A specialist eye on trips

When you're booking a trip and looking for professional help, you tend to encounter people calling themselves either travel consultants or travel agents — both titles seem to be used interchangeably. But don't be misled — a consultant can make all the difference to your break.

Let's say you're going to (fill in name of place) for the first time. You know how to book a flight and you may even know of a good hotel. But what after doing the obvious? What if you get trapped spending a day (fill in the blank with something you hate) instead of a day (fill in the blank with something you love)? You've just wasted your time.

Spot the difference

If you're lucky, you may have a good friend who knows the place, so you either mine him or her for ideas or take the friend along to avoid such travesties. And if you're luckier, you hire a travel consultant or specialist, which isn't always synonymous with a travel agent.

Travel consultants are like having a knowledgeable friend, except that they generally don't retell the story about how you made a complete fool of yourself at the Christmas party.

These travel guns aim to make sure you have a deeper, richer experience tailored to your tastes and interests.

“A consultant, in a nutshell, is really selling expertise on the area,'' said Sheri Doyle, a Seattle resident and owner of Pacific Northwest Journeys and specialises in areas such as Washington, Oregon, British Columbia and Northern California.

A consultant will be able to tell you where you will find a tree-lined beach on Oahu with fabulous bodysurfing (Susan Tanzman, Hawaii specialist and owner of Martin's Travel & Tours in Los Angeles); can arrange a dinner on the rim of the Grand Canyon (Cory Lawrence, chief executive of Off the Beaten Path, which specialises in the Rockies, the Southwest and Alaska); where to take a cooking class in Istanbul, Turkey (Holly Chase, owner of Holly Chase Middle Eastern Travel); or where to find a hotel that has a nearby practice room for a trumpet player (Doyle of Pacific Northwest).

They have been to these destinations repeatedly (or have lived there, in some cases) and open the door to a travel destination in a way no guidebook ever can (no disrespect to guidebooks).

Many specialists use their depth and breadth of knowledge and create a detailed itinerary for you, which becomes a playbook for your vacation.

Lawrence, for instance, said his company recently finished a 5-1/2-week itinerary for a client which was 170 pages.

Different specialists charge for their services in different ways.

Some wrap their fees into the overall cost of the trip (adding about 10-20 per cent to the tab); others bill by the itinerary, depending on its length or complexity; and others charge by the hour or even the minute.

Best among equals

None of the four I interviewed knew of an organisation of these specialists but a couple of them cited the Conde Nast Traveller specialist list as a good source.

But all specialists have this in common: Besides looking at the big and the small picture, they also focus on making sure you are changed when you return, a result, Tanzman says, of celebrating and relishing differences among people and places.

Chase says: “I feel satisfied for having contributed to global harmony.''

See there? A consultant really can make a world of difference.