I “met” Marie Cruickshank on LinkedIn through a group discussion about food. I’ve gotta’ say, that’s probably the coolest thing about the Internet: “meeting” people from all over the world – or even right around the corner at home – that I otherwise never would’ve known even existed. Yah, I put those two “meet” words above in quotes because I’ve never actually met Marie or most of the people I’ve been in touch with on the Internet. But Marie’s by far one of the most reliable people I’ve ever had the pleasure to know.

She always responds when I pop an email to check in even if she’s pushed to the wall max’ed out with work or family. Reliability like that, especially these days, is one terrifically precious human quality. I sure appreciate it.

Marie’s full of life. She’s a retired home economics teacher who now provide self-drive trip guidance to those wanting to travel to Scotland (her home), Ireland and France. She travels all the time living the places she refers her clients to visit. As she said in an email she sent me the other day, “What we do is customize self-drive tours around Scotland or Ireland (or both!!) or France for clients depending on the interests and available time. No two itineraries are the same as they are personalized to suit each person. We aren’t “the big boys” as all this takes a lot of time but we do enjoy it and it is interesting – especially meeting the clients at breakfast!”

No-kidding on that exclamation point.

All I have to do is look at these pictures! Gotta’ say, as soon as I have the dough to travel, I’m gonna’ link up with Marie to get on the road in the part of this great world she knows so intimately well. Thing is, I’m sure gonna’ want to rip it up on a bicycle. She’s already told me she can do that. Never a doubt!

For more information about Marie and the personalized help she has to offer, just click any picture on this page or either of the following links: www.irelandmadeeasy.co.uk, www.scotlandmadeeasy.co.uk or www.francemadeeasy.com.

11/12/12 Update: Just heard the following from Marie this morning:

If your readers contact us and tell us that they came through your blogs, we will then offer them £50 off the total cost of their holiday vacation!