International Travel
If “travel the world” is still unchecked on your bucket list, good news: We can help! Even if you’ve traveled internationally before and you’re ready to go again, you know that traveling abroad requires a lot of planning and preparation in the months leading up to your trip. So if you’re wanting to experience life in other parts of the world, we can be there to plan your trip and make it easy.
International travel can be a life-changing, rewarding, breathtaking experience. But planning your travels can be complex and intimidating, especially if you’ve never traveled abroad, or if you are traveling with someone who hasn’t traveled abroad. Where should you stay? Which hotels are safe and reliable? What do you need to schedule in advance?
We are here to take all the stress and hard work out of planning your trip so that all you have to do is create lifelong memories in the countries and cities you’ve always dreamed of visiting. International travel is usually a wish fulfilled for many of our clients, and we are thrilled to help them with that wish!
Why Travel Internationally?
Why should you go ahead and give in to your wanderlust and book that trip abroad? Because there’s never a better opportunity than right now to see the world. If fear is the biggest thing keeping you home, we can help! Sure, there are safety precautions to take, and it’s important to stay alert and aware, but fear should never be a roadblock to opening your horizons and experiencing new and different corners of the earth.
Traveling helps open your eyes. When you travel to someplace new and different, like a new country, it makes you a more well-rounded individual. And it helps you learn more not just about your world, but about yourself as well. You gain new perspectives on other cultures, on yourself, and on how you see the world. And you get to stimulate your taste buds with new flavors, and fresh ingredients, too!
Learn about new cultures, and see things you’ve only ever seen in your history books, or in pictures on a computer screen. Now is your chance to live it and breathe it in real life.
The Newest and the Latest
No limits: We have countless options available for traveling internationally when it comes to hotels, excursions, tours, dining, group experiences, and more. Truly, we are only limited by our collective imaginations when we work together, and trust us, we are darned creative! Want to book a European river cruise, and then set up some time at the beginning or end of your trip for some extra time in Paris, or spend a few days after your cruise in Rome? We can do that!
Group Travel, Your Own Way: Let us help you combine group and private travel experiences so you can see and learn it all from the experts, while still having time to immerse yourself in a place on your own. Book a group tour to different castles or to see Stonehenge, or follow a guide through a city’s marketplace or museum, and then give yourself time to see it all yourself.
Private travel: We’re not just compiling various tours for you, or swiping an itinerary from another tour, we are creating your trip from the ground up. Private travel can mean that it’s just you, or traveling with your family, or even potentially with a personal guide, if you’d like.
Group travel: It’s time to redefine your perception of group travel. Group travel might mean you get fast, easy access to major attractions and destinations. It can mean guided tours of major landmarks. Imagine seeing Vatican City or the Louvre with a narrated tour, giving you all the important details, little known facts, and interesting stories, as you’re experiencing them in real time.
Your trip can be a combination of private experiences and group travel, so you get the fullest experience possible, in just the way you’d like it to happen.
Empty Nest Excursions: We’ve planned lots of trips for empty nesters (and even groups of empty nesters), who want to travel now that their kids are grown and they have the time and ability to travel. Many of our clients are looking to check big things off their bucket lists once their kids are grown, and want to see the wonders of the world while they are still active and healthy enough to truly enjoy travel.
Embrace Your Culture: One of our favorite things to do is work with families to plan “heritage travel” trips to trace their roots back and visit the countries from which their ancestors emigrated. It can be a life-affirming, soul-filling experience to learn more about the exact town from which you came, taste the foods from your very own culture, and walk the streets your relatives walked.
Quick Tips: Five Things to Know
- 1Things are different abroad - and that’s what makes it great!
There are a lot of things that are different than what you might be used to when you travel to Europe or other parts of the globe. Even international hotel chains can look very different when you’re in another country. You might even find that you want to stay in a small, boutique inn instead of a larger chain. It’s just one more opportunity to learn about a new culture and way of life.
Flights are a whole different experience when you travel great distances. A one-hour flight to Chicago or Dallas is one thing, but an 8-hour trip to Rome? That’s a very different flight to prepare for. While you may be comfortable with an economy seat on a much shorter flight, we can discuss other flight classes and seating options for you, so you are 100% comfortable and relaxed on your long flight. When you’re sitting in the same plane seat for 8 to 10 hours, cheaper is not always better.
Other things that are different? Language, currency, and cultural norms. Fear not. We will help guide you through all of this. We can arrange currency conversions in advance, and help you navigate language barriers and cultural differences. None of these are reasons to avoid a trip abroad, but they are good things to plan for before you go.
- 2You MUST plan ahead!
International travel isn’t something that just happens. It does require careful planning well in advance of your trip. Do you have your passport? Do you know where it is and if it is expired? Many international destinations require your passport to be valid for at least 6 months after you return home! Will your destination require a travel visa? The earlier you plan, the better.
- 3Something won’t happen the way you planned. And that’s okay!
This is why you should work with us - we’re professionals. When you are traveling abroad, you are dealing with so many uncontrollable factors: weather events, strikes, and more. When the unexpected happens, we back you up. Every time.
- 4Trip insurance is all but mandatory when you travel internationally.
Things happen. You should really consider travel insurance for any trip, but especially when you are planning a trip abroad. We’ve planned these trips for 20+ years, and we’ve seen numerous instances where travel insurance has been a lifesaver- literally and figuratively!
Emergency appendectomies while you’re traveling, injuries in the week before your trip? We’ve seen it all happen. Don’t let that be the thing that keeps you from the trip you’ve been dreaming about for years or the thing that keeps you from the care you might need. We want you to stay safe when you’re traveling, and trip insurance is a great way to help ensure that.
- 5Use your SMALL WORLD BIG FUN travel advisor!
We are here to make your trip easier for you. We will compile everything into one simple package for you: airfare, accommodations, tours, and excursions. You name it, it’s built into your travel package.
We stay on top of things so all you have to do is enjoy your trip. From travel opportunities and things to do and see, to travel regulations: Things change quickly and frequently. We will monitor all of that so you don’t have to. International travel can be complex, and we are here to stay on top of things for you.
We’re experts. We’ve been planning unique, one-of-a-kind trips for years. We’ve been there and done that, and have the know-how to distill everything down into a trip that works best for you and your loved ones.
And the very best part? We cut through all the noise and stress of planning international travels, and in the event something doesn’t go as planned? We are there to back you up. Can you get that from a web-based discount travel site?
Your Trip Abroad
When you imagine the trip of a lifetime, what does it look like? Let us plan it for you. We’ve done it all:
- A Christmastime tour of Canada via train
- A private bike tour of a Parisian neighborhood, led by a local
- A tour of Lake Louise via dog sled for a group of friends
- A guided tour of the Van Gogh museum with a truly fabulous tour guide
- A trip to the UK, including Liverpool football, Harry Potter Studios, and Stonehenge for a family to celebrate the end of cancer treatments
- A large family group trip to Paris and Normandy
We can combine group and private travel experience to build the perfect trip for you. And if you’re already a frequent traveler, and you’ve seen it all? We can craft a trip full of experiences beyond the landmarks you’ve already seen and help you feel totally immersed in your location.
What can we do for you? We are here to plan it all, and to take away all of the stress. We’ll even help you determine the kinds of things you need to pack, and where you should go, and what you should do when you’re traveling.
It’s part of our mission to help families and individuals get exposed to life outside the US, broaden their horizons, and learn more about the world at large. We are here to make your trip dreams a reality. We’d love it if your trip was the next one we planned.
What have we heard from our clients about the trips we’ve planned?
- “This was, hands down, the best vacation we have taken as a family. You all did a phenomenal job planning our trip. Everything ran so smoothly, which is no small feat when dealing with 15 people! Thanks for helping us make so many wonderful memories without stress or hassle.”
- Heather did a great job of planning our cruise and trip to Atlantis. She is easy to work with and she has some tips to save us money along the way. I highly recommend her!
- Emily Gregg was super knowledgeable and helpful with every detail of our trip. She was only a text or call away from day one until our trip was over. We had a magical time that will be special to our family forever!! Thank you, Emily, for everything!
Don’t just read about it, let’s start planning! Request a quote today so we can get started on planning your personalized, once in a lifetime trip. You pick the destination, and we can make it happen!
