A conversation, a plan, then the booking.
Six to ten weeks for a complex trip, less for something simple. The planning fee is agreed before any of it starts.
Three stages, and you own the plan after the second
A free call, about an hour. Where, when, who with, what you want the days to feel like, and what you would rather avoid.
We build a route and a written itinerary with options, costs and honest notes on each choice. Two rounds of changes are included.
We book it, at net rates with no commission, and you get a full pack plus a number that is answered while you are away.
Three things that make a trip work or not
Mostly learned by getting them wrong ourselves.
When you go matters more than where
The same place in the wrong month is a different holiday, and it is the single most common thing we change about a brief. We would rather move your dates by three weeks than sell you the trip you asked for into monsoon, peak heat or the week the whole country is on holiday.
Pacing is the whole craft
Most self-planned trips have too many stops. Three nights somewhere is usually the minimum for it to be worth the travel day, and the difference between a good route and a tiring one is almost entirely how many times you pack a bag. We will push back on an itinerary that moves too often.
Somebody has to answer at midnight
Things go wrong: cancellations, strikes, illness, a road closed by weather. Every trip we book comes with a number that reaches one of the four of us, and we rebook the downstream mess so you do not spend a holiday morning on hold.
Four things in every planned trip
Included in the planning fee, not extras.
A written itinerary
Day by day, with travel times, why each choice was made and what is wrong with it as well as what is right.
Costs at net rate
What each element actually costs, with no margin added. You can see exactly what you are paying for what.
A travel pack
Confirmations, transfers, contacts, offline maps and the local practicalities that guidebooks get out of date on.
A number that works
Answered by one of us, at any hour, for the duration of your trip. Not a call centre.
Asked on the first call
Because free agents are paid commission by the suppliers they book, and commission rates vary enormously between properties. That does not make them dishonest, but it does mean the incentive points somewhere other than your holiday. Our fee is the only money we make, which is why we can recommend the cheaper hotel without it costing us anything.
Yes, and some people do — that is what the planning session is for. The itinerary is yours. You lose the net rates, the pack and the emergency line, but the plan is the plan and we are not going to hold it hostage.
How your booking is protected depends on what is being booked and by whom, and it genuinely varies. We set out in writing, before you pay anything, which elements carry financial protection under the relevant scheme, which do not, and what that means for you. Any agent who waves this question away is not worth booking through.
Sometimes, but planning properly takes six to ten weeks for anything complex, and rushing it is how the pacing goes wrong. If your dates are close, say so on the call and we will be straight about whether we can do it justice.
Ring the number. We will rearrange what can be rearranged and tell you honestly what it costs. Trips change — a place you love, weather, a recommendation from someone at dinner — and the plan is not sacred.
Start with the free call. Bring a rough idea and a rough month.
We will probably suggest a different month, and we will tell you why.