Kelly Cooke knew travel was her career niche in high school after she embarked on a three-week trip to Germany in 1990, mere months after the Berlin Wall fell.
The opportunity to lead her own travel agency presented itself when multiple tour operators in NH retired around 2011, prompting her to found Terrapin Tours to fill the vacuum in the state’s travel planning sector.
Terrapin’s tour format takes inspiration from Cooke’s European travels with her father. She says Terrapin’s offerings encourage travelers to immerse themselves in their destinations. “We have never included every single meal on a tour,” she says. “When I was traveling with my dad, we liked the flexibility of being able to go to a local pub with new friends and have a pint.”
Terrapin offers travel packages as near as the White Mountains and as far as Switzerland. Some longtime clients skew older, though Cooke says what ages constitute “old” has progressed since she began working in travel jobs, as have those clients’
traveling habits.
“When I started in my career, 65 was ‘old.’ With no Google Maps or cell phones, if we went to New York City, people kind of stuck with you,” Cooke says. “Now I like to say that 70 is the new 50. When we go to New York City, people in their seventies have already mapped out where they want to go and what they want to see.”
Lately, Cooke says clients are concerned about political friction affecting Social Security benefits and investments. That affects choices about whether to rebook trips they took in the past. The impacts of federal policies are ever present in Cooke’s mind. “Tariffs and gas prices are going to affect us probably more next year,” she says. “If the company we charter our coaches through orders a new bus or parts are going to be 30% more expensive, that will eventually trickle down to us and our clients.”
Even as these considerations mount, Terrapin has launched the Passport to Knowledge Foundation, which offers travel-related scholarships to NH high school students. Proceeds stem from donations, fundraisers and sales of figurines of the company’s mascot, Terri the Terrapin.
