Your clients aren’t just baking these days, they’re going through photos and organizing travel pictures, yes, they’re going to travel again. Advice is what they want from you – with a capital A. I spent a long time finding the perfect travel agent, and then used her for everything for 20 some odd years.

Jean Steinberg suited us perfectly, and she wasn’t afraid to tell it like it was. I once phoned her to ask about a cheap holiday to Torremolinos. “All our friends seem to be going there.” And what do they like to do there? She asked. “Drink,” I said, thinking of the members of the Press Club that raved about the coast of Spain. “And is that what you want to do?”

“Listen Sam, I’m putting a huge tour together just now, is Christie Blatchford in the newsroom? She’s just been there, go ask her. So, I did. “We hated it,” was the response. “We took the first subway out of there.”

She was joking about the subway, but it made us look at the destination carefully and go to Italy instead … which developed a love for the country that is as exciting today as it was all those years ago. I’ve travelled through most of Italy both alone, on fam trips and with my family. Sicily never gets old to me.

When we go to Venice, we don’t want a day trip, we want to stay, and stay in Venice itself. The last time we were there for 10 days, and discovered one day, that the Grand Canal was closed, Venice locals were having their annual regatta, and everybody came out to cheer on their neighbours. It was amazing to seeing canoes, row boats, dragon boats. You name it, if it didn’t have a motor and could float, it was in the canal.

Another time we wanted a sun holiday, that was different, off the beaten path… and after a long debate, we ended up on the island of Monserrat in the Eastern Caribbean, again suggested by Jean Steinberg. It was so perfect we went back again and took a bunch of friends with us. When the one cabby went to bed at 9pm., the only way home was in the cargo bay of a pickup truck with the band’s instruments. Our kind of holiday.

Ah, you don’t need an agent for an all-inclusive resort, I hear that a lot and so do you. Well, yes you do we both know this for a fact. What do these clients want to do on a beach? Lie on it, walk on it, run on it? And the ocean? Do they want to look at it, swim in it or surf in it?

And not all pools are the same either. If your client is going in January, is the pool heated? Is there an adult’s only pool? Is there a separate pool where the noisy games are played, so the readers, and snoozers can relax in peace?

Does the resort have a winding river? Some people including me love them. It seems as though guests are more likely to chat as they float along. Do your clients care about entertainment, do they want live music in the lobby? Is shopping important and how far away is it? A great all-in for shoppers is the Hilton Playa Del Carmen. Open the front door of the resort and your clients are 1/2 a short block from 5th avenue, the famous shopping avenue in Playa del Carmen, and the resort is beachfront.

Have your clients thought about excursions? If they are going to do some do they know how far the transfer is from the resort to the excursion itself? They may not be keen on some properties that are two hours away from the transfer.

As your clients return to travel, they may want to travel differently, to look at the “must see famous sites on you-tube”, and choose to explore uncrowded sites, where they can savor an area or a site. So, study up on them.

And are they going to want to see Canada? I bet they are. Are you familiar with off-the-beaten- path destinations? Do you know a great Inn in Prince Edward County, Ontario, a cozy hotel in Knowlton, Quebec?

Our family lives in Australia, so we visit a lot. People who have been there for a week are anxious to talk about where they’ve been. Have you been Uluru? No. Have you been to the Sydney Zoo? No. Have you ridden the wild camels in the outback? No.

Well what do you do?

We take all the Sydney ferries and explore neighbourhoods. We go to deserted beaches where there are 6-7 people on a seven mile beach. Even then my husband complains that it is crowded. We’ve been over the Blue Mountains to Orange a number of times, and were the only tourists at a farmer’s working sheep dog competition. Every time the competing dog didn’t do well, the farmers blamed the sheep. Yes, we’ve been to the Great Barrier Reef, but we’ve also been to Sawtell, voted the prettiest village in NSW.

Yes, of course your clients will travel again…. But differently.