The New Travel Designer: What Changed, and Why It Matters

THE SHIFT

Travel Has Never Offered Us More Choices

We can plan our own travel. We can book the flights, find the hotels, research the restaurants and map out every last detail ourselves. And sometimes, that’s part of the fun.

I love planning travel. I can happily disappear down a rabbit hole looking for the little hotel on the street you actually want to wake up on. I’ll compare rooms, look at maps, figure out whether that “five-minute walk to town” is actually five minutes, and read far too much about breakfast.

But having more access hasn’t necessarily made travel simpler. It has given us more choices, more comparisons and more decisions to make.

Which hotel? Which room? Which rate? Is breakfast included? Is that actually a good flight connection? Should you book directly? Is three nights enough? And why is one flight suddenly $400 more than another that appears to leave at exactly the same time?

None of it is impossible.

It can just become a lot.

And maybe that’s what has changed most about the role of a travel advisor. It isn’t about needing someone else to plan your trip. It’s about knowing you don’t have to manage every piece of it alone.

A DIFFERENT KIND OF HELP

The Travel Agent Didn't Disappear. The Job Changed.

There was a time when you called a travel agent because they had access to things you didn’t. Flights were booked through them. Hotels were booked through them. They held the information.

That world is gone.

Now you can sit on your sofa at 10:00 at night and book a room on the other side of the world in about three minutes. You can also sit on that same sofa two hours later with 27 tabs open, comparing three hotels you can no longer remember why you liked in the first place.

The modern travel designer isn’t a gatekeeper to travel. I think of the role much more as a collaborator.

You might come to me with an entire Pinterest board and half the trip already planned. You might know the hotel but have no idea how you’re getting from there to the tiny island you want to visit next. Or you might say, “We have ten days. We want Italy. We love food. We don’t want to move every two nights. Help.”

All of those work.

You decide how much of the planning you want to keep and how much you’d happily hand to someone else.

THE DIFFERENCE

Booking a Trip and Designing One Aren't Quite the Same Thing

Booking asks whether the hotel is available.

Travel design asks whether you’ll actually like staying there.

That difference matters.

Do you want to walk out of your hotel and immediately be in the middle of everything, or would you rather wake up somewhere quiet and beautiful?

Do you love having dinner reservations waiting for you, or does that make your vacation feel scheduled?

Are you willing to take the 6:00 a.m. flight because it saves $150, or will losing half a night of sleep make the first day miserable?

Do you want the Four Seasons, or are you going to fall in love with the eight-room hotel down a side street where someone’s grandmother is making breakfast?

There isn’t one right answer.

The point is finding your answer.

That’s the part of travel design I love most. The trip starts becoming yours rather than simply a collection of highly rated places connected by airline reservations.

YOUR TRIP

You Don't Have to Hand Over the Fun Part

If you love planning travel, please keep planning.

Save the restaurants. Find the weird little shop. Send me the hotel you discovered at midnight. Tell me you absolutely need to take the cooking class you saw on Instagram.

Working with a travel designer doesn’t mean handing over your vacation and receiving an itinerary you had nothing to do with.

Maybe you want help with hotels and nothing else. Maybe you’d rather never think about transfers again. Maybe you want flights, hotels and logistics handled but want every afternoon left open. Or maybe planning is the last thing you want to do and you’d love for someone else to take it from here.

There isn't one right way to use a travel designer either.

The help should fit the traveler, not the other way around.

THE FORA PIECE

And Yes, Relationships Still Matter

I’m also a FORA Travel Advisor, which gives me access to hotel partners, travel relationships and resources around the world. Depending on the property, that can mean things like breakfast, hotel credits, upgrades when available, early check-in or late checkout.

Those things are lovely. I’ll happily take the upgrade. But the perks aren’t really the point.

Knowing how you like to travel matters more.

A complimentary breakfast doesn’t make a beautiful hotel the right hotel if it’s forty minutes away from everything you came to experience. The relationship that matters most is the one between the traveler and the person helping design the trip.

THE LITTLE THINGS

This Is Where Travel Gets Personal

Some people land, drop their bags and want to be out the door immediately.

Others need a shower, a nap and several hours before anyone suggests sightseeing.

Some people want every dinner reservation made before they leave home. Others want to wander until they find a table outside and something good on the menu.

Some want five-star service. Some want the tiny family-run place they’ll talk about for the next ten years. A lot of us want a little of both.

These details can sound small, but they change a trip.

A good itinerary isn’t about squeezing in everything you possibly can.

It’s about making room for the way you actually want to travel.

WHAT CHANGED

Maybe the Real Luxury Is Not Having to Do It All

We have more access to the world than travelers have ever had before. That’s a wonderful thing. Research the places. Read the reviews. Save the reels. Dream about the hotels. Build the trip yourself if that’s what you love doing.

But somewhere between dreaming about Sicily and comparing the cancellation policies of hotel number seventeen, it’s also perfectly reasonable to decide you’d like some help.

Not because you can’t do it.

Because you don’t have to do it all.

You can have someone compare the options. Ask the questions you didn’t know you needed to ask. Handle the reservations. Connect the logistics. Find the things worth knowing about and occasionally tell you that the connection you found in Paris is absolutely not worth saving $63.

You still get to choose.

You still get to dream.

You still get to travel your way.

You just have someone in your corner helping make it happen.

And maybe that’s what the new travel designer really is.

READY WHEN YOU ARE

You Dream It. I'll Help You Make It Happen.

Already know exactly where you want to go? Perfect.

Have nothing more than a place you’ve been dreaming about? That’s enough too.

Tell me where you’re thinking, what matters to you and how much of the planning you’d like to keep.