Suitcase Divas: Travel Agent Tips, Tricks & Travel Tales
Join co-hosts Denise and Jackie as they chat about the journey of life and how travel plays an intricate role in navigating its twists and turns. Whether it's sharing travel tips, swapping stories over a glass of wine or mimosa, or welcoming special guests, there's always something new to explore! Grab your suitcase, pour a drink, and let’s dive into the adventure of life together—because travel makes everything better!
Suitcase Divas: Travel Agent Tips, Tricks & Travel Tales
The Suitcase Divas welcome a new voice for Season 3!
Ever wondered what it feels like to climb an active volcano while locals desperately try to warn you with mysterious hand signals? Our new co-host Jackie G has lived that experience, and it's just one of many travel tales she's bringing to Season 3 of the Suitcase Divas podcast!
Meet Jackie G, our fantastic new addition to the Suitcase Divas family. A seasoned travel industry professional based in Florida, Jackie specializes in Disney vacations (yes, she proudly flies her "Disney adult" flag!) while also working as a business coach helping entrepreneurs grow their ventures. Her travel style? "Luxury, tropical, and magical" – three words that perfectly capture her approach to exploring the world. From her childhood road trips across the Northeast to mission trips in Guatemala, Jackie brings a wealth of personal travel experiences that will add fresh perspectives to our conversations.
Season 3 promises exciting new content, including interviews with members of Irreverent Warriors, an organization both hosts passionately support in its mission to combat veteran suicide.
Looking ahead, we'll be announcing details about upcoming adventures, including a Suitcase Divas cruise on Virgin Voyages in early 2026 and a special December event in Key West. If you're seeking hidden gems, practical travel tips, or simply enjoy listening to travel enthusiasts share their passion, this season will take you places you've never been before. Subscribe now so you don't miss our first official episode dropping soon!
Leave us a message!
Visit Our Website!
Follow Us!
Facebook
YouTube
Instagram
TikTok
Hey guys, so welcome to Suitcase Diva's podcast. We are back Super excited to talk about travel, hidden gems and all that good stuff, and the best part is I am delighted to announce a person that is going to give us so much sparkle and fun and amazingness. Welcome my new co-host, jackie G.
Speaker 2:I'm happy to have two stars on the ground. My new co-host, Jackie G. So much, Jackie G. Tell us a little bit about yourself. Well, hello everybody. My name is Jackie. I have been in the travel industry for the past several years, which is how I got to know and meet Denise as a travel agent. I do live in Florida, I do specialize in Disney, so I do feel like I need to come with a little bit of a warning label. I'm a full-on Disney adult. Just kind of a heads up Fly your.
Speaker 2:Disney flag. Yes, I do love the magic, but along with that, I am also a mom and I'm also a business coach, so I really do love training and teaching and helping other women and entrepreneurs grow and start their business.
Speaker 1:Awesome, awesome, yes, and you are an amazing. You're not just an amazing travel agent, but you're an amazing trainer, so knowledgeable in the field, and it has been such a pleasure to work with you. I've learned so much as an agent just working with you and coming up with templates and Google Docs and all that good stuff. So I definitely you know, when the opportunity presented itself, there wasn't anybody else I would even have considered choosing for my co-host. So welcome, welcome, and we look forward to getting to know you better and you're hilarious, so I can't wait for them to get to know you. So tell us a little bit about your personal connection with travel. Is that you're a travel agent, so give us an idea of, like, what is your favorite destination and why.
Speaker 2:I mean, besides Disney, I feel like that's the obvious one. I have not gotten to travel as much as I would like to in my adult life, but I do love anywhere that has a beach, anywhere that is warm, anywhere I could be around water. I really do also love cruising, so that is something that I find to be very exciting and adventurous. So for me, travel has always been really important. I grew up traveling a lot. My family did a lot of road trips. I grew up in the Northeast, so I've been all over the Northeast, right in all the main 13 colonies or 13 states. We've been across the country. I have family in California, florida, texas, chicago, everywhere. So I definitely traveled a lot. As a kid I went to Guatemala a couple times and travel has always been a passion of mine.
Speaker 1:Do you remember Guatemala? Or you just know, what do you remember about that?
Speaker 2:I do. I went two years in a row. We went with a church group. It was like a missions trip type thing, so it was wonderful. Both experiences were amazing and great. The first time I went, we did stay kind of like in Guatemala city, so we got to stay like at a Radisson hotel. So it was I don't want to say like a bougiecation, but I kind of felt a little like a bougiecation. Radissons are very nice, fair enough.
Speaker 2:Yep, I'm taking up what you're putting down Exactly, exactly. So it was a fantastic time. I had an amazing experience. And then the second time we went, we actually stayed on a coffee plantation, like up in the mountains, so it was a more like natural, authentic experience. Right, they're like, you know, don't go outside at night. The security people have machetes, you know, so be careful. But it was beautiful, you know, it was an absolutely wonderful experience. So travel's always been a big part of my life awesome.
Speaker 1:So what would you? How would you describe your travel style in like three words?
Speaker 2:Ooh, okay, three words Luxury, all right, definitely warm and sand, so tropical I guess, and always a little bit of magic, always a little bit of magic, so anywhere.
Speaker 1:It's all good. How about do you have any like hilarious or unforgettable travel moments that you've had over the your span?
Speaker 2:of travel, your span of travel. So my favorite travel story this is like my main story because it's like the one exciting thing I can really kind of share. So one of my trips to guatemala I did have the opportunity to climb a volcano. So it's a fun thing that. It's a fun fact I did. We made it all the way up to the crater.
Speaker 2:So the crazy part of it was it was 13 teenagers in the back of this itty bitty four by four truck with four adults into the cab. We're driving up this dirt mountain road with huge potholes next to you know, 20,000 foot drop down the mountain and we're passing all these villagers and they're giving us this hand signal. We're like, what does this hand signal mean? And no one really explained it to us. So you know, I don't, I don't remember what it was, but no one explained it to us.
Speaker 2:But we went all the way up, all the way up to the crater and like we felt the heat, you saw the steam. Like we're like, okay, you know, let's go back down. So it was just definitely an exhilarating. Did you ever find out what the hand signal meant? We did when we finally got back down. We're like what were they? What signal were they flashing us? And they're like oh, that's a symbol that means an active volcano. And so we're like. So the whole time we've been driving up, the villagers who live there are like active volcano and the guy's just like waving and driving.
Speaker 2:We're like, I'm like they did not tell us, not until we got back down, which was probably a good thing, because you would have had 13 teenagers freaking out. You know about that. But yeah, I would say that's my most exciting and interesting travel experience. I don't necessarily recommend it, but I've climbed. I mean that is wild.
Speaker 1:That is wild, but yeah, that is quite a bucket list experience. I can't say I've done that myself. So, thinking about what brings you here, I'm just curious what made you say yes to being my co-host and what do you hope to bring to Suitcase Divas podcast.
Speaker 2:Well, I will say, first and foremost, I've always admired the Suitcase Divas podcast. When I first got into travel and kind of joined the team and everything and learned that there was a travel podcast out there, I was like that's amazing. So really love what you guys did, you know initially and everything, and I'm not gonna lie, I was surprised and very honored to get the call to be asked to be you know a part of this. So yeah, so I definitely felt you know, very special and honored in that. But I really hope that I can bring my creativity to it. I hope I can sprinkle a little pixie dust on this and maybe make it a little bit more magical just a touch, just a touch. But also I love y'all's mission, what you guys do and just sharing and engaging people. So I'm very excited to see what the season's going to bring.
Speaker 1:Yay, okay. So now I'm going to do a little personality rapid fire style questions. Are you ready? Okay, I'm ready.
Speaker 2:Okay, window or aisle Window.
Speaker 1:Pack light or the whole closet.
Speaker 2:Absolutely, the whole closet Good options options first thing in your suitcase bathing suit favorite airport snack oh I. Starbucks coffee with three shots of espresso.
Speaker 1:Hot damn, I was going to say wine, prosecco, travel, guilty pleasure.
Speaker 2:Guilty travel pleasure. Okay, I know this is supposed to be rapid fire and I totally stalled on this one. Well, let's see. Okay, so I do usually travel early. I always like taking early flights. So, along with my Starbucks coffee, I will get a breakfast item. I don't usually spend money at Starbucks, so it's one of those. Like I'm traveling, I get you know, fancy breakfast. So that's what I do I treat myself to a fancy breakfast.
Speaker 1:Yeah, so, and I'm super, super excited for season three because we got a lot of really cool new stuff and stuff from our past season and I know that one of the things that you're passionate about. We both share this, but I didn't know that you were passionate about this until we kind of got together and started talking about it. So what is one thing that you're hoping to bring to this season's?
Speaker 2:podcast Well, first, and talking about that mutual connection, is the irreverent warriors organization that we help with.
Speaker 2:So I just volunteered a lot of hikes with them and I know you volunteered as well. We're going to have logs one more time. It's all good, so we will be doing some interviews with some people. I'm very excited to have them on here to speak with some hikers. And for those of you who don't know, just very, very briefly, a Reverend Warriors is a group to support veterans. They do work towards combating veteran suicide, so definitely check them out online. Check out our future episodes, because we will be highlighting them, so I'm very excited to be able to dive into that Along with that. I know we have some very fun trips planned and coming up. We're going to be doing a Suitcase Divas cruise later on or beginning of next year, so I'm very excited to see just where this podcast is going to take us as far as travels. You mentioned Hidden Gems, little cities, so I'm just excited to see where we're going to go with this.
Speaker 1:Yeah, I'm excited too, and I do think that Irreverent Warriors absolutely is just such a worthy cause to help out with and they do prevent suicides every day for veterans, and I mean people that have served our country. What better cause could be out there to help people that have been there for us, right? So, yes, I'm excited about the December trip in Key West that hike we will be at that. I am also excited very much so for our Virgin Voyages cruise that we're going to be announcing in the near future. So I'm super excited for just season three in general and I'm so. So I'm super excited for just season three in general and I'm so. It's been such a pleasure.
Speaker 1:Jackie did come to Charlotte, the Queen City, and came to see where Cheryl and I were at, and I'm just super excited for you to come back here and I'm excited to come down there. I guess I had Key West in December. So we are, even though we are not in the same state, we're in the same state of mind, and that goes a long ways. So, no matter where our travels take us this year, I'm saying let's go there. I'm excited, I'm set to go there and I'm so happy that you're going to be part of the Suitcase Stevens podcast, so welcome, welcome and welcome to all of you for season three. Happy that you're going to be part of the suitcase demons podcast, so welcome, welcome and welcome all of you for season three.
Speaker 1:Be on the lookout. We will be making an announcement in the very near future of when our first episode will drop, so stay tuned. Bye guys, bye guys.
