As it is with many of my associates, travel is my second career. To be honest, there’s not much adventure in the banking industry, not much mystery, not much… joy. So in 1996 I left the banking business and took a course in travel at the local university. I didn’t have much of an idea how it all might turn out, I just knew I wanted to chart a new course for my life. When I naively asked my professor, “But how do I get a job?”… he referred me to a Virtuoso agency. What a change it has made in my life!
I’ve always loved seeing and studying the ancient, the unusual, relics from Greek ruins or the Four Corners in America’s southwest. But I never knew I could make a career of sharing that love, that fascination with others. And the people! Once in Athens, during a taxi strike, our hotelier put us in his own car and drove us to the airport. We were given a send-off by local youths singing “She’ll Be Comin’ Round the Mountain” – in Greek! (There’s a bit of intrigue to that story as well. Ask me when we meet – it’s a story I love to tell!)
But the most important people I’ve met in my second career are my clients. They are not a “sale” to me. My clients become my friends. Whether I’m arranging for a Catholic church group visit to Oberammergau for the passion play, or customizing the details for an amateur archaeologist visiting Sicily… This is not just a job. I listen to what my clients say, and I care about what they do and how they do. My clients and I have more than a business relationship, we have a personal relationship. A relationship built on trust.
Destinations:
Antigua and Barbuda, Aruba, Bahamas, Barbados, British Virgin Islands, Cayman Islands, Saint Lucia, Saint Martin, Turks and Caicos Islands, Mexico, U.S. Virgin Islands, Saint Kitts and Nevis, United States-Hawaii