At 13, a sister city exchange program took me to stay with a host family in Shichigahama, Japan. Months of preparation came before the trip itself — and then, while I was immersed in a culture entirely unlike my own, something shifted. Travel quickly became the most formative part of my life.

A few years later, the Azores offered a different kind of revelation. I traveled there with my grandfather, retracing the steps of his own grandparents. Villages paused for Sunday Mass. Long lunches weren’t optional. The Furnas hot springs had a particular, unhurried calm. Blue hydrangeas lined the hillsides, meals followed the land and sea, and not a single automatic car was in sight. Holding that world up against my own everyday life sparked something I’ve never been able to set aside — a belief that travel, at its most intentional, has the rare ability to collapse time, broaden perspective, and forge connections that outlast the journey itself.

That belief shaped everything that followed. A degree in Tourism and Hospitality Management led me directly into the travel industry, where I’ve been ever since. As a Travel Expert, I help our clients find experiences that genuinely stay with them — long after the bags are unpacked. For me, it’s more than a profession. It’s a privilege I don’t take lightly.