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Far AfieldPassport

Departures

Board updated MT

  1. 02 NOV: FA142 to paro, bhutan lodge to lodge. 2 rooms.
  2. 18 NOV: FA207 to el calafate, southern ice field. on time.
  3. 06 DEC: OC24 to canyon country, launch dinner. sealed.
  4. 23 JAN: FA096 to hakuba, ryokan + backcountry. 1 room.
  5. 14 MAR: OC31 to westfjords, leadership retreat. private.
  6. 06 APR: FA311 to windhoek, skeleton coast by air. on time.
  7. 01 JUN: FA078 to longyearbyen, svalbard under sail. 3 berths.
  8. 27 JUN: OC11 to cortina, wedding at a rifugio. private.
  9. 18 SEP: OC40 to vienna, 60th birthday by train. sealed.
  10. 29 SEP: FA455 to ulaanbaatar, the altai by horse. waitlist.

The far side of the map, arranged.

Expeditions and private occasions

Expeditions with a warm bed at the end of the day, and private occasions in places most planners won't quote. Six departures a month, never more.

35°41′13″N 105°56′16″WSanta Fe

A roped party of walkers crossing a broken, snow-covered glacier under mountains
Plate ICrossing the Southern Patagonian Ice Field, day five.49°26′S 73°10′W

About Far Afield

We plan about seventy departures a year. Each one is run by the planner who answers the phone if the weather turns.

A long dinner table at night, set with candles, flowers and glassware
Departures a month, at most
6
Countries we know first-hand
31
Planner, from brief to home
1

01Journeys

Six expeditions, each with a warm bed waiting.

Every itinerary below is a starting point. We change the dates, the pace and the beds to suit you, then hold the plan steady when the weather doesn't.

A glacier face meeting a turquoise lake below snow-capped peaks in Los Glaciares National Park
Patagonia, Argentina · -49.33°, -72.89°
Far AfieldBoarding pass · PrivateFA207
FromJFKNew York
ToFTEEl Calafate

Across the Southern Ice Field

Five days on the ice with two mountain guides and a camp chef, bookended by a private wing of an estancia.

Passenger
You, plus party
Duration
11 days
Season
November to March
Party size
2 to 8 guests
Gate
Your front door
From, per person
$28,400

On this pass

  • Heated dome camp with real mattresses and a shower tent
  • Two spare days for weather, built in and usually used
  • The west face of Cerro Torre from the Circo de los Altares
  • First and last nights at Estancia Cerro Brujo
SeatWindow, alwaysToFTEFA207 · 11D

Your planner: Tomás Echeverría

02The Atlas

Every route from your door.

Choose where you'd fly from. Each line is a great circle, the shortest path between two points on a sphere, which is why they curve.

Drag to turn the globe. Arrow keys work too.

Flying from

Journeys

Occasions

JFKFTE

Across the Southern Ice Field

Great-circle distance
10,005 km · 6,217 mi
In the air, roughly
12 h 45 min
See the itinerary

03Occasions

Private occasions, a long way from the nearest ballroom.

Weddings, retreats, launches and birthdays for 12 to 200 guests. We find the place, get the permits, move everyone there and leave it as we found it.

A stone mountain hut on a grassy shoulder beneath three enormous rock towers

OC11MountainLate June

A wedding at a mountain refuge

A rifugio at 2,400 m, the Dolomites, Italy

64 guests

R. and J. wanted their families on a mountain without anyone hiking in heels. We took the rifugio for three days, brought guests up by chairlift and 4x4, and hid a generator, a string quartet and 140 litres of Franciacorta behind the hut. The vows were at five, when the light turns the rock pink.

What we handled

  • Exclusive use of the rifugio for three nights
  • The chairlift kept running after hours
  • A valley hotel held as plan B until noon on the day
  • Two doctors among the staff, not the guests
A dark wooden house on a fjord shore, with snow-streaked mountains reflected in the water

OC31SeaMarch

A leadership retreat on a fjord

A lodge in the Westfjords, Iceland

18 guests

A board of eighteen needed three days without a signal and one decision at the end. We booked the only lodge on the fjord, flew everyone from Reykjavík on two small aircraft and kept the agenda to mornings. Afternoons were sea kayaks, a hot spring on the shore and, on the second night, the northern lights.

What we handled

  • Two chartered aircraft from Reykjavík
  • A facilitator and a chef, nobody else
  • A satellite link for one call a day
  • Snow chains, spare tyres and a mechanic on standby
Sunlit orange sandstone walls curving through a narrow slot canyon

OC24DesertOctober

A launch dinner in a desert canyon

Canyon country, southern Utah

120 guests

A watchmaker launching a new model wanted an evening nobody would describe as a launch. We found a box canyon on private land two hours from the nearest airport, built a 60-metre table on the sand and lit it with 1,800 candles and nothing else. The canyon was cleared by three in the morning and left as we found it.

What we handled

  • A land-use permit and the landowners' blessing
  • A kitchen built from nothing on the canyon floor
  • Shuttles from a private airstrip at sunset
  • Leave-no-trace clearance before dawn
A vintage dining car with polished wood panels and tables laid for dinner

OC40CitySeptember

A sixtieth birthday on a chartered train

Vienna to Venice, over the Semmering

42 guests

For a sixtieth, we chartered four 1920s carriages and a dining car, coupled them to a locomotive in Vienna and took the long way to Venice. Forty-two guests, one night aboard, a jazz trio in the bar car and an unscheduled stop at a mountain station where a brass band was waiting. The birthday girl didn't know about the band.

What we handled

  • Paths booked across three rail networks
  • Sleeper cabins refitted with new linen and real pillows
  • A stop at a station that isn't on the timetable
  • Water taxis waiting at Santa Lucia

Venue explorer

Places we've already done the hard part for.

Each of these has said yes to a private occasion before, and each one comes with a plan B we have tested.

8 venues showing

  • A small mountain hut on a scree slope beneath a pale limestone peak

    Mountain

    Rifugio Forcella

    The Dolomites, Italy

    64 seated · 90 standing

    Getting there
    Chairlift, or 4x4 on the service track
    Best
    Late June to September
  • A traditional dark-timbered Japanese house on a snowy slope

    Mountain

    Ryokan Yukimichi

    Northern Alps, Japan

    24 seated · 30 standing

    Getting there
    An hour by car from Nagano station
    Best
    All year, snow from December
  • A rounded outcrop of red sandstone under a deep blue sky

    Desert

    A box canyon on private land

    Southern Utah, United States

    140 seated · 220 standing

    Getting there
    Private airstrip, then 25 minutes by van
    Best
    April to May, September to October
  • The sharp ridge of a tall orange sand dune against a pale sky

    Desert

    Dune camp, Sossusvlei

    Namib Desert, Namibia

    30 seated · 40 standing

    Getting there
    An airstrip four minutes from the tents
    Best
    April to November
  • White houses with red roofs on a green shore beside a calm fjord

    Sea

    The lodge at Hestfjörður

    Westfjords, Iceland

    22 seated · 30 standing

    Getting there
    Charter to Ísafjörður, then 50 minutes by road
    Best
    All year; northern lights September to March
  • A small ship moored beside a towering iceberg on dark water

    Sea

    Schooner Nordlys

    Svalbard, Norway

    12 seated · 20 standing

    Getting there
    Boards at Longyearbyen harbour
    Best
    Late May to August
  • A red and yellow hilltop palace with a clock tower against a blue sky

    City

    Quinta da Névoa

    The Sintra hills, Portugal

    180 seated · 300 standing

    Getting there
    35 minutes from Lisbon airport
    Best
    April to October
  • A wooden Japanese townhouse entrance lit warmly at night behind a cloth curtain

    City

    A machiya in Gion

    Kyoto, Japan

    16 seated · 24 standing

    Getting there
    In the old town, by private car to the door
    Best
    All year; spring and autumn book early

04How we plan

Four legs, one planner, no handovers.

The person who takes your brief is the person on the phone while you're away. Here is the route card we work from.

  1. Leg 01045°45 minutes

    The brief

    You
    Tell us who's coming, when, and what a good day looks like to you.
    We
    Listen, ask the awkward questions (budget, fitness, who snores) and say honestly whether we're the right people.
  2. Leg 02112°1 to 3 weeks

    The reconnaissance

    You
    Nothing, unless you'd like to.
    We
    Check every lodge, guide and airstrip against this season, not last. Where we haven't been this year, someone we trust goes.
    A single-engine bush plane parked on a red dirt airstrip among acacia trees
    Recce flight, May 2026. Someone always goes first.
  3. Leg 03204°Up to departure day

    The arrangement

    You
    Approve one plan, with every price and every fallback written down.
    We
    Contracts, permits, charters, dietary notes, and a plan B for every day the weather decides.
  4. Leg 04318°Every hour you're away

    In the field

    You
    Be there. That's the whole job.
    We
    A planner on call around the clock, a fixer on the ground, and a debrief once you're home.

The planners

Four people, thirty-one countries.

We are small on purpose. Each planner runs no more than two departures at once.

  • Far AfieldPlanner · Founder, occasions
    Surname
    Ellery
    Given names
    Margot
    Regions
    The Alps, Namibia, the American West
    Languages
    English, French, Italian
    With us since
    2011

    Ran events for an auction house for nine years. Can seat two hundred on a slope and still find the bride's mother a chair.

  • Far AfieldPlanner · Polar and sea
    Surname
    Halvorsen
    Given names
    Ingrid
    Regions
    Svalbard, Iceland, Greenland
    Languages
    Norwegian, English, German
    With us since
    2015

    Fifteen seasons as an expedition leader before she moved to a desk she rarely sits at.

  • Far AfieldPlanner · Patagonia and the Andes
    Surname
    Echeverría
    Given names
    Tomás
    Regions
    Argentina, Chile, Bolivia, Peru
    Languages
    Spanish, English, Portuguese
    With us since
    2014

    Grew up on an estancia near El Chaltén. Knows which guides you'd want if the weather turns.

  • Far AfieldPlanner · High Asia
    Surname
    Watanabe-Hale
    Given names
    Kenji
    Regions
    Japan, Bhutan, Nepal, Mongolia
    Languages
    Japanese, English, some Dzongkha
    With us since
    2017

    A former ski patroller in Hakuba. Reads an avalanche bulletin the way most people read the weather.

05Letters home

What they wrote afterwards.

Initials only. Our clients value discretion, and so do we.

  • We had one question in eleven days, and it was answered before we'd finished asking.

    C.L.Zurich · Southern Ice Field
  • Rain came in on the wedding day. Plan B was ready by ten, and nobody could tell it wasn't plan A.

    R. & J.M.Toronto · The Dolomites
  • They told us the odds of a bear were one in three. We saw two, and they still didn't take the credit.

    A.K.Singapore · Svalbard
  • Eighteen people, no signal, one decision. We made it on the third morning.

    T.H.London · Westfjords retreat
  • My mother is eighty-one. She walked to the Tiger's Nest at her own pace, with a pony waiting at every bend.

    The O. familyMelbourne · Bhutan

In print

  • Haute Latitude

    The rare planner who tells you what can go wrong before what will go right.

    Winter 2025

  • The Meridian Review

    Arranges the remote with the calm of a good maître d'.

    No. 41

  • Compass & Ledger

    Six departures a month. They mean it.

    Spring 2026

  • Long Weekend Quarterly

    Their canyon dinner is still the table people talk about.

    Issue 18

06Brief us

Sketch a trip in a minute.

Move the dials and we'll draft a day-by-day from the same notes our planners use. It's a sketch, not a quote, and nothing leaves this page until you send it.

What are we planning?
Who's going?
When
Where your mind goes
Balanced
Exceptional
A proper day out
Budget, per person

Itinerary sketchNº FA-0000-00

Across the Southern Ice Field

Prepared for

JFKFTE
    Where you'll sleep
    Getting about

      Sketch estimate

      $0 per person

      Sketch only. Prices are illustrative for a fictional brand.

      Send this sketch with a brief

      07The small print

      The small print, in normal print.

      How bookings work, written so you can hold us to it.

      1. 01

        Prices

        Every price here is from, per person, in US dollars, sharing a room, for the dates we name. A sketch from the builder is a sketch. Your quote is a fixed figure, in writing, before you pay anything.

      2. 02

        Deposit and balance

        A 25% deposit holds your dates. The balance is due 90 days before departure, or with your booking if you're inside that window.

      3. 03

        Cancelling

        Up to 120 days out, we return your deposit less a $1,500 planning fee. From 119 to 60 days, we keep 50% of the total. Inside 60 days we can't return payments, because by then we've paid the people on the ground.

      4. 04

        Weather and wildlife

        Ice, wind and animals keep their own schedules. We build spare days into anything the weather decides, and we never promise a sighting.

      5. 05

        Insurance

        Travel insurance with medical evacuation cover of at least $500,000 is a condition of travel. We'll point you to brokers. We don't sell it ourselves, so we have no reason to upsell you.

      6. 06

        Occasions

        Our planning fee is 15% of the occasion's cost, quoted up front. Suppliers bill at cost and you see their invoices.

      7. 07

        Your money

        Client payments sit in a separate trust account until we pay suppliers. Seller of travel licence no. DEMO-0000.

      8. 08

        How many we take

        Six departures and two occasions a month, at most. If we can't give your dates our full attention, we'll say so and suggest others.

      08Send a brief

      Tell us where, roughly. We'll do the rest.

      A planner replies within one working day with questions, never a brochure.

      No. 9 Meridian Row, second floorSanta Fe, New Mexico 87501+1 505 555 0147brief@example.comBy appointment, Monday to Friday, 8:00 to 18:00 Mountain TimeSanta Fe MT

      Who's going, what a good day looks like, anything we should know.

      Best way to reach you

      This is a demo. The form checks your answers and stops there; nothing is sent anywhere.