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The Emerald Atlas Travel Experience

How our travel planning process works

The Emerald Atlas Travel Experience takes four steps: you start with the Travel DNA assessment — five questions, about two minutes — then meet with Holly for a complimentary 30-minute consultation, receive a fully booked day-by-day itinerary, and travel with direct access to your advisor. Most trips are designed within one to three weeks. Choose a flat-fee itinerary to book yourself or percentage-based full booking support.

  1. Step 01

    Discover your Travel DNA

    Five questions, about two minutes

    Before we talk about destinations, we learn how you actually love to travel — pace, company, comfort, and appetite for the unfamiliar. Five short questions, nothing about a place. This is where every Emerald Atlas journey begins.

    Take the Travel DNA assessment

  2. Step 02

    Meet with Holly

    About 30 minutes, complimentary

    We talk through your results, your dates, and what you want the trip to feel like. If we're not the right fit, we'll say so at this stage rather than three weeks later.

  3. Step 03

    Receive your itinerary

    One to three weeks, depending on complexity

    First, two or three real directions with specific properties, honest pricing, and the trade-offs of each — narrowing is the work. Once you choose, we build and book the whole trip: flights, lodging, transfers, guides, and reservations, delivered as one day-by-day document with every confirmation.

  4. Step 04

    Travel confidently

    For the length of the trip

    You have direct contact with your advisor. When a flight cancels or a property gets a detail wrong, you send one message instead of waiting in a call queue. This is the part travelers value most and the part a booking site cannot provide.

Our promise

If it doesn't feel right, it isn't finished.

If a recommended itinerary doesn't feel like the right fit, we keep refining it until it does. You never commit to a trip you're unsure about, and you'll always see the full cost in writing before anything is booked.

A family waiting at an airport departure gate in warm late-afternoon light

Timing

The best trips are booked early.

Availability, seasonal pricing, supplier promotions, and the genuinely exclusive experiences all move on their own calendar — and the rooms that work for families disappear before standard rooms do. Booking early gives you the most choice and, almost always, the better price.

Domestic & Caribbean

Three to six months

Peak-season Europe, villas, safari & cruises

Six to twelve months

Holidays, spring break & connecting rooms

Nine to twelve months

Questions about the process

How long does it take to plan a trip?
Most itineraries are fully designed and booked within one to three weeks of the consultation. Simple resort or cruise bookings can be finished in a few days; multi-country trips with villas and private guides take longer. The constraint is usually availability, not our turnaround.
What do you need from me to get started?
Rough dates, an approximate budget range, who is traveling, and any non-negotiables. You do not need a destination. If you have one, that is fine too — we will spend the conversation on which town, which property, and which week instead.
Am I committed after the consultation?
No. The consultation is complimentary and carries no obligation. You commit when you approve an itinerary and place a deposit, and you will always see the full cost and any planning fee in writing before that point.

More answers on the FAQ page, or see the services we plan. Based in Columbus, Ohio. Serving travelers nationwide.