Meet your travel planner
Why are vacations a chore?
Travel should be fun.
Jen Perrone is the Founder and lead travel advisor at JP Travel. Jen launched JP Travel to help others plan their dream trips and maximize their time and investment.
Long before she realized she could get paid to plan travel, Jen earned a joint degree in Geography (she’s most comfortable with cardinal directions) and Policy at Syracuse University, and later earned her Masters in Public Administration from New York University.
Jen’s professional career spans social impact and technology. Most recently, she built and led an award-winning creative agency that has earned recognition by Fast Company as a finalist for Design Company of the Year. Now, as a travel advisor, she has an eye toward sustainable travel, quality service, and beautifully designed spaces.
When working with clients, Jen prioritizes transparency throughout the process, tailoring details around her clients’ distinct interests and needs, and helping clients feel confident in their travel decisions. She loves it when others enjoy her unique finds as much as she does.
Ten Travel Questions
Get to know Jen a bit more…
1.Place you’re desperate to return to soon?
Ecuador. I spent my last semester in college in Cuenca Ecuador, and then had the opportunity to visit the Galapagos and Machu Picchu. Cuenca is probably one of the most beautiful places I’ve ever seen and I’ve been desperate to get back.
2. Favorite food destination?
I can’t decided between Rome or Florence, but pasta in any form, in any destination.
3. Most meaningful trip?
Visiting Mormanno, Italy, a small medieval town in the mountains of Calabria where my great grandfather and grandmother were from before immigrating to the US. Being able to see the house my great grandfather grew up in and walking through the church my great great grandparents got married in was very emotional.
4. Travel terms you think are misused?
Travel, vacation, or trip are often used interchangeably but have different meanings. For me, travel is for seeing things that are new to me and learning more about different cultures, food, history, and places, vacation is to relax, and a trip is somewhere you need to be that should be made easy and convenient. When a client tells me they have a trip coming up or want to go on vacation, I dig in more to understand what they are hoping to get out of it.
5. First big international trip?
Australia. As a kid, I was obsessed with kangraoos. I had a whole kangaroo stuffed animal army. In college, I got accepted into a summer conservation study abroad program that took me around Australia to learn about different ecosystems. Seeing a kangaroo in person was probably the coolest thing I could have imagined myself doing as a kid — and very much lived up to the hype.
6. Most accidental fun on a trip?
Booking a house in Flam, Norway that was only accessible by a tourist train that made a stop each way for a brief performance by the Huldra, an elusive forest spirit from Norse mythology who lures men into the woods to seduce them. She was absolutely enchanting during our daily commute in and out of town (not everything needs to be practical or efficient!).
7. Dream trip?
Southeast Asia (in the works for 2026)
8. Gelato order?
Pistachio and strawberry. Trust me on this combo — it just works.
9. Planes or trains?
Definitely trains anytime the two are close-ish in time. The ability to show up right before it leaves and have a view the entire time is so much better than flying (sorry to everyone who has flown with this anxious flyer).
10. Favorite thing to purchase while traveling?
I started getting tattoos when visiting new places. It has been a fun way to remember something that made the trip special to me, and has led me to explore some interesting neighborhoods I might not have otherwise had on my list to visit (tattoo shops are always in the hippest neighborhoods). My other favorite thing to purchase while traveling are large artworks that are impossibly hard to bring home. I am overly confident in my ability to pack.