Making your holiday dreams come true

For the owner of Travel With A Difference, Karen Goudge, it started in February 1990, heading off on an overseas trip with a friend and a one-way ticket, saying “I’ll be back when I’m satisfied”.

Travelling Asia, America, the UK, Europe and beyond for three years, Karen now fondly recalls the women she met in business or travelling and how some became lasting friendships.

India was the country that captivated her. “The experiences were amazing and numerous,” she said. “Like taking four days to get money from my EFTPOS card in a bank, a process that the frustration became entertainment.

To purchasing a train ticket for second class travel only to be quickly ushered through a swarm of people on a flatform and placed in a third class carriage with tiered wooden bench seats, with not another tourist insight, having local children sleeping on you and being looked out for by a local woman near me hissing at another woman outside the train on the flatform who was trying to take advantage of a traveller, me, wanting to buy a chai through the train window. And of course, there are many more stories.”

After her time travelling, Karen studied international travel and then in 2001 established Travel With A Difference, located in Barwon Heads. She delights that her retail travel agency has grown organically and has a fabulous working relationships within the travel industry and other services providers both within Australia and overseas.

In more than 20 years of operating, much has happened – from 09/11, Bali bombs, swine flu, Ansett collapse and the like, to personal illness and more recently a pandemic. Her inspiration and passion for Travel With A Difference is that there is so much to experience within Australia with its diversity and the other continents with varying cultures, landscapes, cuisine and activities.

“There is much that makes for a good travel consultant and agency, such as giving comfort, ease and savings to the clients for whom we work in co-ordinating and arranging their holiday and travel requirements,” Karen said. “It’s a pleasure and I am grateful for the many inspiring and loyal clients we have who choose to use our service whether they are travelling alone, with friends or loved ones, on a special interest or small group journey and those that have joyfully participated in our breast cancer fundraising trips.”

Travel With A Difference also inspires clients with some must-do holidays, a calendar of departures, and holiday offers.

“We want clients to embark on a holiday that is going to create memories and stories, broaden the mind through the people and the destination they are to encounter,” Karen said.

“It’s a big world out there and there is much to consider when putting a holiday together. We delight in assisting and working with our clients, so for personalised attention for your holiday, whether it be land-based or floating on water, give us a call.”