When Birdie Chavarria boarded a flight to the Azores with her family, she wasn't just planning a vacation — she was doing the deep, firsthand research that would define her entire approach to travel advising.
At a Glance
Portugal offers distinct experiences across three regions: the Azores for whale watching and volcanic landscapes, Porto for local workshops and cultural immersion, and Lisbon for street art and urban exploration. Travel advisors who visit firsthand can authentically guide families toward meaningful, beyond-resort experiences that connect with local people and natural beauty.
There is a certain kind of travel professional who talks about destinations in the abstract — who leans on brochures, vendor briefings, and secondhand reviews to paint a picture for their clients. Birdie Chavarria is not that kind of advisor. For Chavarria, the philosophy is simple and uncompromising: "Unless I experience it, I can't sell it."
That conviction took shape on what she describes as her first major European adventure, a multi-stop journey through Portugal that she planned herself, for her own family. It wasn't a press trip or a hosted experience. It was a family vacation with all the glorious unpredictability that entails, and it became one of the most formative chapters of her career.
From the Azores to the Mainland
The trip began not on the Portuguese mainland, but on the remote volcanic island of São Miguel in the Azores, a choice that set the tone for everything that followed. From there, the family made their way to Porto, then onward to Lisbon, collecting experiences across three distinct corners of the country. "We got a little taste of three different spots, which was really nice," Chavarria recalls. "It just gives you variety."
That variety, she found, was more than a personal preference. Traveling with family meant keeping energy high and curiosity engaged across different ages and interests, and moving between destinations delivered exactly that. It was also, she now understands, a masterclass in what families seeking genuine adventure actually need from an itinerary.
The Azores leg of the journey left perhaps the deepest impression. In São Miguel, the family went whale watching, an experience that Chavarria describes with quiet reverence. "There's so much beauty in the wildlife in the Azores," she says, the memory clearly still vivid. For a travel advisor who works with families seeking meaningful, beyond-the-resort experiences, watching whales surface in the open Atlantic alongside her own children was more than a highlight. It was a defining moment, one she now draws on when helping clients envision what a truly extraordinary family trip can look like.
The Human Side of Portugal
But it wasn't only the natural world that moved Chavarria. In Porto, the family participated in local workshops, stepping into the rhythm of daily life and connecting with the people who live it. In Lisbon, a tuk-tuk ride through the city's winding streets became something far more memorable than a tourist tick-box, guided by a local who was generous enough to share the stories behind the city's vivid street art, mural by mural.
These encounters, unscripted and deeply human, crystallized something important for Chavarria as both a traveler and an advisor. "The takeaway," she says, "is just how beautiful the country is and how kind the people were." It sounds simple. But that warmth, the particular generosity of strangers in a place you're visiting for the first time, is something no guidebook can fully convey. It has to be lived. And having lived it, Chavarria can now speak to it with an authenticity that resonates with the families she serves.
Putting Herself in Her Clients' Shoes
What makes Chavarria's Portugal trip so instructive is not just what she experienced, but the deliberate spirit in which she experienced it. She planned the journey herself, navigated the logistics firsthand, and arrived at each destination without the safety net of a pre-vetted itinerary. She was, in every sense, doing exactly what her clients do when they step off a plane in an unfamiliar country, except that she was taking careful mental notes along the way.
"Once I was able to experience it, I felt so much more comfortable telling people about my experience," she says. "Telling people, 'oh, you've gotta go here, you've gotta go there.' Figuring out which excursions to do." That firsthand confidence is something clients can feel, and it is precisely what separates an advisor who merely books travel from one who truly curates it.
For Chavarria, Portugal was a proving ground. "That was a big first trip for our family to help other families," she reflects, and in that sentence lives the entire ethos of her practice: her family's experiences are inseparable from her professional expertise. One feeds the other.
A Standard Worth Keeping
That commitment to genuine quality also informs who Chavarria works best with, and who she's willing to refer elsewhere. She is candid about the fact that budget alone is not the issue. The issue is realism. "I'm okay with a smaller budget," she explains, "but if you're not going to be realistic about where you're going, I'm not willing to lower travel standards to save you some money where you might be in a situation where the food is not good, the stay is not good, because you have paid too little to go on this trip." It is a position rooted not in snobbery, but in genuine care. Chavarria is not protecting her own time so much as protecting her clients from a trip that fails to deliver the memories they deserve.
It is the same instinct that sent her to the Azores in the first place: the belief that real experience, honestly sought and honestly shared, is the only currency that matters in this work.
Looking ahead, Chavarria shows no signs of slowing her own travels. If anything, Portugal has only sharpened her appetite for firsthand discovery and her dedication to bringing those discoveries back to the families who trust her to light the way.
