Helloworld Travel Parkdale Our Team

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  SELENA LUSCOMBE
  

  Selena is the Owner/Manager at Helloworld Travel Parkdale and with over 33 years working in the travel industry, she has a wealth of knowledge which she loves to share with our loyal clients.   She has also lived in Parkdale all her life so feels blessed to be able to work and share her travel experience with the local community.

  Over all her years of travelling, Selena has visited many places in Australia and around the world including countries in Asia, Europe, Middle East, South Pacific, Africa and her favourite being the USA. Cities such as New York & New Orleans are amazing but spending 4 weeks in Alaska in 2011 was her holiday of a lifetime… well so far at least!   Cruising is also a favourite for Selena having done many cruises over the years, some more recent ones being the Kimberley Coast from Broome to Darwin on the small ship Silver Discoverer, P&O’s Pacific Eden to Papua New Guinea and the stunning Celebrity Solstice around the South Pacific.  Selena experienced her first European river cruise recently with Avalon River Cruises and absolutely loved it!  In 2018 Selena is travelling to the Arctic to take a small ship cruise around Svalbard where she is hoping to see polar bears in their natural environment, and she can’t wait!

  Besides travelling, Selena’s other passion in life is music and she often combines these 2 loves with holidays to other countries to see her favourite artists play, in particular Bruce Springsteen & U2!

  Selena’s top travel tip:   Get to know your camera!  Read the manual, play around with the settings, have a spare fully charged battery & memory card on hand, but most importantly, have it ready to shoot at all times. 

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  MELISSA LOYNES
  

  Melissa is the newest addition to our team, starting in January 2017 and loves working here at Helloworld Travel Parkdale.   Melissa has come to us with over 10 years’ experience in the travel industry having worked previously at APT/Travelmarvel and just recently from a cruise agency, so is definitely our resident “cruise guru”!  She has recently cruised on the beautiful Golden Princess and has taken her young family on a South Pacific cruise with Carnival.  Melissa is also a specialist in organising group & family bookings but loves to book any type of holiday and takes great delight in preparing detailed itineraries and helping find the right fit for you and your holiday plans!

  Melissa has travelled throughout Europe, Asia, USA, Mexico, South Pacific and New Zealand both as a solo traveller and with her family.    In 2017,  Melissa visited Thailand and spent time exploring the region of Far North Queensland and loved it so much that she is heading back there again in 2018.  She will also visit Hawaii & Fiji in 2018 which she is very much looking forward to!

  Melissa is a bit of an adventure/adrenaline junkie and some of her favourite things to do on holidays are white water rafting, abseiling, paragliding, water sports, mountain bike riding  …  she’s certainly not scared to get her hands dirty!   And when she is not travelling, you may see Melissa out on the bay on her Stand up Paddle board or having a peaceful relaxing time at beach with her kids.  

  Melissa’s top travel tip:  When taking a cruise, make sure you remember to take along a highlighter so you can mark out what things you’d like to do on the daily activity sheet!  Also it’s always a good idea to pre book your shore excursions before getting on board so you don’t miss out.

  
  

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  DANIEL O’DONOGHUE
  

  Daniel is another new addition to the team at Helloworld Travel Parkdale and has recently graduated with a Certificate IV in Travel and Tourism.  

  Daniel is our expert on all things Contiki and Top Deck, tours aimed at the younger market.  His Europe holiday in 2015 included a Contiki tour that visited places such as London, Paris, Nice, Florence, Rome, Vienna, Munich, Prague & Amsterdam among other destinations.   Some of his highlights were paragliding in Austria, eating giant pretzels at Oktoberfest in Munich, seeing Phantom of the Opera on the West End and sipping French Champagne at the Moulin Rouge.  In 2017, Daniel travelled twice to the USA, first time being a ski holiday in California where he visited places such as Mammoth Mountain, Lake Tahoe & Squaw Valley.  The second trip was fulfilling his dream to visit San Francisco, Las Vegas and especially New York City where he saw 5 Broadway shows, and loved every one of them!

  Other than travel, Daniels interests are in film, musical theatre and pugs – actually all of us at Helloworld Travel Parkdale enjoy the company of all dogs and it’s not unusual to see us out in the street greeting our canine friends!

  Daniel’s top travel tips:  Roll your clothes instead of folding which will give you more space in your luggage for souvenirs as well as stopping your clothes from getting wrinkled. Also if you’re travelling to London or New York, it’s never too early to book your theatre tickets.  Whilst it’s possible to get cheap tickets on the day, why waste time waiting in line only to get the leftover seats which are usually right up the back!  

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