Five full stars. We love love love our travel agent Aimee! Aimee has helped us plan multiple trips now that range from full-service where every last detail is thought of and planned to less managed trips where you just need hotels and a few tours and book everything else on your own and she shines in every way. On our full-service trips to Scandinavia and Japan, she took care of every detail from when we got off the plane with a private driver taking you to our first hotel, dinner reservations, private sushi classes, food tours, cultural heritage site tours, transfers between cities and hotels, to when we left our last hotel and go home (in style of course!). We have been privileged to have unique experiences such as riding a bike through Copenhagen with a private chef with a kitchen-bike, to learning how to make sushi with a sushi chef, to private city tours of Stockholm, Kayaking in the Lulea River in Sweden, taking a rigid inflatable speedboat to a Fjord in the Norwegian arctic circle, and touring the most beautiful temples and shrines of Japan with a private guide who can share details and educate you on the history and the culture that you could not find on your own. Travel agents make money when they book you things, but Aimee is never pushy with booking something every single day, and gives you time to decompress and discover on your own if you so choose. (If you want to do something planned every day you definitely can!) While our experiences are not the cheapest (The Four Seasons is always so expensive!) , our vacation time is limited, and we appreciate how we get a full experience of a city / country / culture and make the best use of that one resource that none of us have unlimited amounts of -- time. We also feel like even though the expense is high that we are getting decent value for our hard-earned money. We were with a different travel agency previously who we felt like did not provide as much value for our money and are happy we switched to Avant Garde. When a snag happens on a trip, like the plane delay that got us to Copenhagen 3.5 hours late last summer, Aimee or someone on her team from SD or Denmark jump into action and make sure that we reconnect with the trip and get back on track as soon as possible. We have declined some of her choices for hotels and had her book a hotel that we heard about or read about, and she has never given us any trouble or made us feel like she was pushing us to have to stay at any property that was more advantageous for her business. Her focus is to design a trip that YOU want to take, and we really, really feel like she is in our best interest all of the time. We've also booked less-managed trips with Aimee, where she helps us with hotels and maybe a couple of things in cities we understand and know. A memorable trip we took last year was when we went to Paris and Madrid to see Taylor Swift. We didn't want or need (or necessarily have the budget for) a full-service trip with action-packed private tours but she was happy to book our hotels, provide recommendations on what to do, and let us book other things on our own. From what I understand, Aimee has a team of professionals that work with her who help coordinate and plan and cater to many price points, but she specifically specializes in high-end travel with unique experiences. I love the fact that she always does a post-trip call (our previous high-end travel agent didn't do this) and wants to know what we loved (almost everything) and what can be improved (a few things) and feel like she really cares about your experience and uses the feedback to help us plan our next fabulous vacation and to avoid pitfalls that prior clients maybe have experienced. We are already dreaming of our next trip (with Aimee's help, of course!) and would highly recommend her for anybody who wants a customized, high-end experience (with prices to match!) that provide a good value for money spent. read more

Jennifer at Avant-Garde Travel was so helpful in planning my trip to Paris. My sister and I had a great time. We had so many "bucket List" things to see and do and she was able to fit all of them into the time we had. Jennifer found us 2 great boutique hotels to stay in in Paris before and after the Disneyland part of our trip. She also arranged the day tours to see the sites of Paris. I was so happy to discover she was also in my home town and I was able to meet her in person. She set me up with their Travel App and the What's App that made following the itinerary and communicating in Paris so easy. I will definitely ask her to help me with my next vacation. Jennifer P read more

Having planned a Med cruise, we had decided to spend a bit of time in Italy prior to boarding. Our largest stroke of luck was when we discovered Where to World at a Travel Show. The cruise was set, but what they did for our pre-cruise time made this one of the most amazing trips we ever had. We didn't have a moment where we weren't handled with care and spoiled with superb service. From Comigla to Portofino to Cinque Terre and all of the transports and personal guides in between, Where to World made our pre-cruise moments into a trip of a lifetime. I believe we are ready for more! Thank-you Gina! read more

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Minerva Padilla plan a great vacation to Bora Bora. Love the hotel, the travel plans, connection, just everything she did for us.! read more

Avant-Garde Travel - Travel Agents Near Me - San Diego, California

Our honeymoon trip to Greece & Italy was amazing-thanks to Aimee! Aimee met with us and emailed numerous times to hear our wants and, based on our input, revised our itinerary several times. All of her hotel selections were great, activity recommendations were fantastic, and coordinated transfers were seamless. She also stayed very engaged during our trip, including making us difficult-to-get reservations and finding us an alternative tour when our original tour was cancelled last minute. Highly recommended, and we look forward to using her for a future trip! read more

Aimee and Minerva at Avant-Garde Travel are truly amazing partners to have while planning any major trip. Take it from me, they just planned my 21 day Wedding trip!!! Aimee and Minnie helped my husband and I plan our dream wedding on the Amalfi Coast of Italy. We brought our parents and half of our siblings (mine couldn't make the trip, but they were there in spirit!). It was the most unforgettable trip I've ever had. We arrived at our Boutique Hotel, where the concierge greeted us by name and helped us find a dinner place that would stay open for our very late arrival. Next we traveled to Positano, where the ceremony would be held. Aimee and Minnie found the MOST. AMAZING. VILLA. EVER. Villa Fiorentino in Positano, Italy is the most breathtaking place I've ever been, and we can't thank Aimee and Minnie enough for recommending it to us. They secured the Honeymoon Suite for us, and a 3 bedroom Seaview Villa for the rest of our party. Everyone was blissfully happy for an entire week! Everything from A-Z was methodically planned out and executed by these two ladies, including all of our excursions. The most impressive part... After Italy, we went off to Sicily, Hungary, Czech Republic, and then Spain!!! Aimee and Minnie planned it ALL!! This was a doozy of a trip and I can't imagine how many hours went into planning it. We had transportation for every single city, waiting for us at the airport, and at the hotel the mornings of departures too! This was so convenient and valuable to us. We didn't want to have to worry about a thing on our Wedding trip and because of Avant-Garde, we didn't have to. We even had an app for our phones that had the entire 21 day itinerary, with excursion details and copies of all the vouchers, tickets, phone numbers, hotel concierges, car service companies, and flight numbers you would ever need in ANY situation. She also had a bound hard copy for all 7 members of the party, c'mon by this point you knew she would right?! The planning was immaculate, I tell you! She planned the following 2 weeks in Italy for the parents as well (who stayed to travel together after the ceremony). Aimee and Minnie went above and beyond our wildest expectations for this trip and we couldn't be more grateful for their contribution to our big day! We would recommend Avant-Garde to anyone looking to take an awesome trip! read more

Aimee and staff put together an amazing wedding trip to Italy. The wedding venue was PERFECT and the wedding itself was like a fairytail. The trip book and App Aimee made for us made everything so easy. All of the trip info/tickets/direction all at your fingertips. They were even able to make a quick change to a reservation while we were in Italy. We received timely responses to our e-mails or messages. Preparing a trip like this, for three different groups of people, going in different directions is quite a feat. It take a professional to do so and that is what we found thru Aimee and her staff of Avant-Garde Travel. The accomodations she provided were above and beyond what we would have found ourself, especially the 600 year old former Palace in Florence; what a find that was. It was so nice to be greeted by our drivers and tour guides. Every single person we delt with was professional, very knowledgeable and enjoyable. The cooking class in Positano was so much fun; the food was great and the wine flowed freely. We ended up going back to their resturant for dinner our last night in Positano. I know the bride and Groom will be excited to share pictures with you, I just wanted to say thank you for a wonderful trip of our lifetime. You made it so very, very personal and special, Just cannot thank Aimee and team enough. read more

Aimee Leon and Avant Garde Travel booked the most amazing Italian holiday for us. It was a wedding celebration for my son, in a most stupendous Villa in Positano on the Amalfi Coast. From the drivers that she contracted for us, to the guided tours, to a 14th Century Palace we stayed in in Florence~It couldn't have been better!! And then there was an App that we used along the way that had all the info we needed at a moments touch. Aimee does it in style, grace and panache... Thank You, Aimee...you KNOW exactly how I like to travel and will be booking with you again MaHa' read more

This agency is the best for worldwide service and entertainment on a cruise or land excursion- have used them for travel from Greece to New Zealand and there service is spectacular!!!! read more

Great service! Aimee booked my dream destination for my wedding week. Everything was perfection. She even sent chocolate! I will always use their services even if it's a stay cation in Phoenix! She's great! read more

I highly recommend going through Aimee Leon! My husband and I went on a 16 day European vacation, and she made the whole trip seamless! She planned everything from the flights and hotels to the tours and daily activities, while we were in Europe. Also, she made a little booklet before our trip that included our entire trip itinerary, to ensure everything went smoothly. On top of that, she included several books that went over the culture and the activities of each destination that we would be visiting. We will definitely be using Aimee, again, for our next vacation! read more

Aimee and the Avant-Gerde Travel team are amazing! From the very first interaction to the day of departure they were on-point, organized, and an extension of our trip. We wanted a trusted partner to brainstorm honeymoon ideas based off of our needs and they provided multiple options for us to review. Our honeymoon happened to take place during hurricane season and they provided daily reports and communication not only with the resort but keeping us up to speed as well. There were many personal touch-points prior to departure to made sure we had what we needed, and any last-minute requests were addressed. The trip itself exceeded our expectations and we have already reached out to the Avant-Gerde Travel team with two more trips. I foresee many years of partnership ahead and wonderful travels memories to come. Thank you for everything!!! Andy & Andy read more