Destination Directive Offers Curated Travel Experiences

Destination Directive’s Alicia Oberg. Photo: Chris Emeott

A virtuoso travel advisor takes a personal approach to luxury excursions.

As the founder of Destination Directive in Wayzata, Alicia Oberg lights up when she talks about the benefits of travel. “It’s so much more than exploration, adventure or leisure,” Oberg says. “Travel nudges us toward our fullest human potential.”

When clients express an interest in visiting a particular region or city, Oberg sees an opportunity to broaden their horizons and shifts the focus from well-known and well-traveled areas to local, less-highlighted gems. This practice, which Oberg calls townsizing, serves her mission of cultivating unique and meaningful experiences her clients want. For example, a client who intends to visit Dubrovnik or Split, Croatia, might not be aware of a woman in Šibenik, Croatia, who hosts cooking classes in her eighth century home, or understand how charming and walkable that town is, not to mention how genuine and warm the people who live there are.

Seeing the world and meeting people from all walks of life is expansive by definition. “There is always an opportunity to take a different view,” Oberg says. She speaks with the conviction and passion of someone who has experienced this kind of transformation. When she visited Germany as a teenager, she was “absolutely gobsmacked by how big and vibrant the world is,” she says. Since then, Oberg has explored and fallen in love with almost every corner of the globe. From petting reindeer in the Arctic Circle to hiking in Saint Lucia and dodging motorbikes in Kigali, Rwanda, the stories she tells are as lively as she is.

Alicia Oberg has a growing globe collection, which speaks to her love of travel to destinations near and far. Photo: Chris Emeott

Sightseeing is wonderful and fun, Oberg admits, but what Destination Directive offers is so much more than “widgeting out an itinerary,” as she puts it. After a career in accounting, Oberg served as the CFO and later as an agent for a travel advising company. Now, her vision for her own company is rooted in her commitment to curating experiences that provide authentic and memorable connections for her clients. Oberg and her team build plans for travel experiences based specifically on what clients need and their interests and priorities.

“Travel is an investment of resources,” Oberg says. Her experience in finance bolsters this reasoning. “Why rely on what a blogger suggests or what a neighbor says is a ‘must-see’? Why settle for a default vacation?” She might be onto something; for all other significant expenditures, we lean on experts in that field to ensure that we get the best result. The value of Destination Directive is the first-rate care and consideration Oberg provides for each excursion and each client.

Alicia Oberg’s home features treasured items from her travels, including a 100-year-old knife from Lars’ family’s collection.

“Of course you should visit the wonderful landmarks and museums of the world,” Oberg says, but if a client is an art aficionado, she also wants to introduce them to a couple in Seville, Spain, who specialize in art restoration. Enjoying the view from their terrace with a glass of Rioja over a conversion about artist Francisco de Goya and painter and sculptor El Greco beats a self-guided museum tour every time.

Nôtre Dame is remarkable, “but what about the guy walking around Paris with a cat on his shoulder?” Oberg says. Her challenge is to pay closer attention to the textures and details of the world. She refers to this practice of keen observation as land snorkeling—though she didn’t coin the term herself. As she continues the conversation, she leans forward and grows more animated, asking, “Where can we find the special, little gems? The places where the little old ladies in the village will come and chat with us? Where can we find magic little connections and moments?”

As a certified Virtuoso travel advisor, Oberg aims to provide her clients with personalized guidance and stress-free planning by handling all of the logistics for them, and she also extends to them the exclusive benefits and insider knowledge she is privy to as part of that global network of esteemed hotels and properties. “This job is truly a labor of love,” she says, noting that she makes herself available to her clients while they are actively traveling—whatever time zone that involves. She follows up on details and manages changes as they arise. That level of service is born out of her belief that the value of travel far exceeds its immediate experience; she knows that it has the capacity to change lives.

Destination Directive
Instagram: @destinationdirective