Frequently asked questions

How long does the itinerary design process take? What can we expect from Undiscovered Sunsets? ▾

On average, from filling out the initial Design My Trip form to booking flights and confirming reservations, the itinerary design process lasts 3 - 4 weeks.

• Upon receiving our Research & Design fee paid in full, we spend 7-10 days preparing the initial proposal.
• Upon receiving feedback on this proposal, we transition the proposal to a detailed, day-by-day itinerary and prepare an estimated budget within 3 business days.
• Our response time then becomes very quick, within one business day, to answer any final questions you might have or to make final modifications to the itinerary.
• Upon receiving your approval, all reservations will be confirmed within 2 business days of receiving credit card details.

As you’ll notice, much of this timeline is based on response time. The sooner we receive your questions and feedback, the quicker we are able to respond and move on to the next step in the itinerary design process.

Is there a fee to design my trip with Undiscovered Sunsets? ▾

Travel research can be consuming with the overwhelming amount of information that exists on the internet. We have the experience and expertise to save hours of your valuable time. Our nonrefundable Research & Design fee starts at $375 per trip. This Research & Design fee may increase according to the complexity of the itinerary, the length of travel (more than two weeks, for example), or the total number of travelers (more than one family, a group of friends, etc).

This Research & Design fee is the only cost that will be paid directly to Undiscovered Sunsets. For all other bookings and reservations, we will confirm these details on your behalf using the payment information that you securely share with us.

When confirming flights with our Air Desk, a $25 fee per ticket will be charged directly by the air desk. Please see further details below regarding the benefits of confirming flights with our air desk.

Is there a benefit to confirming flights with Undiscovered Sunsets as opposed to booking them myself? ▾

Absolutely. We confirm all flight itineraries through our Air Desk. It happens often that flight schedules change causing long layovers or missed connections, a reservation needs to be cancelled, etc and having their support to understand our options and the fine print details is invaluable.

It is also possible that flights are delayed or cancelled during your travels. Having access to our air desk enables us to approach any challenges from both sides which helps tremendously when phone lines are busy and lines are long.

If you would like to confirm business class or first class flights with points, there is a service that we are happy to recommend. Please ask us for more details.

Please note: if flight itineraries are confirmed separate from Undiscovered Sunsets and our Air Desk, we are unable to assist with any unexpected changes or cancellations. If we are not the original booking agent, the airlines do not provide us the access we need to modify or update an itinerary.

What if I'm only interested in hotel or lodging bookings? ▾

We are hotel specialists and work hard to personally visit and experience as many properties as we can as well as build personal connections with 4-star and 5-star properties domestically and around the world.

Many of our clients only need a hotel and work with us to get better than published rates as well as hundreds of dollars in additional value add amenities such as upgrades and complimentary breakfasts - all compliments of Undiscovered Sunsets and our preferred partners.

We have access to 1,000's of 4-5 star properties; reputable names like Westin, Four Seasons, Belmond, Peninsula, Relais & Chateaux, Fairmont Hotels, Small Luxury Hotels of the World, Ritz Carlton, Hyatt, Kimpton, as well as unique boutique properties. We can also help with private villa research and bookings.

We are happy to provide hotel-only services to established clientele. For new clients, we recommend scheduling a discovery call to ensure we are a good fit to work together on this type of inquiry.

Can you assist with booking hotels and flights with points? ▾

If you are interested to use points for flights or hotels or if you want to be sure to earn points on your travels, this is important to let us know in both the Design My Trip form as well as during our Discovery Call.

When we research flight options for your travels, we prioritize flight times, optimal layovers, and the total value of the flight itinerary. This is unlikely to fall in line with an airline loyalty program if we don’t know your preferences in advance.

When researching hotel options, many of our preferred hotel and resort options are locally owned, boutique hotels that are not part of a larger loyalty program. If not discussed at the beginning, it’s possible that our proposals will not include any loyalty program hotels.

As part of our initial research efforts, we are happy to look into flight and hotel options that will fit within your loyalty program guidelines, but we cannot confirm the actual booking with your points. Airlines and hotels consider points personal property and therefore do not enable us to confirm a booking on your behalf with points. When it comes time to confirm reservations, please confirm these components with your points and forward all confirmation details to us to include in your itinerary.

Will we earn points (hotel, airline, etc) when booking with Undiscovered Sunsets? ▾

Yes, it is possible.

It is very important that you share this desire with us at the very beginning of the itinerary design process. As travel advisors, we have a variety of tools and resources at our disposal to confirm reservations. It is sometimes possible for us to book a single hotel 5 or 6 different ways. As agency owners, we consider a variety of factors when deciding how best to confirm these reservations. These factors may be related to promotions that are available to our clients from one partner but not the other, to the VIP amenities that will be included for your stay, or to deposit and final payment terms, for example. We will always consider our options and opt for the booking tool that offers the greatest value to you, as our client.

Earning points requires that we confirm your reservation directly with that hotel and not through another partner so if we don’t know this up front, we may not prioritize this type of booking, which means points will not be accrued for that stay.

We are interested in a home or villa rental such as AirBNB or VRBO. Can you recommend options?

In working together to design an itinerary, it is of utmost priority that we are confident in the service and experience provided from start to finish during your travels. We place a tremendous amount of importance on the partners we work with and the properties / homes that we feel comfortable recommending to you as our client.

For home and villa rentals specifically, we work with partners who provide options that are independently vetted on an annual basis which ensures that service is provided at a consistent level. Services such as AirBNB and VRBO do not meet our quality expectations as their properties are not individually vetted nor standardized which means that prior to your arrival and during your travels, if there are any questions or concerns, we will not be able to assist.

Both in the United States and around the world, we work with a variety of preferred partners who provide luxury home and villa rental options. We would be more than happy to include these vetted options in your proposal design.

Can I confirm bookings myself and send them to you? ▾

As a client of Undiscovered Sunsets, we are here to design and execute your travels from start to finish. We appreciate the opportunity to confirm all reservations on your behalf. This is important for two reasons:

• When reservations are confirmed by 2 or 3 or 4 different people (me included), it is easy for dates and times and details to get mixed up or to fall through the cracks. In order to provide a seamless experience and to proactively ensure all details are in place for your travels, we prefer to confirm all bookings on your behalf as it is imperative that we have these details at our fingertips at all times, both before and during your trip, to ensure the puzzle pieces are in place as expected.

• In addition to providing a seamless experience, we appreciate the opportunity to confirm all reservations on your behalf because this is how we earn an income to support our business and our families. Travel advisors are paid a commission for each hotel, tour, activity, transfer, etc that we confirm on behalf of our clients.

When finalizing an itinerary, will we receive a detailed invoice with a line by line price breakdown? ▾

Every trip we design, and subsequently the invoice details and payment terms provided, are different from one trip to the next.

Beach getaways including flights, hotels, transfers, and activities will usually be presented as a total package with a deposit and final payment.

Organized tours and cruises will usually be presented as a per person cost with flights and pre and post arrangements (hotels, transfers, activities, etc) listed as separate components.

Fully customized itineraries including private guides and private transfers will usually be provided as a total package, sometimes including hotel nights and sometimes not. Breaking down these costs is not possible as our partners are designing these customized packages with negotiated rates that are confidential. We work very closely with our partners to ensure that the total package is equal to or less than booking each component one by one. I will be here to guide you, to answer any questions, and to recommend modifications if necessary.

Fully customized itineraries including small group tours (as opposed to privately guided) usually include a wide variety of partners and payment structures which means that these types of invoices will be the most detailed and will include multiple payments to many different suppliers. Don’t worry, we will keep these details very organized and will always remind you of the next steps. You’ll have all the information you need to plan ahead.

We are interested in learning more about travel protection. What can you tell us? ▾

We recommend securing third party trip protection (this means not together with a cruise, tour operator, or packaged vacation).

The total cost of trip protection is based on the total trip investment and the dates of birth of each traveler, so a quote can only be provided when we have a final itinerary with a total trip cost to reference. An estimated trip protection cost will be included on the invoice when we transition the proposal to a detailed itinerary. Additional policy details will be sent upon confirmation of the itinerary for you to officially opt in or opt out of trip protection.

As we work together on your itinerary, we will discuss trip protection options in more detail related to more specifically to your trip.

To learn more about the benefits to trip protection and what it covers, please see further details in an article we wrote HERE.

Do I need a visa or any specific vaccinations to visit a particular destination? ▾

Upon confirming your travel itinerary, we will provide information regarding entry visas and recommended / required vaccinations for the destinations included during your travels.

If you’d like to look into this information right away, please reference the US Department of State website as it is the best resource to stay up to date on entry visa requirements as well as travel advisories, messages from the embassy, etc. When navigating to this page, enter the destination you plan to visit on the left hand side under “Learn about your destination”.

For information regarding recommended and required vaccines, please reference the CDC Travelers’ Health Branch's advice for international travelers. When navigating to this page, select your destination under the drop down menu below “For Travelers”.

Will you provide restaurant recommendations? ▾

Food is life and there’s nothing more important to us than to ensure you will eat well during your travels!

So, if this is important to you as it is to us, be sure to let us know! We will be happy to provide restaurant recommendations in each place you’ll visit after your itinerary has been confirmed and deposits have been paid. (This is important to ensure restaurant reservations don’t overlap with tour and activity arrangements). If some restaurants require advance reservations, we’ll confirm those on your behalf as well.

If this is not so important to you or if you prefer a more “go with the flow” style during your travels, no worries, we won’t be offended ;)

Will you provide ideas of things for us to do when a tour or experience hasn’t already been arranged? ▾

Absolutely!

In the proposal, for each city / region that you’ll visit, we’ll provide ideas of things to see and do in that location.

Once guided tours and activities have been selected and a detailed itinerary has been laid out, we’ll fill in the free time with recommended things to see and do. Fear not - these are only recommendations and do not require strict scheduling. If you wake up that morning and prefer to people watch from a cool cafe you stumbled upon rather than visiting yet another museum, we encourage that as well!

Will you send travel documents in the mail? ▾

We design our proposals and itineraries online. Once your itinerary is confirmed, we’ll send you a link to download the Trip Plans app. This app enables you to access all the details of your itinerary on the go, even without a wifi connection.

Very few tour operators, cruise lines, or hotels require paper documents anymore. Usually, they only need a form of identification to locate your reservation. When they do need a confirmation number, providing this through your mobile device is sufficient.

If you prefer physical travel documents, it is possible for us to provide them, but this will not be automatic, so please let us know right away so we can prepare these for you.

How do I get in touch with Undiscovered Sunsets during my travels? ▾

We understand that sometimes things may occur during the daylight hours where you're traveling but it's 2AM at our home base. We will do everything we can to be available for you during your trip should questions or need for assistance arise. We are available via email, and text during off hours and will be expeditious in our response if you need our help.

In addition to reaching out to us, we will always provide emergency contact information for our ground partners in destination. This will be included in the final itinerary sent 7-10 days prior to your departure.