Travel advisor based in North Carolina. Francophile, theater lover, eldest daughter, bathtub aficionado. Former corporate attorney, mom to two boys. Here's the longer story.
about
Hi, I’m Laura
Yes, you could plan it yourself. I just don't think you should have to.
I plan bespoke luxury travel for families, couples, and individuals. The trips run wide: weekends in European cities, multi-week journeys through Italy or Japan, U.S. national parks, Caribbean family stays, the once-in-a-lifetime African safari or milestone anniversary trip.
Bespoke trips, planned the way I'd plan my own
What I do, and who I do it for
My clients tend to share a few things:
The research into which hotels are having a good year and which aren't. The networks I've built with hotels and tour operators — relationships that mean my clients are treated as VIPs from the moment they arrive. The destinations and experiences I've vetted for myself, and the ones my colleagues have vetted on my behalf. That's the part most travelers don't have time for — and frankly, it's the part that separates a great trip from a series of bookings.
What you're really hiring me for is the work that happens before you ever see the itinerary.
They value the difference between a great hotel and the right hotel, they want an advisor who knows them — not an algorithm — and they understand that good planning is what makes the trip itself feel effortless.
I plan trips I'd take myself — or I don't take the trip on.
You don't have to take my word for it on standards. Every itinerary I send out is one I'd be comfortable booking for my own family — same hotels, same guides, same logistics. If I wouldn't take the trip on as my own, I won't take it on as yours.
Why work with me
My dad has been to every continent and more than eighty countries — and the childhood version of family game night involved a globe and a fairly serious commitment to geography. We were also actually going to those places: family trips with my parents and two younger sisters everywhere from Turkey to Malaysia, where my sisters were invested in pool days and the local McDonald's, and I was sneaking long-distance calls back to my high school boyfriend. The appreciation often arrives later than the trip itself.
I was quizzed on world capitals at the dinner table.
No one unpacked until she had approved the room. If the room didn't measure up, we moved. I'd like to say I've outgrown this — but the truth is I think she was right, and her standards became mine.
My mother had a rule.
Hotel bathtubs (strong enough opinions that they have their own Instagram feature — Tub Tuesday). Independent bookstores in every city. Cheese shops, mostly for the smell. Anything onstage when I'm passing through somewhere with theater. The one thing I do tend to come home with is more French pharmacy skincare than the carry-on really allows for.
I have a type.
He scouts a running route in every new city, rates every hotel coffee station with the seriousness of a sommelier, and serves as the designated rental car driver — especially when it's manual transmission. Years into our marriage, he's decided to trust me with the planning and to be surprised by where we land, which is, in its way, the highest professional compliment I receive.
My husband Brendan never judges the overpacking.
He mastered the London Tube in a single day, would happily ride the Vienna tram all day long, watches the in-flight map for the entire flight, and knows more world geography and obscure history than most adults. He's quietly become one of my most trusted travel partners.
My older son Bobby is the family travel navigator.
He has been ranking hotel breakfast pancakes since approximately age five, has informed views on every country's pizza, and calls our family business "Snobby Stays." Some of his observations make it into my actual recommendations.
My younger son Thompson is the unofficial associate.
