#46| Design The Trip You Need, Not The One The Internet Sells

We unpack why trip planning causes overwhelm and how a travel agent removes stress while saving money. Carly shares budget moves for 2026 travel, hidden costs to avoid, and how to combine points with pro perks for the best value.

• decision overwhelm and why planning kills the joy
• Carly’s path from teacher to travel agent and author
• budget strategies using portals, packages and off‑peak timing
• saving on transport with better location and transfers
• activities that quietly drain budgets and smarter swaps
• 2026 must‑knows including entry rules and Wi‑Fi updates
• how agent commissions work and when planning fees apply
• exclusive perks: upgrades, credits and insider partners
• stacking points with agency searches for maximum value
• deal seasons: wave season, Travel Tuesday and booking windows
• rapid fire preferences and candid travel advice
• how to contact Carly via Instagram, website, form or consult
• mention the podcast to waive Carly’s planning fee

To connect with Carly or learn more about her work, please visit this website or follow her on Instagram. 

I would love for you to subscribe, leave a review, or pass it along to someone in your circle who needs to hear this episode.

Connect with me on Instagram or email me at amanda@abtnhomes.com with your thoughts, topic ideas, questions, or even guest suggestions.

Transcript

Meet Carly Upton And Her Path

SPEAKER_00 0:04

Hello, everybody, and welcome to today's episode. We've got a really good one for you. So this topic is something I think everybody will be able to relate to. For me, especially, if we are trying to talk about planning for a trip, and the idea of traveling sounds amazing until it actually comes time to plan the trip. I have a bazillion tabs open on my computer. Flights change by the minute, hotel reviews completely contradict each other, and you just don't know what's worth seeing or whether you're about to accidentally book something that looks great online and is a disaster in real life. And so if you have ever thought that I want to take a trip, but I don't want to research this. I just want someone to handle it and tell me where to show up, then this episode is for you. Today I'm excited to welcome my friend Carly Upton to the podcast. Carly has worn a ton of hats, classroom teacher, stay-at-home mom, medical spouse, and then bravely started over as a single mom, romance writer, and travel agent. She combines her love of literature, seeing new places, and helping people travel without stress or overwhelm. Today we're talking about must-knowns before taking a trip in 2026, how to travel on a budget, and what working with a travel agent really looks like. So, Carly, welcome to today's episode.

SPEAKER_01 1:40

Hi, Amanda. I'm excited to be here.

SPEAKER_00 1:43

Yeah, so good to see you and just excited for you to be here because I know we're gearing up for spring, for summer, which is, I'm sure, your busiest time as far as people wanting to book all kinds of trips for that particular season. So I am really excited just to dive into that and learn a little bit from your perspective because we love to travel, but I'll be the first to admit I do not love to plan it. I do not love to research it. I am the person that just wants to show up.

Why Travelers Crave Done-For-You Plans

SPEAKER_01 2:14

And I think that's true for a lot of people when I talk to people that don't enjoy traveling or are not excited about a trip. It's the, like you said, the decision overwhelm, the decision fatigue, the planning, having to communicate what the plan is multiple times to multiple different people. That's the purple people don't like. It's not the seeing new places or new experiences that they're not excited about. It's all of the logistics management. And that's what I love to help with.

SPEAKER_00 2:37

Yes, yes. Well, I am so happy to have you here. And before we jump straight into all your travel tips and all of my questions for you, just tell the listeners a little bit about you. I know I gave a bio and an intro, but I would love for them to hear it from you. A little bit about your background.

SPEAKER_01 2:54

Yeah. So I taught English. I've always just had the travel bug. It's something that I really enjoy doing. Was always the person that planned other everyone else's trips and when I was starting over.

SPEAKER_00 3:08

Either you have it or you don't. Yes.

SPEAKER_01 3:10

And I enjoy it. I like to do it joyfully. Um when I was starting over, this kind of fell into my lap as something that I can make an income from and enjoy doing at the same time and get to see new places.

SPEAKER_00 3:24

Yes. Well, thank you again for being here. And so I'm gonna just jump straight into our questions, which I know will lead to more questions and then, of course, lead to listener questions that we will have after the fact. So the first one is we've had such an interesting career path. You were a teacher, I was a teacher, adding on to that stay-at-home mom, writer, and then becoming a travel agent. What pulled you towards the travel planning? And why did you feel like this is the right fit for you outside of loving to travel?

SPEAKER_01 3:56

I just like helping, especially moms, people and you know, with busy lives that are juggling a lot, um, have, like you said, the ability to go somewhere and then whine and just show up and not have the question of, am I gonna get there? And this is not gonna live up to my expectations. Just that fulfillment of going on a journey, getting to step away from real life and enjoy being somewhere new and having someone else do some of the decision making. I just really enjoy that.

SPEAKER_00 4:30

Yeah, and I'm sure from a travel agent perspective, there's some um travel perks for you as well. Yes. So you kind of get to combine both work and your love of travel together.

SPEAKER_01 4:42

Yes, and it's you know, you can't really plan to the best of your ability to somewhere that you've never been. So I do visit properties and locations to kind of scout out a little bit, and that's fun.

Budget Travel Tactics That Work

SPEAKER_00 4:53

Yeah. And then having, you know, an actual in-person perspective and experience to be able to share with your clients, I know is also an incentive. So we have all different listeners that listen to the podcast, but I do have a lot of them that come to me, especially when it comes to finances or budgeting for advice. And so one thing I really wanted to highlight today is budget traveling, because you know, some of our families are in training or maybe just getting out of training and trying to pay off some debt, but still enjoy some um aspects of life and travel. And so sometimes I think travel can feel a little luxurious. And so, what are your best budget-friendly travel tips, especially for those that may be in training or just want to be intentional with their money and have various different financial goals and don't want to spend it all on traveling?

SPEAKER_01 5:51

I have quite a few because I've been through that side of the journey and I've traveled everything from on a shoestring budget to let's really do it up. So I have a few. One that I actually utilized recently. If you book on uh say you use a credit card to travel, a lot of those platforms, if you go on like the Capital One, I'm sure other credit cards do as well, their portal, they will, if you book, even if you don't use rewards or points, the uh credit card company will refund you if there's a decrease in the price, which is nice. That say your flight was cost six hundred dollars and then the the flight reached its lowest price, you can turn on this trip protection and it will refund you. If the flight, say it gets to$400 after you've booked, you can get that credited back to your account. A second one, I will also say, I know, and a lot of people don't know that. I will also say that location matters a lot. I think some people tend to. I am not a person who says, well, it doesn't really matter where we stay, we're not gonna be in the room at all. I disagree. I think that location is really important. If you're staying in a larger city, for instance, if you're traveling to outside of the country, if you're staying near a tube station or a train station, somewhere within walking distance, you're gonna save on cat fare. Having to rent a car, things like that, that's gonna save you money. In that vein, you can also package things. I'm also contracted, I have relationships with Expedia. You can do a package, I can bundle that for you where you can get your flights, hotels, and the rental car. We get rates as travel agency clients that the general population does not receive because we have relationships with those providers. Some people also like to pay ahead of time and you can be budgeting that out. You can also pay at the property if you want to save up money before you go. It really depends, but that is an option just to know that you have the option to pay at front or pay at property. I think it's also important to be specific about what you actually want out of the trip. There is a tendency to pack every day full of activities, but those activities add up. If you're not really fully invested in that activity, then you can leave some time in your trip to explore and find things around you while you're there to do, as opposed to packing your day full of activities that cost a lot of money. Another one a lot of people don't know if you work with an agent, we can secure things like room upgrades, food and drink credits, spa packages, discounts that are offered to agency clients because we have a relationship to them that they don't offer someone who's just booking from their website. Another couple of tips that I have are I know that it's hard in the medical journey in any part that you're in, whether it's in a training or being done with training, to be flexible on the dates that you can travel. But if you are flexible enough to go during off-peak or outside of high demand seasons, you're gonna pay a lot less money because there are surcharges for a popular destination during a popular time, you're gonna just they're just gonna charge more money. I can help you as an agent find credits or discounts, but they're more readily available if you go during an off-peak time. And also if you are able to go, say, to a little more off-beaten path area that is not in as high demand or adjacent to that, you'll save a lot more money that way too. So those are just a few tips that I have.

Hidden Costs And Smarter Bookings

SPEAKER_00 9:27

I love those. And I actually added those or wrote those down. And so, one question that I want to add to that, because I know you talked about activities add up. And when we go on vacation, we try to decide okay, is this more of like an adventure or is it more like relaxation, low-key? And so, one area that I wanted to ask you about is where you find people overspend without realizing it, where it does add up. So you mentioned like the activities will end up adding up. Is that where you feel like most people are like, oh man, that this ended up being way higher, way more expensive than I was initially anticipating.

SPEAKER_01 10:04

That's kind of a cost value analysis that I guess maybe you have to run in your head. But there are times where, you know, and travel agent may have relationships with these providers where I could find you a similar experience with a lower price that isn't maybe as popular online. A lot of people are gonna book the first thing that shows up on Google when they search for it, and they might be charging more money where we might know a couple more insider things and having relationships with hotels, for instance, those hotels might have someone that they recommend that does, you know, the scuba diving or whatever it is. They know they know someone more local that might have a better price than someone who's, you know. And I think another one is um taxi and cap fare. I think that's one of the biggest expenses that I run into and see people running into is the transport. If I book you pick up from the hotel or to your ski destination or whatever it is, pre-arranged, we have relationships with those companies, and it's gonna cost you less than you getting to the airport and having to book an Uber or whoever's waiting outside, they're gonna charge you a surcharge.

Key Must‑Knows For 2026 Travel

SPEAKER_00 11:13

Good point. Good point. And I love that you were talking about booking it through the credit cards because I didn't realize that they will refund you if there is a difference. And so I'm gonna definitely pay a little bit closer attention to that. And so I want to talk to you a little bit about traveling for 2026. Should people know before planning trips in 2026, are there any big shifts in pricing, timing, destinations that travelers need to be aware of?

SPEAKER_01 11:41

There's a couple that I'm excited about. So American Airlines is now offering free implant Wi-Fi. That's huge. That should have been all along. Uh-huh. There's, you know, changes to things with other countries' relationship to the US. There's a paperwork that you have to fill out if you're traveling to the United Kingdom and they've kind of not really been checking those. And they have said that they're going to be looking at those a little more closely. But it's kind of hard to predict because I feel like with the current regime, a lot of things are just in flux. But working with a travel agent, you know, we can do that research for you. Yes, to know what's happening. But following things like the airports or the international travel corporation, different there's things that you can follow like that. Like I follow um the national airport on Instagram and they release a lot of updates of where they're now offering international flights to, that just different things like that.

SPEAKER_00 12:40

One thing I will say, I think working with somebody that knows these things is super helpful. And I'll give an example of when my son was flying to London, and thankfully it was through a school trip, but they needed a separate visa just to get into London versus they were also going to Italy. And it and if you didn't have it, it was like whoops. And so it was like a scramble. And thankfully they told us all of that, but I would never have known. It's not something that I would have Googled on my own. But, you know, working with somebody that is up to date on all of these things that need to be done or things that are changing within the travel industry, it's it's really nice and reassuring, like I said, for somebody that wants to just show up.

SPEAKER_01 13:20

They they do have the visa to get into. And to came even, it's like evading me at the moment. I can't remember what it's called. But I figured that out like two weeks before I was going to London. And you can pay a fee, but they they process it like with instantly. So it's yeah, if you forget, like they process it really quick.

Is A Travel Agent Worth It

SPEAKER_00 13:40

So yeah, yeah, thankfully. Well, I do want to ask a big question that I think is a big misconception for people that travel. And, you know, what does it look like to work with a travel agent? A lot of people haven't ever used them because um they're afraid of the cost or what makes sense for them with their booking and their timeline, or it's gonna cost me so much to use a travel agent, and I only have X in my budget. So kind of walk through that with them as far as what it looks like. We've talked some about benefits, but that expense and maybe how you are paid, or just so they have an idea of what that would look like to work with a travel agent.

SPEAKER_01 14:19

So it actually does not cost you anything to work with a travel agent. We get paid commission from these providers that we have pre-arranged relationships and deals, credits and things with. Because if you're looking at a popular destination, there are going to be hundreds of providers for hotels, for experiences, for transport, for cruises or rail bookings, and they want to stand out. So they've pre-arranged these deals and relationships with us to offer those to our clients, and that's how we earn the commission through them. Some travel agents do charge a planning fee. For me, I'll give you this example. If you are, you finish, say you finished training, you're getting married, you want to go to an all-inclusive in the Caribbean, and you need someone to book it, you're gonna book your own flights, you might need help with a spa day and some restaurant reservations, and then transport to and from the airport. I don't need to charge you a planning fee for that because that's not gonna take up a lot of my time. But for a multi-gen family trip of nine days to four countries in Europe, I would need to charge a planning fee for that because that's going to take a lot more time and logistics for me to coordinate, especially if there's multi-generations, there might be special requests that need to be made, a lot of things that needs to be managed. But I would like to offer, I will waive my planning fee if you mention the podcast in our initial conversation. I will go ahead and wave that planning fee for your listeners.

SPEAKER_00 15:51

Thank you. That is so kind of you. And as far as for planning fees, does that cost vary like what you're just talking about, dependent on the situation, how much work it is for you, the number of people, the number of days, the number of destinations that are involved?

Fees, Commissions, And A Special Offer

SPEAKER_01 16:06

It does. So every travel agent is different dependent on their specialty, their focus, what they offer. I charge if it's over six nights and more than two countries, and I charge a$10 per dm.

SPEAKER_00 16:20

Perfect. Well, thank you for offering that for our listeners. I hope that everybody takes advantage of it and all they have to do is just reach out to you and mention this podcast. Yes. Awesome. So I have this is probably one of my favorite questions. So I want to ask you what are some industry secrets that you might be willing to share, things travelers would never know unless they were like on the inside.

SPEAKER_01 16:47

I think I've already shared a lot of them. Honestly, I think the biggest one that people don't know is that working with a travel agent is free. It doesn't charge you anything. The biggest one, like I already said, if you can travel on an off-peak day or off-peak season, I have seen a huge increase. If you travel on a Monday, seems to be the most expensive day to fly. I guess most people are like traveling for work or business and they're making it a long weekend and coming on Monday, but that seems to be the most expensive days for flights. Another one, I can contact hotels directly to get you a better rate than if you were to contact them yourself. If you book domestic flights, they're usually cheapest around 47 days out, and international flights are a lower price around 60 days out or more. There's another thing that people need to be aware of. It already happened, but you might want to put it on your calendar to save it for next year. In December, there's something called travel Tuesday, where there are a lot of deals. It's kind of like the travel version of Black Friday, where you can get like your Delta miles will get you further, whereas a Delta flight might cost 50,000 miles. Or if you buy gift cards, you get quadruple the amount, the miles awarded to your account. So there's and there's um deals on rail bookings, cruises. Some of the major hotel chains like Hilton, Hyatt, Marriott offer um sales on Travel Tuesday as well. And that's in December. It's usually around December 2nd.

Insider Secrets And Deal Seasons

SPEAKER_00 18:31

That was gonna be my I had no clue. I am definitely gonna be marking this. And is that something that's just travel Tuesday across the board? And you just either I reach out to you or I can see these deals, or it's only through you.

SPEAKER_01 18:45

You can see the deals, but they are a little convoluted on purpose.

SPEAKER_00 18:51

Okay.

SPEAKER_01 18:52

You can make the most of your because I think you might get the deal and then not know how to use it or redeem it. So at Travel Angel can help with that. And also letting you know there's kind of a markup. This is not as good of a deal as it's else. These are the deals that you want.

SPEAKER_00 19:08

I see.

SPEAKER_01 19:08

Another one is that we are currently in what is called wave season. So there are currently more deals on cruise bookings right now because it's kind of an off-peak season. So if you want to take a cruise this year, you can book it now and save a couple hundred dollars.

unknown 19:26

Okay.

SPEAKER_01 19:26

Of travel agents helpful with that because cruises, they're not my favorite trip because they really do nickel and dime you with all the extra add-ons and things. Yeah. And you think, oh, I need this, I have to put this in there. I mean, you know, that's that's where you wind up spending a lot of money, I think, is these packages that have so many customizable options and you think you need it all. There are also programs like Get Your Guide, which is a website that offers experiences, guides, guided tours, culinary classes, things like that. They have an affiliate program where you can get, you don't have to be a travel agent. You get extra perks if you are a travel agent, but anyone can get discounts, kind of like, you know, a reward system for doing more experiences, things like that. Um, I really love Get Your Guide. They have experiences that are curated that have more of like, you feel like you're a local.

SPEAKER_00 20:20

I love that. I'm gonna look at Get Your Guide and then definitely mark my calendar for travel Tuesday. And so sometimes we like to travel by using points. I know you were talking about Capital One earlier, and so being able to use points. If we wanted to travel using points, but obviously points maybe don't cover everything. Maybe they can cover your flights or whatever. Can we still use points, but then call you to help us book our trip and still kind of use them in tandem?

SPEAKER_01 20:47

Yes. So the agency that I work for, we have an intake form where you can add any uh reward systems that you would like to utilize. So if you have an account with Marriott or American or whatever it is, or your credit card, we can add those to your profile. And when I'm searching for properties and different things, those will rank first. And um I can present those to you and tell you this is what your points will get you compared to these other properties. And you can kind of decide which is more the about the value benefit that you're looking for.

Points, Portals, And Perks Together

SPEAKER_00 21:23

That's amazing. I had no idea. So this is gonna be huge game changer for me. So thank you. And you know, for me, it sounds like there's so much value with a travel agent and not just within the trip, but all the behind the scenes, your relationships, your, you know, behind the scenes things that you know as far as booking these, getting discounts, having the relationships with your various companies. So it's an instant peace of mind for me. Like I said, I just want to show up and you know have my vacation. So uh Carla, you will be hearing from me. Perfect. Looking for it. Yes. So I have just uh some fun little rapid fire random travel questions for you. Okay. So one is do you have a favorite underrated destination that you feel like people need to know about?

SPEAKER_01 22:17

I don't know that I do because I am basic and I love I love highly, I mean I feel like there are tourist spots that are highly populated and I feel like they are for a reason. I don't know that I have an underrated travel spot yet.

SPEAKER_00 22:34

Well, to be continued, are you a window or aisle?

SPEAKER_01 22:37

You know, I fall asleep anywhere. Um because I'm a you know, I'm a mom. So I'm like, I I'll I don't I don't think I like being on the aisle because I don't like the responsibility of it, you know? Like, can you move? I need to go to the bathroom. You know, I'm like, um, okay. Can you can you get something from the overhead bin for me? Because you're in the aisle seat. I don't I don't know that I like the responsibility.

SPEAKER_00 23:01

I I don't blame you. I always get stuck at the window or the middle seat. I never get the aisle because if I'm traveling with my husband or my two boys, they need like room. They need room, they need to feel like they aren't restricted. So I'm I'm always stuck somewhere over there. And I I have flight anxiety, so I never sleep. Never. I wish I could. Okay, so one mistake you think travelers make all the time. I'm not sure that there's like a common mistake, but maybe not using a travel agent.

SPEAKER_01 23:32

That you're probably on to something. Trying to do it all yourself, maybe you know, trying to pack too much in.

SPEAKER_00 23:40

Yeah. And I think people automatically think I'm gonna save money if I don't use a travel agent. And so I'm glad that you kind of corrected that thought that I think a lot of us have, especially if you've not used a travel agent. You you just you don't know. So all right, we're at our last two questions at the end of the episode. We ask all our guests. So the first one is Carly, what would be advice that you would offer your younger self? Don't sell yourself short.

SPEAKER_01 24:10

Travel more.

Rapid‑Fire Travel Preferences

SPEAKER_00 24:11

Take the trips, take the trips, yeah. Yeah, because I think we're all guilty if we don't have time. Or once I get through this, I will travel, or I need to save more money, or life is too busy, or work is too busy. And your trips don't have to be extravagant, like you were saying, but what it will do to fill your cup or just to give you a little bit of recovery and reprieve from real life or burnout or whatever that looks like. So I think that's great advice. And and I definitely need to do more of that and take that advice.

SPEAKER_01 24:45

It's it's just so fulfilling to me. And I feel like I just get such a perspective shift when you step out of, you know, your immediate environment and go somewhere else. You feel a smaller person and as in a part of a larger world, and that it puts the place that you live in perspective, and maybe you'll feel more grateful for the place that you live and the people that you're, you know, in contact with.

SPEAKER_00 25:10

Right. No, shifting that perspective, I think, is huge. And then the second question is if your life were a reality TV show, what would the title be?

SPEAKER_01 25:20

I don't, you know, maybe something like overstimulated and underappreciated. I don't.

SPEAKER_00 25:27

I think we all could relate to that. Yeah. I think it's a it's a really good title. Thank you. I love it. So for listeners, I think um, we are gonna have a lot of questions, a lot of people wanting to just book the trip, like you are saying, and reach out to you. So, best way that people can get in touch with you. What way do you prefer?

SPEAKER_01 25:49

I mean, I have an Instagram, I have a website, I have a form, I have um a calendarly link where you can schedule a consult with me, but really I just want to be available in the way that works best for you. Some people it's easier to send a DM, some people it's easier to just book a consult. Some people want to send an email and list out what they want, however, that looks for you.

Advice, Perspective, And Take The Trip

SPEAKER_00 26:14

We'll make sure to put all of those links and that contact forms and so forth in the show notes so that way they can decide whatever way that they want to reach out to you best. And um, before we sign off, I want to just give you a second to talk about your book because I do want to include that in the show notes. And I would love to invite you back next time so we can dig a little bit deeper and get more info on the book. So I would love for you to share.

SPEAKER_01 26:43

So my debut romance book is a second chance romance with the vibes of Mean Girls and Bridgerton. She's our Victorian-era Regina George with Secret Burn book and a tragic past that she overcomes with the love of a sturdy, steady, hot, tattooed soldier. So you've got the the girl gang and a lot of mean girls references, and then you've got like the yearning and the social politics and scheming of Richardton.

SPEAKER_00 27:15

I love that. And you're actually working on another book as well, right?

SPEAKER_01 27:20

So she's one of six siblings, and I made the tragic mistake of making too many side characters who are currently unwed. So I've had readers who have been asking about um our hot bigger friend and the hot Scottish friend. And I'm like, oh no, I did not anticipate this. Uh, so she's part of series. The second installment is a novella for her fans of hated rivalry and people we meet on vacation that is coming out around Valentine's Day.

SPEAKER_00 27:51

That's amazing. Well, congrats to you. And I would love to have you back so we can do a deep dive into your book, but we'll make sure to link all of your book information as well. Yeah, and I just appreciate you being here, sharing your knowledge, sharing your time. I think you're gonna be getting a lot of DMs and a lot of phone calls, people trying to book that trip. That would be amazing. Yes. Well, Carly, thank you so much for sharing your story, expertise, and just practical advice. If someone is listening and thinking, I want someone to handle this for me, where can they be able to connect with you? They'll go straight to our show notes. And to everyone listening, if this episode made you feel more confident about traveling in 2026, please share this with a friend. And as always, till next time, that's a wrap on this episode of Behind the White Coat. I hope today's conversation left you feeling more understood and supported. If you enjoyed this episode, I would love for you to subscribe, leave a review, or share it with another physician spouse. Your support helps more of us to connect. Keep in mind this podcast is for you. So let's keep this conversation going. DM me on Instagram at Amanda Barron Realtor with your thoughts, topic ideas, questions, or even guest suggestions. I would really love to hear from you. Thanks for spending part of your day with me, and remember, you are never in this alone. See you next time.