Meet Cristina Coates
A travel advisor in Orangeville, Ontario, with Italian roots and more than a decade spent learning to listen closely to what people want.
It Started With Italian Summers
I grew up in a family with strong Italian roots, spending my summers in Italy. That is where I learned that a trip is not about the destination. It is about the meals that run long, the people you are with, and how much of it you still remember years later. La dolce vita is not a phrase I picked up for a business. It is how I was taught to travel, and it is how I plan for everyone else now.
MY APPROACH
Grounded in Relationships. Built Around You.
Before this, I spent more than a decade as a major gift fundraiser in healthcare and academia, working alongside philanthropists, physicians and researchers. My job was to sit with someone, understand what mattered most to them, and then make it happen properly. It is the same job now, just with a different destination.
WHAT I BELIEVE
What Guides the Work
Three things shape every trip I plan, whatever it costs and wherever it goes.
Relationships First
The best trips I plan are for people I know something about. What you loved last time, what you would never do again, who is coming with you. I ask, and then I remember.
Honest Guidance
If a resort is not right for you, I will say so, even when it is the easier sell. If a fee applies, you hear the number before you commit. You should never be guessing where you stand with me.
Attention to Detail
The room category, the transfer time, the side of the ship, the table you want on your anniversary. Small things, right up until they are the thing that made or spoiled the week.
The Trips I Still Talk About
I have been lucky enough to travel widely, but two stay with me. Watching the Monaco Grand Prix as a longtime Formula 1 fan, then driving through the French countryside afterwards. And Venice, where my husband proposed to me on a gondola. Home is Orangeville, where I live with my husband and our son, and where my spare time goes to fitness and martial arts training.
You bring the idea.
I bring everything else.
Even if the idea is still only a feeling about the kind of trip you want. That is where most of the good ones start.