Bruce Checking In
This is where I take you along for my personal travel experiences as both a travel enthusiast and an industry professional — hotels, flights, experiences, and the occasional opinion.
My story
From Budget Travel to Luxury Check-Ins
I’ve always had a way of letting life take me places. My first real solo vacation came in my early twenties, when I saved up enough to spend seven days in New York City. I stayed at a hotel on 34th Street, near the Empire State Building, and finally got to experience a city I’d dreamed about visiting since childhood. San Francisco and Los Angeles followed. When an opportunity to move to Los Angeles came along, I took it. I’ve never been one to turn down an adventure.
My job eventually transferred me from Los Angeles to Las Vegas. About a year later, I was laid off and found myself with an unexpected stretch of freedom. Instead of rushing into another job, I hit the road. I drove from Las Vegas back to my hometown of Jacksonville, Florida, taking my time with stops along Route 66 and in New Orleans. After a couple of weeks back home, I left again—this time for roughly six months traveling through parts of South America, Central America, and Mexico.
Most of that was budget travel, with all kinds of experiences along the way. This was before travel vlogging became what it is today. I relied on guidebooks, blogs, research, and my own curiosity. I took trains, buses, boats, and planes, sometimes booking hotels on a whim. Without realizing it, I was becoming a travel planner. When I returned home, I knew I wanted to work in the industry.
That led me to British Airways. I hadn’t even realized the airline had an office in Jacksonville, but I applied and was hired to assist premium passengers, including First Class travelers. Suddenly, I was speaking with people who would spend thousands of dollars to upgrade a one-way flight from Business Class to First Class. Through my employee flight benefits, I also experienced Business and First Class travel for myself. It opened my eyes to a different world of comfort, service, and possibility.
My time at British Airways lasted a little over a year before the office closed, but it opened the door to American Express Travel. From my first day there, I planned travel for Platinum and Centurion Card Members and learned to meet their extraordinary expectations. Over nearly 13 years, I became a top-performing travel seller, built lasting industry relationships, and experienced some of the world’s most remarkable luxury hotels firsthand.
Working with successful professionals and business owners also changed how I thought about my future. I began to see entrepreneurship as something achievable, and I wanted to build a life where I could enjoy the experiences I was arranging for others on my own terms. This inspired BWP Travel and, later, Black People Vacation—two ways to turn my love of travel into opportunities for others to discover the world. Over the last few years, I’ve grown my travel advisory business and even had the opportunity to share my perspective through a guest advisory board for Gleneagles, a luxury hotel in Scotland.
More than a decade after my first luxury hotel check-in, I still get excited about exceptional hospitality. Growing up, a hotel stay simply meant having a clean room, and that was enough. Experience taught me that a great hotel can be so much more: the people, the service, the details, and how a place makes you feel. And exceptional hospitality isn’t limited to the most expensive hotels; you can find it at different price points. Once you’ve experienced it, it’s hard not to want more.
That’s what I want to share here: what I’ve learned, what I love (and what I don’t), and the experiences that make travel memorable. Not every journey has to be extravagant. Mine certainly weren’t when I started. But I believe great travel experiences are always worth seeking out.
