Working With a Travel Advisor

I plan trips for clients across the United States. Not a call center, not a website in another time zone. You get me, by phone, text, email, or Zoom, and I am based in Lafayette, Louisiana if you ever want to meet in person.

My name is Rachel Falgout. I have been traveling for nearly thirty years, across 48 states and 18 countries, and I spent 25 years in youth development moving large groups around the country before I started planning travel full time. Getaway Girl Destinations is my travel advisory, affiliated with Fora, and I work with travelers all over the country.

What a Travel Advisor Actually Does

Booking a trip online is easy. Knowing whether you booked the right thing is not. That is the gap I fill.

I plan the trip, book every piece of it, and stay reachable the whole time you are gone. If your flight cancels at eleven at night in Atlanta, you text me and I start rebooking while you are still standing at the gate. If the resort puts you in a room facing the parking lot, I make the call. You are not waiting in a hold queue in a different country.

And it costs you the same. The rates I book are the rates you would have found yourself, and often better. Through Fora's hotel partnerships my clients regularly receive resort credits, room upgrades, and breakfast included at no additional charge. My planning fees are published openly so there are no surprises.

Flying Out of Lafayette, and When to Drive Instead

This is where local knowledge earns its keep. Lafayette Regional Airport is wonderfully easy, with connections through Dallas, Houston, Atlanta, and Charlotte. For a lot of trips it is worth the slightly higher fare simply to park five minutes from your gate and skip a long drive on either end of a vacation.

Sometimes it is not. New Orleans is a little over two hours away and Baton Rouge is about an hour, and both can open up nonstops and fares that Lafayette cannot match, especially for international travel and peak holiday weeks. Houston is further still but sometimes the right answer for a long haul flight to Asia or the South Pacific.

I price all of it, factor in the drive, the parking, and what a 4am departure actually does to the first day of your vacation, and give you the honest comparison. Sometimes saving two hundred dollars is worth it. Often it is not, and I will tell you that too.

Planning Around the Acadiana Calendar

Trips here get planned around things that do not exist on a national travel calendar. Mardi Gras. Festival International in April. Festivals Acadiens et Creoles in the fall. Football season. Crawfish season, which decides more family schedules around here than anyone outside Louisiana would believe.

Hurricane season matters twice over, because it affects where you are going and whether you want to be out of town in September. I plan around all of it without having to be told.

The Trips Clients Ask Me For Most

Destination weddings and honeymoons. South Louisiana families travel well together and in numbers, and the guest side of a destination wedding is the part couples most underestimate. Room blocks, a wide range of budgets, and relatives who need help getting there are all familiar ground.

Mexico and the Caribbean. The easiest warm water escapes from here, usually one connection and you are on the beach the same afternoon. This is the bulk of what I book, and I know which resorts deliver and which just photograph well.

National parks and road trips. For families who would rather skip the airport entirely, there is real travel within driving distance: the Natchez Trace, the Great River Road, the Gulf Coast, and the Texas Hill Country. My Louisiana food road trip down I-10 maps one that starts right here.

Group and girls getaways. Bachelorette weekends, milestone birthdays, and mother and daughter trips. Everyone pays for their own room on their own card, so you are not the one chasing deposits.

Hawaii, Italy, and Japan. The bucket list trips, which are also the ones where the travel day from Louisiana needs real planning rather than wishful thinking.

Where My Clients Are

I am based in Lafayette, Louisiana, near Youngsville, Broussard, Scott, Carencro, Duson, Milton, Maurice, Breaux Bridge, New Iberia, Abbeville, Opelousas, Crowley, Rayne, St. Martinville, and Eunice. Baton Rouge and Lake Charles are close too.

That said, where you live does not limit anything. Most of my work happens by phone, text, and email, and I have clients across the country, including a touring band whose travel I handle full time. Being local is an option, not a requirement.

How to Reach Me

Call or text me at 337-288-4032, email rachel.falgout@fora.travel, or send me the details of what you are thinking about through my planning form. There is no charge to ask a question, and I would rather you ask early than book something you regret.

If you would rather read first, the Planning Room has my longer guides on destination weddings, timing a Hawaii trip, and planning your first solo trip.

Common Questions