Tara, Owner and Managing Director of WanderLuxe Destinations, began her professional career in luxury travel after deciding to transition from the non-profit world where Tara worked for the Higher Education Student Assistance Authority, liaising between Seton Hall University and the State of NJ. While travel has always been Tara’s passion, she came to a crossroads where she decided to transition her passion into a career and became a Luxury Travel Advisor with Travelong of Summit in Summit, NJ. As she quickly adapted to the business and her client base grew, Tara was offered a Sales Manager position with Wegner Associates, and began juggling both sides of the trade until fully immersing herself into representation; something she quickly fell in love with! Wendy Wegner and Tara began discussing the succession and future of Wegner Associates, and in March of 2019, Tara acquired ownership, rebranded the company and launched WanderLuxe Destinations on July 1st of 2019.
Travel has been such an integral part of Tara’s life from a young age. Growing up in Youngstown, Ohio, her father was a mechanical engineer that traveled the world. She would flip through his photo albums as a child and be in awe of his photos of the Sphinx in Egypt, the Great Wall in China and the Taj Mahal in India. She can remember vowing to herself as young as the age of 5 that travel would be a very important part of her life.
Tara attended Miami University in Oxford, Ohio and graduated with dual degrees in Political Science and International Studies and minored in both East Asian Studies and Mandarin. Immediately after graduation in 2002, she traveled to China for 6 weeks to begin work on her Masters, exploring Beijing, Shanghai, Guangzhou, Hangzhou, Dongguan and Hong Kong. Tara always had an appreciation for culture, ethnicity and diversity, however, this trip just solidified that drive within her to make her life one of travel and wanderlust.
Tara resides with her husband, Sal, her children, Salvatore and Ava, and her adorable Himalayan princesses, Lulu Belle and Nala Blu, in Florham Park, NJ. As a family, they travel at least twice yearly to exotic destinations, and Tara and Sal believe that giving their children the privilege of travel will impact both their hearts and minds, shaping them profoundly into the people they will be moving forward. Tara also considers her WanderLuxe family as an extension to her immediate family, as the time spent traveling together, working together, communicating nearly daily and the friendships made are immensely important in her life. As Tara is often quoted, “WanderLuxe is my third baby…and I nurture it the same way as I have my own children”.
In addition to travel, Tara enjoys cooking, gastronomy, wine, cocktails, fashion, interior design and the arts. You can see Tara opening her life and business through her own social media and WanderLuxe’s social media, as living “out loud” is a way we can all connect in the luxury travel industry!
