Spend time on experiences... Not on booking.

Your holiday time is priceless. Here's how to enjoy it more.

Horror story 1: The flight that nearly ruined Borneo.
Over a decade ago, we went to Malaysia on a New Years trip. First Stop: Kuala Lumpur, then on to Borneo for an adventure of a lifetime.

That's when disaster struck.
My husband booked the whole trip online, through the cheapest flight aggregator engine (yes, this was before we started Perun Tours!). We flew to Kuala Lumpur on Emirates, and to Kuching with local flights.

Just before our Borneo tour started, my husband noticed that the return Emirates flight was booked one month too late.
Total chaos. Panic.

The booking and airline websites didn’t allow him to reschedule. Instead of enjoying the tour through Borneo, he spent hours on expensive international calls trying to reach human help, only to get redirected to endless automated customer service.

He finally managed to call the local Emirates office, and the kind local agent (a human!) agreed to circumvent the standard process and reschedule the flight. After 65 US dollars on long distance calls and 5 hours of intense stress, the conclusion was clear: we should have used a travel advisor.

Natalija in Borneo/Sarawak, in the cultural village with members of the local tribe

I discovered later that these horror stories happen far more frequently than people care to admit. Perhaps not to everyone, but when they happen, they can derail the whole experience.
There’s a reason why the world’s most successful people fiercely protect their time: it is the one thing you can’t earn back.

Think about it: endless comparison sites, flight juggling, hotel reviews that may or may not be real, and “skip-the-line” tickets that don’t actually skip any lines. You might save couple hundred dollars, but at the cost of hours of your time (and possibly your sanity – just like mine).

Horror story 2: The "Skip the line" that didn't.
Rome. July. Tourist crowds. Blazing heat. This time, we were smarter (or so we thought).

We booked a reasonably cheap "skip-the-line" Vatican ticket. Not from any dodgy site, but from a leading platform. We received the confirmation email with a booking number, time and place (somewhere in the narrow streets right beside the Vatican walls).

Vatican, with the lines that we didn't really skip.

Walking by the long line of waiting tourists, I felt validated and smug. Way too early...
At the meeting point, a guy with a lanyard spent 1.5 hours gathering people and waiting for other poor souls like us. He managed to get enough people together, create a "fake" group, and usher us through the entrance dedicated for groups.

Just then, he announced that this was all that the ticket covered, and he left us wondering inside by ourselves. At the end, we saved maybe 50 dollars, still waited like the other people in the line, and went through Vatican without a guide.

Here’s the secret that seasoned luxury travelers already know: the real currency in travel isn’t money. It’s time. And when you use both wisely, your journeys become smoother, richer, and infinitely more enjoyable.

Hidden costs of DIY travel planning

Booking everything by yourself feels empowering. You feel in control of your time, expenses, plans.
And then you realize that you have:

• Spent 15 hours down the Expedia / TripAdvisor / AirBnB rabbit hole.
• Saved $100 on a flight, and lost half a day on an eight-hour layover.
• Booked a "boutique" hotel with "great" reviews. Right next to a construction site.
• Tried to fix a flight schedule mistake without any support (sounds familiar?)

And sometimes there are small things that you will just not notice... Like in the next story.

Horror story 3: The adult that wasn't.
Same Italy trip, new problem.

My husband, undeterred by the experience in Malaysia, booked flight tickets with a low-cost operator. As our son was 13 years old at the time, he got an adult ticket for him - as most airlines require.

But not this one.

This airline had a mysterious "teen" category for children between 13 and 17. And because of that, we couldn't check in online.

Here's the catch: low-cost airlines have a mandatory online check-in. The counter check-in is heavily chargeable.

Cue the chaos again: hours of long-distance calls to robots and automats. No human agents available after hours. Stress through the roof.

Natalija in Rome, with the "not really" adult.

We finally managed to get on a phone with a person - the next morning, only a couple of hours before the flight, and get a last-minute fix. It could have easily gone the other way, if our flight was just a few hours earlier.

Here’s the math nobody tells you: if your time is worth $50 an hour (and for some of you it may be far more), wasting 10 hours on planning is a $500 loss before you’ve even packed your bags.

Even if you don't consider that, there is no money equivalent for the stress and annoyance when you make a mistake. That's why the travel advisors and agents check, doublecheck and triplecheck before they click that "submit" button - it is not only money that is being risked, it is your satisfaction and agent's reputation on the line.

How to protect your time (and wallet)

Luxury travellers don't throw money around for fun. They understand that each dollar saved in planning, may equal trouble during the travel. They are strategic - and they rely on a trusted travel advisor or concierge to secure flexible and convenient travel options. Here's how a good travel advisor can help:

1. Private transfers. Yes, they cost a bit more. And they also save you the headache of queuing, negotiating fares, being dropped at a wrong hotel, dragging the luggage through public transport (or God forbid, fake taxi drivers that extort you).
2. Skip-the-line passes (that actually work). Through agency partnerships, you get real VIP entries that save hours of your visit to Louvre, Vatican or Burj Khalifa.
3. Concierge-style hotel selection. Instead of drowning in thousands of reviews, a human expert curates 3-5 properties that match your taste, style and mood. Decision fatigue: gone.
4. Exclusive offers not available online. Upgrades, early check-ins, late checkouts, surprise experiences - all thanks to the relationships that advisors maintain with their partners.
5. Flexible trip management. Flights canceled? Weather disruptions? Strikes? While DIY travellers wait on hold, your advisor is already rerouting you.
6. Insider access. Private wine testing, "behind-the-scenes" tours, last-minute tables at overbooked restaurants. An advisor does not "google it" - they call their contact.
7. Peace of mind. Perhaps the biggest benefit: knowing there’s someone who has your back, no matter what. You don’t just buy a trip — you buy confidence and calm.

Ready to save your time and sanity?

There is a very simple formula for the time-money equation of travel:

(Your hourly worth)*(wasted hours) + (Mistakes)² = Most expensive part of travel.

So yes, you can save a couple of hundred by booking yourself. But if the wasted time + the mistakes you make (and very often you don't admit them, even to yourself) cost you hours of your time and a week of stress, was it really worth it?
With the right advisor, you don't just save hours - you upgrade your entire travel experience, avoid unpleasant pitfalls and streamline the entire process. And yes, sometimes you may even save money.

This is where we come in. At Perun Tours, we design journeys that protect your time, and leverage our partnerships and relationships to maximize your travel experiences.

Because in the end, the most luxurious thing about travel isn’t the five-star hotel or the first-class seat.

It’s stepping off the plane knowing that everything has been taken care of.

Perun Tours is proud to work with you to secure the best travel experience. Give us a call, mail or a whatsapp message to find out how can we help to send you on an unforgettable trip. No voice automats, no robots, no AI chatbots, no stress. Only human experience, understanding your requirements and readiness to assist you. And, if you are wondering, yes - the horror stories really happened, and they are part of our inspiration.