Upcoming trips for 2022 and beyond include an eight-day exploration of Egypt with designer and author Sibella Court, beginning in Luxor, and a long weekend of local art, wine, and wild-fire cooking in Uruguay with well-known chef Francis Mallman. Prior launched in 2019, and one of its first small group trips featured a private meal at chef Massimo Bottura’s home in Modena, Italy, as well as a near-impossible reservation at Bottura’s restaurant, Osteria Francescana-a 2018 World’s Best Restaurant winner. Access to curated experiences and accommodations are offered at Prior’s World and Bespoke membership tiers, which run $850 and $2,500 a year, respectively.Īs a member, tap the Prior team to create a custom itinerary, participate in small group travel with other Prior members, as well as shop from its marketplace of pre-designed experiences such as a private walking tour of Rome’s Jewish heritage or a curator-led tour of the Vatican’s artworks. Prior is a membership-based travel planning company powered by a team of travel editors and experts across various disciplines, from culinary to art, fashion, and history.

Discounts are available for adults traveling with children, and those traveling with six individuals or more to a party. While the company offers small group tours including family adventures and tours for solo travelers, 40 percent of its business comes from custom-designed tours. With more than 100 itineraries offered to destinations around the world, including Europe, North and South America, you can choose from six days in Belize exploring Mayan culture, forests, and marine reserves or head to Cuba to cook with a local chef, visit a cigar-making factory, chat with a photojournalist who captured Castro’s life, and more.

The California-based business partners with local guides who often have deep community relationships, as well as the flexibility to deviate from the pre-planned daily schedule as they see fit, like squeezing in an unexpected dinner invitation to a family’s home, or participating in a festival the group happens to run into. Classic Journeys has led small group travel experiences since 1987, and was among one of the few tour operators licensed to legally bring Americans to Cuba starting in 2010-a process the company started in 2003.

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