My wife and I normally plan all of our trips, but we decided for our Honeymoon it would be best to work with a travel agent. We were going to Hawaii for the first time, and wanted ...to make sure we made the most of our time there. Also, we were busy planning the wedding and didn’t want to worry about figuring out all the logistics of the trip. We found Active Travel on The Knot and were put in contact with Jeannie.
At first, Jeannie was great and told us she has been numerous times and had so much to tell us! We were excited for all of the recommendations she would have and her plan for the trip. She got us our proposal promptly and we paid for our trip. This initial proposal basically just included flight and hotel plans, with the understanding that she would also help us plan out our days and excursions once we committed to the trip. After she received our payments, however, Jeannie was very difficult to get in touch with and seemed to have little interest in helping us plan the rest of our trip.
As we got closer to the trip (a few months out) and still didn’t have much of an itinerary planned, we started getting nervous and reached out to her. I emailed her multiple times over a period of several weeks and received no response. I left a message at her office and was never called back. Eventually, I managed to reach her at her direct number and her excuse after a month of trying to contact her with zero response was that the PDF list of recommendations she had wouldn’t send to my email address.
When she finally did send us a list of things to check out, many of the items were outdated and closed, some even two years ago. I quickly realized that we were on our own for this trip and that Jeannie would not be helping us. So in addition to the stress of planning for a wedding, we also incurred the stress of planning for the honeymoon which we were so excited to not have to worry about. We made all of our own restaurant reservations (too late to get into many places), planned out our days and activities, and read articles online to try to find the best things to do.
Some of the details included in our actual itinerary were incorrect because of COVID. Totally understandable and not a problem that resorts weren’t offering certain activities, but I would have appreciated Jeannie checking with the resorts in advance and not telling us we would be getting an exclusive Honeymooner’s culinary class, Lei greetings, etc when they have all been paused.
At the end of the day, we had an amazing honeymoon and really enjoyed our time in Hawaii. Yes, Jeannie booked two wonderful resorts for us. But I could have done that part on my own. We had to figure out everything else. If you are looking for a travel agent that is committed to helping you plan an amazing trip and working with you every step of the way so that you don’t have to figure it all out on your own, look somewhere else. Active Travel is just looking to book as many trips as possible to get their commissions from the resorts. One they get your money, you’re on your own.