Based in Ballynahinch

Stephanie Rea

It's Nice To Meet You

Hi, my name is Stephanie and welcome to taking your first step of having your own personal Travel Counsellor.

I live in Ballynahinch Co. Down, I live with my two boys, Joel and Alex

I have been in travel for over 30 years and travel is my passion, I love the buzz and excitement of going on holiday. Throughout my career I have worked for two of the top agencies in Northern Ireland, I have decided to join Travel Counsellors because I have the knowledge and experience to be able to provide you with a high level of customer service.

I have travelled extensively throughout Europe, America and Canada, the Caribbean, Indian Ocean and the Far East on family holidays. I have been fortunate enough to ski in Europe and the US, play golf in Mauritius and Spain and even a flotilla holiday in Turkey, and recently I have cruised with my family on two of our holidays which have been amazing.

If you want to relax by the pool or if you prefer the beach, if you want an adventure holiday to a sporty holiday like scuba diving, skiing, golfing or sailing. I can help you plan your Round the World trip or if you want to cruise, I have the knowledge, experience and ideas to send you on your dream holiday every time.

In the introduction above I am telling you about myself, but the travel consultancy service I provide is all about ‘YOU’ and your holiday requirements.

Don’t spend hours and hours on the internet, I can provide you with competitive prices and a high level of customer service that you won’t receive booking online… call me at a time that is convenient for you, even outside of normal office hours.

I look forward to hearing from you.

Steph


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Contact Me

Whatever your holiday needs I'm here to help you, so simply give me a call or send me an email with your contact details on and I can get things started for you:

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My Blog

I absolutely live and breathe travel and I love to write about my experiences! Please take a look through my posts - you might find your own holiday inspiration.

My St Lucia Dream!

17 June 2014

Wow. I have been to a few places around the world, but I have never been to one from my bucket list before! Since I started in travel a few too many years ago, I came across a picture in a brochure with two mountains and a gorgeous beach. At that point I said to myself "I am going to go there someday!" Well, I have just returned, and I sat in awe the whole time. That place is St Lucia and the mountains are called "Pitons". In St Lucia, there was definitely a Caribbean vibe, which I loved. I was on a flying visit for five nights, and had the privilege of staying in three wonderful hotels when I was there. The BodyHoliday Le Sport is situated directly on Cariblue’s Crescent Beach and is surrounded by 42 acres of lush tropical gardens. Being a short, not so slim, 42 year old lady, I was a bit worried about the whole BodyHoliday Le Sport and what those words and the whole concept would mean. However I didn't feel out of place at all, you could be as active and healthy as you wanted or you could just chill out and enjoy the beach and the spa facilities. I joined in with a few activities, my firsts were Tai Chi and paddle boarding; both were immensely enjoyable. Dining in this hotel is a joy. We tried three different restaurants whilst here, and the food was varied and extremely high quality in all three. We then moved down the coast a bit, to Rendezvous. It is a four star all inclusive hotel situated in seven acres of lush tropical gardens on a two-mile stretch of Malabar Beach. This hotel lends itself to a boutique style hotel as it is a smaller more intimate, couple’s hotel. This hotel is also owned by the Barnard family and was originally the Barnard family home and grew to be a lovely four star hotel. I liked the intimate feel of the hotel. It has a small lazy river and main swimming pool and cabanas dotted around the resort in private areas. There are two restaurants in this hotel, but you can also eat at the BodyHoliday Resort, you just have to pay for your taxi between the hotels. St Lucia is a very green island that has a dormant volcano. You can visit the volcano and see the bubbling sulphur pools. It’s very interesting but it was a bit smelly the day we visited! We went Zip lining through the rainforest, a brilliant experience but maybe not for the feint hearted. If you do have members of your party that don't want to do it, there is a cable car ride up the mountain and over the canopy of the rainforest. Great fun! After all the adventure, we headed for our last night at the 5* Viceroy Sugar Beach Resort. Sugar Beach is situated between the Pitons and I have never experienced a hotel like this. I stayed in a Grand Deluxe Villa with my own butler and you got taken around the resort in Tuc-Tuc's or golf buggies. If you enjoy having spa treatments, this hotel has a wooden style spa, integrating itself to the rainforest around it. The views and standard of service are some of the best I have ever experienced. I would recommend St Lucia for families, couples or honeymooners. If you would like more information on St Lucia, please don't hesitate to get in contact me. Thank you, Steph.

Barbados!

08 July 2013

I had the privilege of visiting the island of Barbados in the Caribbean in June 2013. It’s hard to know where to start! The first thing that grabbed me was the friendliness of the local people as they were so helpful and lovely wherever I went. It is safe to go out and go for a walk. In particular, I went to Oistens Fish Market which is an absolute must on a Friday or Saturday night. Go along and have some local freshly caught fish with a beer, and dance (or if you don’t fancy dancing) just watch - it reminded me of a scene out of the film Dirty Dancing. I visited 14 hotels on my trip, and a few that stand out in my mind are Sandy Lane, Colony Club, Fairmont Royal Pavilion, and Ocean Two. For all-inclusive options Turtle Beach is great for families and Crystal Cove. There are others I would recommend depending on your budget, but I wouldn’t have enough space to write it all here so just call or email me if you are thinking of a visit! An important thing to note is that the east, south and west coast of the island are all very different. The east is windy and wild as it is on the Atlantic coast side, so windsurfers love it here. The south has gorgeous white sandy beaches and big waves, and the west coast has lots of hotels and small towns, as the sea is calm so safe for swimming. If you want to go out and about on the west coast there is a town called Holetown where you can have a wander. If you want to be nightlife then you should try to stay near St. Lawrence Gap on the south coast. We got to swim with turtles which was amazing. Our catamaran took us out to sea and we snorkelled with these lovely endangered species, but of course you are not allowed to touch or hold on to them. It was a truly wonderful experience and one I would certainly do again. It is very easy to drive on Barbados, and we hired a car. Whilst attempting to do a treasure hunt of the island we got lost so decided to try a chicken burger and chip from Chefette, (a restaurant chain on Barbados). An interesting fact we learnt - McDonalds opened a restaurant in Bridgetown and it closed its doors 6 months later because locals love their chicken. They eat more chicken per capita than any other country in the world – so we were told! I did enjoy my trip and definitely would recommend it. There are direct flights from London, which are about take about 8 and a half hours, with easy connections from Belfast or Dublin.

Family trip to Florida

24 May 2011

Florida here we come in the cold month of February, the kids were off school for 8 days so 12 days of winter sunshine really appealed. We set off to Dublin airport with grandparents, parents, auntie and uncle and a 15 year old all in tow. We flew with Aer Lingus from Dublin and it was a long flight, but we found it to be very comfortable. There are lots of entertainment options on the personal TV monitors in the back of the seats, so you can make your own choices and not have toewatch what the kids want the whole way there….great start! On arrival at the Orlando International airport we picked up our hire car, we’d chosen a minivan! The whole process went very smoothly and we were soon out of the airport and on our way to our villa, which was going to be our home for the next 12 days. Our villa was ideal, big and luxurious! We had paid extra to get the pool heated, which I do recommend to do if you are travelling to Florida in the winter months. The whole family was looking forward to heading to Universal Islands of Adventure to visit Harry Potter World and it did not disappoint! It was extremely busy, so much so, at certain times when there are too many people in and you have to go and get a time ticket to return later at your allotted time. Lucky for us we did not have to do this. The queues for Hogwarts castle were quite long and so was the queue for Ollivanders Wand Shop. The ride and the experience of Hogwarts is one not to be missed for anyone Harry Potter fan or not, it is truly magical. You can also buy butterbeer and pumpkin juice, neither of which I particularly liked, but when your there you have to try these things! Before we left the UK, we had decided to go the Universal Parks, so the pass we purchased covered 5 parks in total; Universal Studios, Islands of Adventure, Seaworld, Busch Gardens and Aquatica. Islands of Adventure, has lots of other attractions that are worth seeing and doing, The Hulk, is a must for all roller coaster fans out there! Spiderman 3D was another firm favourite with our family! Universal Studios has great attractions like Shrek 4D, just be prepared for the smell! Some other surprises were Men in Black – which was great fun and The Simpsons simulator ride - which we all enjoyed. Seaworld is a lovely family day out, very relaxed and a great park for having a leisurely day in. The dolphin show was world class, but Shamu the killer whale show was a bit disappointing as they were working on producing a new show when we were there, so hopefully it will be as good as ever when you get the chance to go! There are also some big rollercoasters here to keep you entertained! The new rollercoaster here is called Manta….let’s just say I cried! Busch Gardens is another park we all enjoyed, the boys loved the big white tigers and were excited at the fact there is a glass dome, which you can put your head into – once inside you are in the middle of the tigers lair! There are loads of animals to see and a trip to Busch Gardens will not disappoint. Aquatica is a waterpark, I have never been to a waterpark before in Florida, but I will definitely do another one! Aquatica is simply brilliant; it is clean and very well looked after! The rides are thrilling but not really scary -another park that was a hit with the kids! We couldn't get Alex to come home! There is a beach beside the wave pool, so even grandparents who don't particularly like swimming can lie on a sunbeds beside the pool and read their books, maybe even going for a paddle every now and then! This is really just a small overview of our holiday in Orlando, if you would like more information of our time in Florida, give me a call, I'd be more than happy to tell you of my experience...

My customer stories

Sent by Florence Fulton

Stephanie is very conscientious, meticulous, helpful and a great organiser.

Sent by Amanda McDowell

Steph is very helpful spending time with us finding out what we really want from our holiday. We know we can contact her with any queries

Sent by Riki Neill

Stephanie, my Travel Counsellor, now knows my preferences when travelling and suggests only destinations/hotels that she knows I will like. This makes the booking process much simpler and fast-tracks holiday arrangements.

Sent by Norman McBriar

Great personality and easy to talk to and listen to what we needed, Great job!

Sent by Karen Facey

Fantastic service. Truly brilliant. You saved my stress levels from going through the roof!

Sent by Lawrence Power

Fantastic service, managed to find our exact requirements extremely quickly... got our family holiday booked in a matter of hours...delighted with the service.

Sent by Julie McMurray

Stephanie was great, all we did was told her the type of holiday we were after and she did all the hard work and came back to us with a choice of places and hotels. I would highly recommend her to anyone.

Sent by Amanda Ramsey

Always recommend Steph to all my friends and family!

Sent by Genevieve Blair

Excellent service as always by Stephanie; she is super efficient, incredibly knowledgeable and extremely friendly!

Sent by Freda Edgar

I found Stephanie very friendly and helpful. She was very informative about the cruise I have

Sent by Richard Hart

Stephanie took on-board our desired features and included them into our holiday. She also told us honestly what she felt would suit us as a family. Turn around was swift and any details that we were unsure about were remedied quickly.

Sent by Nicola Smyth

Stephanie was just fantastic, really listened to our family needs. Came up with great suggestions and sourced the perfect holiday.

Sent by Mary Lyons

Stephanie is a very competent girl. She was very helpful in answering any questions I had, re flights connecting, airports, currency, stop over times. She also knew that I would prefer not to travel through large airports, as I was travelling alone, so she was able to give me connecting flights elsewhere. I felt very assured and am now looking forward to my trip.

Sent by Kenneth Blaney

There is nothing that is to much trouble for Stephanie, she goes above and beyond. It makes you feel you're in very good hands.

Sent by Aaron McKeown

I would definitely use Stephanie again as she was absolutely brilliant by sending me multiple different options of flights I could choose from, Stephanie also organised our transport to and from the airport in Spain which is a brilliant help! I would just like to thank Stephanie once again for her help and I will definitely be using her again when organising holidays. I will also be passing Stephanie's name onto friends and family for them to use too!

Sent by Bertie Douglas

Stephanie is very knowledgable, professional and at the same time is very sensitive to the needs of my disability. We have booked several holidays through Stephanie and it was a very pleasurable experience planning our holiday. We loved the personal service we received and would certainly recommend Stephanie to our family and friends

Sent by Kenneth Blaney

My Travel Counsellor, Stephanie goes beyond the call of duty and looks after every aspect of my enquiry, and always comes up with the perfect holiday which I have asked for.

Sent by Jenny McBriar

Great, friendly service. Willing to meet all our requests with out it being any hassle. Quick response time and supplied us with an excellent choice of hotels which all met our needs.

Sent by Philip Gregg

As always when booking either Business or Personal travel via Steph at Travel Counsellors, every detail is covered, I can relax in the knowledge that my travel will run according to plan .

Sent by Margaret Dawson

I found Stephanie very informative and helpful when booking our holiday. I have already introduced more friends to Stephanie who also booked with her.

Sent by Francis Corrigan

Stephanie has been absolutely brilliant in working with my wife and I, along with a travel counsellor (Jake) in Australia, for our friends who will be joining us on our annual holiday. One of the difficulties in pulling our holiday together was the time difference and having to work round that. Stephanie rose to the challenge and for this and our booking, which had quite a few changes throughout, we are most grateful.

Sent by Claire Hunter

I will always recommend Stephanie to friends and family if they are ever looking for a holiday. 100% service customer every time :-)

Sent by Florence Fulton

Stephanie is totally committed to her job. No matter what problems arise she goes out of her way to get a solution. I know that once you have booked a holiday with her you will have no worries as everything goes according to plan. I would never use anyone else to book my holidays.

Sent by Joseph Bell

We would highly recommend Stephanie to our family and friends. Stephanie delivers a very professional service. We have used Stephanie's services on a number of occasions and she has always surpassed our expectations.

Sent by Margaret Dawson

I found Stephanie very helpful with both recommending and advising us on holiday destinations. As we are going with a young family it was really appreciated to hear of the best and suitable hotels.

Sent by James Kirk

Stephanie made our experience of booking a holiday so much easier and stress free. Had it all sorted within a few days and helped us pick the perfect family holiday for next year. Her knowledge of resorts and countries was vast and she ensured the resort we chose had all our specifications. Would most definitely recommend her to others.

Sent by Stuart McMullan

Would definitely recommend Stephanie. She was extremely helpful throughout the time we were sorting and booking our honeymoon! Nothing was any trouble to her at all. Thanks again Stephanie!

Sent by Chris Blair

Wouldn't hesitate to recommend Stephanie as her planning and attention to detail is second to none!

Sent by JEFF CRAIG

Seamless…a complete joy to do business with, from the initial enquiry through to landing back in the UK after ten days spent in the amazing resort of Calpe, everything ran like clockwork. Steph co-ordinated flights from Belfast and Manchester, both to Alicante and had the foresight to ensure all arrivals / departures were within 30 minutes of each other. Fantastic communication throughout the enquiry-booking-payment-travel process, and on the one occasion we had a slight issue, her contact in Spain ensured this was smoothed out within twenty minutes despite the early morning call. I have no hesitation in recommending Steph's impeccable, professional and "bubbly" service and will be using Travel Counsellors again. Thanks.

Sent by Yvonne Young

My husband and I have used Stephanie Rea Travel Counsellor after a friend recommended her. I have found her to be approachable, friendly, professional and very efficient. We have used her services on more than 4 occasions and would not book a holiday or flight again without her help. I in turn recommended her to another friend whose daughter (Irish Paralympian Gold swimmer) was swimming in the World Games, in Montreal this summer. This totalled 7 members of a family. Stephanie was able to correlate travelling from different locations and times, for ALL 7members of the family. When I was speaking to Lindsey, the mum, she said she will never try to do the organising herself again, but will ALWAYS use Stephanie. Great service. Well Done!

Sent by Aisling Shannon

Stephanie was friendly, knowledgable, flexible, speedy and enthusiastic when she organised our honeymoon to Cuba. She thought of everything, taking the hassle out of travel so that all we had to do was turn up and enjoy ourselves! Not only that, but she managed to do it all within budget, at short notice, and at better prices than we had previously found elsewhere. We have already been recommending her to other people and won't hesitate to use her again!

Sent by Nicholas McCavery

Stephanie has helped and organised two great holidays for me and has been extremely helpful sorting out all the smallest details for me.These have been both around twenty days and have been multi locations and hotels. Stephanie is a pleasure to talk to and work with and has made my holiday experiences extremely enjoyable without any stress or worries.

Sent by Seymour and Judy Thomas

Stephanie has given us superb service on our holidays. When we phoned her from Venice regarding a problem with our check in at Heathrow, she quickly checked that everything was ok for our return flight and phoned us back to reassure us. She was extremely helpful sorting out optional excursions on our South African holiday. When we had to return home early she helped us with our insurance claim and to get money back on the excursions we had not taken. She put in a lot of extra effort on our behalf for which we are very grateful.

Sent by Amanda Ramsey

Stephanie was a brilliant help in researching the right type of holiday for my family! We gave Stephanie a brief outline of the type of holiday we were looking for with two young children and feel she found the perfect location and type of accommodation very quickly and efficiently without having to trail through loads of brochures/options. We are so looking forward to going now in July and would like to thank Stephanie for her help and will certainly recommend her to our friends and family...as well as coming back to her in the future ourselves!

Sent by Philip Gregg

I have been using Stephanie to organise both my business travel requirements and also private holiday requirements. Fro example, I have just completed a six flight business trip to Germany, I have 14 people going to Minnesota in September on a family holiday and returning to Salou in july having had it recommended by Stephanie last year. In the current business climate using Stephanie ensures all travel logistics run smoothly, leaving me with no worries apart from the "business". At all times Stephanie has displayed dilligence, enthusiasm and a willingness to go the extra mile to ensure the customer service experience is 100%.

Sent by Karen McCourt

We booked our honeymoon with Stephanie and from the moment we made our initial enquiry the service that she provided to us was first class. Any query was answered promptly and she provided different options for us to choose from. Stephanie is very friendly, very knowledgable, and her enthusiam for her job is wonderful! We had the most fantastic time on our honeymoon and it was all down to the fact that Stephanie had put so much effort and hard work into it - for this we are very grateful. Even when we were away and hurricane Irene was potentially going to disrupt our journey home, she was on hand to help. I would certainly book any future holidays with Stephanie and would recommend her to anyone.

Sent by Andrew Campbell

Great advice and recommendations and service with a smile. Thank you for your help!

Sent by Diane Mcneill

Had a great time in Legoland and holidaying with Haven holidays. All travelling arrangements and holiday went really well due to the great lengths that Stephanie went to. Thanks very much Stephanie.

Sent by Haydn Gibson

Delighted with the professional service we received from Stephanie. The suggestion of the camp site turned out to be better than our expectations and in fact we would not only recommend the camp site to friends but also Stephanie to organise any future travel arrangements. Thank you for a great holiday.

Sent by Valerie Raymond

Stephanie has booked several holidays for us. On all occasions everything was perfect. Stephanie has great experience in the travel trade and has always given us great advice and service.