Hello and welcome. I’m your host, Valerie, and this is my podcast solo sister travels. Here I’m giving a lighthearted review of my travel experiences, both here at home and abroad. Today’s episode is about my trip to Absolute Paradise, Heidi. So after my trip to Scotland, when I get back, I immediately start saving for my next big trip. Of course, at this time I have no idea where that is, but I’m saving it. I’m going somewhere and so I started saving. So once I made the decision I decided that since I’ve been to Scotland. I was a little on the chilly, cool side. You know, a little cold, a little rainy. I wanted to go somewhere tropical, you know, wanted to go to an island and asked when I came up with. 80 Now, because there’s so many islands in Tahiti, start doing my research as to which island is the better one to go to, or the one I could afford to go to rather. And that is how I came up with Murraya AKA Little lizard is what I was told now as I’m researching Tahiti. Course, discover and find, or rather find out the Big Island, the main island pipette AK, Tahiti Island. That the further away you get from that, the further out that you go on the islands, the more expensive things get, because of course it’s further out, you know, getting supplies there, traveling there and things like that. It’s going to be more expensive and that is why I landed on muraya because it it it took like a 30 minute catamaran catamaran. To get there, the next thing that I looked into and started researching is which resort that I wanted to stay at and I nailed it down. I gotten it down to the Hilton and the Sofitel Kia. Or a Moorea beach resort. And the reason why I ended up going with the Sofitel? Believe it or not, I just like the bathroom. I was looking at the bungalows and some of the the bungalows on the beach and the bungalows and the water. And I don’t know, I just the way they design and the way they look really that is really what it came down to. But I do if I ever get back to Tahiti, I actually would like to stay at the Hilton just to try it out and see what it looks like. But for this one, I went with Sofitel and I do not regret it. At all the people, the staff, there were super nice, the food, everything and it was all inclusive and I absolutely loved it. After deciding that then, of course, when is a good time to go, best time, cheapest time, cheapest time to go. And of course I discover. At the end of the peak season, because keep in mind, peak season peak prices, high season high prices. So that is when I I decided to go in September, I end up going in the middle of September and I loved it because even the. Weather. Was super nice. I mean, it was like low to mid 70s the whole time I was there. Yes, I was also coming. It was coming into their winter season which means rain. But the thing was. There was only a couple of days. Where it rained, but when it rained, and I mean it was a hard rain, it would come pouring down. It would last for like 5-10 minutes, stop, and then the sun was out for the rest of the day. So that was no big deal. Next thing, of course, as you know, I like to do safety. What are the Major Crimes there? Is it safe as a woman, as a black woman to travel there? And then I discovered there’s no, like, big Major Crimes that happened there except for pickpocketing. You know, picketers, I gotta handle that ain’t got nothing in my pockets. I just won’t give anything in them, you know. Here it is. So we’re set. I have my destination when I want to go where I want to stay. My next thing is. I reach out to AAA Travel services to book my stuff. Now the young lady who had helped with my Scotland tour, I quickly found out she’s no longer with AAA. So with that I figure OK, I’ll walk up to the location that is closest to me. So when I get to the location like I said is closest to me, I meet the young lady who is there and I said, you know, I’m going to try and work with her. I tell her I’m traveling by myself and. Then I want to go to. Murraya OK, I don’t know what she heard. What she did not heard. I don’t know if it was her way of trying to upsell me, but anytime we talked after we met. Either on the phone or emails, she constantly kept talking about going to Bora Bora. Girl, I told you, I ain’t going there. Can’t afford that. And it’s just. Me. You know, not that I couldn’t go to board board by myself, but it’s super expensive. And let’s face it, bore, bore. Is it really is catered more to design for couples to go so but no. And like I said, I just wasn’t going there period anyway. So after a while with me one 2-3 strike you out. And that was the thing with her 123 strike, she was out. She wasn’t getting it. So then I switched up because I still wanted to work with AAA because I’m a member. I reached out to another location and that is when I met Julie. So I can’t I end up speaking with like I said with Julie and Nice conversation over the phone. I tell her what I’m looking to do and when, and I let her know. So I would like to to meet with her and keep in mind this is all happening. Like I said after this. Pandemic to come to her office so we can at least just try and meet face to face. And so she’s like, yeah, sure. I go to her office and boom, we connect. Julie is great. She listened to me. So when I got there, she already, you know, she was like letting me know what’s going on with Italy with the travel that’s going on. What I would have to do. Far as traveling, getting back to and from the United States, and I mean, she had it done. It was great. She had done some of her homework. By the time I got there and like I said, we’ve we’ve, it was. Wait, then when she goes to look and she’s like, OK, let me look and look at some of her. I guess her the third, you know, third party vendors and travel companies that AAA works with where she can possibly find me any deals. And that’s the really cool thing I like about working with AAA and being a member of a member of AAA is that when you go to use a travel agency. They can go to all their associates and third parties that they work with and see where they can possibly get you discounts and and try to apply them to your trip, which is absolutely wonderful. So Julie does that and I love it because when she, you know, calls me back, she’s like, hey, you want to do bungalow over the water or on the beach? And I’m like, I don’t know when I’m getting back to AAA. So bungalow over the water please. Thank you. And you know, so she sets it up and everything. She comes back. She’s letting me know how much this is that is. And I loved it because like I said, she listens. She knows what I’m doing. She’s not trying to upsell me in any way whatsoever. Julie is Rock star status. She’s the best I absolutely adore and not on top of that, she’s just a wonderful person as well. So yeah, let’s get it done, Julie.
