KATE VAN DELL
I think about hotels more than is probably normal.
I plan luxury travel around the world for a small roster of clients, many of whom come back trip after trip. Every journey through Sebastian Luxe Travel is planned by me personally, from deciding where to go and which hotel is actually right to choosing the room, pacing the itinerary and sorting out the details that make everything feel easy once you arrive.
HOW I WORK
A beautiful hotel is not necessarily the right hotel.
Most trips begin with a question that sounds simple: Where should we stay?
The answer rarely is. I want to know which room is quiet, which suite is worth the upgrade, whether the location will make your days easier, how good the kids' club actually is, whether a transfer is going to eat half a day and what the service feels like when something does not go according to plan.
My recommendations come from firsthand hotel stays and site visits, relationships with hotels and travel partners around the world, and the practical experience of planning and booking trips for real clients. I care less about finding the hotel everyone is talking about than finding the one that makes sense for the people actually going.
ABOUT KATE
Travel was not my first career. Taking care of people was.
I fell in love with travel in Paris at 15 and have been arranging my life around it, in one form or another, ever since. It has taken me through Europe, Asia, the Caribbean and beyond, including a surf trip in the Dominican Republic where I met my husband.
Today we live in Westport, Connecticut, with close family ties to the Netherlands. Sebastian is my son, and the business is named after him.
Before travel, I spent years working as an ER nurse and later as a family nurse practitioner. The professions are different, but the useful part turned out to be remarkably similar: pay attention, think a few steps ahead, stay calm when plans change and take very good care of people.
That still shapes how I work. I keep my client list intentionally limited so I can remain closely involved in every trip rather than handing the planning off once someone books.
THE TRIPS I PLAN
Around the world, and rarely the same way twice.
My clients travel all over the world, and so does my work. I've planned multigenerational journeys through Italy, family ski holidays in France and Switzerland, honeymoons in the Dolomites, milestone trips to St. Barth, Anguilla and Grand Cayman, Costa Rica adventures, Hawaii itineraries, Paris escapes, wellness stays in California and Asia, and expedition journeys to Antarctica.
Some are two weeks, four hotels and a fairly heroic spreadsheet. Others are four nights on a beach with one exceptional room and almost nothing on the schedule. Both can be exactly right.
What matters is understanding how the people taking the trip actually like to travel. Over time, I learn who wants every dinner reserved, who would rather decide at lunch, whose children will happily ski all day, who needs connecting rooms and who will absolutely regret changing hotels for the fourth time.
Many clients now come to me with little more than dates and a vague idea of what they want. Becoming the person they call whenever someone says, "Where should we go next?" is one of my favorite parts of this work.
Have somewhere in mind? Or absolutely no idea?
Both are excellent places to start.
EXPERTISE
The places I return to, professionally and personally.
I plan travel worldwide, with particular expertise in luxury hotels, custom European itineraries, luxury family travel, ski trips in the Alps, private villas, wellness stays, honeymoons and milestone celebrations.
I also write Sebastian Luxe Travel's hotel guides and destination advice. When I have stayed somewhere myself, I say so. When I have toured a property, booked it repeatedly for clients or know it through my hotel relationships, I make that distinction too.
Nearly every luxury hotel looks beautiful online. My job is knowing what the photographs do not tell you.
HOTELS
CREDENTIALS & AFFILIATIONS
A little proof behind the recommendations.
I am a Fora X travel advisor and a member of Virtuoso. Through Sebastian Luxe Travel, clients also have access to preferred hotel programs including Four Seasons Preferred Partner, Rosewood Elite, Belmond Bellini Club, Marriott STARS & Luminous and Hyatt Privé.
These relationships can mean preferred rates or amenities at participating hotels, but their real value is having relationships with the people on the other side of the reservation.
The Infrastructure
Exclusive Access
Where should we send you next?
Tell me who is going, what you have in mind and what would make the trip feel worth taking. I'll take it from there.
Personally planned by Kate Van Dell