Labor Of Love: Celebrating Travel Professionals whose Labors Make our Day

 

In honor of Labor Day, I was inspired to think about all the people whose jobs are needed to make sure we have a great vacation.  I'm thinking about the flight attendants and the boat captains and the tour guides and the museum docents.  All those faceless people whose contributions become a part of our family memories and without whom we would have no great stories to tell.

While they are simply putting in their forty hours, they can also become your very best vacation friend if you purpose to do one simple thing: spend time talking with each one.  I've noticed when we travel that people seem to do quite the opposite.  They board a boat and choose a seat as far from the captain as possible.  They enter the jet bridge and make every effort not to make eye contact with the flight staff.  They join a tour and stay at the very back of the line.  Maybe this is a holdover from years of sitting at the back of the class hoping not to be noticed.  Or is it that people assume that captains, and tour guides and the like wouldn't want to talk to them?

Here's my best kept vacation secret, and maybe the best kept life secret: people love to talk about themselves.  All people are thrilled to share about their jobs, their interests, and the greatness of their hometown.  By talking with locals as they do their jobs in the hospitality industry, you will learn the best places to eat, the local hangouts that nobody else knows about, and the hidden gems of your vacation destination. 

There's another benefit to spending time talking with your guides and such.  They become your friend and friends like to do nice things for each other. 

They do things like letting your kids pilot the boat.

Or letting you drive the steam engine into the barn. 

Or giving you extra time during your flight and refusing to charge for extras.

Or asking you to join them in a Civil War battle.

After all that's what friends are for.

On your next trip, find your seat next to the captain and make sure you are at the front of the tour line.  You will definitely come home with some great stories.  You will create great one of kind family memories. And you will return home from vacation with not just souvenirs and photographs, but new friends all over the world.