Hello there! I'm Gwendolyn Hays, company founder. I founded Topside Travels out of a passion not only for travel itself, but the entire planning process. Do you lay awake at night running through your packing list with excitement? Do you pour over tours and excursions and read every detail? Do you over-research every piece of minutiae related to your trip? I do and I have the Pinterest boards to prove it.
As a kid, I would pack a suitcase two weeks before summer camp, fine tuning it up until the day I left. My grown children have never known a time when a packing list for every conceivable application wasn't ready to be printed at a moment's notice. Planning travel combines my love of travel with my aptitude for logistics in ways that make me giddy.
What I don't love is stress. After getting time off from work, updating colleagues on any remaining workload (knowing that and much more will be waiting when you get back), changing your out-of-office message and making sure your voicemail was set, not a lot of time is left for travel planning. Have you ever come home from work the day before you leave for a big trip and you haven't even packed? When does that flight leave again? And that's after it's already planned! Let's face it, a good vacation is a lot of work.
You always hear that you should work smarter, not harder, so I have found some shortcuts along the way. I'll be sharing tips I've learned along the way so please join along.
Cheers!
Gwendolyn