Frances Gertsch - Trusted Travel Advisor with Stewart Travel Group

06/14/2026

Just a reminder. Winter's coming.

And at our travel show yesterday, there was a lot of interest in our 2027 Costa Del Sol long-stay in Spain (link in the comments).

We can customize your getaway with longer or shorter durations, a mix of destinations, and more.

If want to get away for a few weeks during the depths of winter, reach out soon. Space is going to disappear quickly.

06/13/2026

06/10/2026

The Stewart Travel Group team is at hole 16 at the Belvedere Golf Club today in support of the Queen Elizabeth Hospital Foundation's Harry McLauchlan Great Day Fore Golf tournament! ⛳️

Sink a hole-in-one and you could win a stateroom on our Colin James river cruise for two in Portugal with AmaWaterways! 😲

☘️ You can also find out more about our custom-designed "Best of Ireland with Optional Golf" tour for 2027 with RIT Vacations, hosted by Heather!

See you out there!

*Tour links in the comments

06/08/2026

Do you want to win a river cruise? 😍

Our 5th Annual Island Travel Show is THIS Saturday, June 13 in Charlottetown.

✈️ Stop by between 9 am and 4 pm to meet our team and our favourite travel partners.

✈️ Sign up for the themed sessions that pique your interest.

✈️ Learn more about our 2027 programs & last-minute availability for this fall.

And just for showing up, you'll be entered to win a river cruise for two from AmaWaterways and door prizes we'll offer throughout the day! 😲

Stay for lunch and, with a small donation, you can support the Parkdale Sherwood Lion's Club.

📌 Date: Saturday, June 13
📌 Time: 9 am to 4 pm
📌 Location: Carrefour de l'Isle-Saint-Jean (5 Acadian Drive), Charlottetown

🟩 Register to save your seat:
https://www.stewarttravelgroup.ca/island-travel-show

See you then!

05/26/2026

Save your seat at our 5th Annual Island Travel Show and you could win a river cruise for two with AmaWaterways!

🗓️ Saturday, June 13
🕘 9 am to 4 pm
📍 Carrefour de l'Isle-Saint-Jean, Charlottetown
👉 The event is free. Register to save your seat:
https://www.stewarttravelgroup.ca/island-travel-show

Spend the day dreaming, planning, and getting inspired for your next adventure!

✔️ Attend optional travel sessions throughout the day
✔️ Meet travel experts and suppliers at the tradeshow
✔️ Win door prizes
✔️ Be entered to WIN an AmaWaterways River Cruise
✔️ Enjoy a BBQ lunch in support of the Parkdale Sherwood Lions Club (by donation)

Whether you’re dreaming of sunshine, Europe, cruising, solo travel, or once-in-a-lifetime experiences, there’s something for everyone.

05/20/2026

Wish you could take better travel photos?

Our next Solo Traveller Social is next week!

Come join us for a casual session to learn how to better use your phone camera to capture your travel memories.

🗓️ Thursday, May 28
🕧 6 pm (or join us for supper at 4:45 pm)
📍 Peake's Quay

Link to register is in the comments!

05/13/2026

📣 It's CONTEST time!

I'm $505 CAD (about $369 USD) away from my $1250 USD fundraising goal for the Planeterra Foundation, with only 18 days to go.

If you're able to donate to my campaign before the May 31 deadline you'll be entered to win a copy of Bruce P**n Tip's new book, "CommUNITYship: Lessons from the Universe and the Business of Everyone," which will be released in February 2027.

🔥 Link to donate is in the comments!

Bruce is the founder of G Adventures and became an Officer of the Order of Canada in 2023.

Twenty years earlier, Bruce founded Planeterra in 2003 to apply an entrepreneurial approach to community tourism development and social enterprise and, by all accounts, they've had remarkable success.

Planeterra exists to use community tourism to change lives worldwide and, with Project 300 -- aimed at uplifting 300+ communities globally -- they continue to do just that at incredible scale.

For me, this fundraiser is about Planeterra and the work that they do, but full disclosure: if I'm the top fundraiser in Canada, I'll have the opportunity to attend and be inspired at the GX Summit in Cambodia, an annual celebration of community tourism held in conjunction with the World Community Tourism Summit. 🇰🇭

PS - Anyone who's already donated will also be entered to win!

Thank you in advance for your support!

05/10/2026

Happy Mother's Day! 🩷

05/08/2026

Nine women in a village in Morocco start cooking at six in the morning.

Not because someone left them a five-star review or because a travel magazine named their tagine one of the top ten unmissable culinary experiences in North Africa.

Because there's chicken to prepare and preserved lemon and olives don't add themselves. And because somewhere in the four hours of simmering that follows, something extraordinary will happen when a small group of travellers sit down at their table for lunch.

The village is called M'Haya. The women are an organisation called AFER, and what they've built would make most development economists put down their reports and stare at the ceiling for a while.

The cost of lunch is less than what most would spend at a Starbucks at the airport. That money funds the local ambulance. Runs literacy classes in French and Arabic for adults and children. Supports people in the community with disabilities. Keeps five sewing cooperatives running.

From a tagine. In a village that you probably can't find on a map.

Nobody handed them a strategy document or flew in to facilitate a workshop on sustainable community empowerment. They started cooking, they kept cooking, and they used the money they earned to bring their community together. And they did it in a way that doesn't tend to get written up anywhere, because the people doing it are too busy to issue a press release.

What they couldn't do is reach the travellers who need to find them.

That's what Planeterra does: it builds the partnerships that turned this village lunch into a functioning community program and it connects the women of M'Haya to the kind of people who are capable of being genuinely changed by a meal, if someone has the sense to point them toward the right table.

I had a chance to sit at their table last fall. The tagine was the best I've eaten. The laughter was contagious. Their warmth was something I'll never forget. And that moment not only enriched my trip, it was an incredible human experience that makes a real difference in that community.

This Fall, Planeterra is running the GX Changemakers Summit in Cambodia for people who think travel should probably do something more useful than produce content.

To attend and help amplify this work, I need to raise $1,250 USD by May 31. Link to donate is in the comments.

The women of M'Haya have already done the hard part.

They started at six this morning.

04/28/2026

‼️ UPDATE: 77% sold out!

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Some events are just markers in time. Céline Dion’s return to the stage in Paris is going to be one of them.

I know this looks like a travel advert (technically, it is), but I can’t let this go by without telling you. You’d probably curse me if I kept it to myself!

We all know the scramble for tickets and a hotel for events like this is usually a mess of stress and logistics. I have a travel partner who has already sorted the details:

✈️ Flights from Montreal (with connectors for my Atlantic Canada friends).

🏨 4 nights near the Eiffel Tower (breakfast included).

🎟️ Lower-level (Category 113) OR Floor-level tickets to the show.

🚲 2-day sightseeing pass so you actually have time to enjoy the city.

More than half of the spots are already spoken for, and I have a feeling the rest won't sit for long.

If you want to be in the arena for the comeback of the decade, send me a message for the details.