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Wine and cheese, pasta and pizza. The French Riviera, a Tuscan villa. Words and phrases often associated with two of the most traveled to countries in the world, France and Italy. For Robin Good ’80, just mentioning any of these topics conjures up feelings of warmth, kindness, incredible hospitality, memories of countless experiences in the old world, and excitement of new adventures to come. As owner of TakeOffItaly.com and TakeOffFrance.com, Good has spent the better part of her career traveling France and Italy for business and for pleasure.

Good has always had an adventurous spirit and a desire for knowledge. Growing up, she thought she wanted to be a nurse, for a while, and then thought she would work in the newspaper industry (influenced by her mother’s profession). But when she enrolled at East Carolina, she took her own path and earned a degree in interior design and merchandising (formerly housing and management). After graduation, Good worked as an interior designer, but that adventurous spirit got the best of her. Through a newspaper contact of her mother’s, she took a job with TV Update, a publishing and syndication company owned by Scripps Howard. The job interview in New York City and subsequent travel required in her various positions with the company sparked Good’s love of travel, which ultimately inspired her to create her travel Web sites.

“I guess I got into the TV magazine game pretty early, so to speak, and the stars were just aligned right because every time I turned around they [TV Update] were promoting me. I started off in sales, selling advertising in the weekly newspaper TV insert, then moved up to sales manager, then regional manager, and then I worked out of the San Francisco office as the West Coast manager before moving to New York to be the advertising sales and marketing manager. Really, at the time, I was one of the only female executives in the company, and I attribute that to having great mentors throughout my career and my life, including my dad, who encouraged me to take risks. The company changed hands and names a few times, and I was always part of the ‘sale’ (thankfully). In 2004, I bought the company, now Print Marketing Concepts, with my two partners, Sue Beck and Greg Wickliff.”

Through the many trips Good planned to conduct Print Marketing Concepts business, she became adept at being her own travel agent—booking flights, finding hotels, seeking out local hot spots. So when a former boss suggested she accompany her on a trip to Europe, Good jumped at the chance. Her first trip was to England. The next trip she planned on her own, taking her mother to France, then Italy, and fell in love with the culture, cuisine, landscape, and people of the two countries. Any chance she got to travel to Europe she was on a plane—even if only for a long weekend.

“Newspapers prefer not to have us in their market from about mid-November until after the New Year because that’s typically when they make the majority of their ad revenue selling space for the holiday season. So I would take that time to travel, and I’d take anybody with me who could commit to going. My parents have been with me and I’ve traveled with lots of friends. When I lived in New York City, a group of us would go to a different European city each year for President’s Day. It started as a group of four friends, then grew to six, then 13—people kept hearing about these annual trips that we were taking and wanted to come along. During every trip I took detailed notes on the places I liked to stay, and where I liked to eat, and where I liked to visit, so I had year’s worth of information about destinations in Italy and France, and more importantly I did things on a budget. I would occasionally splurge when I could, but that was in the off-peak when you can get flights and hotel stays at lower prices because it’s not the tourist season. It was one of my mentors Shaun Higgins, CEO of New Media Ventures, who suggested I put all of my travel notes on the Internet. I love seeing how people react when they visit Europe for the first time, so I took the risk and started Take Off Italy and Take Off France, which are both budget-based travel Web sites. For people who are looking to travel to France or Italy and save a little money, it’s ‘Off peak, Off price, and Off the Beaten Path’ as the Web sites state.”

Good’s travel Web sites are veritable treasure troves of tips and planning advice, with hotel, restaurant, sites, and shopping recommendations. She’s even included book and movie suggestions, and recipes from chefs at some of her favorite restaurants in France and Italy to prepare your taste buds for the feasts to come. “With all the information on the Web sites, anybody could plan their own trip if they wanted to. The hotels, for example, I’ve provided contact information so you can get in touch with them via e-mail or telephone and get a price for when you want to stay. Everything on the sites is free. What I don’t give out is what I provide for my clients, an itinerary and some secrets I save for their trips. I can get tickets to shows and museums in advance, I’ve rented villas for people, I’ve arranged boat trips along the Amalfi coast, private day trips—really anything my clients want to do. I’ve formed relationships with a variety of travel and tourism contacts in both Italy and France and maintained those relationships by giving them business through my clientele. I don’t take any kind of commission from hotels or my other business contacts. If the hotel [or the service] is good, I’m going to recommend it, and if the hotel is paying me, then I’m biased. My personal trips to France and Italy are influenced by research, photographs of interesting sites or cities (like Scanno, a village in Italy where the women still dress in traditional costume), and places that offer unique experiences. Anytime I plan a trip—whether for myself or someone else—I think of ‘the sublime to the ridiculous’ when it comes to saving on some things and splurging on others. I gather a lot of information about my clients before putting together their itinerary, and this helps me determine which hotels, restaurants, and sites best suit their needs and their budgets—and I always try to incorporate where they should splurge and where they can save. The best part for me is hearing from clients, after their trip, what a wonderful time they had, and then getting repeat customers.”

Each time Good returns to France or Italy she feels like she’s home. “This may sound strange, but I feel like I’m European. I love the way they love their families, I love the way food is important, I love that everybody walks everywhere. I love sitting in a café drinking coffee and not being rushed to leave, I love piazzas, and I love fountains. I like feeling transported, and I am both physically and emotionally when I am there. The culture is very different in France and Italy, and I think at one time America was like that and now we’re getting back to it. On one of my recent trips to Italy with my friend Jennifer, we were sitting outdoors at a café with a glass of wine and I offered the toast, ‘Our lives don’t suck,’ something I often say. I mean, you’re sitting there and the sun is shining, there’s a little nip in the air, you’re with a person you love, or your best friend, or your parents, and it’s just wonderful. I love that I can provide that experience for others by planning their trips.”

Want a fellow Pirate to plan your next trip to France or Italy? Visit TakeOffItaly.com or TakeOffFrance.com to get started.



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