Private Trip Planning & Booking
LET'S PLAN YOUR DREAM VACATION
Planning Your Dream Private Trip
We create private trip travel experiences that meet your specific interests, time, and budget. The process starts with an in-depth consultation to discuss your travel preferences and desires. We then create a customized itinerary and proposal. This package includes accommodations, transportation, tours, and activities - all tailored to you, and within your pre-set budget. Our service does not end in the booking phase. We remain at your disposal during the trip to make sure everything runs smoothly and that you enjoy every second.
If you go ahead, and book this service, our process will start with a Zoom meeting for us to understand exactly what your wishes are: destinations you wish to visit, and experiences you wish to have. It is also important to talk about your budget for us to be able to present the level of service and category of accommodation.
We call this meeting the "Kick-off meeting" and it's a crucial step of the process, as we strive to provide the best possible customized experience for each and every of our guests!
Following the meeting, we will work on a customized program and will send you a 1st draft of the itinerary for review. This step is used to make sure we are on the same page and to determine the travel schedule.
You will let us know if you’d like to change something, or add something… The process of creating the customized itinerary sometimes requires us to have several versions of the draft itinerary.
Once we are both happy and agree on your itinerary and program, we move forward to the proposal planning stage. In this stage, we work with our trusted suppliers, having in mind everything we previously talked about, and the budget that you set for this trip, we will put together the best possible value for money.
The next step is creating the proposal, and depending on the time of travel and length of travel, as well as how complex it is, the proposal creation may take a bit of time on our end.
As soon as we receive all the information from service providers and accommodations we aim to use for your trip, we will send you a proposal that includes a detailed day-by-day itinerary description, names of chosen accommodations, a list of included features, and all other important things about your program, including the total package price that will be within the set budget.
The package price consists of hotel accommodation, transfers, experiences, and tours.
We can still apply tweaks and modifications if there is anything you dislike about the proposal!
Once you are happy with your proposal with all the package components, you will have to sign the last page of the proposal in acceptance, pay the deposit, and we will lock it all in. If you're booking far in advance, only the deposit is necessary to confirm, the rest becomes due for payment 45 days before your trip.
The payment for all of your services goes through Vagabonda Travel, you can read the full Terms & Conditions for independent travelers.
Upon the balance payment, within 45 days before your arrival to your destination - we finalize all details for you, and approximately 20 days before the trip, we send you your travel document - this is a Technical Itinerary - the same exact itinerary from your proposal, but without long descriptions, instead, just concise information for you to follow for an easy travel flow. You will have all the timings, meeting places, and contacts of service providers that will take care of you while traveling. On top of that, of course, we will deliver any train tickets, ferry tickets and similar.Once you land at your destination and start the trip, we are still there for you. The Vagabonda team, as well as our local ground operators. We are all there for you in case you need us for anything!
The fees for individual travelers (1-4 guests, up to 2 weeks of travel time), and for small groups (6 or more, up to 2 weeks of travel time) are non-refundable and include handling your trip/itinerary creation, arrangements, and booking from head to toe: Hotels, transfers, tours, and experiences (except the air tickets).
For longer trips and/or larger groups, please reach out to us.
Please also note that in case you change your mind for any reason, or are not able to travel, the fees we charge - are non-refundable. The fees include the time invested in the process, from the meeting to the creation of the itinerary and program, budgeting it according to your wishes, finding the best match services on the ground, contacting suppliers and accommodations, as well as preparing the proposal document. This process normally takes a lot of time and this is why the fee exists in the first place.
Important to know:-
Your travel date must be at least 2 weeks after the day we start working on it (when we have the initial Zoom meeting/consultation) but could be as far in advance as 15 - 12 months.
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This is a full travel agency service.
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The price of the tour will be the total package price per person or per family with all services included at a very high value for money!
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Tours can be organized at different budget levels.
Continue reading to find out more about the process, budget guidelines, and similar...
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This service is not for everyone, and not for those that seek the cheapest option. Please note if you prefer to stay in apartments (private accommodation/Airbnb) this service is not for you. We only work with hotels that we know and love. With private accommodation, it is nearly impossible to have quality control and to work with, as a travel agency.
If you want a worry-free experience and the best possible value for money for a program with private transfers, an upscale level of tours and experiences, with accommodation at nice 4 and 5-star, locally owned hotels, this service is for you!
Depending on your total budget, the experiences, and tours can be either private or joining small groups. Joining small groups for sightseeing and some experiences can make the whole program substantially more affordable, while still having an upscale service. Absolutely every segment of your tour will be planned, booked, and “glued together” by our destination experts, making sure all segments that are part of your program work well together (These are the tours, sightseeing, transfers, train rides, experiences, and similar). We make sure the order of visits is the best possible, and most enjoyable, that the times of visits are the best, and we also plan some time at leisure for you - and for that time, we will give you all of our recommendations and ideas on where to go and what to do in different places - these are all of those "free of charge" things to do on your own in destinations, that are often the most enjoyable, spontaneous moments of a trip.
Clients often ask us what is a good budget, and we really want you to know that we can work with different levels of budget!
That is why it is very important for us to know how much you feel comfortable with - to spend on this trip.
It can be an approximate, an estimate, or a goal.
We are always flexible and can tweak things along the way if necessary, but to have an idea of a budget is very beneficial for the overall planning of the trip.
The prices depend a lot on many factors - time of year, locations visited, length of stay, level of service, and similar...
VERY generally speaking, depending on the time of year and visited locations, our average client spends between $ 3500 - $ 4000 per person for a 7-day land program, excluding the air transport.
This budget buys you accommodation in beautiful, centrally located 4* hotels, private transfers, some small group sightseeing, and some private tours/experiences.
The average price mentioned above will be higher in the peak season, and lower in the shoulder and low season.
For a more luxurious service, staying at 5* hotels and enjoying all top-notch private services, such as boat charters, private guides, experiences, and tours, the budget should be approximately between $5500 and $6500 per person per week. This again depends on the time of year and locations visited.
Very often we have clients that request a hybrid program between the 2 described above, which is our pleasure to set up! For a budget "somewhere in between", we can combine, and have you stay in some more affordable, 4* hotels for a portion of the trip where it is less important, for example, in Rome or in Florence, when you won't spend much time in the room anyways, but splurge on nice 5* hotels with views and nice amenities, and with private services while you are in areas such as the Amalfi Coast, Lake Como or in the Tuscan countryside. (Please note these are just examples, we can offer this also in all other European destinations/countries).
Important Notes:
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The above budgets are approximate estimates and should be not taken for granted. Every travel program and every client is different
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Family trips, with kids younger than 12, normally come out more affordable as the kids will enjoy discounted rates for accommodation and for tours too.
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Small groups with more travelers traveling together at all times will also be more affordable on the per-person level because the cost of transfers, guides, and tours is divided among more participants.
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Only pay the fee upfront
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The deposit you put down to confirm is 100% refundable until 90 days before your travel date
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The final payment is due 45 days prior to your travel date (see the full Terms & Conditions)
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Local contact is available during your entire trip to help and assist with anything you may need
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Worry-free in terms of organization – everything is taken care of for you
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Accommodation in vetted hotels
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Services such as transfers and sightseeing are provided by top-notch, trusted professionals
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If anything goes wrong, for any reason, our team is here to fix it for you!
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In your travel documents we will include all of our restaurant recommendations as well as some suggestions on what to do in the locations during your free time
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Even though we do not sell airline tickets, we are happy to help you find the flights that work best with your land program
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Before You Book Any Service
REVIEW OUR FREQUENTLY ASKED QUESTIONS
Choose Your Own Adventure
- The Coscia-Mancuso Family, White Plains, NY
We cannot thank Vagabonda Travel enough for custom-designing our family trip to Italy. Memories to last a lifetime. Every detail of our trip was perfectly curated and exceptional. We would have never been able to plan this adventure on our own. Communication with the staff is excellent and we felt secure knowing we had contact number while we were traveling. Cannot wait to book our next trip with you soon!
Trip of a lifetime.
Happy Clients
- Megan and Jerry, Los Angeles, California
We have never used a travel service before, and Vagabonda absolutely blew us away! From their hotel bookings, to the day-by-day itinerary, to hidden gems we definitely would have never found on our own, we can't thank their team enough! Highly recommend for anyone who wants an authentic experience in Europe!
BEST TRIP EVER! We'll remember this for the rest of our lives!
Happy Clients
- Pete and Paula, Lindenhurst, New York
When my husband and I started planning our 30th Anniversary trip to Italy we had no idea where to even begin. That’s when I stumbled across Alida’s TikTok videos. I absolutely LOVED her content. To be honest, at first I was skeptical about planning a trip like this off of someone I saw in a TikTok video, but after meeting with her we knew we picked the right travel agency. Our 17-day trip was absolutely incredible. Alida and Vagabonda Travel made our lifetime dream of touring Italy one we will never forget!
Happy 30th Anniversary to Us! A TRIP OF A LIFETIME!
