Specialties
Regions: Africa, Latin America, Southeast Asia
Travel Type: Safaris, Expedition Cruises, Luxury Travel, Family & Multi-Generational Travel
Special Interests: History & Culture, Food & Wine, Nature & Wildlife, City Tours
Destinations Visited
Africa: Egypt, Kenya, Tanzania, Uganda, South Africa, Botswana, Zimbabwe, Seychelles
Latin America: Argentina, Ecuador & The Galapagos Islands, Brazil, Uruguay, Peru, Chile, Mexico, Panama, Costa Rica
Southeast Asia: Vietnam, Cambodia, Myanmar (Burma), Thailand
Additional countries: Canada, Alaska, Hawaii, China, Japan, Taiwan, Hong Kong, Brunei, Malaysia, Singapore, India, Türkiye, England, Wales, Russia, Finland, Sweden, Norway, Denmark, Germany, Czech Republic, Austria, Spain, Italy, France, Scotland, Ireland, Greece, Switzerland, Hungary, the Netherlands, Belgium, Vatican City, Estonia, Monaco, Australia, New Zealand, Caribbean, Venezuela, Antarctica, the Arctic
Why I’m a Travel Consultant
I love the diversity of experiences in the world. I have a wide variety of travel I work on so that keeps my job interesting. I have clients who I have worked with for almost 30 years! It is nice helping people get to live their dreams.
Education
Michigan State University
Career History
I have been a travel consultant for 35 years and thirty of those have been spent with Travel Beyond. Before becoming a consultant, I was a hotel manager in Houston, Texas for five years.
Most Memorable Travel Experience
Gorilla trekking in Uganda! I have been on safaris previously and have seen a wide variety of animals from the safety of a land rover, but it is a totally new experience standing five-feet away from a 450 pound silverback gorilla with nothing between you. Thankfully he didn’t even pay attention to me but it was incredible to observe him break a good size tree in half and eat most of it. We were allowed to spend one hour with the family of gorillas. At first, time seemed to stand still but when it was over, that hour seemed to have gone by so fast!
My Most Recent Trip
Expedition to Arctic Svaldbard – I was lucky to get space on the Silversea Explorer for this expedition. I had not sailed on a Silversea expedition ship so it was the perfect way to experience their service on the expedition ship versus the Silversea classic ships. The destination was a major plus.
Africa/Kenya and Uganda – I had been to Kenya over 20 years ago so this was a vacation plus learning experience. Nice to know that Kenya is still a great destination with wonderful accommodations and great game experiences. Uganda was a short stop to go gorilla trekking, and it did not disappoint. It was fun to hike through the jungle with guides hacking their way through the vegetation to get us to the gorillas. Arriving at Sanctuary Gorilla Camp, where we stayed for 2 nights while trekking, gives the perfect initiation to climbing through the jungle. There are about 100 steps to negotiate before coming into the camp.
Recommended Right Now
The grandeur and solitude of Arctic Svalbard. Only two weeks after visiting the gorillas, I was off to the Arctic in the hopes of seeing polar bears. I was delighted that our first stop in Svalbard yielded a polar bear sighting! There are only 2000 polar bears in this large region so seeing one the first day was amazing. We were only able to see one other polar bear during the week. They are very hard to spot especially once you enter the polar ice pack – there is a lot of white out there! When not looking for bears we were able to experience the island’s animal life, birds, and glaciers. The Silver Explorer was able to get us within 600 miles of the North Pole.
Favorite Properties
Duma Tau Safari Camp
You always remember your first time on safari in Botswana
Sanctuary Lodge at the entrance to Machu Picchu
Amazing location! Once everyone else had gone down the mountain to their hotels we were left in Machu Picchu to explore on our own