Phone:
585-385-7500
Rochester, NY 14625
About Us
V I P Travel Service is committed to knowing and understanding our clients' individual needs and exceeding their expectations. We take the time to listen and arrange the perfect getaway customized to suit them. Our agents are experienced with planning unique honeymoons, memorable escorted tours, cruises, customized vacations to locations around the world and every manner of travel in between.
Susan Keith
Co-Owner
Susan Keith has over 50 years of travel experience. Shortly after college graduation in 1965 she joined Delta Airlines in their downtown Chicago reservations office where she had the opportunity to work in the group department, tour sales, travel agency relations and trained new agents. After Delta Susan worked with other agencies in the Chicago area and in Rochester prior to starting V I P Travel Service with Robert Twomey in July 1980. She has been president of Women In Travel /Rochester Travel Professionals for 5 two year terms. She is a member of the Rochester Rotary and past president of Early Edition networking group. Susan has been an elected member of the Monroe County Airport Authority Board since 2007 .She has often been interviewed by various TV stations for her views on current world and local travel issues. Susan has traveled all over the world including many trips to Europe, South America, the Caribbean , Bermuda and Mexico, Hawaii, ,Alaska, Hong Kong and Macao, mainland China, Thailand, Australia, New Zealand , Dubai, Abu Dhabi and Africa. She has been on over 90 cruises in the Caribbean, Mexico, Bermuda, Alaska, the Baltic and the Mediterranean.
Susan specializes in Europe custom travel, Africa, South America and Asia, as well as vacation travel in the Caribbean and Mexico.
Robert Twomey
Co-Owner
Bob Twomey joined IBM after graduating from the University of Maryland, was later recruited by Xerox Corporation where he held a number of executive positions .One of his responsibilities included planning, coordinating and implementing many national meetings and conferences. His last position was their National Marketing Manager. He and Susan started V I P Travel Service in 1980 as a joint venture. Bob handles all marketing and promotions. He has traveled extensively in Europe, the Caribbean, Bermuda, Mexico, South America, Asia, the Middle East and Africa and on many cruises both in the Americas, the Baltic, and in the Mediterranean. Bob has been responsible for charitable donations to over 70 local organizations over the past 30 years and has served on committees for Lakeside Foundation and the Epilepsy Foundation. He has been a member of the Press Radio Club for many years whose events contribute to children’s charities yearly. Due to his Irish heritage he has been involved for many years in many Irish activities in Rochester. He has been Vice Chairman of the St Patrick’s Day Parade committee and was voted Irish Businessman of the Year in 1997. Robert was appointed “Ambassador of Rochester” by the Chamber of Commerce and promotes the City to new businesses and employees relocating here.
Sara LiPera
Travel Consultant
Full-time office agent
Sara joined the world of travel as a second career. Sara has a B.A of Psychology and a M.S of Education. Sara was hired by VIP Travel Service after completing a certificate program in Travel and Tourism.
Sara has been in love with travel since her college days, when she studied abroad in London and backpacked through France and Italy.
Sara has cruised in Europe and the Caribbean. Sara has made many trips to Mexico and it is one of her favorite destinations.
Independent Contractors
In association with VIP Travel Service
Jeanne Roy
Independent Travel Consultant
Jeanne is an expert in European rail travel and has Specialist designations in many other fields of travel including Disney. She has traveled extensively in the United States and in Europe.
Jeanne is a European river cruise specialist.
Mary Jones
Independent
Travel Consultant
Ed Fenster
Independent Travel Consultant
Having started his travel career in 1984, Ed started working solely with leisure customers. He has traveled internationally to Israel, Hong Kong, Singapore, Bangkok, New Zealand, Italy, Russia, Denmark, Bermuda, Mexico, Canada, and the Caribbean. He has also cruised over a dozen times and traveled to Alaska and across the USA. Over the years, he continued as a leisure agent, but with his attention to detail, he began to increase his corporate travel base. He now works as an independent agent, booking worldwide to his corporate and leisure customers.
Mary Jones has over 25 years of travel agency experience. She specializes in luxury custom travel, with emphasis on Italy, France, and Africa as well as the Caribbean. She has traveled to most European countries and has taken a number of European river cruises as well as larger ship cruises in both Northern Europe and the Mediterranean. Mary often escorts groups on ocean and river cruises. She is also a personal concierge who makes special arrangements for her clients such as restaurant reservations, tickets for theatre and opera and so forth.
She spends a month in Hawaii each year and the winters in Florida.
Alice Grealy
Travel Consultant
Alice is a retired teacher and has escorted groups of fellow teachers to Europe and on European cruises many times. Alice spends part of the year at her vacation home in Vero Beach, Florida but keeps in touch with her clients at all times.
Lidia Slusarek
Independent Travel Consultant
Interests & Specialties:
• Custom designed travel itineraries to worldwide destinations
• Europe
• Culinary Travel
• New Zealand / Australia
• Asia
Lidia has been traveling since 1971, has been to 40+ countries, 5 continents and has been on over 100 trips including the Trans-Siberian Train trip from St. Petersburg to Beijing … on a regular commercial train! – First-hand experience makes a difference! And she often travels alone thus has lots of experience to help clients who would like to see places and yet might be somewhat uneasy to travel by themselves.
An expert planner and often praised for attention to detail, she specializes in organizing custom trips from arranging for required and sometime unusual visas, booking tickets to the Sydney Opera, accommodations in Hanoi, getting ballet tickets to the famous Mariinsky Theater in St. Petersburg, Russia, making arrangement for a Silk Road trip and too many more to mention. She often gets high praise from clients for the expert and exciting planning job she has done for them.
Lidia holds a Ph.D. degree in Chemistry from Columbia University.
We travel not to escape life, but for life not to escape us. – unknown
Nancy Conklin
Independent Travel Consultant
Nancy is our resident Ski expert. She has escorted many ski groups to the Western USA and handles most of our individual ski packages.