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Show Notes
You've got more booking tools than ever — so why would you hire a travel advisor? In this episode, Afar editorial director Billie Cohen sits down with travel journalist and matchmaker Wendy Perrin, founder of wendyperrin.com, to answer the questions travelers actually have: What can an advisor do that you can't do yourself? When does it make sense — and when doesn't it? How do you find a good one, interview them, and understand what you're paying for?
From crowd-skipping at Venice to landing the perfect Egyptologist, Wendy makes the case for what truly expert trip planning looks like.
In this episode
- Why connections (not booking tools or AI) are the real currency of great travel
- The difference between advisors who specialize in you vs. those who specialize in a place
- How to interview a travel advisor (and what their answers reveal)
- What travel actually costs — and why it often isn't itemized
- Why multi-gen trips and post-pandemic travel are driving a new wave of advisor use
Chapters
00:00:00 Why Travel Advisors Still Matter 00:03:00 Advisors vs. Agents vs. Tour Operators 00:06:00 What a Great Advisor Can Do 00:13:00 Choosing and Interviewing an Advisor 00:24:00 Fees, Costs, and Transparency 00:28:00 Cruise Specialists and Misconceptions 00:33:00 Who's Using Advisors Now
Links & resources
- Wendyperrin.com and Wendy's Wow List of top trip designers
- Listen to our Unpacked episode about cruise travel advisors
- Explore the Afar Travel Advisory Council
- Follow Afar at @afarmedia on Instagram and TikTok
- More travel planning resources at afar.com
Be sure to subscribe to the show and sign up for our podcast newsletter, Behind the Mic, where we share upcoming news and behind-the-scenes details of each episode. And explore our second podcast, Travel Tales, which celebrates first-person narratives about the way travel changes us, and View From Afar, where we spotlight the people and ideas shaping the future of travel.
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