The Secret to Sensational Travel

By Susan Farewell

Photo by Susan Farewell at La Bamba de Areco, Argentina

If you’ve ever hired a good interior designer, you know how invaluable their services can be. Once he or she knows your taste, he/she is able to create that home you’ve always dreamed of. The same goes with a good travel designer. A good travel designer takes the time to get to know your travel tastes and style and then tailors trips specifically for you.

A good travel designer does the following.

Identifies and arranges experiences you’ll be talking about for years to come.

Whether it’s spending an afternoon with a horse-whisperer in Argentina, joining a sheep round-up in the Icelandic countryside or trying something you've never done before--like climbing via ferrata style in the alps--the best travel experiences are not easy to find. Travel designers have contacts around the world to connect you with these one-of-a-kind experiences.

Sets you up with phenomenal guides.

Photo by Susan Farewell

When you go to Berlin, you want the same guide who showed Madonna the sights. In Greece, you want to be led to the very spot on the Acropolis where the Clintons posed for shots. In Africa, you want a guide who will not only find the wildlife, but help you take photos worthy of National Geographic. No matter the client, no matter the interests, a good travel designer will see to it that you are matched with guides who are passionate about their subjects and eager to share their knowledge.

Pairs destinations and experiences to your liking.

You’re eager to relax and have a full vacation—somewhere gorgeous on the water. Your spouse is all about museums, culture and educational experiences for your teens. Your kids? Well…they just want to have fun. Have you thought of visiting Prague and then heading over to the Dalmatian coast? Or what about spending a week on safari in South Africa and another week diving and snorkeling off of Mozambique? Travel designers want to make sure that every member of the family enjoys the trip. That often involves creative itineraries you might not have thought of yourself.

Introduces you to locals.

Photo courtesy of Born to Explore

Some of the most vivid memories of any trip are getting to know the people who call the destination home. A good travel designer can arrange for you to visit private residences, even have a meal with a local resident, whether it’s in a Berber village in the Atlas mountains of Morocco or in a family’s home on the shores of the Bosphorus in Turkey. A good travel designer can arrange for you to participate in local customs and traditions, even work alongside the residents, be it the annual sheep round-up in Iceland or the daily watering and weeding of the neat rows of herbs at an herb farm in Vietnam. Planning such experiences requires someone who’s sensitive to local customs and exceptionally well connected: i.e. a good travel designer.

Puts you in all the right places.

Photo Courtesy of Vumbura Plains with Wilderness Safaris

A good travel designer sees to it that you have the best seats in the house--whether it's in the Burj Khalifa in Dubai (the tallest building in the world) or the Okavango Delta in Botswana.

Farewell Travels LLC is among a select number of US travel firms that are part of European-based Traveller Made ® which is the international seal of excellence for travel designers.