Ever wondered what it feels like to climb an active volcano while locals desperately try to warn you with mysterious hand signals? Our new co-host Jackie G has lived that experience, and it's just one of many travel tales she's bringing to Season 3 of the Suitcase Divas podcast!
Meet Jackie G, our fantastic new addition to the Suitcase Divas family. A seasoned travel industry professional based in Florida, Jackie specializes in Disney vacations (yes, she proudly flies her "Disney adult" flag!) while also working as a business coach helping entrepreneurs grow their ventures. Her travel style? "Luxury, tropical, and magical" – three words that perfectly capture her approach to exploring the world. From her childhood road trips across the Northeast to mission trips in Guatemala, Jackie brings a wealth of personal travel experiences that will add fresh perspectives to our conversations.
Season 3 promises exciting new content, including interviews with members of Irreverent Warriors, an organization both hosts passionately support in its mission to combat veteran suicide.
Looking ahead, we'll be announcing details about upcoming adventures, including a Suitcase Divas cruise on Virgin Voyages in early 2026 and a special December event in Key West. If you're seeking hidden gems, practical travel tips, or simply enjoy listening to travel enthusiasts share their passion, this season will take you places you've never been before. Subscribe now so you don't miss our first official episode dropping soon!
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Episode Transcript
Hey guys, so welcome to Suitcase Diva's podcast.
We are back Super excited totalk about travel, hidden gems
and all that good stuff, and thebest part is I am delighted to
announce a person that is goingto give us so much sparkle and
fun and amazingness.
(00:38):
Welcome my new co-host, jackieG.
Speaker 2 (00:53):
I'm happy to have two stars on the ground.
My new co-host, Jackie G.
So much, Jackie G.
Tell us a little bit aboutyourself.
Well, hello everybody.
My name is Jackie.
I have been in the travelindustry for the past several
years, which is how I got toknow and meet Denise as a travel
agent.
I do live in Florida, I dospecialize in Disney, so I do
feel like I need to come with alittle bit of a warning label.
I'm a full-on Disney adult.
Just kind of a heads up Flyyour.
(01:14):
Disney flag.
Yes, I do love the magic, butalong with that, I am also a mom
and I'm also a business coach,so I really do love training and
teaching and helping otherwomen and entrepreneurs grow and
start their business.
Speaker 1 (01:29):
Awesome, awesome, yes , and you are an amazing.
You're not just an amazingtravel agent, but you're an
amazing trainer, soknowledgeable in the field, and
it has been such a pleasure towork with you.
I've learned so much as anagent just working with you and
coming up with templates andGoogle Docs and all that good
stuff.
(01:49):
So I definitely you know, whenthe opportunity presented itself
, there wasn't anybody else Iwould even have considered
choosing for my co-host.
So welcome, welcome, and welook forward to getting to know
you better and you're hilarious,so I can't wait for them to get
to know you.
(02:09):
So tell us a little bit aboutyour personal connection with
travel.
Is that you're a travel agent,so give us an idea of, like,
what is your favoritedestination and why.
Speaker 2 (02:21):
I mean, besides Disney, I feel like that's the
obvious one.
I have not gotten to travel asmuch as I would like to in my
adult life, but I do loveanywhere that has a beach,
anywhere that is warm, anywhereI could be around water.
I really do also love cruising,so that is something that I
find to be very exciting andadventurous.
(02:41):
So for me, travel has alwaysbeen really important.
I grew up traveling a lot.
My family did a lot of roadtrips.
I grew up in the Northeast, soI've been all over the Northeast
, right in all the main 13colonies or 13 states.
We've been across the country.
I have family in California,florida, texas, chicago,
everywhere.
So I definitely traveled a lot.
(03:01):
As a kid I went to Guatemala acouple times and travel has
always been a passion of mine.
Speaker 1 (03:07):
Do you remember Guatemala?
Or you just know, what do youremember about that?
Speaker 2 (03:12):
I do.
I went two years in a row.
We went with a church group.
It was like a missions triptype thing, so it was wonderful.
Both experiences were amazingand great.
The first time I went, we didstay kind of like in Guatemala
city, so we got to stay like ata Radisson hotel.
So it was I don't want to saylike a bougiecation, but I kind
of felt a little like abougiecation.
Radissons are very nice, fairenough.
(03:33):
Yep, I'm taking up what you'reputting down Exactly, exactly.
So it was a fantastic time.
I had an amazing experience.
And then the second time wewent, we actually stayed on a
coffee plantation, like up inthe mountains, so it was a more
like natural, authenticexperience.
Right, they're like, you know,don't go outside at night.
The security people havemachetes, you know, so be
(03:53):
careful.
But it was beautiful, you know,it was an absolutely wonderful
experience.
So travel's always been a bigpart of my life awesome.
Speaker 1 (04:01):
So what would you?
How would you describe yourtravel style in like three words
?
Speaker 2 (04:07):
Ooh, okay, three words Luxury, all right,
definitely warm and sand, sotropical I guess, and always a
little bit of magic, always alittle bit of magic, so anywhere
.
Speaker 1 (04:25):
It's all good.
How about do you have any likehilarious or unforgettable
travel moments that you've hadover the your span?
Speaker 2 (04:35):
of travel, your span of travel.
So my favorite travel storythis is like my main story
because it's like the oneexciting thing I can really kind
of share.
So one of my trips to guatemalaI did have the opportunity to
climb a volcano.
So it's a fun thing that.
It's a fun fact I did.
We made it all the way up tothe crater.
So the crazy part of it was itwas 13 teenagers in the back of
(04:58):
this itty bitty four by fourtruck with four adults into the
cab.
We're driving up this dirtmountain road with huge potholes
next to you know, 20,000 footdrop down the mountain and we're
passing all these villagers andthey're giving us this hand
signal.
We're like, what does this handsignal mean?
And no one really explained itto us.
So you know, I don't, I don'tremember what it was, but no one
(05:23):
explained it to us.
But we went all the way up, allthe way up to the crater and
like we felt the heat, you sawthe steam.
Like we're like, okay, you know, let's go back down.
So it was just definitely anexhilarating.
Did you ever find out what thehand signal meant?
We did when we finally got backdown.
We're like what were they?
What signal were they flashingus?
And they're like oh, that's asymbol that means an active
volcano.
And so we're like.
So the whole time we've beendriving up, the villagers who
(05:47):
live there are like activevolcano and the guy's just like
waving and driving.
We're like, I'm like they didnot tell us, not until we got
back down, which was probably agood thing, because you would
have had 13 teenagers freakingout.
You know about that.
But yeah, I would say that's mymost exciting and interesting
travel experience.
I don't necessarily recommendit, but I've climbed.
(06:08):
I mean that is wild.
Speaker 1 (06:10):
That is wild, but yeah, that is quite a bucket
list experience.
I can't say I've done thatmyself.
So, thinking about what bringsyou here, I'm just curious what
made you say yes to being myco-host and what do you hope to
bring to Suitcase Divas podcast.
Speaker 2 (06:30):
Well, I will say, first and foremost, I've always
admired the Suitcase Divaspodcast.
When I first got into traveland kind of joined the team and
everything and learned thatthere was a travel podcast out
there, I was like that's amazing.
So really love what you guysdid, you know initially and
everything, and I'm not gonnalie, I was surprised and very
honored to get the call to beasked to be you know a part of
(06:53):
this.
So yeah, so I definitely feltyou know, very special and
honored in that.
But I really hope that I canbring my creativity to it.
I hope I can sprinkle a littlepixie dust on this and maybe
make it a little bit moremagical just a touch, just a
touch.
But also I love y'all's mission, what you guys do and just
sharing and engaging people.
(07:14):
So I'm very excited to see whatthe season's going to bring.
Speaker 1 (07:17):
Yay, okay.
So now I'm going to do a littlepersonality rapid fire style
questions.
Are you ready?
Okay, I'm ready.
Speaker 2 (07:27):
Okay, window or aisle Window.
Speaker 1 (07:31):
Pack light or the whole closet.
Speaker 2 (07:34):
Absolutely, the whole closet Good options options
first thing in your suitcasebathing suit favorite airport
snack oh I.
Starbucks coffee with threeshots of espresso.
Speaker 1 (07:51):
Hot damn, I was going to say wine, prosecco, travel,
guilty pleasure.
Speaker 2 (08:02):
Guilty travel pleasure.
Okay, I know this is supposedto be rapid fire and I totally
stalled on this one.
Well, let's see.
Okay, so I do usually travelearly.
I always like taking earlyflights.
So, along with my Starbuckscoffee, I will get a breakfast
item.
I don't usually spend money atStarbucks, so it's one of those.
Like I'm traveling, I get youknow, fancy breakfast.
So that's what I do I treatmyself to a fancy breakfast.
Speaker 1 (08:28):
Yeah, so, and I'm super, super excited for season
three because we got a lot ofreally cool new stuff and stuff
from our past season and I knowthat one of the things that
you're passionate about.
We both share this, but Ididn't know that you were
passionate about this until wekind of got together and started
talking about it.
So what is one thing thatyou're hoping to bring to this
(08:51):
season's?
Speaker 2 (08:51):
podcast Well, first, and talking about that mutual
connection, is the irreverentwarriors organization that we
help with.
So I just volunteered a lot ofhikes with them and I know you
volunteered as well.
We're going to have logs onemore time.
It's all good, so we will bedoing some interviews with some
people.
(09:11):
I'm very excited to have themon here to speak with some
hikers.
And for those of you who don'tknow, just very, very briefly, a
Reverend Warriors is a group tosupport veterans.
They do work towards combatingveteran suicide, so definitely
check them out online.
Check out our future episodes,because we will be highlighting
them, so I'm very excited to beable to dive into that Along
with that.
(09:32):
I know we have some very funtrips planned and coming up.
We're going to be doing aSuitcase Divas cruise later on
or beginning of next year, soI'm very excited to see just
where this podcast is going totake us as far as travels.
You mentioned Hidden Gems,little cities, so I'm just
excited to see where we're goingto go with this.
Speaker 1 (09:53):
Yeah, I'm excited too , and I do think that Irreverent
Warriors absolutely is justsuch a worthy cause to help out
with and they do preventsuicides every day for veterans,
and I mean people that haveserved our country.
What better cause could be outthere to help people that have
been there for us, right?
So, yes, I'm excited about theDecember trip in Key West that
(10:16):
hike we will be at that.
I am also excited very much sofor our Virgin Voyages cruise
that we're going to beannouncing in the near future.
So I'm super excited for justseason three in general and I'm
so.
So I'm super excited for justseason three in general and I'm
so.
It's been such a pleasure.
Jackie did come to Charlotte,the Queen City, and came to see
(10:37):
where Cheryl and I were at, andI'm just super excited for you
to come back here and I'mexcited to come down there.
I guess I had Key West inDecember.
So we are, even though we arenot in the same state, we're in
the same state of mind, and thatgoes a long ways.
So, no matter where our travelstake us this year, I'm saying
(11:01):
let's go there.
I'm excited, I'm set to gothere and I'm so happy that
you're going to be part of theSuitcase Stevens podcast, so
welcome, welcome and welcome toall of you for season three.
Happy that you're going to bepart of the suitcase demons
podcast, so welcome, welcome andwelcome all of you for season
three.
Be on the lookout.
We will be making anannouncement in the very near
future of when our first episodewill drop, so stay tuned.
Bye guys, bye guys.
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