because it absolutely saves us time and energy researching our destinations. They also keep us on time for planning and booking our trips each year so that we do not fall behind and all of a sudden find ourselves without anything booked. We have generally been working 8-15 months in advance depending on the destination and length of trip. As you can see from our last 4 years of traveling we absolutely love planning with HC travel firm and wont travel any other way!
