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Salt & Wind Travel Planning Services FAQs

So, you have a few questions? We've got answers! Below you’ll find answers to general questions about our company as well as the various travel planning services we provide. For questions on a specific service or destination, please visit the appropriate page.

• SALT & WIND TRAVEL 101

• HOW OUR TRAVEL SERVICES WORK

• MONEY MATTERS

• TRAVELING WITH DIETARY RESTRICTIONS

What Is Salt & Wind Travel?

Salt & Wind Travel is a boutique travel planning company for discerning food and lifestyle travelers. Brought to you by the team behind the food and travel lifestyle site, Salt & Wind Travel, we created Salt & Wind Travel to help fellow food lovers travel in good taste.

We help savvy travelers get a taste for the place where they’re headed in the following ways: via private day tours, our custom itinerary planning, hosting small group tours, and our Travel Guides For Food Lovers.

Who started Salt & Wind Travel?

Founded by food and travel expert, Aida Mollenkamp in 2015, the company is run by Aida and filmmaker and travel expert, Kristen Kellogg. We believe you don't know a place until you've broken bread there so all our work is in aim of helping you travel deliciously. To learn more about our team, check out our about us page.

Why is Salt & Wind Travel different from other boutique travel agencies?

Put simply: we’re all about specialization and curation.

Our team has deep expertise in hospitality and travel and we’re committed to giving you a custom travel experience. We’re focused on having a deep expertise in a few locations — namely California, Hawaii, Mexico, France, and Italy. Each destination is meticulously researched, each travel partner handpicked, and each activity personally planned, to help you meet the people, tastes, and sights that make these regions deliciously unique.

While all the Salt & Wind staff is familiar with each of the destinations where we work, we have certain team members who are the lead expert in each of our various destinations. Whether you join a group tour to Italy or have us plan a custom itinerary for you, you’ll be partnered with the team member who knows that place best.

Who are the Salt & Wind Travel itinerary planning services for?

Salt & Wind Travel is not for the one-city-a-day, selfie stick-wielding tourist. Our services are for travelers who wants to dig deeper and understand what makes a destination special. We’re for the explorer who travels to experience classic gems worth their weight as well as just-opened hotspots to discover what the culture of a destination 100% unique.

How do you promote sustainable travel?

Every way we can! At Salt & Wind Travel our goal is to positively impact the local economies by promoting sustainable wine, food, and travel to our most-loved places, including California, Mexico, Italy, Hawaii, and more.

Where do you provide travel planning services?

We have deep expertise in a few specific locations — California, Mexico, Italy, France, and Hawaii — and that means our recommendations are thoroughly vetted and high quality.

All these destinations have a deep sense of place, vibrant food culture, strong creative scenes, and unique local makers — the very things we believe that makes a destination magical. While all the Salt & Wind staff is familiar with each of our destinations, we have certain team members act as experts in the various destinations.

What sort of travel planning services are available at Salt & Wind Travel?

We’re food and travel experts who help food lovers travel in good taste. As of 2020, we’ve expanded our travel planning services to include help with restaurant reservations, arranging private day tours, doing custom itinerary planning, hosting small group tours, and our Travel Guides For Food Lovers.

How do I get started with your travel planning services?

To have us start planning your travel itinerary, simply do the following:

Decide which of our travel planning services is best for you, then fill out this form to answer a few questions or go here to schedule a consultation call then we’ll discuss your dream trip and get planning!

Where do you provide concierge travel planning services?

We provide our guests with our travel planning services in all of the locations where we have expertise, namely California, Hawaii, Mexico, Italy, France, and Spain.

Here are the places we most commonly work in each destination:

• California | Los Angeles, San Diego, Santa Barbara, San Francisco, Big Sur, Napa and Sonoma

• Hawaii | Oahu, Maui, Kauai, and Island Of Hawaii

• Mexico | Valle De Guadalupe Wine Country, Mexico City, Oaxaca, Tequila, Los Cabos

• Italy | Milan, Lake Como, Lake Garda, Turin, Bologna, Verona, Venice, Florence, Rome, Amalfi Coast, and Taormina

• France | Paris, Loire Valley, Champagne, Bordeaux, Rhone Valley, Provence

Where do you arrange private day tours and other experiences?

Currently we can arrange private day tours or other immersive experiences in every market where we work. We most commonly arrange these custom experiences in the following places (if you don’t see a specific place reach out to us at travel@saltandwind.com and we’ll confirm if we can help you out!) To get started fill out this quick form and we’ll get right back to you!

How much time do you need to help me plan my trip?

We require having at least 90 days for planning, but can do it in less time for a rush fee. The exact fee depends on the extent of your travel planning needs, the duration of your trip, and how much help you need.

How much do the services cost?

Our CLASSIC tier starts at US$1080 and our PLUS tier starts at US$1480, but custom quotes will be provided after the initial consultation call once we know the duration of your trip and what kind of help you need. Our small group tours start at about $3,000 for a 4 day trip and go up from there depending on the destination and length of trip.

I only need help with restaurant reservations — can you help?

One of the hardest parts about traveling with a focus on food is securing reservations in countries where you don’t speak the language. That’s why we have an a la carte service to help you with just that! To get started fill out this quick form and we’ll get right back to you!

Which cities do you currently cover in your travel guides?

As of early 2020, we launched our Travel Guides For Food Lovers in Milan, Florence, Rome, and Mexico City. We will be launching more guides as the year goes on but reach out to us at travel@saltandwind.com if you want to recommend a specific place.

Where do you travel on your small group tours?

Currently we host our small group tours in Italy and Mexico. In Italy we travel to Lombardy, Piedmont, and Tuscany while we in Mexico we host tours in Mexico city. Read up about all our upcoming group tours here.

MONEY MATTERS

What is included in the Salt & Wind Travel service fees?

Each Salt & Wind Travel service has different offerings included in the fee. Please refer to the specific page to understand what is included in our travel planning services versus our hosted group tours.

What is not included in the Salt & Wind Travel services fees?

There aren’t any hidden fees! However, we do sometimes work with a travel agent who may charge a nominal fee for booking things like train reservations. While we do offer a la carte services (like the ability to have us plan a special event for you or have a photograph take your pics throughout the trip) all the services we’ll provide are listed in our initial fee!

Each fee is based on an estimate of the amount of time our team needs to make your trip a success. Thus, your trip planning fee may require an additional fee if the services requested by the client go beyond the initial scope.

How do I pay to get started?

To get started on our travel planning services, we request you put down the non-refundable fee in full at the start of service. For arranging day tours, you will pay based on our in-market partner’s various payment policies. For our group tours, a 30 to 40% non-refundable deposit is required – simply go to our travel shop to see the specific pricing for a given group tour.

And how can I cancel the service?

You can cancel our services for any reason and any time; however, the non-refundable fee will not be refunded.

I love good food but I have a dietary restriction, allergy, intolerance....

We love good food too and we'll do our absolute best to work with you to accommodate your dietary restriction, allergy, or intolerance. Our co-founder, Aida Mollenkamp, has celiac disease so we and our partners are familiar with making it work. Just please inform us as to your specific diet as soon as you start working with us so that we can work with our partners to make sure you eat and eat well. 

Anything else?

Please refer to our code of conduct for specifics ways that our relationship can be successful!

Have any additional questions?

Contact us at travel@saltandwind.com