“How much is your trip to XXX? “

“Can you send me the itinerary for the XXX trip and the cost?”

These are the most frequent questions we get from clients on a day-to-day basis.  Most times, we do not have the answers.  Hence, we have decided to author an article about it to address our customised travel planning services.

We are in the business of designing travel experiences.  We are travel designers first, travel agents second.  It is a niche business as we tailor your travel experiences from the places you like to visit, your trip experiences, down to accommodations and the mode of travel, not forgetting any special needs (special diet, wheelchair bound clients, or autistic kids to name a few). 

Unlike your next-door travel agent, where everything is prefixed and cannot be changed, you have a VOICE in your own travel experiences. It is your travel vacation, so YOU matter and the trip revolves around your needs.

Before engaging in our services, have a look at the checklist below to assist in your trip planning.

Travel Story

At Epic Travel Tours, we are great listeners and great vacation creators.  We love to hear your travel story; what makes you want to take this trip, what would you like to see.  Even if you know nothing about the destination, share with us what you want to achieve from the vacation.

Is it to spend time with family?  Or you just walked out of a relationship and need a trip to rejuvenate? Perhaps, the trip is to revive some memories you had with someone long time ago? Sometimes, you may just need a trip to rest and recharge.

Your travel story matters.  We create your travel experiences based on your travel story.  Hence, that is why we do not have a prefix itinerary.  Everybody’s needs/stories are different; we design different itineraries to suit diverse needs.  Till date, we do not have two groups of clients with the same itinerary.

Travel Mode

Uniquely with Epic Travel Tours, you can decide how you like to travel.  We offer different modalities of travel, or even a combination.  For a more private and luxurious experience, you can opt for a private car with driver guide that chauffeur you around.  For those who are more adventurous, you can travel on your own via public transport and we will always be on standby to provide the necessary assistance (imagine a virtual guide at your fingertips).  Then, there are those who prefer to join local tours (for hard to access destinations) and on other days, travel on their own.  At Epic Travel Tours, we usually would incorporate high speed rails / train rides to enhance your travel experience (we have a fetish for trains and it is well known in the industry :D:D).  For those we like to travel at own pace, you can also opt for self driving.

We are one of the few if not the only tour agency that would bother to go down to the details of different travel modalities.  Truth is, it is challenging work and requires a good knowledge of transport logistics in different destinations.  It is only possible as we invest in our team of travel planners, who regularly must make site visits to sharpen their planning skills.  Before the pandemic, our travel planners spent up to 3 months in a year traveling to accumulate trip experiences.  They are all armed with solid ground experience to tackle our client’s unique requirements.

Travel Budget

The million-dollar question to customised travel planning, “how much does it cost?”

This is the most asked question by clients.  It used to puzzle our travel planners.  Then we realise, our services are very niche and clients are so used to mainstream tour agency advertising their tour price, staging price war.  This is not what we do at Epic Travel Tours.  We compete in value and service, not in price.   

Most times, clients get stunned when we ask for their travel budget.  It sounds very foreign to them and they have no idea.  For us, it is your trip, so you get to decide how much you like to spend.  Our job is to design something that fits into your travel budget.  It is akin to buying or renting a house.  The real estate agent will usually ask for your budget and find something that fits. One would not ask the agent how much to spend without going through the thought process.  The same goes for your travel budget.  Before approaching a travel planner, do a budget estimation and this will speed up the trip planning process.

Traditionally, most travel agents would indicate a price for their prefix itineraries.  Clients of course, would shop around for the cheapest since most of the prefix itineraries are similar.  Cheap is never good, good is never cheap.  To be very honest, we are definitely not the cheapest in town due to the niche services we provide.  

We are unable to compare with traditional tour agencies and compete with their prices as our service level differs.  The most notable difference is we design trips, and our trips are mostly private tours.  We do not pack 40 paxes in a coach and do a coach marathon of traveling round the country in a week.  Gone are the days with those tours.  Clients are now more discerning and less is more.  We offer clients experiential tours, where you take part in activities like tea ceremony, picking fruits and enhancing your travel experiences.

The next time, when you feel tempted to ask, “How much is it?”, have a number in mind and let us know instead.  We would do our best to design something within your budget.

Proposal Fee

We get asked very often about the proposal fee.  What is the rationale behind charging a proposal fee?

As mentioned above, we design travel vacations based on your travel story, mode of travel and travel budget.  We do not have pre-made itineraries as all clients’ needs are different.  The proposal fee allows us to allocate resources to research, design and plan the logistics for your trip.  It allows us to properly research and provide a quotation your trip.  It would be impossible for us to create and plan travel proposals for every client without any commitment from the client.  We simply do not have the manpower to do so.

The proposal will include the number of days spent in each city, the activities involved, the mode of transfer and the final quotation for the trip.  In addition, we allow unlimited amendments to the proposal to suit your needs.  Once you have decided to take up our proposal, the proposal fee is refundable and counts towards your tour fare.  Even if you have confirmed the proposal, during the itinerary planning stage, we can still accommodate changes.

We recognise that our customised travel planning service is not for everyone, especially if you are one who like mass group tours with a very standard travel itinerary and lots of commission-based shopping.  If you are the kind who love sitting in a coach for long hours traveling from places to places onboard, doing a coach tour instead of hands on experience, our service is also not suitable.  Lastly, if you enjoy visiting the usual tourist hotspots, you may find our tours out of your comfort zone as we usually bring our clients off the beaten track and hidden gem, away from the crowd.  In short, our services are not suitable for clients who want the run of the mill vacation experience.

However, if you enjoy discerning services, value quality over quantity, loves off the beaten track and looks forward to experiential tours, hit us up with a WhatsApp.  We will be more than happy to share our expertise with you at no obligations.

This approach to travel planning has since taken on a more refined direction. In destinations like Japan, where logistics, pacing and experience design matter deeply, our work as a Japan Travel Planner reflects how far personalised travel has moved beyond traditional tour packages.

Hopefully, our customized travel planning checklist provides a clearer picture of what to expect when you engage our services.