Taking a Villa Whole: What Staffed Actually Means
A villa listing and a staffed house are two different products sold under one word. The difference shows up on the afternoon you arrive, and by then it cannot be fixed.
The Journal
How the world's finest journeys are actually planned
Straight answers from advisors who design private travel for families who travel privately — when to go, where, and what only forty years of relationships can open.
In season now
In season now — the great migration, the harvest & autumn access
A Luxury Family Trip to Japan — With Children and Grandparents
High-End Shopping in Tokyo: the Districts, the Appointments, and the Refund Rule That Changes on 1 November
Luxury Train Travel in Japan: the Three Trains, and Why You Cannot Simply Book Them
Kyoto Is Crowded. That Is a Timing Problem, Not a Reason to Skip It
What Luxury Travel in Japan Is Really Like — Private Access, Temples and the Unlisted
Ultra-Luxury Japan
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Where to Spend New Year, and What Closes First
New Year is one evening that the rest of a trip is built around, and the places that do it best are decided long before December. Here is what closes when — and what, for this year, is already closed.
Which Is the Best Luxury Travel Agency? It Depends on the Trip
Ask which luxury travel agency is best and the honest answer is a question back: best at what? A safari and an Italian honeymoon are judged on entirely different things.
Do Safaris Happen in Forests? Gorilla Trekking in Rwanda and Uganda
The safari most people picture is a vehicle on open grassland. The other one is on foot, uphill, in cloud forest — and it is the one guests describe for years afterwards.
A Long Weekend, Both Sides
Short enough to be spontaneous, on the one island where a twenty-minute drive changes the country, the language and the menu. The French side to sleep, the Dutch side for the evening that runs late. A private, tailored journey of 5 Days · 4 Nights in St Martin, The Caribbean, designed end to end by a Forest Travel advisor — with Virtuoso privileges at the finest luxury hotels, from US$4,200 per traveler.
St Martin, Anguilla and the Cays
The island as a base rather than a destination: a crewed day to Anguilla's beaches, another to the uninhabited cays offshore, and a lagoon behind you that shelters more yachts than anywhere else in the region. A private, tailored journey of 8 Days · 7 Nights in St Martin, The Caribbean, designed end to end by a Forest Travel advisor — with Virtuoso privileges at the finest luxury hotels, from US$12,500 per traveler.
A Villa on the French Side
A staffed house above Baie Longue or Baie Rouge, where the beaches are long, undeveloped and almost entirely empty on a weekday — the quiet half of an island that also knows how to be loud. A private, tailored journey of 7 Days · 6 Nights in St Martin, The Caribbean, designed end to end by a Forest Travel advisor — with Virtuoso privileges at the finest luxury hotels, from US$12,500 per traveler.
The Grand Case Table
The French side treated as what it is — the eating capital of this part of the Caribbean. A week of tables along Grand Case, a market morning in Marigot, and a chef who cooks in the villa on the night nobody wants to go out. A private, tailored journey of 6 Days · 5 Nights in St Martin, The Caribbean, designed end to end by a Forest Travel advisor — with Virtuoso privileges at the finest luxury hotels, from US$8,500 per traveler.
Barbados for a Milestone
A house large enough for the whole party on the Platinum Coast, a chef briefed on the evening that matters, and a long table set where the sun goes down over the water rather than behind the island. A private, tailored journey of 8 Days · 7 Nights in Barbados, The Caribbean, designed end to end by a Forest Travel advisor — with Virtuoso privileges at the finest luxury hotels, from US$18,500 per traveler.
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