Growing up in Winnipeg, Canada, I looked forward to Folklorama, an annual summer festival celebrating cultures from around the world. Perhaps that’s why traveling and exploring other lands captured my attention from a young age.

For as long as I can remember, I’ve always wanted to be a Flight Attendant.  I wanted to travel the world and this was how I wanted to do it.  As a flight attendant, I learned which airports were the best for connections, how to make the most of a layover and how to fly most comfortably. Shifting focus, I worked at luxury hotels in Winnipeg and then in Scottsdale, Arizona as a Concierge where I catered to many VIP’s including many celebrities as well as the Queen of England.  As a Certified Concierge, I’m a member of the National Concierge Association in Arizona, I am in contact with concierges all over the world. Just as I share recommendations on my current hometown, Scottsdale, with my network, I can reach out for recommendations for my clients, wherever they are headed. 

During a ten year hiatus as a stay-at-home mom, I was the go-to person for my friends about their travels, so when I was ready to go back to work, I took a Travel Leaders training course and became a certified travel advisor and joined Protravel International — the countries top luxury travel agency — as a luxury travel advisor, offering concierge-level services. 

I have traveled extensively around Canada, Western & Eastern Europe, Cuba, the United States, Mexico, Thailand, Philippines, as well as locally Hawaii and Arizona. My interests include adventure, wellness, culinary and cultural travel, honeymoons, river and ocean cruising, and I consider myself a curator of individual, family and group travel.

I like to offer my clients special culinary and cultural experiences. In Thailand, for example, I can arrange cooking classes and suggest restaurants such as my favorite Koh Samui food shack, where you pick out your seafood from a pond, and they prepare it on the spot.    

To dig deeper into Thai culture, I suggest visiting Chiang Rai and Chiang Mai, and trekking to the Hill Tribes. One of the most unusual is the Karen People. Guides will take you to their villages where you can buy jewelry and see a very different vision of beauty. The women there keep adding brass rings around their necks to extend them beyond anything you can imagine. 

I believe part of my job is to educate you about what you will be encountering—both the good and the bad. Morocco is beautiful, but on my first trip there, I was unprepared for the experience of going into a market and found it overwhelming. Everyone was shoving things in my face and demanding I look at their wares. It felt unfriendly. And then the microphones would startle me when they blared the call to prayer. The noise and the people grabbing at my attention in a foreign language were overwhelming. If you are prepared, then you can enjoy it.   A visit back to Morocco is definitely in my books again someday, this place offers so much more and the best part of traveling is experiencing all the country has to offer. 

Traveling opens your eyes to the world. What I love most about being a travel advisor is that I am offering everlasting experiences and helping people do something that enhances, and potentially, changes their lives. What are your travel dreams?