Yes, ok. This post is a little bit self serving.

BUT it’s also to genuinely tell you the benefits of hiring someone else to plan your travels! The trips I’ve gone on where someone else was in charge of the itinerary were some of the most blissful, relaxing trips I’ve taken. And I actually enjoy planning trips! So imagine how nice it would be to have everything figured out for you ahead of time, when you don’t have to make tons of little decisions, you can just be in the moment and enjoy your trip. Ah. Sounds nice doesn’t it?

This could be you, your whole trip planned and not a decision to make or a care in the world.

There are plenty of reasons to consider hiring a travel planner for your next trip especially. Here are a few of the best ones IMO:

COVID has had a huge impact on the way we travel. While here in the US, it feels like we are mostly past the worst of the pandemic, the rest of the world is still in the thick of it or still catching up to our vaccination rate/ don’t have access to vaccines yet. This means there are still tons of restrictions that vary with every country and they are changing constantly. By hiring someone else to plan your trip, you don’t have to keep track of all those changes and rules or research to figure out the logistics of staying in line with them. Additionally, so many businesses closed or have reopened in a limited way or pivoted to something else completely, so much of the information in guidebooks or on travel sites might be outdated. Hiring a travel planner means you don’t have to figure out what is still relevant information and what’s not!

Outsourcing travel planning is time saved. Depending on how long your trip is, how many places you’re visiting, and what activities you’re doing, planning a trip can sometimes take more time than the trip itself. Researching flights, accommodations, tours, rental cars, trains, lining up dates, times, and distances can be overwhelming, especially if you aren’t a frequent traveler. Hiring someone else who has the resources, time, and know-how can not only be faster but easier than trying to hunt down the information yourself, not knowing what sources are reliable or not.

Not only will you save time but you’ll save mental energy. It can be so stressful to plan a trip, especially these days with the pandemic still looming, that by the time you get to the trip itself you are so exhausted and burnt out on decision-making that you barely enjoy it. By letting a travel planner take care of the logistics and research, you can just make a few decisions, then sit back until it’s time for departure. Then on the trip, you aren’t so burnt out by all the work it took to plan that you can relax and be in the moment instead of worrying about the logistics and whether that thing you researched turned out to be useful and relevant or not. You’ve got enough to worry about in daily life. Your vacation shouldn’t be adding stress, it should be the stress relief and respite from everyday responsibilities you need.

A professional can find things you can’t. There are some things you just might not know how to find or whether to trust when you aren’t a travel professional. That saying, you don’t know what you don’t know? It often applies here. Travel planners have reliable resources, networks of other travelers and professionals, and a boatload of first-hand travel experience. All of those things lead to more unique experiences, better quality recommendations, and more conscientious options. With professional planning, you might have a more memorable, meaningful, or exciting trip!

You have a hype person getting you excited about your trip the whole way. As an enneagram 7, I live vicariously through your trips, meaning I get pretty much just as excited for you to go on your trip as I would if I were going myself. Travel planners will not only get you prepared for your trip but excited! Don’t we all need things to look forward to and get excited about these days?

So as things start to open back up, as you crawl out of your crusty sweatpants (sorry that was gross) and start to consider getting back out into the world, consider hiring a travel planner (hi) to plan your trips. If this last year has taught us anything, it’s that our time and energy are precious resources so we should find ways to make our lives easier and more enjoyable, including taking more vacations and letting others handle the logistics. If you’re interested in traveling soon, check out my services page and see how I can help. :)

Hope you’re all enjoying your summer and taking breaks!

Sami