Planning a trip is almost as much fun as the actual travel. The anticipation, the discovery and the experience. It's all wrapped up together. Travel is not a commodity, it's an experience.

 

But travel is also business and organisation and budgets and details. Things to go right and things that go south. For this, it's always good to have someone on your team who you can call. It's why we travel professionals are still in business after all the years of the internet. Here's snapshot of what I do.

Logistics:
The devil is in the details. Is it better to take the train from Rome to Naples, catch a bus to visit the ruins of Herculaneum, and retrace steps back to Rome, or hire a guide and car, or take an organized group day tour? Maybe it's better to stay the night and come back. Or continue? It really depends on many factors.

Flight routes and times, airport transfers, trains, car rentals, hotels, ferries, buses. These form the chain of events that typically govern a trip from start to finish. It can be quite a few moving parts and quite challenging when you're operating in a foreign language.

Procurement:

Here are the things that you need to consider as you hand over your credit card number online or cash to a local company or vendor.

 

Is the service a good price? How is their after sales service? What is the procedure if there's a problem? Do they have good hiring and training practises? Are they ethical employers and do they have good environmental practises? Are people of all genders, races, ethnic backgrounds, and ages treated with the same (hopefully high) standards?

Security:

If you travel enough, you will be scammed. It could be a simple shoe shiner extortion scam in Mexico City. It could be far worse.

 

Are you safe with the the operator? Is your money safe?  What kind of equipment do they use? Is their equipment adequately maintained? Do they operate with all the locally required permits and licenses? Do they carry any kind of liability insurance? Do they have emergency plans and employees that are trained to deal with them?

 

Add a higher level of financial certainty to your trip and get the best value. I will give you a transparent, complete, comparative view of the options, without having to commit any money until it looks good to go to the next stage.

 

If you are at the early stages of travel planning, reach out. If you've done a lot of research already, a second opinion never hurts and costs you nothing up front.