How we design your trip with you
We live where we design trips. Here’s how we plan yours around you, from the first conversation to the final itinerary.
We run errands, work, have fun and love, and sometimes we lose our temper, all in the places where we design trips for you. Yes, we live where we want to bring you. Sara knows which beach is worth the ride at low tide, and she still curses the dust in Kuta. Giulia worries when the fisherman isn’t on the dock by ten and knows where the view is worth paying tourist prices for a freddo.
Exploring is part of living there. We go somewhere new, check what has changed, take wrong turns and come back with better directions. Along the way we meet people and stay close to the ones we like. So your trip runs through our everyday: the roads we ride, the places we eat, the people we’d send a friend to. It also takes you to the places we save for special occasions.
With all that happening behind the scenes, how do our paths cross? It starts with a simple hi from you, and we pick it up from there.
The first questions
No tick boxes, just a conversation
Whichever channel you found us on, we start with a few questions. If you’ve read our articles or newsletter, you already know how we look at travel. Now we’re curious about you.
Whether you use our form or send a message, the questions are open, because an open question tells us more than a row of tick boxes. For now, we only need to know who’s travelling, roughly when and where, how far you’ve got with your research and what you’d like help with. The rest follows from your answers.
What we can do for you
There’s no default trip on a shelf
Some people travel on their own, others in a group, and groups plan in different ways: some together, others through one person. Starting points differ too. Some of you arrive with a blank notebook, others with an itinerary already sketched out and a few details to solve. We work at whatever depth you need:
- An honest conversation before you commit to a destination, to see if it’s right for you and how you might shape your time there
- A second opinion on a route you’ve already built, checking the logistics against what we know locally
- A full itinerary, built step by step with you, from the route down to the details
- Local bookings handled on the ground, when you already know what you want
- A plan for one day or several once you’ve arrived, whether you’ve just landed or the trip needs rethinking
Once we’ve agreed the depth of help you need, you’ll know the fee and the timeline before any work starts. There’s no default way of working with us. We don’t even share one between the two of us: Sara loves spreadsheets, Giulia long notebook pages. Both end up colour-coded.
Designing the trip
Built around what matters to you
Next, we set up a call to get to know you. We usually ask things like: why this place, and why now? What makes a good day for you, and what spoils one? Do you like to keep moving, or would you rather unpack once and stay a while? And sometimes: why that choice? We’re not questioning it. There may be an alternative you didn’t know about.
We’ll also talk about budget. You set it, we show you what’s realistic for it and you decide where the money goes.
With that, we know your priorities and what can go. Instead of hundreds of options and a browser full of tabs, you get a few good ones to choose from. You don’t need to dig up that Instagram post you saved months ago. Matching what you want with our local knowledge, we can shape a day around you with people we know, the kind of thing you won’t find online. We don’t take commissions from suppliers, so we recommend what we think is best for you and always tell you why.
We don’t just help you with the good side of things. That’s the fun part. We also tell you about the bad and help with the ugly, down to the shoes you’ll need for a path that looks easy on the map and isn’t. Every trip has trade-offs, and we name them. You don’t have to see everything, just what matters to you.
Then we make sure it holds together on the ground. Where you stay is part of the design because it shapes your days. So is the order of things, from distances to transfers. Good places in the wrong sequence still make a tiring trip.
Some things can’t be known in advance, however well we plan. We say so and leave room for them: for the weather to change its mind, and for good surprises too.
If we disagree with a choice or something doesn’t hold up, we’ll say so, tell you why and suggest an alternative. We won’t tell you how to travel. There’s no right or wrong way to do it, and you’re the one travelling, so the final call is yours. That’s why we work best with people who like being part of the choices.
Proposal and itinerary
Sleep on it, then tell us what you think
Once we have a clear picture, we put it together in a proposal: a shared document that, for most trips, is already close to the final plan. Sometimes we share a few options first, so you can steer before we fill in the details. Before it reaches you, we go through it as if we were travelling it ourselves, to make sure every day works in practice.
Then it’s your turn. Take the time you need, talk it through with whoever’s coming and send us your feedback and questions. We refine it with you from there, on another call if it helps.
Once everything is confirmed, you get your final itinerary as a PDF. Depending on what you’ve asked for, it covers your days, stays, transfers and contacts, down to a few tips picked with you in mind.
Before you go
It’s all arranged, and your hosts already know you
We make the practical arrangements we’ve agreed on and brief everyone named in your itinerary. We share the essentials, like dietary requirements, and the things that make the trip yours: your interests, why you’re travelling, why we chose each activity and what a good day looks like for you.
Before you leave and while you’re away, we’ll check in every now and then. If you need us, you know where to find us.
Getting started
Say hi
You don’t need a plan or a date to get in touch. Sara designs trips in Indonesia and Giulia in Greece. Write to Sara or write to Giulia, and we’ll start from wherever you are.
