Hi! Im Melissa Cowles, a travel counselor and the owner of Make a Memory, Travel.  I thank you for taking the time to read my bio. As a "family vacation specialist" I realize that families come in all shapes and sizes. I can help you plan vacation experiences that fit yours, so you will make those memories that last a lifetime!  I love to travel- with friends, family,  for fun, and also to learn about new places and cultures! My family has a lot to do with who I am and the travel agency I continue to build!  Like most, my family seems to always be changing and growing in one direction or another.   I grew up in Buffalo, NY with my sister, parents, and grandparents close by.   My parents took a few trips but we didn't get to go.  Until high school.  My graduation gift came early. It was an EF Tour trip to Europe with some of my classmates.  The travel bug had taken root. I began college, 2 years in,  I met and married a military man.  Al of a sudden I was moving to AZ.  Although I gained a slew of in-laws, living so far away,  it felt like my family shrunk- down to just the 2 of us.  A few years later our daughter was born, and 5 years after that, our son arrived!  We had moved to MD and back to NY,  where we lived closer to family and by now, there were cousins on both sides living everywhere!  We were visiting states from the east to the west coast, up north and down south! Eventually, our life in the active duty military came to an end, and a new one came to light.  My husband transferred to the Army Reserves and became a teacher.  We moved to GA, settled in and I went back to school and also taught- for over 10 years now!   Our family was everything to us. As teachers, we couldn't give our kids everything, and never wanted to, but all that moving around and seeing new places, making new friends, left its mark.  We were determined they would get to travel.  Maybe not too exotic- but they'd see new places, make new friends!  I served as our travel agent. Before Garmins and iphones- I was pretty good with road maps, ads from magazines, and land line phone calls!  We did Disney and cruises, road trips to many states,  Bahamas, the mountains, the beach, Alaska whatever we could when we could!  Our "kids" are now 22 and 16.  There's a fiancée in the picture- and our family is changing again!

 We've passed on the love of travel to the kids.  My daughter traveled to France in high school- stayed for weeks as part of a student swap, and in recently,  spent months living in Bali, Indonesia- volunteering to help improve mental health in a 3rd world country.  I visited her there and got to see much of the country and learn a lot, first hand.  While on that side of the world, together, she and I traveled to Japan and Australia as well.  I arranged multiple cities in multiple countries.  Our flights, our ground transportation, luggage transport, planes, trains and automobiles!  It was crazy and exciting, and when I called a travel agent to check my work- he said "You should do this! Why aren't you a travel agent?  You are ALREADY doing it all!"  There was nothing left for him to help me with. It had taken weeks of planning and figuring out, but I was on my way to experience the trip of a lifetime.  

When we got home- I looked back on my life so far- the happiest times, the best of the best memories.  May of them had one thing in common- travel.  As a teenager, I got my first taste of how big and small the world really is. Then there were life events that kept me on the move- a honeymoon, moving to other states, visiting family, family visiting us, traveling as a family... My memories are best with the ones I love.  Aren't they always?  So my experiences, my family, my love for travel have helped my shape my travel agency.

 Families come in all shapes, sizes, and ages, but when it comes to travel, they all have one thing in common- they want their vacations to be memorable- in the very best sense of the word.   For some of us, family is a close-knit group of friends, for others it’s a brand new husband and wife team, in nuclear families, it’s all about the kids or even large extended family groups!  At Make a Memory Travel, I can help you define and design a vacation that fits your family perfectly!