I don’t know about you, but I feel like this year has literally flown by. 

I don’t know about you, but I’ve gotten to the point in life where I’m pretty much over the stress and the anxiety of gift shopping.

Most people have great intentions of traveling more. They are wanderlust spirits with a strong desire to explore this beautiful world. And yet… they don’t. For one reason or another, their aspirations to travel don’t materialize. 

I have an entrepreneurial spirit.  I have always known that about myself, and it was further confirmed when I took a multitude of tests after I retired from being an athlete that were supposed to help guide me into my next career. It told me I was driven, self-motivated, unafraid of taking risks, resourceful, don’t need to actually get paid to work my tail off… and on and on.

I took that entrepreneurial spirit and paired it with my love for travel for two very important reasons. The first is pretty obvious — I am passionate about travel and love helping others experience more of the world in an authentic way. Planning and organizing is a skill set, and I pair it with my knack for understanding the desires of others and finding great joy in seeing their dreams come to life. The second reason that lights me up as well, is that it is a business I can build that allows me to have location freedom.

Over the past week, continued tragedy has hit our world.  There hardly seem enough hashtags to keep up with all of the horrific events taking place around the globe and in our own backyards.

It’s pretty frightening, isn’t it? 

I happened to catch the story of what occurred in Nice, France right as it was unfolding.  I know people who live there.  I recall my own vacation in Nice, walking the same streets that were now making dark history.  I have clients who vacationed there only weeks ago. It hit close to home.

While events such as this one can very easily make us feel like it’s not safe to go anywhere these days, I don’t believe we should give them the power to prevent us from carrying on with our lives.

Four years ago I moved away from San Diego after I retired as an athlete and was heading into a new career field. I had gotten hired as a pharmaceutical sales rep with an LA territory, and my life was taking a pivot. It was not a huge move— San Diego to Los Angeles hardly qualifies as a big change. But the overall look of my life was a complete makeover.

I was bummed to be leaving San Diego, but it wasn’t long before life in LA started to grow on me again. I had friends and family nearby, there were great restaurants and cool, hipster coffee shops on every other corner. I also had a ton of awesome boutique workout studios to choose from for all my new civilian workouts, and began to take advantage of all the great things that make LA an awesome place to live (from the opinions of everyone who doesn’t hate LA).

Let’s face it: the selfie is so yesterday. Yes, they’re great for instant gratification, Facebook feeds, and fun Instagram updates. But couples are moving away from letting “the selfie” define their honeymoon. 

Couples are still taking impromptu snapshots while walking along the bridges of Paris or lingering over afternoon cocktails in Rome. But the selfie is now seen as a fun snapshot, a digital moment to share on social media. In addition to these fun self-portraits, couples are now craving something more. They want higher quality pictures that truly reflect their personalities. They also want pictures that are worth printing or using to make beautiful photo books of their trip. Because a honeymoon is such a unique and once-in-a-lifetime trip, couples now value honeymoon photography just as much as their own wedding photography.

When traveling I do my best to take photos that will properly tell the story of my experience.  Not only do I want memories for myself, I want beautiful memories I can share with others. That’s why it’s important for me to share my experience in a way that allows people an inside look at what I am seeing, doing, and eating (duh!), and allows for their own wanderlust to be sparked.  

I am by NO means a professional photographer, nor do I make any claims that my photos are outstanding in any way. However, I have gotten better! I am learning not only how to take better photos, but also which photos tell better stories, and which photos tell MY story. Today I thought I would share a few of my tips with you, and show you how those ideas have played out here in my first few days in Italy.

Ann + John: 3 week Caribbean Experience

My boyfriend and I were dreading a long cold winter in New England this year and had an opportunity to take a few weeks off to seek sun and warmth. The challenge was where to go, what to do, and how to plan it all without getting completely overwhelmed. That's where Brianna came to mind with Milk + Honey travels! I knew of Brianna through a friend and had been following her travel blogs and posts for a while and reached out to her for some assistance in our trip planning. Brianna was immediately responsive to my inquiry and such a help from the very beginning. We had a general idea of where we wanted to go and what we wanted to do and how much we wanted to spend- and within a very short time were drafting tentative travel itineraries and excursions for our Caribbean getaway. 

It’s International Women’s Day Today, and I felt like it would be an awesome time to honor and highlight some of the beautiful women I met in the Dominican Republic a few weeks ago.

Some of the very best memories of my time in the Dominican Republic was the opportunity to spend time with these ladies. This is the group from RePapel that we spent the day making paper with. They are so full of life and love, and it shined through like you wouldn’t believe.

At the beginning of our time together, they each shared their story. Every one of them started with “I have this many kids, and this many grandkids." It was not lost on me how dedicated these women were to their families, and how each and every decision and sacrifice they made was for them.

I don’t call myself a Travel Agent. But for all intents and purposes I am, in the sense that I have the proper setup and credentials in order to book and sell travel. But looking at it from that frame of mind would not encompass all that I do, nor highlight what I believe to be the valuable service I bring to my clients.

Working with a Travel Professional such as myself has it’s advantages because my business is set up to not just provide travel agency services, but also act as your advisor, consultant, and concierge. In that regard, you end up with a service that makes the planning and booking of travel through a Travel Agent a better, faster, and certainly more valuable way to go.

I started my business with the belief  that there absolutely is a need in this day and age for a travel professional-- an expert who is adept at navigating the endless amount of information and options when it comes to travel, and is able to provide travelers with amazing authentic experiences, all while making the process easy.

I have come to find that the type of service I offer is most helpful to travelers who fall into one of the following categories.

I used to never purchase travel insurance for my own personal travel. To me it seemed like an extra, unnecessary cost that covered who knows what— but whatever it covered was more than likely not going to happen to me and so I would rather save my money. But now that I plan travel on a daily basis, I have vastly changed my tune. For starters, good travel insurance actually covers so many things that happen quite frequently! And because I have a front row seat to a lot of people’s travel misfortunes, I see how often it is needed.

I remember about 5 years back when I first traveled internationally with one of my dearest friends on the planet. I had already been friends with her for over 15 years, so surely we have had plenty of time to know each other’s personalities and likes. But traveling with someone is different. 

Why wasn’t she in more of a hurry to get down to breakfast before it was over?

When was she going to realize that my internal itinerary that had outwardly been expressed as “no real plans” was being thrown off? 

How come she wanted to spend SO MANY HOURS inside a museum?

The first question I heard when people heard about my current travel adventure was why?  Why would you go to Mexico City?

Mexico City was never my original destination.  The small, colonial town of San Miguel de Allende had been on my radar for about a year, and I decided that trip was going to happen sooner rather than later. But when I started researching and learning that getting to San Miguel was not the most convenient, the option to expand my trip was born.