Live like a local. Make new art.

Many of you already know that I worked for many years in my parents’ award-winning travel business. In my new and independent venture, I take other culturally curious, art-interested people with me to carefully chosen villages, where we live like locals, make new friends and new art as our individual inclinations take us.

You don’t have to reinvent the wheel and choose which spot is ideal for this kind of trip — I’ve spent my life doing exactly that. Working independently now lets me integrate my lifelong avocation in art with my lifelong expertise in travel, and to bring the spirit of my dad’s love of travel to people in a new way.

Most people are fine with “touristy.” A few are not. My dad was not. He wanted the oddball, the open-minded, the few. He wanted customers who wanted travel to change them.

More than once I remember hearing, “If they wanted it to be exactly like home, why didn’t they stay home?” from both my mom and dad. They infected me with that kind of persnicketiness, and I bring it as a core value to my independent travel advising.

Instead of “touristy,” when I sponsor a trip — or help you plan an independent one — I do it believing the best things gained on a trip are new perspectives, and the wisdom we gain from looking at the world from a different angle than usual.