Kathleen Chrystie, Travel by Chrystie

Home
United States
Bluffton, SC
Kathleen Chrystie, Travel by Chrystie

Your trusted partner for beautifully crafted travel experiences. Luxury European itineraries, Caribbean escapes & family adventures — planned with care. ✈️

08/10/2026

The Alhambra took the Moorish kings of Granada more than a century to build. The group I sent this fall spent four hours inside it with a private guide and still didn't want to leave.

I built this trip for three couples traveling together — ten days across Madrid, Seville, Córdoba, and the coast, with one high-speed train instead of a string of flights. A boutique hotel off Madrid's Gran Vía, a restored 19th-century house in Seville's old Jewish quarter, a day trip to see the layered history of Córdoba's Mezquita, a stop in the white hill town of Ronda, and three nights on the coast in Marbella.

Spain rewards a group willing to move. A private guide in five cities, and nobody drove themselves once.

If a Spain trip like this is on your mind, I'd love to talk it through. Link in comments.

08/08/2026

A shore excursion description that opens with "thrilling jet ski adventure" can end, four paragraphs later, with "not suitable for guests with a heart condition, back or neck issues, or who are pregnant." Both sentences describe the same two hours.

I read every excursion word for word before it goes on a client's itinerary — not just the headline. The "easy" walking tour might note steep, winding roads. The snorkeling stop might mean a walk over uneven rock to reach the water. Pace matters as much as the destination for most of my clients.

Before anything goes on an itinerary, I've read the age minimums, the mobility notes, and the fine print that never makes the brochure photo. It's the part of my job that keeps a good day from turning into a hard one.

If you're planning something where pace matters, I'd love to help. Link in comments.

This is exactly the kind of thing we talk about in The Well-Traveled Life — come hang out with us: https://www.facebook.com/share/g/1BAqYndJRa/

08/06/2026

I've planned dozens of honeymoons. This spring, for the first time, I planned my own son's.

It followed the same split-stay logic I use for most Caribbean honeymoons: two islands instead of one doing double duty. Five nights at Cheval Blanc in St. Barths — quiet, French, understated — then six nights at Cap Jaluca in Anguilla, where the villas curve along two miles of white sand. Sunset dinners on the beach, a full day on a catamaran with a snorkel stop, and enough unscheduled time that neither of them checked a clock all week.

Planning it for my own family made me notice I don't plan any differently for anyone else. Every couple gets that same attention to detail. It just doesn't usually feel this personal.

If a honeymoon or anniversary trip is on your calendar, I'd love to help you plan it. Link in comments.

08/05/2026

The Italy itinerary I just finished has four hotels in fifteen days — and not one of them is in Rome or Florence.

A couple traveling next summer will start on a sea-view balcony above Monterosso in the Cinque Terre, move to a 19th-century villa on Lake Como with a private boat afternoon, ride the Bernina Express into the Alps for a day, taste Amarone at two family-run wineries near Lake Garda, walk WWI tunnels on Mount Lagazuoi in the Dolomites, and finish in Venice with an evening gondola and my list of favorite cicchetti bars.

Sea, lakes, mountains, canals — one country, and the scenery never repeats. A private driver connects every leg.

If Northern Italy is on your mind, I'd love to talk it through. Link in comments.

08/03/2026

Budapest's Parliament building is best seen at 10 p.m., from the water, lit gold against the dark river. That view is one of the reasons I keep recommending the Danube to couples who are done with airport connections and hotel changes.

On a river cruise you unpack once, and the itinerary comes to you: Vienna one morning, the Wachau Valley's terraced vineyards and apricot orchards the next, with the ships docking in the center of town — not an hour away at an industrial port.

It's where I usually send first-time river cruisers: short distances, walkable towns, two capitals and a string of small wine villages in the same week.

If unpacking once sounds like your kind of trip, I'd love to talk it through. Link in comments.

💬 Want more travel talk like this? Come join us in The Well-Traveled Life on Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/share/g/1BAqYndJRa/

08/01/2026

At one small hotel on Lake Garda, the full lake views belong to rooms on the west-south side, first and second floors. Book the same category on the wrong side, and you're looking at a garden.

Anyone can book a hotel. The real work is booking the room — knowing which Cinque Terre property gives every standard room a sea-view balcony, which Cortina rooms have terraces facing the Dolomites, which cabin positions to avoid on a river ship. Two rooms in the same category cost the same on paper. In person, one of them is the trip.

If you've ever opened a hotel room door and felt your heart sink, you know exactly what I mean.

Planning something where the room matters? I'd love to help. Link in comments.

07/30/2026

The itinerary I finalized this week departs in July 2027. That's the calendar this work actually runs on.

The hotels my clients love are small — one on this itinerary has 18 rooms, another 16. Small inventories go first, and the rooms worth having go before the rest. The best private guides book out months ahead. Some pieces, like Bernina Express tickets, can't even be confirmed yet — they sit in the file with a dated note, waiting for the booking window to open.

Clients are sometimes surprised when I suggest starting a year out. Then they see the room they got.

If summer 2027 is starting to take shape, this is the right week to say so. Link in comments.

Join the conversation → The Well-Traveled Life: https://www.facebook.com/share/g/1BAqYndJRa/

07/29/2026

The best honeymoon I designed this spring wasn't one trip — it was two.

Five nights at Cheval Blanc St-Barth for the scene, the restaurants, the celebration energy. Then a boat across to Anguilla: six nights at Cap Juluca on Maundays Bay, where the agenda shrinks to a mile of white sand.

The order matters. Celebrate first, exhale last — couples fly home rested instead of needing a vacation from their vacation.

Celebrating something big? I'd love to design it properly. Link in comments.

07/27/2026

Before a travel packet leaves my desk, I've read every date, name, and confirmation number line by line.

It's the least glamorous part of the work and the most important. A transposed date isn't a small error when it's your anniversary trip or the journey with three generations at one table — it's a missed connection and a first day on the phone.

The rest of the job is listening: your pace, what wears you out, what you'd regret missing. The trip that comes from those conversations isn't a template with your name at the top.

If that's the planning you've been looking for, I'd love to talk. Link in comments.

07/25/2026

I'm planning a family Thanksgiving that trades the dining room for a walled city above the St. Lawrence.

Quebec City is the most underrated "Europe" trip on this continent: cobblestones, French bakeries, original fortifications, and the Château Frontenac standing over the river since 1893. The difference — no overnight flight, no jet lag, no lost day on either end. Fly in the morning, walk the walls that afternoon. Montmorency Falls (taller than Niagara — surprises everyone) is a short drive away.

If a fall or holiday escape that feels farther away than it is sounds right, I'd love to talk. Link in comments.

Address

Bluffton, SC

Website

https://TravelByChrystie.com/, https://www.travelbychrystie.com/, https://travelbychrystie.myflodesk.com/planwithus

Alerts

Be the first to know and let us send you an email when Kathleen Chrystie, Travel by Chrystie posts news and promotions. Your email address will not be used for any other purpose, and you can unsubscribe at any time.

Contact The Business

Send a message to Kathleen Chrystie, Travel by Chrystie:

Want your business to be the top-listed Travel Agency in Bluffton?