When something is designed for everyone, it rarely truly belongs to anyone.

A traveler recently sent me a link. A ready-made ten-day itinerary, with specific dates, a fixed price, and a list of what’s “included.” She asked me if something like that would be simpler.

And it is. Truly.

A ready-made itinerary has been tested again and again. It knows what works for most people. It immediately solves dozens of decisions you would otherwise have to make yourself.

It’s not a wrong choice. It’s just not the way I work, as I also wrote in Why Skydream Exists.

Because a program made for many must, by definition, remove anything too specific. It must suit someone who wants relaxation and someone who wants activity. Someone traveling for the first time and someone who has already seen everything. To suit everyone, it ultimately doesn’t perfectly suit anyone.

Before I consider a destination for someone, I ask them something much simpler: what they are looking for at this period of their life. If they need to slow down or remember why they love to travel. If they want to celebrate something or simply disappear for a while from their daily routine. This is the starting point of our Ritual, a process that begins long before tickets are booked.

These answers determine more than one initially imagines, not only where, but also how full the days will be, how close or far one point will be from another, where a gap is worth leaving, without needing to be filled.

I remember a traveler who initially wanted to “see as much as possible” on a one-week trip. During our discussion, however, it became clear that what he really needed was to not think about anything for a few days. We ended up with a much more “empty” itinerary than he had initially imagined. He later told me it was the first trip where he didn’t return more tired than when he left.

This would not have come from a ready-made list of options.

Someone needed to ask first, and then design.

In the end, it doesn’t matter if someone saw more sights than someone else. What matters is if, upon returning, they felt that those days were truly their own.

That’s why I don’t create packages.

Angeliki