The Kada Travel Method: How a Tailor-Made Itinerary Is Built

Designing a tailor-made trip is not picking from a menu. It is editorial work: you listen to the traveller, erase what does not belong to them, rewrite until the itinerary says something. This guide describes the Kada Travel method step by step. It is not marketing. It is how we actually work.

Week 1 — the first conversation

The first call lasts 45 minutes to two hours, depending on the traveller. It has no questionnaire format. We conduct it as an editorial interview: open questions, space for the client to digress, attention to what they do not say as much as to what they do.

The questions we ask are not about Peru. They are about the traveller. What was the best trip you have taken and why? What did you do on your last week of holiday? Do you read at breakfast or go for a walk? Are you uncomfortable eating alone at an expensive restaurant or do you enjoy it? The answers sketch a profile the traveller had not articulated.

Only in the last fifteen minutes do we talk about Peru. There we evaluate which destinations might make sense —not as a closed list, but as a hypothesis to refine.

Week 2 — the first draft

With the interview recorded and transcribed, we write the first draft of the itinerary. It is a five to eight-page document, not a spreadsheet. Each day has a tone sentence before the schedule: "Pisac market morning, slow afternoon at hotel, early dinner to rest". That sentence is the day's promise.

The draft includes three options for each key decision: hotel, dinner restaurant, optional experience. Not so the client picks among offers, but to show the range. Almost always, after reading the three options, the client understands which one is theirs —not the most expensive, not the cheapest, but the one that matches who they are.

Week 3 — the calibration call

The second call is for calibration. The client reads the draft with their partner or family and returns with questions, doubts, ideas. Here we do not answer with blanks; we answer with concrete proposals. If the client says "we are not sure about Cusco", we present two alternatives: two nights in Cusco with three in Sacred Valley vs. one night in Cusco and four in the Valley. We explain what changes and why each makes sense.

This call typically reveals what the first did not capture. The client who said "we want something active" usually admits, in the second conversation, that only one of the two wants to walk and the other prefers photography. The itinerary is rewritten to accommodate both.

Week 4 — the second draft and tentative reservations

The second draft reflects the calibration. From here, we begin blocking tentative reservations at hotels and restaurants that fill: Inkaterra Machu Picchu, Sanctuary Lodge, Central, Maido, Hotel B. Tentative reservations do not bind the client but ensure that when they confirm, availability remains.

It is the first time the itinerary includes real prices instead of ranges. Each line has its cost: hotel per night, private transfer, experience with guide, dinner with paired wine. Transparency is absolute —the client knows exactly what they pay for what.

Weeks 5-6 — the fine adjustment

Three to five email exchanges refine details: a room change, a specific guide the client wants (mentioned by friend or by name), an experience added (Nazca flight, private dinner with chef). Each change is priced and adjusted in the document.

Here too the internal contradictions are resolved. Almost all travellers have one: they want altitude but worry about soroche; they want nature but do not want to walk; they want award-winning restaurants but also to eat "like a local". Our job is to resolve the contradiction with concrete proposals, not return it to the client as doubt.

Week 7 — the final itinerary and confirmation

The final itinerary has three parts:

First, the editorial document: day by day with tone, cultural context, pull-quotes, photos of confirmed hotels. It is the document the client shares with family and friends. It should read as a publication, not a contract.

Second, the technical contract: exhaustive list of inclusions and exclusions, cancellation conditions, contact details at each destination. It is the legal document.

Third, the pocket guide: a four-page PDF with schedules, addresses, emergency numbers and guide names. Printed and delivered on arrival in Lima.

The client pays 30% on confirmation and 70% at 30 days from the trip. Some premium reservations (Sanctuary Lodge, Inkaterra Hacienda Concepción) require advance payment and are pre-paid with the initial 30%.

The first draft always has one overloaded day and one wrong hotel. That is not an error: it is the method. The conversation with the client tells us which day and which hotel. Without first draft, no diagnosis.

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During the trip — the real follow-up

The method does not end at confirmation. During the trip, the client has a single contact in Peru —a travel designer in Lima available 24/7 via WhatsApp. Not a call centre: the person who wrote the itinerary, who knows the details, who can make decisions.

If the Cruz del Cóndor cancels by fog, we do not write the client saying "we are sorry, it was cancelled". We propose the concrete alternative —reorganise the morning toward Yanque, change lunch from Chivay to Coporaque— in less than two hours. That response capacity is what distinguishes the bespoke trip from the package.

After the trip — the debrief

One week after return, we call the client for a closing conversation. Not to sell more. To learn: what worked, what did not, which guide was at the level, which hotel disappointed. That information feeds the next itineraries and becomes editorial memory.

Many clients return after two or three years with a complementary trip —Patagonia, Galapagos, southern Chile. The debrief conversation is why they keep returning. It is not after-sales service; it is editorial commitment to each traveller.