Trip planning and hotel booking, for people who care where they stay.
Anyone can find a hotel
What's hard is knowing which one is right for you, and having someone on the other end when the trip doesn't go the way it was supposed to.
So that's what I do. You tell me about the trip, I find the places worth considering, and I book the one you choose.
It costs you nothing. Hotels pay a commission when you book through me, which means you pay the same rate you would have anyway and usually get more for it: an upgrade when one is available, breakfast, a property credit, early check in and late check out. Those come from Fora's preferred partnerships with the hotels, not from your budget.
Some of my favorite places don't work with agencies at all. When the right hotel for your trip is one I earn nothing on, I'll tell you that and recommend it anyway.
What you get
Somebody who has already done the part you'd have put off.
Every trip I take starts as a Google map. Pins going in for months, a color for hotels and a color for the places worth eating, notes on which ones need booking and how far ahead. Then comparing rates across dates, reading enough reviews to tell a real problem from someone who booked the wrong room. I've done that for years for my own trips, whether it was two weeks on the Mediterranean or a weekend in a town in Oregon I'd never been to. Doing it for someone else's trip is the same work, and I like it just as much.
So when you book through me, I send notes on the area around your hotel. Where to eat nearby, what's worth walking to, what to reserve before you arrive. Not a list of links, and not the same twenty restaurants everyone sends.
For trips that need more than that, I write a full guide to the whole thing: where to eat and which night to go, one walk worth making time for, the thing everybody does that you can skip, and the two places to book before you land.
You won't pay more than booking it yourself, and sometimes you'll pay less. The difference is that one of them comes with someone who already did the reading.
How it works
1. Tell me about the trip. A few minutes on the form below. Where, roughly when, and what a good trip looks like to you.
2. We talk. Twenty minutes on the phone, or over email if you'd rather. This is where I find out the things a form can't ask.
3. I send options. A short document with two or three places for each stop, a photograph of each, why I'd put you there, and which one I'd choose. No cost, no obligation.
4. You choose, I book it. You pay the hotel directly, at the same rate you'd find anywhere. I make the reservation and make sure the perks are attached.
5. Notes before you go, and a guide if you want one. I'll send notes on the area around your hotel. If you want the same thing for the whole trip, that's the full guide.
Where I know well
I grew up in the Pacific Northwest, spent my summers camping up and down the west coast, and still live here. But my one true love is sunshine, and most of where I've gone since has followed it.
The Mediterranean. Coastline and islands, mostly. Puglia, the South of France, Corsica, Mallorca, Seville and Barcelona. This is where I've spent the most time recently, and where the gap between a good hotel and the right one is widest. Which stretch of coast is worth the drive, when the season turns, something only someone who's been would say.
Mexico and Hawaii. Oaxaca City, and Maui, Kauai and Oahu. The trips people take for warm water and end up remembering for the food or beaches where mainly locals are at.
Wine country and California. I live in the Willamette Valley, so Oregon I know by heart. Which vineyards to visit on a Tuesday, where to eat in Carlton, when the crowds show up. That carries to Sonoma and the Russian River, and to the California trips I keep going back for: Palm Springs, Joshua Tree, Carmel.
Germany. I studied in Baden-Württemberg, so the south is where I know best, though I've spent time in Dresden, Berlin and Munich too. I've been in every season, and there's something about winter there that I'd push anyone toward once: the Christmas markets, the cold, the old towns doing what they were built to do. It's also easier to travel around than people expect, good with kids, and you're never far from a beautiful old town, a real city, or wine country.
Traveling with kids, and with everyone. I have two young children, and I've done the version of this trip where four generations are in one house. I know which hotels mean it when they say family-friendly, how far you can push a flight, and what a trip needs to be so that the adults get a vacation too.
If your trip is somewhere outside all of this, I'll tell you plainly that I'm starting from scratch, and you can decide from there.
Guides
What it costs
Booking a hotel through me is free. I'll research options, send you what I'd choose, and make the reservation. You'll never pay more than the rate you'd find yourself, and sometimes you'll pay less.
Book through me and you get notes on the area around your hotel: where to eat nearby, what's worth walking to, what to reserve before you arrive. That's included.
The full trip guide is $300. It's optional, and plenty of people just book the hotel and take the notes. But it's the part I'd actually recommend, and it's yours whether or not you booked through me, so if you've already got a place to stay, or you're renting an apartment, that works too.
Book with me
Tell me about your trip
Takes less than five minutes. The more you tell me, the better the first set of options will be.
If you have any questions or want to follow up you can email me at silke.schuh@fora.travel