Meet Becky Durkee of Durkee Travel Company

Today we’d like to introduce you to Becky Durkee.

Hi Becky, please kick things off for us with an introduction to yourself and your story.
Travel has always been a huge part of my story. I grew up traveling with my parents and I began traveling domestically on my own when I was a teen, making my first solo international trip in my early 20s. My husband grew up traveling a lot across the United States and Canada so he has been my travel enabler this whole time. After we got married we decided to take a two-week honeymoon traveling down the west coast of Italy, which really sparked something new for both of us.

When we had kids a few years later, we vowed to travel with them as much as possible. We realized early on that showing them the world would help mold them into the humans we wanted them to be, ones who are compassionate, understanding of other cultures and different ways of living, and who are truly citizens of the world! When our kids were 3, 6, and 7 we took them to Europe for the first time and never looked back. After about five years of planning countless trips for my own family, I got a lot of questions about how difficult it is to travel with children, especially abroad. People would ask, “How do you do it?” or “What’s your secret?”

In those conversations, I realized I could help other people do the same. This is how the Durkee Travel Company was born. I now help people experience the world either with friends, family, with their children, or as a newly married couple and it’s so rewarding to see those memories being made! I still take amazing trips with my own family, but at the same time, I have helped so many other people see and do new things they never would have. I truly enjoy helping create those lifelong memories for people.

We all face challenges, but looking back would you describe it as a relatively smooth road?
As you can imagine, being a travel consultant during the pandemic was not the easiest job to have and that’s putting it lightly. The world literally shut down and no one could go anywhere! I spent the majority of the spring of 2020 canceling trips and fighting to get clients’ money back from flights and hotel bookings.

But then slowly things began opening back up in late 2020–Walt Disney World, Mexico, plenty of parts of the USA–so I began planning new trips again. 2021 was still a very slow travel year, but my family decided to visit Croatia, Egypt, and Paris that summer. It was just as restrictions were lifted and we were able to show others that it was safe to travel again with some precautions in place.

And now this year, travel is back! It’s been the “Sold Out Summer of 2022” and it makes my traveler’s heart happy that we are back to this point and can do it safely.

Thanks for sharing that. So, maybe next you can tell us a bit more about your business?
I am an expert travel consultant and I arrange dream vacations for people to experience all over the world. In addition to sending clients to exotic locations like South Africa, Thailand, and French Polynesia (among others), I have arranged many honeymoons, Caribbean, Alaskan and Hawaiian cruises, European vacations, and all-inclusive resorts in Mexico, Jamaica, and the Dominican Republic and all over the United States.

And since I love all things, Disney, I am also an Authorized Disney Vacation Planner and I specialize in helping people make Disney dreams come true. The credibility of the Durkee Travel Company is based on my own travel experiences. I have personally traveled across five continents, visited 28 countries, and 45 states, have put my feet in the Pacific, Atlantic, and Indian oceans, visited five Disney parks worldwide, cruised across the Caribbean and Mediterranean seas with the Disney Cruise Line and I’m not stopping any time soon!

This first-hand knowledge helps me serve as a great resource for my clients. I always say, no matter what your dream is, no matter what bucket-list experience you’re planning to mark off, I can help make it happen. Whether that’s a trip to Disneyland California, a relaxing vacation on the beach, to go on an African safari, or visiting the Great Pyramids of Giza, I have the experience to make it happen.

Is there any advice you’d like to share with our readers who might just be starting out?
As far as advice for other travel advisors I say get the experience first. One thing I have learned while planning my own trips is that the internet and all of its images, videos, and personal stories about travel can never be matched if you’ve not been there yourself.

I am always amazed at how my interpretation of a location compares before and after a trip. If you have not traveled much then it’s going to be hard for you to help plan other trips for people. If you have not been to a Disney park, don’t try to book a trip for someone else. And for those wanting to travel and see the world, that’s easy, just follow our motto–Just Go!!

Contact Info:

• Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/thefairygodblogger/
• Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/DurkeeTravelCompany/

Image Credits
Josh Durkee