How It All Began

My name is Katherine Belarmino, and my greatest wish in life is to travel as much as possible. As a child, my family traveled strictly in the United States, and mostly road trips. I remember traveling to Oregon and visiting Crater Lake, Mt. Hood, and Portland. We went to Washington to visit my grandfather. We took two trips which involved flying, one to New York, and one to Disney World in Orlando, Florida. Our trip to Disney World occurred when I was in high school, and my mom let me plan that trip (or at least let me believe I planned it). I ordered the Disney travel planning package, including a VHS (remember those?), and planned that trip down to each individual ride and the order they would be ridden. That is where my love of researching and planning vacations was born. When I was young, I loved reading Jane Austen, which made me long to travel to England. But I didn’t really even believe I would ever leave the country.

I have been with my husband Romeo for 14 years, and we have been married for over eight years. My first vacation as an adult, at the age of 25, and our very first vacation together, was to Oahu, after we had been together for over three years. We already owned a house together, but I still felt this would be the true test to our relationship, if we could go on vacation together for a week, have fun, and most importantly, not kill each other. It was a success, and I learned I had found the perfect partner with whom to travel the world. Not only are we interested in many of the same sights and activities, but he can keep up with and actually enjoys the crazy pace I set, which is no easy feat. We have since been on many vacations together, and try to take two a year. In addition to vacations in the United States, we have been to Canada, Central America, Europe, Africa, and Asia.

My second vacation as an adult was just four months later with my grandmother. We went to Rome, Italy, with a stopover in New York City. I couldn’t believe I was actually getting my passport and traveling outside of the United States. After that trip, I was completely infected with the travel bug and couldn’t wait to do more.

I spend months prior to our vacations researching and putting together our itineraries. This helps us save money and experience as much as possible in a limited period of time. I would like to pass on the things I have learned through my research and the experiences we have had on our vacations in hopes they may help others in planning their own vacations, and maybe even inspire some to go on a vacation they may not have thought they would take.