Jacky Keith

President

At the age of 12, Jacky boarded a small aircraft, facing backward, and flew from her local airfield to Le Bourget in Paris to meet her pen pal. Thus began the life of travel to – at last count – 122 countries.

She joined Esplanade Travel in 1965 when it occupied offices on Charles Street, near the famous Esplanade on the banks of the Charles River. Since then, she has become a celebrated member of the travel industry, recently celebrating her 58th anniversary at Esplanade.

Her early travels in the 60s and 70s took her to the Ancient World, the Middle East and Asia. She has bought a picnic lunch for 25 people in rural Iran, ridden a motor bike in Bali, an elephant in Botswana, a camel in Egypt, a horse in the Andes, and driven a VW in Ethiopia. These incredible experiences helped earn Jacky the honor of being named to the original list of 100 Most Powerful Women in Travel by Travel Agent Magazine.

Photos of Jacky around the world

Jacky’s Travel Advice

“Don’t ever put off a trip – don’t say you will do it another time – seize the moment and do as much as you can!”

Favorite photos taken by Jacky

Her worldwide travels have given Jacky some rare opportunities such as dining with Chief Buthelezi in Durban, with President F. W. deKlerk in Johannesburg, and at Madame Sadat’s house in Cairo. Jacky has given lectures at the Explorer’s Club in Washington and is a member of the Travelers Century Club and ASTA.

Jacky was awarded the Presidential 1000 Points of Light Initiative, begun by President George H. W. Bush in 1989, for completing more than 2000 hours of volunteer service to the Talking Information Center. TIC is a radio reading service for the blind and Jacky has been reading the Saturday newspapers for more than 40 years.

Jacky’s rich history in travel is full of amazing experiences: hitchhiking in Iran, eating steak tartare in the mountains above Port au Prince, Haiti, visiting a local school in Myanmar, and of course, each and every sunset in Africa. She will never run out of new places to go!

Jacky will use her personal travel philosophy in the trips she plans for you: “Don’t over-prepare and leave enough to be surprised. Make sure you include the things you really want to see, not just what you think you ought to see.”

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Christine at Esplanade Travel planned our recent trip which found us traveling to four very different and fascinating regions in Chile. The trip was absolutely beautiful, memorable and so suited to our specific interests! We have had the pleasure of working multiple times with travel consultants at Esplanade Travel and they continue to amaze us with the itineraries they develop and their close working contacts in other countries that always result in worry-free travel for us. We tend to stay in multiple areas with multiple connections and with the expertise in planning at Esplanade all of our reservations, contacts, pick-ups and drop-offs occur seamlessly. Our travels started in Santiago before heading south to the Lakes District, further south to Torres del Paine in Patagonia, then west to Easter Island. All of the lodges we stayed in were so comfortable with gorgeous views, the guides were super knowledgeable about the cultural and natural history of every location we visited, and the food was fantastic! On Easter Island our native guide, Sabrina, was able to provide us with her intimate knowledge, passed down to her from her ancestors, of the history and culture of the Rapa Nui people. I highly recommend Esplanade Travel to everyone, and I guarantee we will be contacting them to assist us with our next great adventure!

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