Custom Travel Itinerary Planning Services

Custom Travel Itineraries For Your Best Trip Yet

Leave the planning to our travel experts so you stress less and get back to dreaming of the trip of a lifetime! 

— Full-Service Itinerary Planning —

— How To Get Started —

— The 8 Destinations Where We Specialize —

We provide full-service custom travel services in the places where we are destination experts: California, France, Hawai’i, Italy, Mexico, Spain, Portugal, and Switzerland. However, we can help with travel bookings (i.e., hotels and ground transportation) anywhere around the globe. 

— Our Three Travel Planning Service Tiers —

Our travel company is about customization, so our services are tailored to meet each traveler’s needs. Whether planning a family vacation, a honeymoon, a private group trip, a road trip, or luxury travel, your travel planner will help create the best trip for you. We have three services — all of which begin by completing the Discovery Call Questionnaire:

— What Past Clients Have To Say —

We’ve helped over 300 clients in the last ten years. We’re known for our five-star service and ability to customize the trip to your needs. But don’t just take our word! Read our Testimonials and Yelp reviews for more:

FREQUENTLY ASKED QUESTIONS ABOUT OUR TRAVEL PLANNING SERVICES

What experience does Salt & Wind Travel have?

We have over a decade of travel experience as a boutique trip planner company. We have worked with over 300 clients, providing everything from trip consultations to our signature service, Full Travel Planning. We work in eight destinations — California, France, Hawai’i, Italy, Mexico, Portugal, Spain, and Switzerland. Our team members have extensive experience in the travel and hospitality space and specialize in the destinations where we work. That means you can access our years of experience and insider knowledge, and that we’ve vetted our partners so you can enjoy your trip!

What makes Salt & Wind Travel different?

While many travel advisors will send you a cookie-cutter itinerary, our services are fully customized. When you sign up for our Full Service Travel Planning, you have a dedicated travel advisor who curates every detail of your trip for you. Many of our clients have a mix of interests like being active, learning local history, hands-on food experiences, and unique tours, and we book those through our network of top-notch tour guides and partners.

We have spent years doing on-the-ground research and fostering connections with local experts and quality tour operators. We know many interesting people and want to introduce you to them to make your trip the best. For example, we can connect you to a wine expert and exporter in Piemonte who can take you to the most exclusive wine houses, a food writer in Mexico City who will show you the latest haunts, a sommelier in Champagne, a buyer in Paris who can lead you on a shopping excursion, a food writer in Milan who can show you local food, and a vintage car collector in Rome who will show you his hometown as you ride in one of his vintage FIATs.

Not only do we first focus on traveling around local food and wine, but we also advocate slow travel and sustainable travel. As a boutique travel agency, we always aim to support other local small businesses as much as possible. 

Where does Salt & Wind Travel provide vacation planning services?

We help travel lovers explore the places we know best: California, Hawai’i, Mexico, Italy, France, Portugal, Spain, and Switzerland. We commonly help plan anniversaries, destination weddings, honeymoons, family trips, bachelorette parties, and friends' trip planning. 

Since everything is custom, we will help you plan your trip as much or as little as you need. We've got you if you've booked your flights and lodging but need help with activities and restaurants. Or, if you need help with every detail—from deciding which island to visit in Hawaii or where to stay on the Amalfi Coast to where to head on a California road trip to the state's national parks—we can handle it all. 

Why should I work with you?

Well, you already know we have over a decade of experience and have helped hundreds of clients. Here’s how we do just that:

• We Have Local Expertise and Deep Knowledge

  • We have firsthand experience and know regional nuances (e.g., Piedmont vs. Puglia, Loire vs. the Rhone)

  • We know the best times to go, how to get around, and how to avoid tourist traps

  • We can explain food and wine culture, local etiquette, and must-try experiences with authority

• Authentic, Unique Experiences

  • Non-cookie-cutter, fully custom itineraries with off-the-beaten-path recommendations

  • Food and wine experiences like truffle hunting, private vineyard tastings, or cooking with an expert

  • Access to artisans, local guides, and small producers they wouldn’t find on their own

• Luxury and Comfort with a Local Feel

  • We’ll find you boutique hotels, agriturismi, luxury hotels, or villas with local charm and authenticity

  • We can arrange seamless logistics (train connections, transfers, etc.) without the “tour group” vibe.

  • We know how to balance indulgent and authentic—Michelin-star meals and rustic cafes or trattorias.

• Customization and Personalization

  • We craft custom itineraries that reflect your interests (art, hiking, history, food, wine, family)

  • Flexibility to combine cities and countryside, iconic sites and slow travel

  • Responsiveness to allergies, dietary needs, mobility, or family travel dynamics

Why do you charge a planning fee instead of providing a full trip package?

Many traditional travel agencies will provide you with an all-in trip quote that includes every last detail of your trip and their company fee. This can be deceiving because you think you are not paying a planning fee when, in reality, it’s just incorporated into the quote. While this allows traditional travel agencies to plan a LOT of trips in a short amount of time, it’s often lacking personalization. Also, these itineraries are generic and packed with lodging and activity options, where the travel agent gets the best commission.

Instead, we provide a planning fee; then every other detail is up to you. This means you have more control over your budget and your itinerary. Our clients love it because we can tell you where to save and splurge so you can use your travel budget most wisely. Also, this means we can plan both private experiences or small group experiences, depending on when you want something fully customized versus when you want to hang with other travelers!

When do you charge a fee?

Sometimes, with the “Just Hotel Bookings” service, where we only help book your hotels, we do not need to charge a fee. However, depending on the amount of help you need, we may need to charge a nominal fee.

The most popular service tier (“Full Service”) requires much attention, so we charge for our team’s time and expertise. Look above for an idea of where each tier’s pricing starts.

Each service starts with a 30-minute Discovery Call (fill out the Discovery Call Questionnaire to get started), after which we provide custom quotes based on the scope of services. The purpose of the call is to get to know your needs so we can best help you. After learning about your dream trip, we’ll provide some advice, like when it’s best to travel there, how long your trip should be, and the must-know details like how to get around and the ideal trip budget. However, we do not provide exact hotel, restaurant, activity, or itinerary recommendations, as those are part of our travel planning services.

Are you travel agents, travel consultants, or travel advisors?

Those words are all simply synonyms! Often, a traditional travel agent will only book hotels, while travel planners or advisors will provide full-service itinerary planning (like we do!). But we go by any of those names around here and help with everything.

What are the benefits of using a travel advisor?

If you’re wondering, “Is it worth getting a vacation planner?” The answer is yes! Expert vacation planners and travel advisors have the knowledge and connections to know which hotels, resorts, and tour guides would work best for you and to enhance your trip with one-of-a-kind experiences tailored to your interests that you'd never find on your own. They'll also be there to smooth out problems that might occur along the way.

What is the “Just Hotel Bookings” service?

As it sounds, this is help with your hotel bookings. Tap our travel advisors for their expertise, experience, and efficiency to get perks at hotels you wouldn't otherwise access!

Where can you help me with bookings?

We can provide basic bookings (e.g., hotel and transportation) anywhere worldwide! However, we shine by providing bespoke travel planning via our full-service personalized travel itinerary services in the places where we specialize: California, Hawai’i, Mexico, Italy, France, Spain, Portugal, and Switzerland.

Clients have used our “Just Bookings” service for places we have travel experience (but aren’t full destination experts), including Germany, Austria, Sweden, Norway, Costa Rica, South Africa, Canada, Australia, New Zealand, Japan, Thailand, and Jordan.

What is the “Travel Therapy” service?

Do you know where you want to go, but do not know how to plan it all? Enter "Travel Therapy,” our hourly trip consultation service. You'll book the service by the hour and talk with an expert travel planner who will provide a suggested trip itinerary and a handful of suggestions for lodging and activities.

What is Full Service Travel Planning?

Most clients opt for custom Full-Service Travel Planning because it's the surest way to stress less and have your dream trip! You'll get a dedicated trip planner, multiple one-on-one planning calls, a fully custom app, a detailed hourly itinerary, advice, a travel glossary, curated choices, and help booking activities, lodging, and restaurants.

How does the custom travel itinerary planning work?

All our bespoke travel services begin with a 30-minute Discovery Call (fill out the Discovery Call Questionnaire to get started). During this call, we will get to know you and your travel preferences, and we can explain the best service level for your needs. We’ll email you after the call with a custom quote and the services we propose. After that, the planning begins! 

With the “Fast-Tracked Services” and the “Full-Service Itinerary” planning, you will get the whole experience of our travel planner service. You will be assigned a dedicated travel planner who will communicate with you via email or phone until your trip is ready! They will cater to your individual needs and share insider information and travel tips so you have the perfect travel plan. 

For the full suite of services, your dedicated travel planner will send you a custom Google doc or PDF listing tailored to your picks of hotels, activity suggestions, and restaurant recommendations (no tourist traps, we promise!). Then, your custom app is built to be your one-stop shop for having the best trip. You can have peace of mind knowing everything is there, from your confirmations and tickets to basic questions (in our travel glossary) and our proprietary map that includes our picks from our years of destination research. 

Can I do a rush order?

We prefer at least 90 days for the best custom travel planning. However, we can do it in less time for a rush fee. 

How do I get the most out of your services?

Being kind, present, and prepared goes a long way! We will do most of the heavy lifting, but if you can respond promptly, it will help us.