Good Neighbor Podcast South Charlotte
Bringing Together Local Businesses and Neighbors of South Charlotte.
Good Neighbor Podcast South Charlotte
Ep. # 124 Navigating the World with Angela Pope's Go Vacay Your Way
Ever wondered why that $700 flight to Paris seems too good to be true? According to travel expert Angela Pope, it usually is. As owner of Go Vacay Your Way travel agency, Angela pulls back the curtain on common travel misconceptions while sharing her journey from marketing professional to dream vacation curator.
Growing up as the youngest of eight children, Angela's travel passion began with family camping trips across America in a green Army tent. These formative experiences visiting state capitals and national parks laid the foundation for what would become her calling during the pandemic. When marketing opportunities dried up, a friend with four decades of safari experience recognized Angela's perfect fit for the travel industry and encouraged her to leverage her extensive background in hospitality and marketing.
What separates Angela's approach from the countless online booking sites? Relationships. From riverboat cruises that take you through countries rather than merely to them, to authentic local experiences that can't be Google-searched, Angela crafts personalized journeys that reflect each traveler's unique preferences. "You don't travel the same way I do," she explains, "and your grandmother certainly doesn't." This philosophy drives her white-glove service, where planning begins ideally six to eight months before European adventures and a full year ahead for destinations with limited travel windows like Alaska.
Beyond just booking transportation and accommodations, Angela provides something invaluable: peace of mind. Her global network of contacts helps clients avoid common pitfalls like luggage logistics on European trains or potential scams that target tourists. The result is a travel experience that feels both adventurous and secure. Ready to transform your next vacation from stressful to spectacular? Connect with Angela at GoVacayYourWay.com and discover why true travel expertise might be the most valuable souvenir you bring home.
Dream Vacations - GoVacayYourWay.com
Angela Pope
(704) 907-9743
This is the Good Neighbor Podcast, the place where local businesses and neighbors come together. Here's your host, Regina Lee.
Speaker 2:Well, hello everyone, and welcome to another episode of the Good Neighbor Podcast. I'm here in South Charlotte and my favorite thing to do is talk to local business owners, and I'm super excited today to talk to Angela Pope. She is the owner of Go Vacay your Way, which is a travel agency. Welcome, angela.
Speaker 3:Thank you so much. Good to be here.
Speaker 2:You've got the dream job, I guess, and it's called Dream Vacations as well. I'm sure your friends are envious of you.
Speaker 3:You know they are and everybody thinks well, you're a travel agent, you travel for free. That's got to be great, everything's awesome. But yes, I do have a lot of friends who enjoy hearing about what I do.
Speaker 2:Well, tell us a little bit, first about your agency, and then what inspired you to do this and get into this industry.
Speaker 3:What inspired you to do this and get into this industry. Sure, you know, I've been in business 25 years. I've got a background in marketing and sales and travel, hospitality. And as a kid we camped. I'm the youngest of eight. There wasn't a lot of extra money, but my mom always took three weeks off and we would camp in a tent Green Army tent.
Speaker 3:State capitals were on the agenda national parks, state parks. We visited Montreal, canada, had a sister who had studied there and visited Niagara falls at you know the age of three or four, smoky mountains, beaches grew up, going to Folly beach and Charleston lakes like Norman's national state Park. So you know, like other business owners, during the pandemic, I found myself kind of asking you know what next? And everything in marketing had shut down. So I called, phoned a friend who had been doing Africa safaris for 40 years and he said you know, there's never going to be more pent up demand than in travel and it sounds like you know you are a good fit for that. So I thought about my career and bringing all that forward. Kids in college are going to be, and how do I get them engaged in travel and what would we face? So I was up for the challenge and it's kind of how I got started in travel and it's kind of how I got started in travel and where all that started.
Speaker 2:So to become an agent and own your own agency.
Speaker 3:What requirements are there? Yeah, so again, just to compare my businesses and marketing it was organic, grassroots. I had to form every vendor relationship. I had to hire every accountant, attorney, bookkeeper, and when I looked at a Dream Vacations franchise, it was really leveling that up and that investment really got me to be diamond. Platinum preferred with all of my cruise vendors, all of the land vendors gives me the opportunity to literally make relationships in other countries. So to get you know, vetted or licensed, there's a training process, there are fees that you pay as a franchisee.
Speaker 3:But to really do this, there's so many ways to do it. Right, I might have taken five cruises. Or I might've gone to Jamaica and said, oh my gosh, I should do this. Or somebody says you love planning trips, you should do this, but no trip that I plan is the way that I would do it Because, right, you don't travel the same way as I do, and your grandmother certainly doesn't and your spouse, who's never left wherever, doesn't. So we all travel differently and there's always continuing education as well. I'm taking webinars all the time and phone calls. I'm on WhatsApp as much as I'm on text.
Speaker 2:That's because it's international.
Speaker 3:Yeah, I work with vendors all over the world and I work with other travel agents all over the world. So really, it's your training and your certifications can be this or they can be, you know, daily, hourly.
Speaker 2:Well, I love what you said about being a part of Dream Vacations. It does open so many doors and that brand is there, so that makes a lot of sense. Do you happen to specialize in any kinds of travel? I?
Speaker 3:do I specialize in Europe and really abroad. Europe can be really personalized. They say bespoke experiences, you know, when someone's going to travel again with a partner, a spouse, even solo, their you know fear of safety or how do I do this? So really walking hand in hand with clients, from the time that we have the first phone call through people sending me pictures from their trip while they're there hey, did you ask about this? It's really delightful to get those messages. But yes, I really specialize in customized overseas itineraries, also hand in hand with river cruises that make traveling very easy. You know you pack and unpack once you get off every morning in a different country and we say you know, cruises take you to countries and rivers take you through countries. So really depends on what you're looking for.
Speaker 2:I love that. So when you think about you know me myself trying to do it myself the plan versus using someone amazing like you by the way, your reviews are amazing, many, many Pfizer reviews. What do you see as some of the biggest mistakes people make when they're trying to do it on their own?
Speaker 3:Well, I think, initially, is people take that quick look online and they see, oh my gosh, $700 to Paris. Or you know, I can do this myself. It's a click here and a click there on Travelocity or Orbitz, wherever they are, and they don't realize those are travel agents, those are travel agencies. You're paying them to do it yourself and so you're not getting that expertise. So, yes, with a trip like Europe you know I break that down Italy and you want to go to Milan and Florence or Venice, or somebody else wants to go to Rome and see the Vatican or the Colosseum and the Amalfi Coast, but they don't know how to do that. They don't know that they're going to schlep their luggage you know, their American luggage, as I say, on a train. They don't know that there are people posing as train reps that are not that could scam you.
Speaker 3:So I think the mistakes are you just don't know what you don't know and that $700 to Paris, that's not, that's half a leg, that's one leg, that's not the as as Andy, I can't remember the radio host, but and the rest of the story is, you know and in the end result we save you money, I save you money, I save you a lot of time, a lot of money and I've got a lot of resources who really level up, take you from that novice to expert pretty quickly so that you might do something else in the future on your own.
Speaker 3:It might not be a part of every trip love to be, but maybe not, depending on what your needs are. So I build relationships. I'm not looking for a transaction, and I think that online is one of those things. The other thing is that travel is unsafe. Travel is not unsafe. You may hear that Mistakes are, you know, listening. Online, Social media can send us down a path of hey, Greece, you want to jump off a cliff and dive under the rocks and all these crazy adventurous things that most people don't have to do.
Speaker 2:Gotcha, how far out should we think about reaching out to you when we want to plan a Europe trip or a cruise ocean or river?
Speaker 3:Great question as soon as possible. As soon as you start thinking about it and start looking, the next call would be me. You're not obligated right up front, but it does give me an idea to put you if you really want to be on our project list. We have a process. I have an easy travel setup form that gives me the information that I need about you and those traveling with you.
Speaker 3:If you've already spent six months working on this, it's really harder for me to go back and put the puzzle together the way that we might from the beginning, because your mindset is that, oh, I already did all this work. But I really say, whether it's your first or 50th trip, I'm interested in having a conversation much sooner than later. When it comes to cruising, you know cabins are available earlier with a very low cost deposit, even $25 with some of our partners. Up to you know refundable deposits. You can reserve your space on a cruise and even with some overseas hotels, we always book where you can cancel. We also introduce things like trip protection. So the sooner the better is really when you want to work with a professional, because I already have 25, 30 trips in the hopper for the next year and I won't be able to necessarily fit you in if it's too far down the road.
Speaker 2:Yes. So is it realistic, say, a six month out to put a European vacation together?
Speaker 3:Usually six to eight months is a great time and be prepared to kind of move on that. You know, when we start looking at air, charlotte is, you know, a hub for one of the major airlines and we kind of try to work around that sometimes. But yeah, six to eight months for Europe. Alaska is one that you want to be at least a year out. Those spaces sell out because Alaska has a very short window of travel. You know same thing with, you know, the Glacier National Park. You have a very short window of travel and some people want to see from the American side Maybe they don't have a passport. Other people want to see from the BAMF side, the Canadian side, and you want to make sure you get those places, those spaces to live, to stay.
Speaker 2:That makes a lot of sense. What do you wish people knew about your company? You guys, specifically.
Speaker 3:Yeah, so I alluded to this before when I said I work locally, differently than my crews and my national and international cruises. I get to talk with people all over the world and I really build relationships so that you have that local experience when you're in another country. I'm from Charleston, as I mentioned before the show, and the number of times that people ask me what do we do? What do locals do? What do you want? That's what people want. They want that authentically local. They want to have a great meal. They want to do these things that you can't find online. They want to be with a local guide A lot of my clients.
Speaker 3:They don't want to be on a bus with 40. Or if they do, they want to make sure they're getting the right tour and the right package. So I think that's it that you're really getting me and someone who's you know. I've been in the travel industry for probably a dozen years, having been in national accounts travel advertising at the Charlotte Observer group, sales manager at the Performing Arts Center. I bring a lot of my corporate to, you know, to the table and personal relationships around the world. That's really a game changer when you're looking at wanting to feel safe and have a great time.
Speaker 2:I love that. So you work in this amazing world. What do you do for fun when you're not doing your travel agency?
Speaker 3:Yeah, well, fun's good. My husband and I like comedy so we enjoy going to see comedians and just watching. Sharing that we also love music, both in different ways. I'm a musician and vocalist. I've sung in choirs for decades. I got to sing at Carnegie Hall with Casting Crowns one time.
Speaker 2:Wow.
Speaker 3:And that was a blast. So we went and did that together this year. This past year I got to accompany a group to Ireland, scotland and London and some of that was family, some of it was friends and other clients. So travel is a big part of my fun. I also enjoy friends, family, neighbors, just building relationships.
Speaker 2:Well, I love it, so tell our listeners how they can find you guys.
Speaker 3:Yeah, absolutely Well, the easiest way is to remember Go Vacay your Way, it's your vacation, we want to make it your way and that's GoVacayYourWay. com. And then my email, apope at dreamvacationscom. I take texts and calls from eight to eight. Just send me a quick message. You can find all that on my website. So really the internet and Google. You can certainly Google Angela Pope, dream vacations or go vacay your way, and it all will come up. I'll do a Zoom call. I can meet you in person. You know any needs that you have. Hopefully I can meet those.
Speaker 2:Yes, very white glove. I see you do personalize everything. Well, Angela, it has been a pleasure getting to know about Go Vacay your Way and really thank you for joining us today.
Speaker 3:Thank you for having me. Really appreciate your invitation and good to meet you here.
Speaker 1:Thank you for listening to the Good Neighbor Podcast. To nominate your favorite local businesses to be featured on the show, go to GNPSouthCharlottecom. That's GNPSouthCharlottecom, or call 980-351-5719.