Travel On Your Terms
Custom itineraries designed and booked end to end.
Start Trip Planning →The Whole Trip
From an Idea to an Itinerary
From a long weekend to an end-to-end multi-city journey, Custom Trip Planning means we design and book the entire experience. You tell us where, when, and what kind of trip you want; we handle the logistics, the recommendations, and the bookings — and stay on standby through the trip itself.
Why Bestmates
Travel Designed For You
Queer-led
We design with our community in mind — destinations, properties, and experiences where you can show up fully.
Insider perks
Glow Up benefits stack with full trip planning. Upgrades, breakfast, credits — built into your hotels at no added cost.
End to end
Hotels, flights, transfers, experiences, dining. One advisor, one itinerary, one point of contact.
Concierge through the trip
Real humans on standby. Need a last-minute restaurant, transfer, or change of plan? We're a text away.
Transparency
How We Charge
Hotels and cruises are fee-free. We earn a commission from the suppliers we book, so our advice costs you nothing on those trips. Custom itineraries are the one exception — here is exactly what applies and why.
Hotels & Resorts
We book your hotel through our partner network, stack Glow Up perks where available, and earn a commission from the property.
Cruises
We find the right sailing, handle your booking, and advocate for you with the line. Commission-based.
Group Trips
Bestmates-hosted group trips run on a group rate structure. No individual planning fee.
Custom Itinerary
$100
per person, per day
For fully bespoke trips we design from scratch: multi-stop itineraries, custom routing, FIT-style planning. The fee covers destination research, hotel curation, routing, transfers, dining, and documentation — work that supplier commissions do not cover.
- Non-refundable
- Not credited toward trip cost
- All ages full rate, including children and infants
- No minimum trip length
Free 15-min discovery call
Every new client starts here. We'll scope your trip, figure out which service fits, and confirm whether a planning fee applies before you commit to anything.
How it works
Four Steps to Booked
Tell us your trip
A quick intake form: where, when, what kind of trip you're imagining, and any musts. The more you share, the better we can tailor it.
We curate
We design a custom proposal — hotels, flights, transfers, experiences, dining — built for your style, pace, and budget.
You review and adjust
Tweak anything. Add stops. Swap hotels. Up the romance, dial back the pace. We'll iterate until it's right.
We book it
Once you say go, we handle every confirmation, payment, and document. Your itinerary lands in your inbox; we're on standby through the trip.
Ready to Plan
Let's Design
Your Next Trip
Tell us where you're dreaming of going. We'll do the rest.
Start Trip Planning →FAQs
Good Questions
Is there a planning fee?
Hotels, cruises, and group trips are fee-free — we earn a commission from the suppliers we book. Custom itineraries carry a planning fee of $100 per person, per day. It is non-refundable and is not credited toward your trip cost. Every new client starts with a free 15-minute discovery call where we can scope your trip and confirm which service applies before you commit to anything.
How far in advance should I book?
Sweet spot is 8–16 weeks out for international, 4–8 weeks for domestic. Tighter timelines are fine — we'll just move faster on availability and cost. For peak dates (Pride weeks, holidays, World Pride), earlier is always better.
Can you book just hotels, just flights, or just one piece?
Yes. If you only need hotels with perks, that's The Glow Up. If you want us on the whole trip, that's Custom Trip Planning. Anywhere in between is fine — start the intake and we'll scope it together.
How is this different from The Glow Up?
The Glow Up is hotels-only — you've already picked the property, we book it on your behalf and stack the perks. Custom Trip Planning is the whole itinerary — destinations, hotels, flights, experiences — designed by us with you.
Do you do groups?
Yes. Whether it's a milestone trip with friends, a destination wedding, or a chosen-family group, we handle multi-cabin, multi-room, multi-itinerary trips routinely.