My official title is General Manager; the company I work for is a Tour Operator and Destination Management Company (DMC). When someone asks what you do for work, there’s often an easy answer. Some jobs require a little more explanation, but overall, most people have a basic understanding of what most job titles mean. You…
The highest priority item on my bucket list for most of my life was to visit Egypt. In 2013, I was able to make that dream come true, and it was everything I had ever imagined it to be. Egypt was so deeply stuck at the number one spot on my bucket list and the…
If you travel a lot, you may have some experience with the term “walking”. Walking a guest means that the hotel is over-sold, like many airlines do, and needs to re-accommodate some of the guests. In general, a hotel will not move someone who has already checked in, although it does happen. They will opt to move…
I will always be the first to admit it: I am terrible at public transportation. I grew up in a small city that had almost no public transportation, and what was available only covered small areas of town. My experience with public transit was virtually non-existent until a trip to Boston in 2013 where I…
One of the first things I learned when I started in the travel industry was how to talk like a travel agent. There are lots of industry-specific terms and acronyms, as with any industry, that make it easy to tell the legit from the posers and throughout this blog, I use them all. Rather than…
The basic definition of ceviche is raw fish, shrimp or scallops soaked in acid until “cooked”. Usually, the acid is citrus juice and, even more frequently, lime juice. It’s a very popular dish in many countries in the Caribbean, Latin America, and South America, most likely originating in Peru. It’s one of those things tourists…
5 Things I’ll Never Travel Without Power Strip I don’t mean just any power strip, of course. There are power strips made specifically for travel. I’ve had mine for over two years and it’s the single most important item in my travel kit. Many newer hotels are putting outlets on the nightstands or in the…
I hate this question. Everyone in the industry hates this question. We’ve all created our canned answer that we regurgitate every time a guest asks but it’s a bit of a hollow response. Unfortunately, this attitude towards the question comes from traveling so much. It’s easy to forget that others don’t get to travel as…
I have absolutely no training in the travel and tourism industry yet here I am, posting as a “travel professional”. I felt it might be relevant to share how I got here and basically justify to my readers that I do, in fact, qualify as a travel professional. I wound up in the travel industry…
Five Figure Lifestyle was created to be an inside look at the travel industry from a professional Tour Operator, Travel Agent and Travel Manager. Like most travel bloggers, I do travel for free, however, when I arrive on property, I get immediately to work to make everyone else’s vacation as smooth as possible. I often…