Planet Hoppers | January 2020

January 2020

California’s 2019 Travel Consultant of the Year - LUXlife Magazine

Bay Area’s 2019 Best International Bespoke Holiday Agency - LUXlife Magazine

Happy New Year! Last year was full of progress and new adventures but went by so quickly. Here we are at the start of a brand new decade! I look forward to bringing you more travel inspirations for adventure, culture, culinary, and wellness to create the perfect bucket list trip. I wish you and your families a joyous and healthy year ahead.

Featured Trip Of The Month

LINDA AND WING SEEK FOOD & FESTIVE FUN IN EUROPE

Read full interview with more pictures HERE

Nov 25 - Nov 29 Florence

Nov 30 - Dec 06 Munich

We recently returned home from Florence and Munich. The reason we chose those two cities was proximity: they’re easy to travel between. Originally, I had wanted to go to Italy only but I also wanted to have some Christmas market experiences, so we also chose Munich, which was rather close to Italy. And Munich had a direct flight to/from San Francisco, that was how Munich came into the picture. I wanted to have 2 different Christmas experiences in 2 different countries. We had a great time in Florence and Munich.

So I just told Amy I wanted to go to Italy and Germany during the low season period. Amy actually came up with several great options before I started even thinking about flights and hotels, as well as the itinerary and travel from one city to another.

We really enjoyed every moment of our stay in Florence, it rained a little but the fall leaves were still visible throughout our stay, Amy placed us in a quiet area on the other side of the Arno River and I just loved it...I certainly wouldn’t have found something like that if it weren’t for Amy. I wanted something close, but not too close, on the quieter side, it was just perfect: less than 10 minutes’ walking to everything. It was great. I really loved the streets in Florence. Walking there is just so pleasant, all the cobblestones. You see much more while you’re walking. We walked everywhere, we put in an average of 20k steps a day! I wish I had spent more days in Florence. I felt like I didn’t have enough time.

Munich's close vicinity to Austria and Bavarian castles gave us the opportunity to do day trips as well. We enjoyed visiting Salzburg and Neuschwanstein Castle. And, similar to the hotel Amy put us in in Florence, our hotel in Munich was close to everything and also in a quiet neighborhood, which I enjoy. And the location was great, right next to the Hofbräuhaus, which was the one main tourist destination in Munich I wanted to experience so the very first day we went there. Everything there was HUGE: the beers, the portions, everything. All the restaurants in that area were also German as well so my second day I was feeling the need to looking for salads and vegetables. Those were easy to find, especially since it was close to the University area subway, so we took the subway lots of times, more food options in that neighborhood, ethnic, vegan, you name it there they were and it was just west of the English Garden which is a very nice area with a lot more options.

This trip was actually the first time I worked with Amy. This year, I was really busy and I just couldn’t find the time looking for hotels or everything I wanted to do and see. She was very organized and had very good reviews so I had a very good impression of her before I even called her. And during our discussions, she was really really observant. She’s a great listener and super responsive. She always got back to me very quickly. I was very surprised as I didn’t have experience with travel agents before. But if I ever need to plan something again, especially booking flights that are really a pain, I'm calling her. I really like that she got our likes, dislikes, and habits down pat, so her suggestions were spot on. It’s all done for you in advance and once you’re there you just get to enjoy it and it’s perfect.