No. We never take a fee from travelers that use our CTEs. We make money from training and certifying our Travel Experts.

Yes and no. All of our CTEs are experts in their regions, offer bucket-list level custom trips, and have transparent pricing. They do vary in how they work with travelers. All of them use detailed itineraries, but some offer on-trip support, and have a network of trusted local agents that they work very closely with. Others travel with their travelers in a guide role. You can review each CTE’s profile in the Travel Expert Directory to see what services they offer.

Our CTEs offer highly customized trips and you’ll want to find one where you feel an affinity or connection, some sense that they understand what you want and are perfectly suited to give you your bucket-list trips. Talk to as many as you like, they all understand that they need (and want!) to win your trust and business. If you find multiple CTEs for your region in the Travel Expert Directory, send them all an email and see what develops!

We train some of our CTEs to build their business, if they need it. They are already experts in their region when they come to us. They’ve lived in the region or traveled there and learned everything they can about how to travel there. They also keep themselves current by travelling to their destination, usually more than once a year, to stay current.

We do offer training with our Travel Expert Training Program which teaches Madeline’s methods for planning trips, along with many business practices that inform how they build their web sites, do their marketing, and communicate with customers. The TETP includes over 10 hours of videos and many support documents, itinerary templates, and other resources.

So we train our Travel Experts if they need it to pass our assessments and set up their business. Others do it on their own and have their own unique process. All we require is that they pass our assessments and show that they can offer high quality bucket-list trips to travelers with no hidden fees.

As a traveler you will deal directly with your Certified Travel Expert so your best resource for handling any issue that comes up is to talk to the CTE. We do understand that issues can come up, though, and as part of our ongoing Certification process we welcome feedback from travelers.