Accessible Luxury for Former Backpackers
What do you think about when you hear the word “luxury”.
What about “Luxury Travel”? 🙉
How does the word “luxury” make you feel? What thoughts pop into your mind? I’m pretty sure whatever it is your thinking, I had the same thoughts too.
LUXURY =
Old Money
Ornate gold bathrooms
Stuffy sit down dinners
Exclusive
Unattainable
When I first started traveling, I was anything but a luxury traveler. In 2009 I started backpacking and my first stop was Istanbul, Turkey. I actually met my cousin there along with her band. She let me crash in her room until the band got kicked out of this 5 star hotel (this had something to do with a fire which I found out 10 years later, but that’s a different story). I needed to find a place so I hopped on to a Hostel Booker site and found the cheapest room, in a pretty hostel that was overlooking the Blue Mosque, I was so excited! I was going to meet people, have wild adventures, and collect epic stories… except I didn’t realize my epic stories would involve getting bedbugs and then smuggling them in my bra into Florence, Italy.
2009 - Hostel in Merida, Mexico. I'm not going to lie, this was the nicest one I had been to. Yes, It looks like a luxury prison but there was a pool, salsa lessons, and, as you can see, I had the whole space to myself.
Now, why would I stay in a hostel for $10 a night and share a room with 8 strangers when I was an Art Director at the Food Network making great money?
I was told at a very young age that travel was a luxury. I need to save my money and buy a house. So, I started saving, wishing, dreaming, and hoping that I would one day see the world but everyone, all around me was saying that travel was too expensive and I couldn’t have it.
I only ended up traveling to Turkey thanks to my cousin’s band photographer’s girlfriend for not “allowing him” to travel without her because I claimed his spot and photographed the band's adventures.
Anyway, what I’m getting at is that we’ve all been conditioned to believe that we can’t afford to travel, that everything must be done cheaply, that there isn't enough, and "you can't afford this"… but it doesn’t have to be that way.
After 4 years of backpacking and living abroad in not exactly luxury conditions, I found myself as a luxury travel advisor. I had so much resistance to the luxury travel world because of the above mentioned associations to the word “luxury”. But after 7 years of working in the luxury travel world, I’ve seen the light. I now think of “luxury travel” as…
New Money Luxury
Boutique hotels like Maison de la Luz, Blackberry Farm, Inn at Perry Cabin, Miraval Austin,
just to name a few favorites 😉.
Having someone else take care of you
Unlocking certain experiences that no one else has access to
Comfort
Mental Health
Wellbeing
Self care
2018 - Mandarin Oriental Paris, with a chocolate Eiffel Tower that I bit into because I couldn't wait!
We need to change the mindset of what luxury means and know that it’s something that is accessible to everyone one, not just the few. It’s your God given right to see and explore the Earth, so let’s do it together!
Cheema's Travel can plan your private getaways or we can travel together.
All of our small group trips are luxury experiences. We stay in 4 & 5 star properties, offer unique experiences you wouldn’t find on your own, and we never charge single supplements, because everyone gets their own room. When you travel with Cheema’s Travel, you can turn your brain off and let me and your co-host take you through the wine country, back streets of Tokyo, or visit a cheese farm in the hills of Portugal.
Check out our upcoming small-group trips!
You can also browse and book the 5 star properties that we've partnered up with through Virtuoso, here. If you decide to book on your own, just know that you would still get the luxury VIP amenities that I would also be able to get for you. For example:
$100 food & beverage credit
Upgrades
Early check-in & late check-out
Daily breakfast for 2
... just to name a few.