Four times a year Aster Travel Design opens the studio to whoever wants to sit in: an evening built around one region, one route and a stack of timetables. The sessions are small on purpose, capped at thirty seats, free for past and prospective clients alike, and held in a borrowed room in Portland with enough space for questions. Nobody is asked to book anything before they leave.
Route Nights
Each Route Night covers a single part of the calendar rather than the whole world: river cruises and their shoulder season, a two-week stretch of coastal rail, cities where the hotel district matters more than the hotel. The designer presenting has walked the route recently, so the evening is full of the practical notes that never make it into a brochure: which pier means a forty-minute walk, which station has no luggage carts, where the last kitchen in town closes at nine.
The second half belongs to the room. Bring dates and a rough budget and you will leave with a first-draft shape of the trip; bring nothing and you will still hear what a season looks like before you commit to it.
An evening, hour by hour
- 6:30 p.m. Doors, coffee and something local from the kitchen. Name tags are optional.
- 6:45 p.m. The route presentation, about forty minutes, maps and real numbers instead of adjectives.
- 7:30 p.m. Open questions, including the ones about cost that people would rather not ask in a group.
- 8:00 p.m. One-to-one slots at the table for anyone who wants to talk dates privately.
Group departures
Three or four times a year we hold space on a departure that suits our clients: a spring river sailing through the valley towns, a September rail journey through the Rockies, a coastal week in Portugal where the walking is gentle and the dinners run long. Group rates apply, the itinerary is already built, and you travel with people who chose the same weeks for the same reasons.
- Space is held sixty days before departure, and a deposit secures the seat.
- Solo travelers get a share of the group rate without a single supplement where the operator allows it.
- Anyone who has traveled with us before hears about departures first, by email, two weeks ahead of the list.
Departure dinners
Clients leaving in the same month are invited to one table, usually the Thursday before the first flights. It is the easiest way to hear what a plan feels like from people who just ran it, and the designer who built those itineraries comes with the questions people forgot to ask.
How to join
Email hello@astertraveldesign.com with the word EVENTS in the subject line and the session you want. Seats for Route Nights go out in the order requests arrive, usually three weeks ahead, and group departures are confirmed by deposit rather than RSVP. If you are traveling already, say so, and we will send the dinner dates for your month instead.