What we offer …

Site.  This site is especially for travelers determined to get the most out of their travel whether that means adventure, learning, meeting people, or the best in luxury dining and lodging.  If you spend a little time on our site, we think you’ll be convinced that we go the extra mile for you.

Planning.  We pride ourselves on having planning that is second to none.  This ethic comes from Dr. Sinclair running two hotels for more than 30 years which consistently achieve ratings above 9.0 and Dr. Bart’s years as a field biologist planning excursions to remote locations where forgetting something, such as the tool to open a 55 gal drum of fuel, can have serious consequences (it happened to him once).  We don’t just ensure that the Hyatt you’re checking into extends Privé privileges to Fora clients, we call the hotel, urge them to give you the fullest privileges possible, and record the agreement, date, and the manager’s name.  The day before you arrive, we call again to ensure that the agreement is honored.  The website contains many other examples of how we try to ensure that your trip is problem-free.

Connections. If you have a special interest and would like to meet some people with similar interests, we can probably help you, and we will make doing so a priority.  Tell us your interests and we’ll try to help you.  If you’re a birder and want our help, we’ll use eBird to arrange for someone to go out with you.  If you’re into gardening, we’ll try to find one or two homes with beautiful gardens you could visit.  If you’d like to buy vegetables direct from some farms, we can arrange that too.  These may be the experiences you’ll still remember twenty years after your trip.

Mentoring.  This one is close to Dr. Bart’s heart.  When he was 12, he was introduced to some adult bird watchers who encouraged and mentored him.  This was the start of a lifelong hobby which eventually also became his profession.  To understand our program, please look at the Expeditions page and then read “An Offer”.  We’d love to hear from you.

Full disclosure. The reality in the travel advisor’s business is that commissions sometimes vary a lot between fairly similar options, so it may be tempting to present clients with those options that have the highest commissions.  We are strongly opposed to this practice so we make the following promise:

We will fully investigate all travel options, regardless of commission, and will present the top 3 or 4 without regard to our commission.  Furthermore, for each option we will reveal our commission.

Local Retention Rate.  This is a novel program we are quite excited about.  It responds to the desire of many travelers to ensure that they contribute to supporting local economies as much as possible.  The travel industry is moving towards responding to this desire in various ways.  We are participating in the movement by estimating the Local Retention Rate (LRR) for each option we present to you.  The LRR is the proportion of your expenditures that initially stays within the local economy.  The remainder immediately leaves the region.  We are using published research in this area and our own analyses to estimate the LRR for various activities such as internationally vs locally owned vessels and hotels.  LRRs vary widely.  For example, the LRR for imported food in a grocery store appears to be 15-25% whereas when you buy food on a farm, the LRR is very close to 100%.  Trip-wide LRRs also vary, from as low as 30% to as high as 70%.  What you do with this information is completely up to you, but we ensure that you have the best estimate possible of how much your expenditures will help the local economy rather than immediately leaving the region.  We expect measures like this to become more common in the next few years (just as companies now routinely report measures like carbon footprint and employment by age, sex, and ethnicity), and we intend to stay at the forefront of this movement.