Frequently Asked Questions

We design, book and oversee your personalized trip by matching everything we know about you - your travel motivations, preferences, and desires - with our expert knowledge about destinations and travel experiences around the world. We combine all our years of experience and our many partnerships to offer you an incredibly crafted journey just for you, with inside access to relevant venues and activities at a great value for your money.

Luxury to us means several things: The best hotels and carefully chosen room categories Expert guides with a wealth of knowledge and the ability to tailor touring to each traveler’s interests Itineraries designed with ideal order and routing Relaxation and hassle-free experiences Access to special people and experiences You, as a traveler, always have an AOT representative to contact at any time, day or night, wherever you are in the world.

Traditional travel agents are transaction focused – merely booking trips. We like to think of ourselves as much more than that. Have you ever visited a friend overseas and they pampered you, indulging you in every outing? We will do just that. Although we could purchase pre-packaged tours, we custom design your days away from home, personalizing every detail.

NO! The idea that booking through a travel architect will cost you more is a big misconception that simply is not true - and our clients know better. Not only do we have access to the same pricing - if not better - to what's available online, but we can secure VIP benefits, amenities, upgrades and special access to promotions. The value and personalization you receive is much greater than if you booked on your own, not to mention all the stress and time you will save on research, planning, booking, and travel.

We are compensated through a mixture of planning fees and professional commissions paid directly by the hotel, airline, cruise or tour company. The commission prices are already built into retail prices, so the rates don't hold any additional expense to clients. Often can get you even better rates than if you were to book on your own! If commissions are not paid by a supplier, additional booking and ticketing fees may be applicable to manage reservations. These will all be explicitly communicated directly so there are no surprises along the way!

We work with anyone looking to travel! Our client list varies greatly. What all of our clients have in common is that they are looking to explore the world and understand the value that our services provide. Our services are not for everyone, but they are perfect for travelers who value exquisite service over barebones prices, prefer unique private experiences to crowded tours, and want a skilled partner on their planning team, instead of spending days and weeks on their own travel research.

All of our partners are personally vetted. We carefully select only a handful of properties. We listen to our customers, and make the best match to suit your needs, as we understand your desires and expectations.

When booking with Architects of Travel, you become a VIP wherever you go. As members of Virtuoso and preferred partners with virtually every hotel affinity program, we are able to offer you exclusive opportunities, upgrades, and amenities that are not available through online travel websites or other agencies. Benefits will vary based on the hotel, but usually include room upgrades, complimentary daily breakfast, hotel credits for food/beverage and spa, early check-in, late check-out and other little gifts throughout your stay.

You should have the best travel experience possible, no matter how long the stay is. No booking is too short for AOT. When you book through a website or discount site, you are just a confirmation number in the hotel's eyes, making it more difficult to get the help you need if something goes wrong. Booking through AOT will ensure that the hotel knows YOU are an important guest, providing you with the best room placement, and making sure your stay goes as smoothly as possible.

While we have access to rental apartments and villas throughout the world, we do not specifically work with public rental sites such as Airbnb, VRBO or Homeaway, as these offerings cannot be properly verified. AOT only uses verified, preferred partners for any villa, home or yacht rental. All partners we use have personally visit every property that they offer, adding a layer of assurance that you are getting a legitimate, clean, and comfortable place, offering many various types of unique accommodations around the world.

We love advance planners! For many of the world's bucket list destinations, such as Antarctica, Patagonia, the Galapagos, and Africa, bookings can start to fill up 12-15 months in advance. The same goes for December and January holiday vacations, certain cruises (especially smaller luxury ships / river boats / expedition ships) or if you are looking to take over a property for a special celebration. We find that 6-9 months in advance is usually a good time for most trips to still have availability for the best guides and hotel space.

It takes around 7-10 business days after our initial 'Discover Call' for us to return the first draft of your customized itinerary proposal. After this there are a variety of factors will impact the amount of time it takes until all trip components are booked and finalized. These include: complexity of the itinerary, how many suppliers we are coordinating with across the world, your timing, how many tweaks you would like to make to the initial proposal, etc. To ensure a seamless and efficient process, we will always keep you updated with clear timeframes and next steps. In return, we ask that after our initial proposal is delivered, you review and respond thoroughly as soon as you can in order to prevent changes in availability and pricing from impacting your travel options.

Budgets vary greatly depending on where you are going, the number of days, and how active you want be, among other considerations. It is important that you go into the 'Discovery Call’ with a budget in mind. This allows us to best match your needs. As an example, most of our full-scale South America 7-day trips start around 5000 USD per person. In order for us to provide the most value to your trip, we work with our highly vetted, luxury travel partners at 4 and 5 star properties but will always work to provide you the best options to stay within your budget. The only thing we ask is that you are clear from the start what that is.

Many of the top tour partners across the world negotiate confidential wholesale rates with their individual suppliers and are contractually unable to break down costs for us when pricing a customized itinerary package. While they can sometimes provide overviews of category spending (e.g. amount you will spend on all hotels vs. all tours vs. all transfers), they cannot legally share the individual negotiated rates of tours, drivers, or in some cases even hotels, with us. AOT thoroughly vets all our suppliers, and we only work with those who we know are committed to negotiating fair prices and excellent experiences for our clients. If line by line pricing is essential to you, please let us know in the 'Discover Call' so we can make sure to work with partners who will provide you with the level of transparency you desire.

Plans can change, and we get that. We will always advise you of the cancellation policies for your travel plans before you make any payments and will remind you of key milestones as your travel plans get closer. Our trip design fees are non-refundable and non-transferable. Trip refunds are on a case-by-case situation, but we cannot guarantee anything at the time of booking. For these unforeseen events, we highly recommend purchasing a travel insurance plan. Discussing trip protection options is part of every trip design process, so you can evaluate your options before committing to any non-refundable costs.

YES! Travel is an investment. We always recommend the purchase of travel protection coverage to protect your investment in the event something unforeseen occurs that impacts your travel prior to or during your vacation. While you always plan to go on your trip and for everything to go smoothly, insurance is there to protect you from things that are outside of your control. – With so many unforeseen issues in the past few years, we believe insurance will ease your concerns and give you a piece of mind. Travel insurance also provides coverage in the event of a medical emergency away from home, which you don't want to be without. Even the most minor injury can devastate a trip, but travel insurance is there to help.Additionally, insurance covers flight delays, missed connections, labor strikes and lost baggage. It also protects against supplier default and inability to travel for work related reasons. Insurance options will be discussed in every trip 'Design' phase. We will happily provide you with a policy quote from our preferred providers and answer any questions you may have.

We would be happy to make any and all travel arrangements you will need for your entire trip. This enables us to make changes to the reservation should you need to. We partner with multiple airlines, having special access to business and first-class air deals, as well as multiple private aviation companies. If you would rather use your own travel arrangements or your own jet, it can be arranged.