Stories of things going wrong are our bread and butter in the travel trade media. Agent saves clients’ wedding from disaster! Agents work through the night repatriating clients! Agent rescues client’s teddy from sinking sightseeing boat!
There’s nothing like sniffing out a juicy headline to get a travel journalist’s blood pumping.
But how often do we stop and thank agents for a job well done…. which to be frank, is most of the time? How often do we praise agents for supporting clients to travel around the world, hassle-free, enjoying the best experiences that destinations can offer and making joyous memories?
Time to confess… when I was in my 20s and 30s, I didn’t use a travel agent. I didn’t see the need, because usually it was just me travelling, or I was with a friend, and I enjoyed the researching and the organising almost as much as the act of travelling and exploring new places. I would happily spend hours browsing websites, firing off emails to guest houses, and mapping out routes with a trusty Lonely Planet.
That version of me no longer exists… life has changed. I have a husband and two school-age children now. I work almost full-time, I run a household, I’m in two class WhatsApp groups plus the PTA chat group for my children’s school. I’m perimenopausal (translation – more anxious about life than I was a decade ago). I no longer travel on a whim; everything has to be planned around school holidays, work commitments and not unlimited budgets.
Holidays are precious, and I’m not prepared to throw caution to the wind, taking a risk on something that might not live up to expectations, because I haven’t done my due diligence.
Happily, two years ago my good friend, Jayne, became a Travel Counsellor. Our friendship goes back 25 years to our time at Birmingham University. She’s organised many a ‘Brum girls’ get-together since. She’s now doing a job she was born to do. I’d be an idiot not to use her.
Earlier this year, I gave her a maximum budget, and a list of requirements: Greece. Easy access to a harbour town with proper authentic Greek restaurants. A family-friendly pool. A sandy beach with a gently-shelving shoreline. Flying from Gatwick. On a Saturday or a Sunday. No long transfer. Not Crete, Kos nor Halkidiki (I’m a stickler for going somewhere new).
Our emails went back and forth. Her first four or five suggestions were all tempting. But maybe the beach wasn’t quite as I’d envisaged. Or the hotel too blocky. Or the harbour view not ‘scenic’ enough. Then Jayne came up trumps. Parga Beach Resort, a little over an hour from Preveza, ticked all our boxes. I paid the deposit and breathed a sigh of relief… our Greece holiday was a go!
I had no idea when we chose our August dates that the last night of our week away coincided with the Parga Festival, blending religious traditions and historical significance, and culminating in a theatrical music and fireworks show over Parga Town’s picturesque harbour. I doubt I would have realised it was taking place until we arrived, if Jayne had not tipped me off about it.
Not only that, she researched the best restaurant terrace to view the fireworks, and found out the exact date when they would start taking bookings. In the event, owing to the cost of the fancy set menu, which would’ve been wasted on our children, we ditched the idea of a sit-down dinner and freestyled the festival, finding a viewpoint where we could watch the goose-bump-inducing firework show for free. But I was left in no doubt that my friend was leaving no stone unturned when it came to researching the best possible experiences for her clients.
I was grateful for her reminders to pay the balance and when we needed to check in for our flights, and for providing a host of other tips that enhanced our stay, such as using the water taxi between Valtos Beach (where Parga Beach Resort is located) and Parga Town. Three euros each for the 10-minute ride, it became a highlight of the holiday and a fun way to travel to dinner.
I’m happy to report that our holiday went swimmingly… which I mean quite literally when it came to my children… who spent a blissful week jumping in the pool, on repeat.
To my immense relief, our flights departed on time or thereabouts, and our transfers turned up as booked. I took none of that for granted, given the amount of travel disruption that hits the headlines these days, such as air traffic control meltdowns, strikes, wildfires and then there’s the stuff you can’t predict…
Mercifully we had no crisis that prompted a trip to the local medical centre – just a couple of ‘ouchies’ that were healed with the miraculous power of ice cream. We didn’t lose anything vital such as passports, phones or credit cards. It was a textbook happy holiday.
What I loved was Jayne’s non-intrusive reassuring presence… a Whatsapp after we landed in Greece, a personalised in-room welcome note, checking in with us mid-way through, and a welcome home message.
Had anything gone wrong, I would’ve known exactly what to do, who to call, even out of hours, and I liked that feeling that we were in safe hands and we had a team of people to look out for us. Not just Jayne but the TC network too.
And that is why now I’ve experienced the value and level of reassurance that using a travel agent can add to our family holiday, I won’t be going back to the dark side.
Jayne, prepare yourself, I’ve got another lengthy list of requirements for our next holiday… I’ll give you a call.
