I have always been a fixer, a planner, a doer. As a young girl, I once heard my mother say someone had never traveled to anywhere but the small town, we lived in. This made me incredibly sad for that person. My family had always been a family that traveled and saw new things. So, you could say, I fell in love with travel and the need to help others travel, as a child. My mother's statement always stuck in my head and made me wonder how I could help others to see the beauty of this fantastic world.

I grew up on a farm in Bangor, Michigan with many siblings. We moved there when I was eight from Detroit. We raised most of the food we ate. I learned planning and management on the farm. I was the oldest daughter in the house. Therefore, I was responsible for multiple jobs from cooking to cleaning, to canning, to even managing the blueberry fields one summer.

As a young adult I went away to college. While going to college I worked in jewelry sales. When I had time, I enjoyed visiting local attractions in Michigan. My first real trip I paid for myself was to Boston. I fell in love with the ocean, culture, and food of the Northeast. To this day Boston remains one of my favorite places to visit. After College I moved to Silver Spring, Maryland. Later I moved back to Michigan where I met my husband who helped to reawaken the traveler in me. We were known for taking a carload or two of kids somewhere...anywhere to visit to family, do sports activities or amusement parks etc.

I took a job in sales support for a large appliance company. The company moved our family to Connecticut. My job entailed traveling Connecticut, Massachusetts, New York, and Rhode Island monthly. Occasionally, I would need to go to Vermont, New Jersey, or New Hampshire to help with a training or new store opening. I was one of the top trainers in the country. While I was on a product launch team, I traveled weekly along the east coast to a new town every week doing training. The number of cities I saw was countless. The thing I loved the most about this job, was the travel. I saw unfamiliar places. I tried new foods. I enjoyed diverse cultures even from state to state. Later they moved the family to Oklahoma. Once again, we were in a new place with new things to discover. For work I traveled Oklahoma, Kansas, Arkansas, and Missouri. When I left this company, I took a contract job selling cruises for one of the largest cruise lines in the world. I loved it so much, time flew by, before I knew it, 7 years had passed.

I traveled with my family as often as we could go. I would go somewhere for work and come back home and say ”I have to take you to where I just went.”   We traveled to Atlanta, Myrtle Beach, Florida....repeatedly(Disney, Disney, Disney), Massanutten, Virginia, Washington, DC, Vegas, Vermont, Boston, New Port, Rhode Island, Indianapolis, Cape Cod, Louisville, Kentucky and more. When we traveled, I planned our trips including the mapping because we did not have Google mapping like we do now. I would find the best location. Then I would work on where we would stay. The next thing I would do is create lists of everything we could do there. There was never a time we had to wonder what was there to do. The first out of country trip we took was to Nassau Bahamas for a week. It was wonderful. Our children saw things they had never saw before. It just made us want to see more of the world. Every time I would get to work putting a trip together my husband would say "You know this is what you should do. I can tell you love it. You always do such an excellent job. You always give us list of all the things we can do. Your research is amazing."

When cruise sells slowed down these past two years, I was once again searching for something exciting to do. I decided to try doing what it seemed so natural for me to do. I began my travel agent career as Fantastic Travel by Kathleen in 2020. First, I just booked family. I have expanded this last year to booking all. I enjoy showing people how they can plan their vacation and make payments over time to enjoy the vacations we all need. Vacation is an essential part of life. We all need to take time to recharge regularly. Recharging is what gives us the energy to face the challenges of daily life. My objective is to help others find their place of recharge. 

Too often we think of ourselves as our work, just as I have for most of my life. I discovered through travel that I am more than that. I want people to discover their true self through travel. 

Testimonials

Montenegro

What a great travel guide, Kathleen Hall.. Our trip to Washington DC was a success due to Kathleen taking care of every detail: scheduling air fare (one way was even nonstop), The rental Car was just what we expected.  Hotel reservation in Va. instead of the more expensive DC rates. Educating us on how to use the Metro System(providing us with Metro Maps) to all our destinations. She even took care of getting the Tickets that was needed, assuring us the best use of our time. She is one of the best.  Extremely knowledgeable. ”Thanks, Kathleen, for making our first trip to Washington so memorable.”   The dinner Potomac River cruise was so much fun.  Joi Dell Grissom