University of Toronto student and Elance buyer, Drasko Raicevic, wanted to plan a memorable trip to Australia and Asia with his two buddies to celebrate their college graduation.



Having recently discovered Elance, Drasko posted the travel planning project on Elance out of curiosity.

One of the providers that bid on the project, Glen_Billington, happened to also be an independent travel agent within Australia. “I never would have thought a travel agent would be on Elance, but it just goes to show you never know who is going to respond to your job posting!”

Since neither Drasko nor his buddies had traveled to Australia previously, having someone from that region assist with planning was exactly the help they wanted.

“Living in Canada, the only thing I knew about that region was that the seasons were reversed,” said Drasko.  “We had no idea where to start, and the fact that our provider was from the region was a life saver!”

The provider helped in all aspects of the trip research and planning, providing general background information, tourist and non-tourist must-sees as well as essential information about transportation and accommodations.

For Drasko, the best part of the project was the money he saved by putting the project on Elance. “Because Glen was a travel agent, he let us know that a new airline was starting up in Australia, and that they had amazing deals on flights as part of their launch promotion. We jumped right on this, and it alone saved us around $700,” said Drasko.  “This pretty much paid for the project and then some.”

In addition to saving money, the project helped Drasko and his friends save time, especially during final exams week.  “This project saved us hours of work,” Drasko said.  Without the help of the provider, Drasko estimates he would have spent a lot of time on Google searching for basic travel information.

The graduation trip started on January 13, and takes Drasko and his friends from Toronto to Hawaii, Melbourne, Syndey, Bali, Thailand and Beijing.

Have fun, and send us a postcard!