VALDOR

PRIVATE TRAVEL ATELIER

Travel, as it should be arranged.

A quieter kind of travel

For clients with full lives and little time to spare. Each journey is built around you, with trusted people in place at every stop, so you arrive and the trip unfolds as it should.

The craft, in three parts

The craft travels with you to any place in the world.

i.

Designed only for you

Your trip, built from a blank page. No templates and no packages; every day shaped around how you travel.

ii.

The rooms, and the way in

The right hotel for the trip, and the best room within it, with transport in the background. A well-run city hotel one week, a private villa, a yacht or a flight arranged for you alone the next: whatever the journey asks for, and access to places most travellers never see.

iii.

Done before you land

Reservations confirmed, introductions made, timings checked twice. So much is settled in advance that arrival asks nothing of you.

THREE WAYS TO WORK TOGETHER

Who does the planning

You know what you want

No fee

Tell us where and when, and we book it at the best available rate, with benefits added if possible.

You want help choosing

No fee

Two or three options, then we book the one you choose.

You hand over the journey

Planning fee

Built from a blank page, the way the five stages below describe.

On bookings, Valdor is paid by the property or supplier, as any travel advisor is, so the rate you pay is their own. Flights carry a ticketing fee, confirmed before anything is booked.

Where we can book, and what it costs →
THE FIVE STAGES

Five stages, around the journey

When you hand over the journey, the work follows the same sequence each time. Five stages that give it its rhythm. The itinerary changes; the way we work together does not.

Hover a stage to see what it includes

i.

The conversation

We meet in person or by video. You speak, we listen. The questions are about how you travel and what makes a journey worth taking.

  • A single point of contact. One person who knows the whole trip.
  • Held in confidence. Your plans, and who you travel with, stay between us.
ii.

The plan

A clear picture of the trip, on paper, before a single hotel is chosen. The journey takes shape early, so nothing surprises you later.

  • A shortlist, not a catalogue. Two or three considered options, shaped for you.
  • An honest sense of cost early, while it is still easy to change.
iii.

The itinerary

A single document, day by day. Hotels, transport, experiences, and the people waiting at each stop, gathered in one place and yours to keep.

  • Benefits at the better properties. The right rooms, with upgrades, breakfast, or credit where our relationships through Fora allow.
  • One document to travel by, yours to keep.
iv.

The trip

Drivers waiting, hosts expecting you, plans in motion. One number to call if anything shifts. Otherwise, the freedom to forget logistics entirely.

  • Attention while you travel. Plans set in motion before you arrive.
  • One number to call, answered, if anything shifts.
v.

The return

A short conversation when you are home. What worked, what surprised, what to keep. Your next journey begins where this one left off.

  • Continuity between trips. Your preferences carry forward.
  • A head start. Each journey begins further along than the last.

The atelier, and the person behind it

Maarten De Laet, Founder of Valdor
Maarten De Laet
FOUNDER

Valdor was founded to bring the standards of a Swiss private office to the way clients travel. The practice is small by design. A handful of international clients across Europe, the Americas, and the Gulf, each one given the time and attention the work asks for.

Behind Valdor is Maarten De Laet, originally from the Netherlands and based in Lucerne, Switzerland. Hospitality taught him that service lives in small things; organising events on the scale of the Olympic Games taught him how much depends on the parts a guest never sees. The same discipline now serves Valdor. He speaks six languages.

The name means golden valley, a nod to Swiss heritage. The work follows from it, plainly and without fuss.

“My work is to clear away everything that gets in the way,
so all that remains is the wonder of the place.”

A reputation, one journey at a time

A few words from clients, on journeys arranged across the world.

5.00 from 16 verified reviews on Fora
“Planned our Japan trip across Tokyo and Osaka and made the whole thing effortless. The hotels were perfectly chosen, the pacing between the two cities was spot on, and the local recommendations were far better than anything we would have found on our own.”
A family travelling to Japan
“Proactive in making the most of every booking, from a canal-facing room upgrade to early check-in and late check-out. The perfect balance of attentive and unobtrusive, easy at every step.”
A couple travelling to the Netherlands
“My third time in a little over a year, for both work travel and holidays. For a trip with nine of us, everything was seamless from start to finish. Always available to answer questions, make recommendations, and see that every detail was handled, allowing us to focus on enjoying our travels rather than worrying about logistics.”
Friends travelling to Spain
BEGIN A CONVERSATION

An introduction is the first step

Valdor takes on a small number of new clients each season. The first conversation is short, by phone or video.

Email maarten@valdor.travel Call Book a 20-minute call