Travel By Coco

By Kylie Brunelli

Coco McGrath is hiking with a group of people in Costa Rica. They’re surrounded by trunks of giant Mariabes and Protium Panamenses, which furnish oval olive-colored leaves in a canopy over her head. Here, the cicadas are vibrating constantly, and birds are chirping and squawking and tweeting. Everything’s upregulated in vibrancy and individuality. On this trip, Coco has already seen poisonous cane toads (which are beige) and a vibrant green-and-black poison dartfFrog.

The group tramples for several more minutes until they reach a parting of the trees, and everyone stops. They admire the sight of turquoise waters and tiny islands in the distance. It’s hard to believe this is the same Pacific as the one in Aptos. Someone snaps a photograph with their phone, and then the group continues walking.

From the trees come some low grunts. It’s too guttural to be a toucan or macaw, and Coco realizes it’s a howler monkey. She tries to see it, but it’s expertly camouflaged. Someone points out a Tucumã palm, where clusters of reddish fruits are tucked away into the leaves. This is apparently a part of the howler monkey diet, and it’s edible for humans as well. Coco makes a mental note to try one later.

By the end of her trip, Coco has seen sloths and lemur-resembling coati in addition to tons of birds. She has enjoyed sipping Costa Rican coffee, world-renowned for earthy flavors and high quality. And while produce in the U.S. was worsening for December, she was eating papayas and guavas and other yummy fresh produce.

At home in Aptos, Coco is a travel ad for her own company, Travel by Coco. Previously, she was a teacher and a coach. As she reached the end of her career in education, she traveled often, which made her really happy. While coaching, she was part of a franchise that supported her with company resources and clients. She liked the balance of entrepreneurship and structure, and so she joined Cruise Planners, a top travel company.

With Cruise Planners, she has access to promotions and amenities that aren’t online, in addition to support and compensation from Cruise Planners. As a result, “it doesn’t cost the client anything to utilize a knowledgeable travel advisor,” despite stereotypes to the contrary.

Coco has also seen massive disheartenment when unavoidable events force cancellations without recompensation. Like when people lost thousands of dollars from reservations of hotels in the Italian Alps or Mediterranean cruises during the summer of 2020. She made a ton of phone calls and emails for her clients to make sure they were refunded or given travel credits. Random people even called to see if she could help reclaim their travel losses, which was tricky because they hadn’t booked with her agency, so she couldn’t extensively advocate for them.

She “had to cancel an entire year” of business because it wasn’t safe to travel. Luckily, business has picked up from pent-up travel demand and clients’ longing for adventure. And she doesn’t only schedule cruises. Right now, many clients are going on safaris in Tanzania and Kenya or visiting Bryce, Zion, Arches, and other U.S. national parks.

Coco says multi-generational travel is popular right now, and families are bonding at reunions or during tours of Italy and France. She has many clients interested in taking their family on a family genealogy expedition. On these trips, researchers help find the exact house and school and cemetery of the family’s ancestors, and they connect them with a local expert to get an authentic experience of the area and a fuller picture of the past.

Right now, she’s busy planning many trips for next August, including a river cruise in the Douro River Valley with a local vineyard, a group tour in Ireland, women taking solo trips, small group travel, and more.

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You can visit her website at TravelbyCoco.com.

TOP PHOTO: Sunset off Pearl Islands