Wine travel
Estates that still pour their own bottles, timed around harvest or the quiet weeks after it. Drivers booked, so nobody has to count glasses.
Douro · Mendoza · Stellenbosch · Willamette
Travel & advisory
Trips planned the way we'd plan our own.
For couples, families, friend groups and company retreats. Wine country, art cities, and places to reset. We handle the routing, the timing, and the room worth asking for. Hotel rates are the same as booking direct, often with perks you can't get on your own.
Independent advisor affiliated with Fora Travel.
Same price as booking direct
Hotels pay our commission. For most stays you pay the rate you'd find yourself, booked through Fora.
Perks at partner hotels
At many partner properties: daily breakfast, a hotel credit, and an upgrade when one is available.
One person to call
From the first call to the flight home. If a connection slips, you text us, not a hotline.
What we plan
Three kinds of trips, done carefully.
We'd rather know three styles of travel well than plan everything adequately. Most trips we plan, from an anniversary to a team offsite, are built around one of these.
Art travel
Museum cities and art islands, with entry times that skip the midday crush and a hotel close enough to go back for a second look.
Kyoto & Naoshima · Madrid · Mexico City · Venice
Wellness travel
Retreats with real programs, not spa menus. We check the schedule, the food and the walk to the room before we recommend one.
Costa Rica · Tuscany · Big Sur · Bali
Who we plan for
Two travelers or forty, the same care.
The group changes what a good trip looks like. So the questions we ask change too.
Couples
Anniversaries, honeymoons, and trips that don't need a reason. Fewer stops, a better room, and dinner reservations that are hard to get.
Families
Connecting rooms or a villa, a pace that works for every age, and one afternoon a trip planned for the adults.
Friend groups
Milestone birthdays and reunions. One house or a hotel buyout, a private tasting, and a plan for who pays for what.
Company retreats & events
Leadership offsites, client trips and incentive travel. Meeting space, group air, ground transport and an agenda that leaves room to think.
How it works
Four steps, and you decide at each one.
A short call
Twenty minutes on who's going, what you want from the trip, the dates and the budget. No obligation.
A written plan
A route, two or three hotel options per stop, and the reasoning behind each. Revisions until it fits.
Booking
We book through Fora and confirm everything in writing: rates, perks, cancellation terms.
While you travel
A day-by-day itinerary on your phone, and a direct line to us if anything changes.
Sample journeys
The shape of a trip we'd plan.
Every itinerary is built for the people taking it. These show how we think about pace and order.
- Nights 1–2PortoLand, sleep, walk the Ribeira at dusk. No tastings on day one.
- Nights 3–6Douro ValleyA quinta above the river during harvest. Two tastings a day, never three.
- Nights 7–9LisbonTrain, not car. Stay in Príncipe Real so evenings are a short walk.
One base in the valley instead of three. The drive between quintas is slow, and unpacking twice costs a day.
Kyoto and the Seto Inland Sea
10 nights · spring or late autumn Good for couples and families with older kids- Kyoto, four nights, temples on weekday mornings
- Naoshima, two nights to see the museums before day-trippers arrive
- Teshima by ferry, then back to Tokyo for three nights
Staying overnight on the island is the whole point. Most visitors leave on an afternoon ferry.
A week of nothing in Costa Rica
7 nights · December to April Good for couples, families and friend groups- Arrive into Liberia, not San José, to cut the transfer
- Six nights at one retreat or villa on the Nicoya Peninsula
- A final night near the airport for an easy morning flight
One property, one unpack. The last night by the airport removes the worst part of the trip home.
A leadership offsite in wine country
3 nights · 8 to 30 guests · spring or autumn Good for leadership teams and client groups- Arrive midday; one working session, then dinner in a barrel room
- Mornings in meeting space, afternoons at two small estates
- Final morning to decide, not to present, then cars to the airport
Half-day agendas. Teams make better decisions on day three when days one and two weren't twelve hours long.
From people we've planned for
In their words.
[Client review 1 — one or two sentences, ideally naming a specific detail we got right.][First name & initial · Destination, year]
[Client review 2 — ideally a wine, art or wellness trip.][First name & initial · Destination, year]
[Client review 3 — ideally a family, group or corporate trip.][First name & initial · Destination, year]
About
Douglas Solomon, founder.
The trip that started this was a mistake. I missed the last afternoon train out of Pinhão, in Portugal's Douro Valley, and a winemaker who saw me standing on the platform offered a ride and a table. Lunch on her terrace ran four hours. Her mother kept bringing food, and nobody checked the time. It's still the best afternoon I've had anywhere, and it happened because the plan fell apart.
I've been planning around that afternoon ever since. Wine, for me, is a reason to sit somewhere longer than you meant to. Art is why I'll get up early to be first through a museum door, before the rooms fill. And most of my mornings, at home or away, start with yoga and meditation, so I look hard at whether a retreat's program is real or just a spa menu.
Now I build trips with room for that kind of afternoon, for couples, families, friend groups and teams. I book through Fora, which gives our clients partner rates and perks at hotels worldwide. If we're not the right fit for what you have in mind, I'll tell you on the first call.
From our own trips
Places we've walked ourselves.
We recommend what we've seen. These are from our own travels, not a stock library.
Questions
What people ask before the first call.
Does it cost more to book through you?
For most hotel stays, no. You pay the same rate as booking direct, and the hotel pays our commission. If a trip's complexity calls for any fee, we'll discuss it in our first conversation, before any work begins.
What is Fora?
Fora is a travel agency that supports independent advisors with booking technology, supplier relationships and partner programs. We book your travel through Fora, which is how our clients get partner perks at many hotels.
How far ahead should we reach out?
Three to six months is comfortable for most trips. Harvest season in wine regions and peak months for small retreats fill earlier, so for those, sooner is better.
Do you plan for families, groups and companies?
Yes. We plan family trips, friend-group celebrations, and corporate retreats, offsites and client events. For groups we handle room blocks, meeting space, group air and ground transport, and keep one point of contact for everyone.
Do you only plan wine, art and wellness trips?
That's where we spend most of our time. If your trip is something else, ask. If we're not the right advisor, we'll say so and point you to someone who is.
What happens if something goes wrong while we're away?
You contact us directly. We work with the hotel or supplier on your behalf so you're not on hold with a call center.
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