10 Times a Travel Advisor could have saved me
Hi! I’m Hillary, the chaotic solo traveler behind the GWA Travel Collective blog.
As some of you may know, I am a mid-budget full time traveler who half plans/half wings it along the way.
While this is a mostly great lifestyle for me, it is certainly not without it’s ups, downs, chaos and stress.
There are many, many times when I wish someone else would just plan things for me and tell me what to do, or someone I could call when I find myself in a bind (which happens more times than I would like to admit).
If you are still on the fence about using a travel advisor, and where and how they can be beneficial, allow me to be your cautionary tale with these 10 instances where a travel advisor would have saved me time, stress, and money.
Do you know who would have told me 50 minutes is not enough time to comfortably make it through Amsterdam Airport on an international connection? A Travel Advisor.
Do you know who did it when she booked her own flight then had 22 minutes to sprint through the airport and beg her way to the front of the line at immigration, to arrive at her gate JUST in time, dripping sweat and gasping for air? Me.
Do you know who would have arranged seamless transportation for me when I arrived at the Cancun Airport and needed to get to Playa Del Carmen? A travel advisor.
Do you know who decided to take the bus but arrived without pesos and was told you needed to pay in local cash? Got hit with a big ATM fee, then found out you could in fact use a credit card? Me.
Do you know who would have known that booking a hotel in Alfama, Lisbon in June would mean not sleeping, everything smelling like sardines, and revelers partying late into the night due to festivals? Or that many shops and restaurants would be closed on Ascension Day in France? A travel advisor.
Do you know who would have saved me from a death-defying, terrifying drive in the dark from the airport in Costa Rica because I arrived after 6:00pm? Or known that the drive to Istanbul airport takes more than 3 times as long during rush hour and allowing an extra 30 minutes is absolutely not enough? A travel advisor.
Do you know who would have insisted I had travel insurance for every trip in the event of a missed flights, delays, lost luggage, overbooked hotel, etc? A Travel agent.
Do you know who missed her flight in Paris because there were numerous gate changes and she missed the last change, thus missing her flight and had to pay for an additional night in Paris AND a whole new flight (at $400) because she didn’t have travel insurance? Me.
If I had used a travel advisor, I might not be sitting in Mexico on a 39 day visa when my flight is in 41.
I also would have saved a lot of time and energy frantically trying to find a solution … which I eventually just called Gina for.
If I had used a travel advisor, I may not have traveled during: hurricane season, spring break, local holidays, heatwaves, etc. I may have realized there are not big waves in Nazare outside of certain times and might not have scrambled to find accommodations in Rome because the US president was visiting at the same time a global conference was taking place.
When I flew with my friend’s dog, the amount of paperwork and information needed had my head spinning.
The criteria seemed to change every other day and the fear of not being able to take her on the plane with me or pass through immigration due to missing a requirement or line on a form was more overwhelming than planning a year of travel. A travel advisor would have saved me the stress and anxiety of flying with a very precious canine carry on.
It often feels like there is just SO much to know when it comes to traveling somewhere new and knowing what to research, where to find the most up to date information, and what is accurate can be very overwhelming. I have blindly assumed Uber exists places it does not, assumed I could tap a credit card on transit I needed a physical ticket for, been shocked by prices of things I didn’t book in advance… the list goes on.
These are all things a travel advisor could and would have advised me on (really, the benefit is in the job title) that would have saved me a great deal of trouble shooting, stress, and money in the moment.
This list could probably be 100 bullet points long. Travel comes with so many moving pieces and can come with many unknowns and stressors both while planning and being on vacation, but you don’t need to be like me.
A travel advisor can truly be your travel angel from planning to executing and in the event of any unexpected hiccups along the way.
