No recommendation but those trips sound amazing!

AU/RA Travel (https://auratravelco.com/). A friendly highly recommended them and said they really helped reduce the mental load. I think it was helpful for her too because the agent helped find the best flight + date + destination combo for her precise budget. YMMV but she had only great things to say

Check out the American society of travel advisor’s recommendations: verivacation.com

We did a safari with Scott Dunn and it was great. They were also putting together itineraries for us for a trip to Hawaii but we decided to go another direction.

OP: what I am really looking for is someone who can do all the mental load work for me - make plane reservations, hotel reservations, sightseeing/occasional dinner reservations, train tickets, rental cars. I have a roughed out itinerary in general in mind - but I just want to pay someone else to do the work of putting it all together, which isn’t really something ChatGPT or YouTube is going to do for me.

The two trips are: (1) Norway fjords for a couple; (2) alpine ski /scenic train trip for a small group.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Throwing myself back to the 1980s - I have had some friends have incredible luck with travel agents lately. I’m looking for someone I can give a broad trip outline to, pay a reasonable, and plan me a midrange trip. (Both trips I have in mind to smaller destinations in Europe.)

Any recommendations with how to find someone?

Can these friends not just tell you who they used?

Yes they can - but in their cases they were specific to trips I am not planning. One does domestic trips only. One only does France, Switzerland, and Italy. One does only higher end trips (minimum $1k per person per night).

Just posted this in another thread -- I use the Conde Nast list of top travel specialists. I look for one who specializes in where I am going. If you don't do that, you might as well use AI or a guidebook or Youtube.

I only use someone for expensive trips that would be hard for me to figure out well myself.

Chat gpt is your best travel agent. It planned my entire Europe itinerary. It can now look up reviews online and take that into account for restaurants and hotels.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Throwing myself back to the 1980s - I have had some friends have incredible luck with travel agents lately. I’m looking for someone I can give a broad trip outline to, pay a reasonable, and plan me a midrange trip. (Both trips I have in mind to smaller destinations in Europe.)

Any recommendations with how to find someone?

Can these friends not just tell you who they used?

And also any detail about what "incredible luck" means?

Anonymous wrote:Throwing myself back to the 1980s - I have had some friends have incredible luck with travel agents lately. I’m looking for someone I can give a broad trip outline to, pay a reasonable, and plan me a midrange trip. (Both trips I have in mind to smaller destinations in Europe.)

Any recommendations with how to find someone?

Can these friends not just tell you who they used?

Throwing myself back to the 1980s - I have had some friends have incredible luck with travel agents lately. I’m looking for someone I can give a broad trip outline to, pay a reasonable, and plan me a midrange trip. (Both trips I have in mind to smaller destinations in Europe.)

Any recommendations with how to find someone?