Featured Travelers

Fernando Diaz-Cruz, New York City

Some people go to Rio over New Years to explore the local culture, some people go to party, and some people just want to soak up some sun. Then there are the people like Fernando who want it all, and Zoom is ready to deliver.

Fernando and his boyfriend, Shawn joined us for our last trip to Rio over New Years and it became very apparent that they had an agenda: to have as much fun and meet as many people as possible. They also worked the heck out of their Zoom Speedos and gave the Brazilians a run for their money.

Fernando said, "We were curious about Zoom Vacations and wanted to try it out for ourselves because he had heard good things. We have had a lot of friends travel with Zoom Vacations, and they all had the common reaction that it was a positive unique experience."

When asked what he liked about the trip with Zoom Vacations, he said, "I loved how everything was taken care of and there were so many pleasant surprises. For instance, I don't know if I wasn't paying attention to all the details before the trip or what, but things like the sunset helicopter cocktail party were so much cooler than I even imagined.

"The opening dinner was such a fun party, and the perfect ice breaker to start the trip. It exceeded its purpose of getting the group to mingle and get to know each other. It was perfect. Everything that was planned had such a wow factor to it."

Fernando and Shawn's outlook on gay travel made them well-poised to take advantage of all the opportunities Zoom gave them to mingle and make new friends.

"I prefer traveling with a gay group because, such as the scenario with Zoom Vacations, everything is scoped out and we know we are not going to a homophobic place. I feel more comfortable with my gay peers," Fernando said.

"I love traveling. Every trip I take makes me want to travel even more and see more places."

"On this particular trip, it would have been totally different had we not gone with Zoom. We would not have gotten anywhere near the full Rio experience. I doubt we would have even looked into many of the things that made this trip special, such as the helicopter tour, or even the lesser-known restaurants Zoom recommended.

"We would have done a lot less, and therefore missed out. We would not have met as many people. There would have been so much more work to do in the planning stages, as well as during the trip. With Zoom, we always knew without a doubt that we were experiencing the best of Rio. This was proven time and again when we told non-Zoomers on the beach the things we were doing. A common reaction from non-Zoomers was, how come we aren't doing that! I think there were even people who were trying to get invited into what we were doing."

Like all Zoom Vacations trips, this trip included several special events not found anywhere else. The intent of these events is to create something truly special for Zoom Travelers that takes full advantage of the destination, and that will last in their memories forever.

"We went to Puerto Vallarta on our own several years ago, and we realized once we got there that we were at least a half hour cab ride from where we really wanted to be.  While there, we wasted so much time just trying to figure out where to go, where eat, and what to do.  We were forced to stick to the really touristy stuff, and we ended up not doing very much. I heard that there was whale-watching, but everything just seemed like so much effort to plan. We didn't want to spend a bunch of money while there on a tour, only to find out that it was a bad tour. All of these are things that would have been avoided had this been a Zoom Vacation. 

"You don't get a lot of vacation and you don't want to go through he whole trial and error thing.  You just can't do that while on vacation. I have such little chance for a vacation, I can't risk staying at the wrong place, or risk wasting precious vacation time on the small details of figuring out what to do, where to go, where not to go.  With Zoom, everything was well-researched and planned out beforehand."

Check out Zoom's next trip to Rio for New Years.