Relaxury Travel by Josie

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Relaxury Travel by Josie

Relaxury Travel is a full service luxury travel partner catering to high end corporate, group and lei

11/01/2026

You sent me a list of five hotels, pulled together with a little help from AI. I came back with three, and two of them weren’t on your list. Here’s why that happens.

First, keep using AI for research. It’s a great place to start, and it probably surfaced names you wouldn’t have found on your own.

But my shortlist is built from things no search can see. I know which hotel on your list changed management last year and hasn’t recovered. I know which one photographs beautifully and stands on a busy road. I know which room category is real and which they sell to people who book direct.

I also know you. If you told me you hate long transfers, I removed the one with the three-hour drive. If dinner matters, I moved you toward the property with the restaurant, not the one with the beach you’d see once.

And sometimes the list changes because of access. One of those two additions came with a suite upgrade, daily breakfast, and a credit through my partnerships that the others couldn’t match.

Different doesn’t mean I ignored you. It means I listened. Send me your list, however you built it, and I’ll explain every change.

10/31/2026

Yes, I know you're asking AI about your next trip. Honestly? Keep doing it.

AI is useful early on: gathering ideas, comparing regions, figuring out what kind of trip you're actually in the mood for, drafting the packing list. Bring me all of it. A client who arrives with a screenshot of ideas gives me a head start I love.

Here's where the handoff happens: AI hasn't slept in the rooms. It doesn't know the hotel changed hands last year, which room category is worth the jump, or that the famous restaurant is coasting. It can't see live availability, add upgrades and credits through my partnerships, or answer the phone when your connection cancels at midnight.

Dream with AI. Book with a human. Send me what you've got and I'll take it the rest of the way.

10/29/2026

Three signs it's time to work with a travel advisor:

1. You have 27 tabs open and less clarity than when you started. Endless reviews contradict each other. I've been to these places and can tell you in one call what actually fits.

2. The trip matters. Honeymoon, big anniversary, a once-in-a-lifetime destination. When the stakes are high, guesswork gets expensive, and a wrong hotel choice can't be refunded in memories.

3. You're the one who plans everything for everyone, and you'd like to actually be on this vacation instead of running it.

Sound familiar? Send me a message and see the difference on the very first trip.

10/28/2026

Do you really need a private guide? Sometimes no. Sometimes it transforms the entire trip. Here's how I call it.

Worth every penny: layered ancient sites like Egypt, Rome, Kyoto, and Machu Picchu, where the stones don't explain themselves and a great guide turns rubble into a story. Food cities, where the best stalls have no sign and no English menu. Wildlife, where a trained eye spots what you'd walk right past. And your first day somewhere intense, like Cairo or Delhi, where a guide turns chaos into context.

Skip it: beach weeks, cities you already know well, and days you've deliberately left open to wander.

The real secret is that who matters more than whether. A brilliant guide is the difference between a tour and a memory, and I keep a short list of the brilliant ones. Ask me about them.

10/26/2026

Big news for train lovers. England and Wales finally have their first luxury sleeper train, and it was worth the wait.

The Britannic Explorer, Belmond's newest train, departs London on three-night journeys through Cornwall, Wales, or the Lake District, with just 18 suites on board.

On board you'll find a botanical bar in the observation car and, the part nobody expects, a wellness suite offering treatments while the countryside rolls past. Step off the train for coastal hikes, wild swims in the Lakes, and private gallery dinners.

The dining is reason enough to book. Menus come from Simon Rogan, the chef behind three-Michelin-star L'Enclume.

Advisor tip: the routes are scheduled back-to-back, so you can chain Cornwall into Wales for one week covering two very different Britains. Cabins are limited, so let's talk timing.

10/24/2026

How does being one of the very first guests on the Riviera's newest private island sound?

Zannier Île de Bendor opened just this May, so hardly anyone has experienced it yet. The whole island is yours to roam, seven minutes by boat from Bandol, reimagined as a completely car-free village with 93 rooms spread across three houses, each with its own personality.

Fill the days however you like. Swim off the beach cove, take a lesson at the on-site diving center, wander between eight restaurants and bars, or disappear into one of the largest spas in the region for an afternoon.

Openings like this have a short window before the word gets out. Get in touch and be early.

10/23/2026

The hotel currently ranked #9 in the world isn't on a beach. It's deep in the Yucatán jungle.

Chablé Yucatán, a restored 19th-century hacienda outside Mérida, holds the #9 spot on the World's 50 Best Hotels list and was just named the Best Hotel in North America for the third year in a row.

The claim to fame is the spa, built around a natural cenote, one of the underground pools the Maya considered sacred. It was the first spa in the world designed that way.

Every casita comes with its own private pool and jungle views. Dinner is its own event too, with menus shaped by Jorge Vallejo of Mexico City's famed Quintonil and a tequila library so deep it earned a Guinness World Record.

Advisor tip: pair it with the ruins of Uxmal and a day in Mérida's colonial center. Mexico beyond the beach is one of my favorite trips to plan. Let's talk.

10/21/2026

Part of my job is tracking every big hotel opening in Europe. Here's one worth bookmarking for your next Mallorca trip.

Mandarin Oriental Punta Negra, the brand's Mallorca debut, opened in June on its own pine-covered peninsula along the Costa d'en Blanes, and the dining alone would justify the trip. Nobu Matsuhisa and Dani García each opened a restaurant here, one serving Nikkei-style plates against the sea views, the other built around fire, smoke, and local tradition.

Away from the table, it gets even better. A spa with nine treatment cabins pairing Mallorcan traditions with the brand's famous Oriental wellness philosophy, interiors by Laura Gonzalez, one of the most sought-after designers working today, and two private coves for a swim steps from your room. Puerto Portals and Palma are both minutes away.

Mallorca in shoulder season is Europe at its easiest. Message me to start planning!

10/20/2026

Trend alert. Glowcations are one of the most requested trips of the year, and the requests keep coming for 2027.

So what is one? A glowcation is a trip built around skin, rest, and wellness rituals, with the goal of coming home visibly better than when you left. Less sightseeing marathon, more treatments, thermal waters, deep sleep, and good food doing their quiet work.

The destinations doing it best right now include South Korea, for K-beauty facials and bathhouse culture. Thailand, for herbal therapies and some of the finest massage traditions anywhere. And Europe, from Swiss longevity clinics to Italian thermal springs and Greek island wellness retreats.

Advisor note: The top practitioners and signature treatments book out weeks or months ahead, so I secure them before you land. Ready to glow? Message me.

10/18/2026

This is what October is supposed to look like.

Golden fields, a ridgeline in full color, wood smoke drifting between the cabins. Wildflower Farms, Auberge's retreat in New York's Hudson Valley, delivers all of it about 90 minutes from the city.

The 140-acre working farm spreads out below the Shawangunk Ridge, with 65 freestanding cabins and cottages designed to frame the view, and Travel + Leisure readers just voted it the #1 hotel in New York State, with a Michelin Key to go with it.

In fall, the whole property leans into the season with harvest dinners, hikes through the Gunks in full color, bonfires, c***r, and mornings cold enough to justify the fireplace.

Fall weekends here disappear quickly. Message me before they do.

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Annapolis, MD
21403

Website

http://relaxury.travel/

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