Make Your Next Trip Extraordinary

We worked with Diane to plan our honeymoon and we had an absolutely incredible trip! We met with Diane and she did a great job of understanding us, our interests and what we were looking for on the trip. She put together a great itinerary, and was super receptive to the feedback we gave. We did a couple rounds of revisions and landed on a trip that was just as amazing as we thought it would be! The hotels she chose were spectacular and the activities were all a blast. Like others, we did the Mejaya-jaya ceremony that was a once-in-a-lifetime experience and definitely wouldn’t have had that without Diane. The guides we had were absolutely amazing—a huge part of what made the trip so great! Everything went smoothly and easily—we didn’t have to worry about a thing. Diane is incredibly communicative and always available for questions or concerns. We can’t recommend her highly enough!

Our family of four, including 11- and 14-year-old sons, traveled to Bali in early August 2023. During our 10 days in Bali, we felt like we learned a lot about the Balinese culture. We arrived during the Galungan holiday and were amazed by the penjors decorating every street and the processions of worshippers walking in the street as we drove around the island. A highlight from our itinerary was the visit to a local village where we learned about rice farming, ate a delicious home-cooked meal, and played gamelan with the villagers. We also enjoyed our snorkeling trip to Menjangan Island and exploring the city of Ubud. All of the people we met in Bali were very kind and welcoming to us. Our guides Agung and Made, and driver Agus, took great care of us during our stay and taught us about the Balinese culture. We were sad to say goodbye when they dropped us off at the airport at the end of our stay.

Diane was extremely helpful in the planning of our trip. After a phonecall to discuss our family’s interests, she put together an excellent itinerary. Over the months leading up to our trip, she was exceptionally responsive to our questions and provided us with lots of information to help with the planning of our trip. It was a pleasure working with her.

Chris Kloes

Chris Kloes and her family in East Java, Indonesia, viewing Mount Bromo and the caldera at sunset.

Our trip to Indonesia vastly exceeded our high expectations! We thought Indonesia was an exceptionally beautiful country, with interesting history, gorgeous art and relics, and incredible food. And the people were unfailingly kind everywhere we went. We are grateful for Diane’s help. She helped shape this trip from the initial concept to the finished itinerary and also deftly managed a curveball along the way. She’s deeply knowledgeable and unflappable, exactly what you want from a travel planner. Highly, highly recommend her!

Our family trip (me, my husband, and my 12-year-old son) was 3 weeks long and had 4 distinct chapters, which flowed very well.

Mt. Bromo
Diane helped us navigate a curveball at a destination we had initially planned to visit after the hotel was hit by lightning and had limited electricity as a result. Diane suggested a couple of alternatives and we decided to change that leg of the trip entirely. We are so glad we did and are so happy we went to Mt. Bromo! The Plataran Bromo was one of the best hotels we’ve stayed at in the world (and we’ve been to fabulous hotels in over 50 countries), both the facility, but especially the exceptional level of service. We met so many kind people there and ate truly delicious food. The staff went over-the-top to help our son, even going as far as to take him horseback riding while we enjoyed a massage. This was definitely our favorite of all of the lovely hotels and places we stayed. Our excursions were also very memorable. I mean, we rode horses across a sea of sand and climbed an active volcano! We especially appreciated the sunset tour of Mt. Bromo and the caldera. We were virtually alone to watch the sunset and had some unparalleled views.

Yogyakarta
Diane connected us to a local guide, Emmanuel, who was amazing. His English was excellent and he had a wealth of interesting info to share with us. We loved the sunrise breakfast at the hotel overlooking Borobudur, and especially appreciated the talk by the local guide who ran the breakfast. That guide had a deep knowledge of Borobudur and shared details about the history and importance of the temple. We also loved visiting the temple — it is truly amazing and so beautiful. We had an excursion and our son really enjoyed learning how to make batik. The people who worked at the batik shop were all very patient and sweet to him as they showed him the multi-step process. Plataran Bromo was again an exceptional property. We lucked into an incredible room, with a private pool overlooking Borobudur. It was incredible to look out as the sun set, the bats dipped in and out of our pool, and the numerous calls to prayer competed in a hypnotic melody. The villa was excellent, with our master bedroom and a comfy large cot in the adjoining room for our son. We enjoyed seeing Yogyakarta, touring the Water Castle and Sultan’s Palace — we took local rickshaws, which was a ton of fun and a great way to see the area.

Gilli Trawangan
Diane helped us with the overview of this island, but we managed most of the details here ourselves, as we had a rental home. We are glad that we stayed at the north end of the island, close to Turtle Beach. It was stunningly beautiful and much quieter than the east side, which is more of a party area. Being able to snorkel at the beach right across from our villa was amazing, and we saw many sea turtles, which was a magical experience.

Lombok
This felt like the most authentic leg of our stay. Diane recommended the gorgeous Hotel Tugu Lombok, which is rich with antiques and local art. We had a magical room, with the private pool overlooking the beach. The location is fairly remote, but we took advantage of the hotel’s bikes to explore the local area. Everyone was so welcoming!! My husband and son took a walk down the beach by the local public beach area, which was cute as they met some local girls who were especially interested in talking with our son. Our local guide was able to help us pivot after we decided we wanted some changes to the planned activities, and we visited a fantastic local market that was only about 1 hour from the Tugu. We also took a cooking class arranged by the hotel, which we all really enjoyed. We cooked local specialties and then ate our creations at a feast of a lunch.

Overall, this was an incredible trip and we highly recommend going to Indonesia and using Diane to help plan your trip!

Overall, our trip to Bali and Komodo was absolutely amazing and I can’t thank Diane enough for her guidance in planning. All the hotels were beautiful, activities were incredible experiences and the logistics on point. A few highlights/comments:

UBUD:
– Guide Agung and driver Agus were fantastic. Very sweet, lovely people and we really enjoyed spending time with them. We appreciated the level of detail that Agung shared about the history of the island, culture, religion and more, including on-the-spot explanations of activities and ceremonies we saw along the way as we drove around the island. A very special day was spent at their home village, eating lunch with their families, preparing flower offerings, watching local farmers work in the rice fields and playing with the village gamelan orchestra.
– We also really enjoyed the cooking class in Munduk, overlooking the sea and beautiful valleys. This came after a morning hike to several stunning waterfalls.
– Our daily schedule in Ubud was quite busy—visitors should understand that distances are long and traffic can be challenging when getting around Bali. Not a surprise, as Diane had advised on this, but something to consider when planning your itinerary and length of stay.

FLORES ISLAND/KOMODO NATIONAL PARK (1-hour flight from Bali):
As special as Bali is, this stop was the highlight of the trip for our family. The experience of trekking around Rinca and Komodo Islands to see the Komodo dragons was incredible. And very little trekking needed to view them, really—there were several of the giant lizards cruising the pier and beaches when we arrived by speedboat at Komodo! Later on, snorkeling at a beautiful pink-sand beach was literally like diving into the world of Finding Nemo, and we also marveled at the giant fruit bats, emerging from their roost in the mangroves at sunset. Truly magical and I only wished we had allotted more time to explore this beautiful area, which is about to explode with tourism, given the Indonesian government’s plan to promote the region. Several new hotels are under construction—go now while it’s still somewhat quiet!

SEMINYAK:
We chose this location for our last few nights back in Bali specifically for the sunset views, but unseasonably heavy rains took that away. Luckily, Diane had recommended the Oberoi hotel, which was an absolutely beautiful oasis away from the congested and highly touristed streets of Seminyak. We stayed on the grounds pretty much the entire time to get massages, enjoy the restaurant (which featured Balinese dancers at dinner) and gorgeous bar, all in view of the ocean.

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