Hi there!
I’m Courtney, a Europe travel planner with a love for meaningful experiences. For me, travel is less about escape and more about reconnecting with what matters most. I’m especially drawn to the history and stories that give each place its character.
That perspective started to take shape years ago, when I was living in Germany with my husband and our two small children. We were eager to share the wider world with our kids, but it wasn’t always easy. So many tours were too rigid or simply not practical for little ones or for grandparents who sometimes joined us. I realized there weren’t many options that balanced adult interests with kid-sized attention spans.
The start of the spark
So, I started building itineraries myself. Sure, I could’ve just handed things off to a travel agent, but the truth is I loved the challenge. I spent hours poring over guidebooks, emailing innkeepers, and mapping out every detail. What I discovered was that I didn’t just enjoy it—I loved it. Like, study-train-timetables loved it. Crafting the trips myself gave us the best of both worlds: meaningful experiences that felt immersive, but also realistic for our stage of life and budget.
Adventures in self-rediscovery
As my kids grew, I reached a crossroads. After nearly two decades devoted to family, I’d set many of my own passions aside without realizing it. Turning 40 (ack!) with an empty nest rapidly approaching felt like a great time to get to know myself again.
I began taking small solo excursions which led to longer hiking and backpacking trips across the U.S. Those journeys reminded me that travel can be more than just a trip. It can be transformative. It was in those moments that I began to think about it differently.
Traveling with intention
That’s why, to me, travel is most powerful when it helps you see both the world and yourself differently. A new place can challenge us, surprise us, or reconnect us with parts of ourselves we didn’t know we’d misplaced!
What began as a love of planning grew into this passion for creating trips shaped by history and storytelling. My goal is to design European journeys that honor the season of life you’re in.
It’s time to connect not only to a destination’s story, but also to your own.
My Process
Travel resources usually start with a destination. These start a step back from that, with the question of what you need from a trip in the first place. Resources are self-guided and built on coaching frameworks, so by the end you have a clearer sense of where to go and why.
A coaching framework matched to the need.
Every program starts with a specific life context: where you are, what you’re working through, and what kind of travel experience would be useful right now.
Research guided by that framework.
I dig into destinations, pacing, and logistics through the lens of that specific life context, building the travel research into the program structure.
Resources built to lead you somewhere.
I design and sequence all of my coaching content, drawing on the relevant frameworks and research behind that specific topic.
Custom itinerary design available.
For clients who want hands-on planning help, I design custom itineraries and book accommodations through Fora.