How much advance notice do you need to plan my trip?
It depends on when you are going and how flexible the itinerary can be. For trips in high season, the more notice the better. For a low stress planning process, 4-6 months is ideal. If you are willing to be flexible, it can be done much more quickly.
What if I want to make changes to the itinerary?
Don't worry, we'll work together until it's perfect.
Do you have ideas for trips with the kids?
I have two small children and have traveled a lot with them, so yes I have lots of suggestions for traveling with kids in Italy. What influences trip planning more than anything else is how you travel with kids: some people want a kid-oriented vacation, so move from beach to playground to children's museum. Others want to do the same things they'd normally do, but move at a slower pace and be back at the hotel in the middle of the day for nap time. We'll customize it based on your needs.
What's the difference between a travel consultant and a travel agent?
The short answer is: the business model. Travel agents receive commissions for services they book for you, like hotels, cruises, flights, or tours. From a business perspective, they must spend their time booking things that give them commission, or they won't be in business for long.
As a travel consultant, I charge for my time, and very little of my total itinerary planning time is spent on commissionable bookings. I think it's important to spend time with the client up front working through the ideal overall itinerary, flow, and balance. It means I can discuss the options for getting from A to B within Italy, find best fit for the client, and do bookings or buy tickets. It means I can recommend restaurants, cafes, gelaterias, food festivals, and local markets that are a good fit for my clients. It means I am not limited to a hotel inventory, and can book the best hotel, villa, B&B, pensione, agriturismo, monastery, castle or other accommodation that fits the needs of the client. It means I use small, local guides and services (who are not set up to pay commissions). It means that for trip planning clients, I create a written itinerary which includes not only bookings, addresses, phone numbers, and maps, but everything that is pre-paid, partially paid, or remaining to be paid, including how you'll need to pay it. It means that while we are working together, I am available to answer any questions my clients have: surrounding culture, cell phone usage, how to get money, travel insurance or the Italian language. Basically, it means I can get to know my clients, and design an Italy itinerary that's perfectly suited to them.
Does the written itinerary I'll get replace a guidebook?
No, you'll still need the guidebook. The written itinerary is an outline of activities, contact information, and a daily route map, and will be about 1 or 2 pages per day. If you would like guidebook suggestions we are happy to provide them. For Platinum level itineraries, I will include links to all trip highlights, so while on your trip, you'll pull out the relevant printout, about, say the Giotto fresco you're looking at. Then when you're done you can recycle it in Italy and lose the weight.
At $150 or $250 per trip day, what's the return on my investment?
Return on your investment is in 2 parts:
1) Time saved during the planning process: To organize a trip to Italy with the level of organization and detail provided by Italy Beyond the Obvious, plan on spending about 8 hours per travel day if you are going to do it yourself. A 10-day trip would therefore take about 80 hours for an average person to plan (including internet and guidebook research, time spent on the phone to Italy, booking time, and double-checking everything). By contrast, plan on 2-3 hours spent via phone or email with Italy Beyond the Obvious. For a 10-day trip, that's about 77 hours of time saved. How much is your time worth per hour?
2) Time used more efficiently on the trip: when a trip is well-organized ahead of time, you won't waste time getting lost; showing up at the train station and realizing that train doesn't run on Sundays; fixing errors due to the language barrier during the booking process; or waiting in line for 2 hours for a museum that could have been pre-booked. We estimate that travelers with organized pre-booked itineraries can accomplish 20% more in a day, and don't forget: you accomplish more in a single day, at a lower stress level, for more enjoyment.
An Example
Let's say your 10-day trip to Italy works out to cost $600/day, including everything. Let's say you have 12 hours per day of "out and about time", to enjoy, explore, and relax. Each Italian vacation hour essentially costs $50. A 10-day vacation has 120 vacation hours. Therefore being able to do 20% more because of a well-planned vacation equals 24 hours during the vacation which are spent relaxing and enjoying Italy rather than spent problem-solving and stressed in a foreign country. To put a dollar value on it, those 24 hours x $50 per hour is $1200 worth of time that can be used to enjoy Italy instead of lost due to planning mistakes.
Put your own numbers in to the examples above in 1) and 2) (and take into account that part 2 can be multiplied by number of people traveling together) to calculate how much you will actually save by having Italy Beyond the Obvious plan your Italian vacation!
