Labbé Travel offers intimate, VIP moments
Clients receive local support while traveling
Summer/Fall 2021
Written By: Evie Carrick | Images: Courtesy Labbé Travel
For a moment, imagine yourself floating over Marrakesh in a hot air balloon, enjoying a full breakfast mid-flight. Or dining with your loved one under Michelangelo’s David in an otherwise vacant museum. This is the sort of experience Labbé Travel specializes in — taking moments and turning them into once-in-a-lifetime experiences.
“When a client wants to go somewhere special, we make it special,” says Tony Labbé, who owns and operates Labbé Travel with his wife Caroline. “We take so much pride in curating those sorts of experiences.”
Labbé Travel’s ability to secure intimate, VIP moments in places like Marrakesh and Florence from their offices in Park City and Jackson Hole, is thanks to their affiliation with Virtuoso, an invite-only luxury travel network. Through Virtuoso, the Labbé team has access to on-the-ground travel specialists all over the world who do everything they can to make a client’s vacation over the top. In addition to bucket-list activities, Labbé Travel’s clients are able to secure the best rooms and hard-to-get dinner reservations, and have access to local support while they’re traveling.
Tony remembers a client whose luggage was lost en route to Peru — luggage that contained their glasses and contacts. After a call to Tony, he got in touch with his local contact to get an opthamologist to open their office — on Easter Sunday — and get the client a pair of replacement glasses and contact lenses. What could have easily been a catastrophe that ruined or delayed the client’s trip to Machu Picchu ended up being a minor hiccup. And when the missing luggage finally arrived, it was shipped directly to the client’s hotel in Machu Picchu.
Tony explains that in situations like this, it’s clear that Labbé Travel’s local network can make a big difference. “That Peru contact was a supplier who we met in Vegas and also had dinner with them in Vancouver.” Proof that solid relationships can do wonders — even across the globe.
And while Labbé Travel takes pride in their ability to provide their clients with unparalleled on-the-ground support and VIP travel experiences, a big part of their job is taking care of the logistics: booking flights, airport transfers, hotels, and securing travel insurance.
“We’re high-touch, full-service — taking care of everything, dotting all the Is and crossing all the Ts,” says Tony, who specializes in taking care of all the little details so the trip unfolds seamlessly. “Anything from the mundane — booking plane tickets so they don’t have to do it online themselves … or as much as private plane charters or trips to Antarctica or Machu Picchu or anything in between.”
In addition to working as ground control and personalized concierge, Tony and Caroline do their own on-the-ground research for clients. When I spoke to Tony, he and Caroline had just returned from a trip to Morocco — a trip that included a visit to the Sahara on camelback and a journey into the Atlas Mountains for lunch at a villager’s home. By experiencing a trip like this for themselves, the Labbés are able to use their discerning eye to nix certain hotels, restaurants, and experiences so their Morocco-bound clients can enjoy all of the highs without having to weather any of the lows.
“Everything we do for every client is very custom,” says Tony, noting that they keep meticulous notes on their clients so they can book their vacation while keeping their taste in hotels and travel preferences top of mind. It’s a formula that seems to be working. As Labbé Travel’s loyal repeat clients already know, when you work with the Labbés you can expect perfection — be it a weekend trip to Boston or a safari in Botswana.