Welcome to Escapes by Marcela!
I am excited to announce that I am now an Executive Travel Consultant with Easy Escapes Travel & I would love to help you plan your next vacation. Easy Escapes Travel is a full service travel agency, licensed, bonded, insured and a proud A+ member of the BBB. We have been fulfilling vacationers’ dreams since 1999 and very experienced with the destinations that we sell.
Contact me today for a free quote and I can help plan your next vacation!
Escapes by Marcela 
Wow! So proud of you Ella! I gotta say though you really are a good trip organizer. Remember back when i was still back in Cali, you were the one who planned the fun activities, filling every week with different interesting things to do. Good times! Definitely recommended!!
PS: When i managed to convince vw to go to Fuji/Bora2, i’ll definitely look for you 😉
Thanks! I would love to plan your second honeymoon to Bora Bora 🙂
Ella is a SUPERB planner. She recently helped me plan my 6 week sabbatical to India, Singapore, Bali, Australia, and Korea. She booked hotels for us and even recommended things for us to do/ see/ eat in each countries. The accommodations she helped arrange for us were all within the range of our budget and her recommendations were based on the type of food/ activities we would enjoy- we had a great time abroad! Ella was also very easy to work with! She contacted me when she had questions or when she had narrowed down her search for me to make my final choice. I appreciated all her help throughout the planning. Her organization skills and her knowledge in hotels and travel experience was top notch. Thanks again Ella! You’re the best!! =)
It was such a pleasure working with Marcela. She really listened to what we wanted and was non-judgmental and sincere in working with our budget. The end result was our dream honeymoon in Moorea and Bora Bora! She was determined to get us the lowest price, cross checking prices across several sources and was very thorough, checking in every step of the way to make sure we were clear on all details. As an added bonus – she gave fantastic tips on Things to do and Places to eat!
For anyone who is on the border of hiring a travel consultant as opposed to doing it yourself, I highly recommend it – and hiring Marcela to do the job. It is like having your own personal Trip Advisor.
I came to Marcela on a referral from an friend and cannot say enough about her expertise and patience with me as we sorted through the options for our trip. Marcela was able to plan a trip for us that put us in the heart of a city we knew nothing about, recommendations for everything we would want to see and do, down to comparative costing on transportation from the airport. Marcela delivered on all of these points, on a very modest budget. I can’t say enough about the benefits of woking with Marcela, she is a true professional who knows what she is doing. We will be using her services again.
We were so lucky to have been put in contact with Marcela for our Italy trip! My husband and I had an amazing vacation that was customized to our desires! We had to work together on planning some of the more specialized details, but Marcela was there for me whenever I needed assistance. Our hotels were great and we couldn’t have been happier with our adventure!!
Thanks again for making my dreams come true in Italy!
Brittney
We could not be happier with the help Marcela provided as we planned our honeymoon to French Polynesia! Marcela is extremely knowledgeable, responsive and dependable – we would not have had such an incredible trip without her support. She even went the extra mile to make sure the hotels were aware of my food allergies upon our arrival which took away any stress. We were beyond thrilled with her hotel selections and loved her excursion suggestions. The details we received prior to our departure made the trip seamless. It has been rough acclimating back to normal life after such an incredible trip! Thanks again for helping us execute the honeymoon of our dreams! 🙂
Marcela was so helpful in planning our celebration trip to celebrate our 25th wedding anniversary and me being 1 year cancer free. We really didn’t know much about French Polynesia — all I knew was that my dream was to stay in an overwater bungalow. She helped us make that happen. Everything about our trip was perfect. She understood our budget and was able to help us figure out how to live our dream within our budget. By first staying 2 nights in a room and 3 nights in an OverWater Bungalow, we were able to stay at the lovely Hilton resort. We didn’t mind switching rooms after a couple days and actually really enjoyed our time in the room too. The service at the Hilton was exceptional, and it was so nice just being on our own little island. I would definitely stay at the Hilton again. I’m glad Marcela recommended it and helped us figure out how to make it work.
One big highlight of our trip was our dinner at Villa Mahana. We were treated like royalty there. First of all, we have Marcela to thank for giving us the recommendation and then getting us a reservation. We only booked our trip a couple months in advance, and when Marcela told us about Villa Mahana, we weren’t sure if we would be able to get a reservation. Well, Marcela worked her magic and got us a reservation on such short notice. Everyone, including the Hilton staff, was jealous that we were going there. When we arrived at Villa Mahana, they had a special table reserved for us outside, and everyone else was inside. Our table had a little card on it that said “VIP”. The food was superb. At the end of the entire dinner, they brought out an additional dessert with candles in it, and the server even sang “Happy Anniversary” to us in French. Such a wonderful way to celebrate our anniversaries.
Our trip was a dream come true and a wonderful way to celebrate two big anniversaries for us. Thank you to Marcela!
I always dreamed of going to French Polynesia for my honeymoon, so as soon as we locked in our wedding date I began researching how we could make it happen. During my research I started to realize this wouldn’t be an inexpensive trip and a bit complicated to book. Then, I stumbled across Marcela’s blog and read and saw pictures about her honeymoon to Tahiti and contacted her for a free quote. She was quick to respond and very helpful with suggestions of where to go. After MANY exchanges back and forth we finally decided on 3 nights in Moorea and 5 in Bora Bora Mid-May of this year. She gave us quotes for different places and we ended up choosing the Hilton resorts in both places. Per Marcela’s suggestion, we stayed in a garden suite in Moorea and and splurged for an overwater bungalow in Bora Bora. I’m so glad we did it this way, while the water is beautiful in all of French Polynesia, it looked very shallow around the bungalow’s in Moorea and we didn’t see anyone jumping in from their deck. Our suite was wonderful, spacious, a nice beach view and a wrap around deck with our own dipping pool. The staff at both Hiltons were all so friendly and accommodating.
Everything was planned out in detail from our flight to ferry rides, shuttles and inter-island transfers that made it so easy for us. She also managed to get breakfast included every day at both resorts, which is usually about $40 per person per day. We were very grateful for that because dining is not cheap in French Polynesia and the breakfast buffets were great! Marcela made us feel very taken care of. Planning all of this ourselves would have been much more expensive and much more stressful as I know these details would have slipped through the cracks.
Marcela also suggested Villa Mahana for dinner one night in Bora Bora and after everything I read about I was really excited to go. My husband works in fine dining in Napa but I don’t think he realized what it would be like at Villa Mahana. We had the VIP table outside and had such an amazing dining experience and were very impressed!
Before we even left, we were talking about going back one day, and of course going through Marcela again! We will reccommend her to anyone because we had such a good experience. It was the best honeymoon and were so sad to leave!