Asia
Asia luxury travel, planned around the season and the pace you keep.
Japan, Thailand, Vietnam, and Bali. I build each trip around when you're going, what the weather is doing that month, and the rooms worth the flight.
How I plan Asia
The season decides the trip.
Asia punishes bad timing more than any other region I plan. Cherry blossoms sound wonderful until you're sharing them with forty tour buses, and Thailand's smoke season catches people who booked on price alone. I start every itinerary from the calendar, then work out the routing, the hotels, and the guides.
The hotel layer matters here more than anywhere else. The difference between a good room and the right room in Kyoto or on the river in Bangkok is the difference between seeing the city and staying in it. I've vetted the properties I recommend, in person or through advisors I trust, and I know which ones hold up and which ones coast on their name.
Trip shapes
Three ways these trips usually go.
Japan, ten to fourteen days
Three or four nights in Tokyo, then Kyoto with a ryokan night in the hills outside the city. Dinner reservations made before you land, a private guide who gets you to Fushimi Inari at dawn before the buses, and a day in Nara with the deer and Todai-ji. In March or April, timing is everything, and I book the rooms the moment the calendar opens.
Thailand and Vietnam, two weeks
Bangkok on the river at one of the Chao Phraya hotels, then Chiang Mai for the hills and a cooking class that's actually worth the morning. From there it's Hoi An or an overnight junk on Lan Ha Bay, quieter than its famous neighbor. Shoulder season, November or February, keeps the weather dry and the crowds thin.
Bali and the islands, ten days
Ubud first, up in the rice terraces, at a hotel like Four Seasons Sayan where the arrival is by river. Then the coast, Amankila on the east side, or a boat east to the smaller islands if you've had enough of driving. I plan the private drivers, the temple mornings, and the one beach club that's worth an afternoon.
Start here
Every one of these starts with a consult.
We'll spend twenty minutes on who's going, when, and what you want the trip to feel like. Then I'll come back with a routing and a hotel list that makes sense for you, not for a brochure.
Questions I get asked