Traveling has always been about leaving behind the familiar to experience something new, but with the current state of the world, there’s an extra element of unpredictability travelers have to deal with.

That’s where travel agents, like Sonia Bhagwan, come in. She owns a Dream Vacations franchise called Dreaming of Sun — something Portlanders are well versed in — and specializes in planning getaways for families, couples, and large groups.

We spoke about a range of topics, including COVID-19, tips for traveling with kids, when to buy flights, and more.

Q: Have you always wanted to be a travel agent?

A: It was not something I always wanted to do, but I've been traveling abroad since early childhood because my parents were from India. Then we just started using our Christmas vacation time, and we would go on some exotic family vacation every year.

When I became a mom, I just stopped traveling because I was like, how am I going to travel with a stroller and a diaper bag, with the car seat and a suitcase? I took a break for a minute, but now that my kids are older, we travel quite a bit. I looked into becoming a travel agent a few years ago, wondering, “how can I travel a lot for less money, and leverage all my experience?”

Q: What destinations are Portlanders particularly interested in?

A: My top three destinations are Hawaii, Mexico, and cruises to either Alaska or the Caribbean. Cruising is back and people are very hungry to go on cruises. Close behind that would be Disney and Western Europe.

Q: What exactly does a travel agent do?

A: I totally know what you're asking, like, what's the purpose? Can’t we just go on Expedia and Travelocity and book it ourselves? I get that question a lot.

Yes, you can just go on the Costco website and book yourself a trip. But if you run into any issue during your trip, and you try to call Costco about it, you're never going to find somebody that's going to know what you need to help you. When you have a travel agent, they serve as your single point of contact from pre-trip to during the trip.

I'm always available to my clients 24/7 during the time of their travel, and surprisingly, people do call in the middle of the night. They get lost. “What do I do? How do I do this? How do we check in?” And since I've put myself out there, people take advantage of that. Which is good, because I feel better knowing that they're taken care of, especially in a different country.

This is also a good time to dispel some myths. So first of all, working with travel agents does not cost money. In fact, one of my tips that I was going to give Portlanders, is if you run into a travel agent that's charging a fee up front, that's not somebody you want to work with, because we do get paid at the end. It’s not okay for anybody to charge up some money. I would run from that agent.

Q: How does the process work?

A: Usually what I do is I meet with my client on the phone or through Zoom. We talk about their vision for their vacation. What are the experiences they want? What are the things they don't want? And then I put together a few options.

We just go from there, we work on it. Like my clients will say, “That's not really the look and feel of the resorts I was looking for. And also, it's just gonna be close to the boat dock; can we go snorkeling at this beach? You know, where can we take a helicopter? Or my friend told me about this one restaurant; we want to be over there by that area.” So just knowing the ins and outs, doing a lot of the research, is what the travel agents do, versus a client having to do it themselves.

And one of the biggest benefits of travel agents is that anytime something is booked, say like a Disney World trip, it's my job to keep an eye on all of the promotions that come out from Disney, and then I can just automatically apply it to people's reservations. So oftentimes, for the larger vendors like that, I will be calling my clients up and saying, “Oh, you're gonna be getting a refund for $400 because your package went down, and I applied that to your reservation.”

I always say, not only does using a travel agent not cost you money, but more often than not, it will save you money.

Q: Who should use a travel agent?

A: I think there are two types of travelers: people who are very experienced travelers don't necessarily get all the benefits from a travel agent that an inexperienced traveler would. So if you know how to travel, you're familiar with going through customs, presenting your passport, doing things like that, I wouldn't say you'd be a great candidate for a travel agent. But, for somebody who’s looking for a first-time trip or somebody who saved money for 10 years, and they want to make this a once-in-a-lifetime trip with their family, those are people who could benefit from travel.

Right now, I have a honeymoon couple that’s very experienced in traveling, but they want to go to Dubai and the Maldives for their honeymoon and I've been there, so I can talk them through the different hotels and locations, safety, crime, things they're not gonna find on Google.

Q: How has traveling changed in the last few years?

A: During the pandemic, people wanted to do a lot of staycations. So I would get a lot of requests for drivable places, even up to Idaho, Coeur d'Alene, or Northern California. But now, the trend I've noticed is that people used to be very budget conscious when traveling. I would get people who asked, “What's the least expensive, decent hotel in XYZ city that I’m visiting?”

I no longer get that. Now people are spending a ton of money on travel, like, “I want the best hotel that my money can get in this city. Money is no object. We want to go all out this time.”

This could be you. | Photo by @benmcbeephoto

Q: Are there any other travel myths you can dispel?

A: One thing that I wanted to tell people — I have heard many people say you have to book your airline tickets on Tuesday because it's the cheapest day. That’s just so false. I don't even know where that ever came out. Everyone seems to think that and it's actually not true. Sunday night is actually the cheapest time in recent months to book an airline ticket. Sunday night or early morning Monday, and Tuesday is really just like any other day, Wednesday, Thursday, Friday.

Q: What causes flight prices to fluctuate?

A: So they get released on the weekend, Saturday, Sunday. There's no exact time, but they get released on the weekend and then it just goes by demand. So if everyone's booking a trip to Orlando, that's how they're gonna price them out for the week. And as the week gets further along, Thursday and Friday, they get more expensive. They assess them weekly, and then they adjust their prices.

Airline prices are up, and it's a lot to do with demand. Also the staff shortages in the airlines are playing a big part in that. And then of course, the oil prices. So all sorts of things are impacting airlines.

Q: How far in advance should people book a flight?

A: I have a two-pronged answer for that. If it's early in the year and you are scheduling holiday travel — specifically for November + December — I would lock that in as soon as possible. They will sell out and it will get more expensive. You can book airlines 319 days in advance. I know it is a weird number. But if you're not planning for the holiday, I would suggest buying airline tickets two to three months out.

Q: What should people know about COVID-19 and travel?

A: So in terms of COVID, most of the restrictions have been eased in most places. There is still the requirement to test negative before returning to the US. A lot of the hotels and resorts have on-site testing available for free. Some also offer discounted extended stays for people who do test positive, though it doesn't always explicitly state that on their website.

COVID is going to be out there no matter what and a lot of the countries that were hit hard by the lack of tourism are not being very forthcoming about their COVID numbers, because they just don't have to anymore. So I mean, I think being cautious — not being as cautious as you can, I don't want people to be paranoid. But everyone has a different threshold for what they're willing to put up with.

Even though people are traveling again, the industry is still kind of playing catch up. And because of all the staff shortages during the pandemic, hotels and airlines are understaffed, and hotels are offering much fewer rooms. They're filling up a lot faster than they normally would if they were fully staffed. So if travelers have a particular hotel they want to stay in several months down the road, if they see that it's available, I would invite them to book it sooner than later.

Q: How does the Dream Vacations network benefit clients?

A: So Dreaming of Sun, by Dream Vacations, is my company. Dream Vacations is actually a large franchise company underneath World Travel Holdings, and World Travel Holdings is the largest legal leisure travel company in the US. They also have a cruise division called CruiseOne, and then the land and cruise division is Dream Vacations.

There are actually four Dream Vacations franchise owners within the Portland metro area, and we all work together. If a client calls and wants a trip to somewhere that I've never researched and don't know much about, I might pitch it to one of our other franchise owners that might specialize in that area.

The partnerships and contracts that we have with our vendors are amazing, which means for the client that they get much better rates and price points than they would if they booked it through Costco or through Expedia. We have things like packages with hotel rates, plus some excursions and activities — things that are unique that you wouldn't find somewhere else. And on cruises, we often offer additional onboard credit. On the Dream Vacations website they say, “more perks than the cruise lines themselves.”

Q: Do you have any tips + tricks for traveling with kids?

A: I actually have a teenager and I have a toddler, so I have this down to a science. There are a few things that I always suggest doing. One of them is booking your flight for the morning, because toddlers and preschoolers are just better in the morning. Always pack more stuff than you would normally pack for your older kids.

So, have a pacifier, have their favorite stuffed animal, have toys that they can play with on the plane. I always like those Wikki Stix that Alaska Airlines gives out, but you can buy those anywhere. I like the child-sized headphones to bring, and they have double adapters so they can plug into either the micro USB or a regular audio port, depending on what the plane has. And they also have muted earphones on those headphones. So the child is not going to get the extreme volume. We always bring blank paper, some crayons. And then we load up my son's iPad with a bunch of “Paw Patrol” and other shows that he watches just in case the Wi-Fi is not working on the plane.

Another thing I like to suggest is a child-sized backpack. I notice that with my own son, he wants to feel like he's participating. So instead of us just carrying the luggage, he wants to have his own little backpack with his stuff in it. So maybe his binky and his crayons and a stuffy and a car or something, and maybe their own little granola bar. Snacks are important.

I like to bring, and I like to suggest that people bring for their kids, Pull-Ups, if they're just new to potty training, or if they're learning potty training, Pull-Ups are important to bring in your purse and in your child's backpack, as well as a change of clothes for yourself. You never know if they're gonna spill their apple juice if there’s turbulence. Or if they sleep on the plane and they wet their pants. I've made the mistake of not packing extra clothes and then had to just suffer.