Travel agent, Tara Bodell, is now offering a variety of vacation experiences through her business, Trips By Tara with Dream Vacations, where she is sending clients off on their fantasy adventures and tranquil destinations.
Trips By Tara is run from Bodell’s home, but she can be reached at 720-810-6540, and details of her business can be found by visiting www.tripsbytara. com.
Bodell said she’s a transplant to Jones County, moving to Georgia five years ago. She said she had a house fire, and she wanted to move south after that. She said she wanted to be near a major city, but not living in a major city.
“I moved from Colorado, and I like the sense of community here in Jones County. The people here are just great,” she said. “It’s a nice place to live in for sure. I want to become more involved in the community.”
She said it’s all about the experience of a vacation and it can become overwhelming.
The travel agent likes to help narrow things for clients and give them the best experience they can have. If she books vacations for clients, she saves them time and money. She said if they don’t know where they want to travel to or what they want to do, she asks clients questions and suggests based on their answers.
“Dream Vacations is a franchise purchased in 2019. Prior to that I was independent with the same parent company and before that I was an employee of the same parent company.
I’ve been with the same parent company since 2011. We’re the world’s largest cruise supplier, so it gives us a lot of buying power,” Bodell said.
The travel agent said certain countries have certain regulations, especially when COVID-19 was factored in. She said some countries need a visa while others don’t, so she does the research for her clients. She said she can customize trips by booking tours and places to visit, too.
“I was a flight attendant, and I loved traveling and seeing new places. I had an injury that was going to take me away from that,” Bodell said. “I saw an ad for selling cruises online where I could work from home, so I thought that was a great deal. Here I am 11 years later. I love helping people experience new foods, cultures and have new adventures.”
She said her clients can pretty much go anywhere, except for countries in certain circumstances such as war.
Right now people can’t travel to Russia. She said people should book their vacations with her, because she has experience, and she’s local to the Jones County community.
“Price is usually the same or less with me if you do work with me. You also have someone behind you if something goes wrong. You have me to call, and I also have the corporation behind me. You could have lots of different people helping you in your situation, not just you alone,” she said.
Bodell said she’s traveled to all but two states, Canada, Dominican Republic, Mexico, the majority of the Caribbean, Belgium, the Netherlands, Cambodia, Vietnam, Japan, and more. She said she wants to help people travel just as much as she has through Trips By Tara with Dream Vacations. “I’ve done a lot of traveling myself, and I love the history and cultures of different places,” Bodell said. “It’s interesting to learn some of those unique things, and it’s fun to try different foods. The history of some places is older than ours here. It’s interesting to learn about those things. It could be a once in a lifetime experience for some people to travel to these different places around our world.”
