Jen Schwan Dream Vacations

06/02/2026

Tell me I'm not the only one who has a routine when checking into a hotel.

The second I walk into a hotel room I go straight into documentation mode. Every corner. The bathroom. The view. The closet. The minibar. The bed situation. All of it.

Not because I'm a serial room photographer. Because I know myself well enough to know that six months from now when a client asks me "but what is the room actually like" - I will not remember a single detail unless I have photographic evidence.

It didn't used to be like this. Travel changed me.

Now I want to know - what's the first thing YOU do when you check into a hotel room?

06/01/2026

Hot take on AI and travel planning - and I say this as someone who stays current on all of it.

AI can give you a list. It can pull together options, suggest destinations, build a rough itinerary in seconds. And honestly - it's not wrong. It's just not enough.

Here's how I actually work with my clients and why it feels different.
You tell me what you're dreaming about. I come back with what I know - not from a database but from having been there, from knowing the properties, from the relationships I have with the people running these experiences. You react to what I share. I listen. I adjust. We go back and forth until the trip on the page actually feels like you.

You're always the one choosing. I'm just the person in your corner who knows how to get you exactly what you want - and how to get it booked right.

That's the part AI hasn't figured out yet. The conversation. The instinct. The "I know you said beach but I think you actually mean this."

If you've ever tried to plan a trip with AI and felt like something was missing - that something is a person who actually knows what they're talking about.

I'm here.

Unless I'm helping run a tour in Norway during a visit because how better to learn than volunteer to help. :)

05/30/2026

05/28/2026

Hear me out.

You. Tanzania. March 2027. A small group of women you haven't met yet but will absolutely love by day three.

No one waiting on you. No one to compromise with. Just you fully present in one of the most extraordinary places on the planet - and a group of like-minded women along for the same ride.

This is exactly what Cherish Tours does. Small groups of women traveling with purpose, staying in women-owned boutique hotels, connecting with local women along the way. It's not a tour. It's an experience that stays with you.

The Tanzania trip is still coming soon which means right now is the moment to get on their list before it fills.

If your soul has been quietly asking for something like this - listen to it.

Tours LLC

05/27/2026

Shot from a zodiac in January. No filter, no edit - just Antarctica exactly as it is.

There are very few places left on this planet that stop you completely.

This is one of them.

And right now, it's more accessible than most people realize.

HX (Hurtigruten Expeditions) builds some of the finest expedition ships sailing these waters - and I've been on them. If you've been sitting on this dream, this season has real reasons to act.

Four expeditions sailing late November through December 2026. Savings of up to $2,300 per person depending on the itinerary, plus up to $1,000 in air credits on top of that.

I went. I'd go back without hesitating. If you want to know which sailing is right for you, my inbox is open.

05/26/2026

People think safari is all about the animals.

And yes, of course it is. The first time you lock eyes with a lion in the wild or watch elephants quietly move past your vehicle, it changes something in you.

But it’s also so much more than that.

It’s the 5am wake-up calls that somehow don’t feel painful at all because you’re too excited to care.

It’s climbing into the vehicle before sunrise not knowing what the morning will bring. The anticipation every time your guide slows down. The moments where everyone goes completely quiet because something incredible is unfolding right in front of you.

And sometimes, it’s the opposite.

One of my favorite memories from safari was actually not seeing a lion. We had heard there was one nearby, stopped the vehicle, and read the tracks hoping to find its trail. Complete silence. No one talking. Just the sounds of the bush around us and the feeling that something could appear at any second.

It’s the sundowners out in the bush after a drive. Watching the sky change colors while replaying the day and realizing you haven’t thought about emails, laundry, schedules or real life in hours. It's spotting the Milky Way on the way back to the camp.

That’s the part of safari I wasn’t expecting. How present it makes you feel.

And one thing people don’t always realize is that many of the best safari camps are intentionally very small. We’re talking 8 tents. 12 tents. Private concessions with very few vehicles around. That intimacy is part of what makes the experience feel so special.

It’s also why many of the best options for 2027 are already being planned now. There simply aren’t endless rooms available at the camps people dream about most.

If Africa has been sitting quietly on your bucket list, this is the time to start talking about it.

So tell me… what animal would you hope to see first? 🐘🦁🦒

05/25/2026

Today isn't about travel.

It's about the people who never made it home.

It's about the families who set a place at the table anyway. The ones who fold a flag instead of opening a front door. The ones who carry someone with them every single day, not just today.

To every Gold Star family. To every service member who gave everything. To the ones still out there right now - far from home, doing something most of us will never fully understand.

Thank you doesn't feel like enough. But it's what we have.

Today we remember.

05/24/2026

There's something about traveling to places where history actually happened.

Standing on a beach in Normandy. Walking through the streets of a city that was once divided by a wall. Visiting a memorial in a country you've only ever read about in a textbook.

It changes the way history feels. It stops being something that happened to other people a long time ago and starts feeling like something that happened to real people, in real places, that you can still touch.

Some of the most powerful trips I've ever been part of weren't the most glamorous ones. They were the ones where someone came home quieter than they left. Where the history got personal.

This weekend, if you're thinking about where to go next - don't rule out the places that ask something of you. The ones that make you think. The ones you carry home.
Those are often the trips that matter most.

05/23/2026

This weekend, I'm thinking about my family. Specifically my nieces and nephew.

One in Alaska. One in Germany. One in Jordan.

Memorial Day has always meant something to me, but when it's your own people - the ones you text good morning to across time zones, the ones whose faces you do the math on before you call - it lands differently.

This holiday exists because of people who went somewhere far from home so the rest of us didn't have to. That's worth sitting with for a minute before the cookouts and the long weekend plans.

And maybe that's also why travel has always felt meaningful to me, not frivolous. Because getting to go somewhere, freely, with people you love, is genuinely not something everyone gets to do. Some people are somewhere far away right now making sure you can.

So if you're planning a trip this summer, or if there's one that keeps almost happening - I hope you actually take it. Not just for the experience, but because you can.

Grateful for all who serve. Especially mine.

05/22/2026

The world is big. These are just some of the places my clients call their favorite trip ever.
Where would yours be?