Good Sunday morning First name / friend,

 

The Travel Made Good monthly Edition is back after a break, with new sections and a cleaner look. There are never enough weeks for all the tidbits and inspo I want to share, so the Edition comes with many musings. Like a good Sunday paper, scan the sections you love, skim the rest, or deep dive into it all.

 

It also arrives as we gear up for our busiest season. Right now is when we plan and book more travel than at any other time of year, and my desk is full of gorgeous trips to Northern France, the Caribbean, Morocco, Namibia, Canada, Belgium and the Netherlands, South Africa and more.

 

I look forward to hearing what dreams you have, which destinations can fulfill them, who you want to travel with and what experiences we'll be creating for you.

 

Grab your coffee or tea and settle into your favorite comfy Sunday morning spot. 

 

Read through to the bottom, where there's a gift for those of you who love the thrill of hotel hunting. I've wanted to give it to my readers for a long time.

 

Easter falls on March 28 in 2027, which stacks a lot of school calendars into the second half of March and early April. Caribbean resorts know it and price accordingly (we talked about this last week).

 

You can hack the pricing insanity and the limited availability by thinking outside the beach resort box and considering a holiday elsewhere, or one that doesn't price so dynamically. I'm thinking of short luxury cruises and rail rides on small vessels, each paired with hotel nights on land. Spring break is five months out and cabins on all three are limited, which makes October the month to book. Here are a few ideas:

 

Peru, by Sleeper Train 🇵🇪
The Belmond Andean Explorer is a sleeper train and a gorgeous way to see a portion of Peru. Over two nights it runs from Cusco, the former capital of the Inca Empire, by way of Lake Titicaca to Arequipa, the White City, with excursions along the way. The Cusco departure is on Thursdays, so I build the dates backward from there. I'd build nine nights as two in Lima, three in Cusco to settle into the altitude, two aboard the train, and two in Arequipa.

 

The Caribbean, Under Sail
Orient Express Corinthian is the largest sailing yacht in the world, with 54 suites. It arrives for its Caribbean debut in a few short weeks, and the season runs through March. Sailings last two to nine nights through places like St. Barths, the Exumas and the Tobago Cays. We love this for hotel lovers who have never considered a cruise, and the shorter sailings exist for exactly that reason. I'd build nine nights as two in Barbados, four sailing from Barbados to St. Martin, and three in St. Martin or Anguilla.

 

Egypt, on the Nile 🇪🇬
Late March in Luxor is warm and dry, and the West Bank of the Nile holds the Valley of the Kings, the Valley of the Queens and the temple of Hatshepsut. Nile Canopus is a 55-meter dahabeya with Relais & Chateau distinction. I'd pair it with Al Moudira, a 54-room hotel on the West Bank that still ranks as one of my favorite stays. I'd build nine nights as two or three in Cairo, four aboard the Canopus, and two or three at Al Moudira. Cairo comes first for the sites, and it is also how the flights tend to work out.

 

At the end of the month I'm headed to New York and Miami and the purpose is a mix. Family comes first, with my brother in New York and my aunt in Miami. 

 

Then there is Fora's annual Live Forum, where colleagues and peers in the industry gather and hear about the next product launches from the Fora engineers who make our lives as travel advisors and agency owners easier, and your experience working with us smoother (and prettier). If you've booked with me through bookable quotes, tailored bookings, or used our digital itineraries, you've already seen their work, and there's always more on the way.

 

You may wonder what Fora is. It's a host agency that Good Trips is affiliated with. Think of a real estate agent who runs their own company and works with a larger name like Sotheby's, Engel & Völkers or The Agency, to tap its influence in the industry and operational support. 

 

Live Forum brings together Fora's founders, directors, engineers and many fellow agency owners to learn, meet partners and build relationships, all of which makes us better at what we do.

 

One of the most fun parts of this trip is that a lot of my clients are clustered in these two cities, so I'll see many of them in person. I am so excited about this.

 

My new Cuyana travel case collection is coming on the road with me. I have loved this brand for years for its elegant, simple, functional pieces and its ethos of "fewer, better things," which I live by (and am still trying to convince my hubby of, haha). I went bolder than normal and ordered the Travel Case Set in Lime, two pebbled leather cases made in Argentina. The large one holds toiletries, including my favorite skincare line, epi.logic. It's my sister-in-law's brand and I swear I'm not biased, it's that good. The small one holds makeup.

I recently saw Pressure in the theater. It tells the lesser-known WWII story of the D-Day forecast, and it all came down to the weather. I loved this side story, and it was well timed, as I'm working on a few trips to northern France with a focus on Normandy. These trips mix history with champagne, Versailles all to yourself, and Jewish history tours of gorgeous cities by vintage convertible. That, plus my own daily relationship with northern European weather, made for a gripping few hours in the theater.

In early September I went to Tuscany, split between the city and the coast. I originally went to visit clients I've worked with for three years and had not yet met. What. A. Treat.

 

Since many of you know the center of Florence well, I focused on stays on the edges of the city. Villa La Massa, a villa hotel on the Arno 15 minutes from the center, was a lovely surprise. It is impeccably maintained and relaxed (no stuffiness here), with multiple historic buildings to choose from, and it suits a group that can take over a full building (corporate, friends or multi-gen). Collegio alla Querce, an Auberge hotel, is a former boarding school brought back to life on the hillside overlooking the city from the north, just before Fiesole. And I stayed at Villa Cora, a nineteenth-century villa hotel in a park on the hills overlooking Florence from the south, which ranks as one of the most beautiful hotels I've been to. 

 

My clients stayed here just before I arrived, and after a lifetime of beautiful luxury hotels, this one sits at the top of their list too.

 

I also visited city properties I hadn't seen before. The standouts were Hotel Savoy, a Rocco Forte hotel (Rocco Forte is an Italian family-owned brand I'm loving more with each property I see), and THE PLACE Firenze, a 20-room townhouse hotel on Piazza Santa Maria Novella with one of the most distinctive concierge models I've found anywhere. Looking for an artisanal shopping experience? The GM might take you personally.

 

The second half of my trip was hosted by Querido Collection, a group of family-owned hotels I adore. Villa Cora belongs to it, so we spent days getting to know the directors and GMs at our stays. 

 

After the locals' tour and a lot of pampering in Florence, we moved on to a destination I've been curious about for a while, Forte dei Marmi. It began as a luxury beach getaway for Italian aristocrats and is now filled with second homes, owned largely by Milanese and Florentine families who return to the town and its beach clubs generation after generation. 

 

I'll have a whole other email about it. This time I stayed at Hotel Byron, a hotel housed in the first villa built there and owned by the Madonna family since 1990.

 

If you don't know the Querido portfolio, have a look. If you’re interested in booking one (or several), definitely reach out so I can get you the star treatment. 

 

I started Good Trips six and a half years ago, and there is one thing I have wanted to offer my readers that whole time. As of now, I can.

 

It's a hotel booking portal, opened up to you. You search, choose and book from a curated selection of hotels on your own schedule, through a beautiful platform. And every booking goes to the hotel as clients of mine.

 

It's for you if you love booking your own trips and plan to keep doing so. It's for you if working with a travel advisor is new territory and you're intrigued by the added in-hotel benefits. And it's for you if you'd like the convenience of one place to search, the way large OTA bookings sites work, with a far more inspiring booking experience. 

 

 

After you book, that’s where I come in to confirm your perks and remind the hotel's directors that you are my client. You're greeted with my preferred rates and partner benefits, complimentary. And I'm here behind the scenes if you need me before, during or after your stay. 

 

If you’re not currently a client of mine, the first step is registering as a client, which takes a minute. You fill out a form (only once) with basic information so I can confirm your bookings with the hotels. From there the portal is yours, whenever and wherever you want to book and go. It's always complimentary.

 

 

Current clients. Nothing about the way we work together has changed. 

 

When you're hopping out of town for a stay and know where you want to book, this simply is an option to skip the step of sending me the request. I'll gladly give you my two cents before booking. 

 

If you'd rather I handle things end-to-end, you know I’m always happy to do that. This is just one more option to meet the different needs of my travelers. You're already set up in the system so use the email address I have on file to get signed in and peruse.

Good Trips began with a simple belief: the right hotel can define an entire trip. 

 

Founded by Katy Hoogerwerf, the studio merges design sensibility, wellness insight, and years of hospitality experience to create journeys that feel grounded, beautiful, and human.

 

We design travel for people who care about the details but don’t want to sweat them. 

 

We build trips to meet your lifestyle needs, whether you're seeking rest, inspiration, memories with loved ones, community, or simply fun. It's beyond travel management, it's lifestyle management. The perks, priority access, and room upgrades we secure are just the icing on the cake for our travelers.

 

Size doesn’t matter. If you’re seeking a complex trip with the extended family, an easy getaway for the two of you, or major group trips like weddings and corporate retreats, we make each one feel like you. Let’s get you traveling.