Esplanade Travel is our parent company, which focuses on international luxury travel, and
unique custom-designed trips have been their trademark for 60 years. Our staff has collectively
traveled to over 150 countries around the world, and we sell the destinations
we know best and love the most! Our primary destinations are Africa, New
Zealand, Australia, Southeast Asia, South America, India, United Arab Emirates,
Greece, Turkey, and the islands of the South Pacific.
Please visit our website at www.esplanadetravel.com, call us at 800-628-4893, or email us at info@esplanadetravel.com
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Esplanade Travel was
established in 1954 in Boston’s Back Bay neighborhood, and over the years we
have maintained our roots as a small locally-owned business with a focus on
luxury travel. We pride ourselves on building individual itineraries to
challenge not only the well-traveled, but also to inspire new travelers.
We are still working with some
of the same local agents and ground operators around the world as we did when
Esplanade started, and have developed a very trusting relationship with the
people who will actually be meeting your planes, taking you to your hotels or
lodges and introducing you to your guides. We can get an answer for you from
virtually anywhere in the world in a matter of hours. If Esplanade has a
mission statement it is to change people’s lives in a positive and rewarding
way through travel.
Esplanade Travel is mentioned
in 1000
Places to See Before You Die, National Geographic Guide to India, Specialty
Travel Index, and Fodor’s
Guides, as well as in The Boston Globe's Travel Section.
Photo: Auckland City Lights Photo credit: Chris McLennan - TNZ
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Jacky Keith, President
African Land Specialist
Jacky, President and Owner of
Esplanade Travel, started traveling at the age of 12, flying alone for the
first time from the UK to Paris to visit her pen pal. No such thing as
“unaccompanied minor” in those days! Thus began the life of travel to – at last
count – over 100 countries. She joined Esplanade in 1965 when it occupied
offices on Charles Street, near the famous Esplanade on the banks of the
Charles River.
Her early travels in the 60’s and
70’s took her to the Ancient World, the Middle East and Asia. She has bought a
picnic lunch for 25 people in rural Iran, ridden a motor bike in Bali, an
elephant in Botswana, a camel in Egypt, a horse in the Andes, and driven a VW
in Ethiopia. These incredible experiences helped earn Jacky the honor of being
named to the original list of 100 Most Powerful Women in Travel by Travel Agent
Magazine.
Jacky is happiest working on the
most challenging request for a truly out of the ordinary adventure – so pick
her brain and she will readily share years of knowledge and give you a trip you’ll
remember for the rest of your life.
For more information, please
contact Jacky at jkeith@esplanadetravel.com or call her at 617-266-7465.
Photo: Lion Cub
Photo credit: Dana Allen,
Wilderness Safaris
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Jill Potash, Director of Africa Department African Air Specialist
Keeping it all in the family, Jill has been working with her
sister, Jacky, since the early 1980s. Starting out in marketing, Jill has
enjoyed managing the Africa Department for more than 16 years. She and her
husband travel to Southern Africa regularly and will be escorting a small group
in 2017. Jill is often heard telling her clients “you will not go to Africa
just once” - and it usually proves to be true.
Growing up in England, traveling around Europe was easy.
Whether skiing in Chamonix and Zermatt or barging in France, Jill was
introduced to other cultures early in life. When asked her favorite city in
Europe, Helsinki is at the top of the list.
Jill also enjoys cruising, whether it’s on the Zambezi,
Spice Islands of Indonesia, Tahiti and the South Pacific, or the West Indies.
Being on the water is always relaxing and a wonderful way to see sites often
difficult to access by land.
When not in the office, Jill works from her home in Northern
Vermont surrounded by dairy farms and maple trees. She and her husband recently
rescued Mala, a Bouvier des Flandres, and are looking forward to introducing
her to the many hiking trails surround their property.
For more information, please contact Jill at
ej@esplanadetravel.com or call her at 617-266-7465.
Photo: Zebras
Photo credit: Moira Hopkins
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Ksusha Levkovich, Travel Consultant New Zealand, Australia and the South Pacific Specialist
Growing
up in Latvia, some of Ksusha’s most favorite childhood memories are those of
her family’s annual summer vacations, which began when she was just 6 years old
with a trip to Germany, Hungary and Czechoslovakia. From trying sips of red
wine in Greece at the ripe age of 7 and exploring the Egyptian pyramids to
celebrating her 10th birthday in Italy, Ksusha knew that her life would not be
complete without exploring all that the world has to offer. After moving to the
US at age 11, she continued her travels and even spent 6 months studying in
Paris. She has visited over 24 countries, with New Zealand and Australia being
clear favorites, and now has her sights on Southeast Asia
For more information, please contact Ksusha at ksusha@esplanadetravel.com, or call her at 617-266-7465.
Photo: Lizard Island Photo Credit:Erik Williamson, Tourism Australia
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Diane Sakakini-Rao, Travel Consultant Europe Specialist
Diane Sakakini-Rao has been
dreaming about, traveling to, living in or plotting her next trip to Europe for
over 30 years. France is her particular love, but Italy, Spain and Morocco are
close behind. She has also had great adventures backpacking and hitchhiking in
Egypt, Israel, Turkey, Greece, and India.
Diane’s first trip to France
was in 1980 as an exchange student to Angers, where she fell in love with the
language and culture. Subsequently, she returned to and lived in France on many
occasions, including as a sales girl in a souvenir shop next to Notre Dame in
Paris, as a grape harvester in a small village in Provence, as an assistant director
of an exchange program in Dijon and as a lecturer in the Faculté d’anglais at
the University of Bordeaux. She returns to France whenever she can - at least
two to three times per year.
Other career
adventures have included obtaining a Master’s degree in French and teaching all
levels of French from pre-school through college, as well as a stint with a
wine importer in marketing and sales of French, Italian and Spanish wines.
Diane is the mother of 3
children, who, along with her supportive husband, share her love of adventure
and travel. They have most recently hiked in Spain, visited Tangiers, hiked in
the Lauterbrunnen Valley of Switzerland and explored the villages and markets
of the Languedoc.
If she is not in Paris or
somewhere else in Europe sipping a Leffe beer or a glass of Provençal rosé,
Diane is most happy when planning trips for others to travel to her favorite
spots in the world.
For more information, please
contact Diane at diane@esplanadetravel.com or call her at 617-266-7465.
Photo: Gondolas in Venice
Photo credit: Dmitriy Andreyev
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Tess Holman, Travel Consultant
A family trip to the United Kingdom in third grade was the start of Tess Holman's love affair with traveling. Tess studied International Relations and Diplomacy at Seton Hall University and carved out time to study Arabic in Morocco and backpack through Europe. Upon graduation, Tess joined the Peace Corps and lived for two years in Botswana, where she became fluent in the culture, proficient in the language, and forever in love with the landscape and its inhabitants.
Tess's fervor for traveling - especially in southern Africa - will come through as she helps you create the vacation of a life time.
For more information, please contact Tess at tess@esplanadetravel.com or call her at 617-266-7465.
Photo: Easter Island Statues Photo Credit:Metropolitan Touring
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