French Polynesia
Tahiti, Moorea, Bora Bora, and the islands beyond. Overwater bungalows and multi-island trips, planned by people who have actually been.
Discover French Polynesia
An exceptional trip isn’t luck — it’s Excelsus.
We plan vacations and cruises all over the world, and we sweat the details most people never think to ask about.
-
Your advisor
Brian Wendl, Virtuoso Travel Advisor (opens in a new tab)
- Planning fees From $300: see How We Work
- Also at Excelsus Alpha-Gal Vacations
Favorites & starting points
A few of our favorites
We’ve traveled to 24 countries ourselves. These six are favorites, not the limit of where we send travelers: island stays in French Polynesia, small-ship cruising with Windstar, overwater villas in the Maldives, the slower rhythm of the Caribbean, Central America, where one stay can hold both ocean and mountains, and Southeast Asia, with its limestone islands and temple towns. If you’re dreaming of somewhere else entirely, that’s exactly the conversation to have with us.
Windstar Cruises
Small ships with tall sails that anchor in lagoons too shallow for the big fleets. It still feels like yachting, because it is.
Discover Windstar
Maldives
Overwater villas with a house reef steps from your deck. The right resort depends on how you like to spend a day, and that’s the part we help with.
Discover the Maldives
Caribbean
Close to home, but no two islands alike. Barefoot-luxury resorts, private villas, and weeks spent sailing from one island to the next.
Discover the Caribbean
Central America
Ocean and mountains in a single stay. Reef cayes and surf beaches on the coast, volcanoes and cloud forest a few hours inland.
Discover Central America
Southeast Asia
Limestone islands you reach by longtail boat, temple towns worth slowing down for, and jungle highlands when you want cooler air.
Discover Southeast AsiaDon’t see your destination here? That doesn’t mean we don’t plan it. This list is a starting point. Tell us where you want to go, near or far, and we’ll give you a straight answer about how we can help.
Ask about somewhere elseHow we work
How We Work
Every trip we plan follows the same four steps. And it doesn’t end when you board the plane. While you’re traveling, we’re a call or a message away if plans change.
-
Enquire
Tell us about the trip you have in mind: where, roughly when, and how you like to travel. A short inquiry or a phone call is all it takes to start.
-
Consult
We talk it through together. Your travel style, your budget, what matters most to you, and what you can happily skip. This is where knowing a place firsthand starts to pay off.
-
Proposal
You get a trip built around you: the ship or resort, transfers, tours, and the small requests that make it yours. Then we adjust it together until it feels right.
-
Travel
You go, and we keep an eye on things. Flights, rooms, and reservations are all coordinated, and if something changes mid-trip, you reach a real person who knows your itinerary.
Planning fees start at $300. That covers the research, the design work, and the booking, plus a person in your corner from the first conversation until you’re home again.
New at Excelsus
Vacations where the menu is planned for you
If you live with alpha-gal syndrome, eating well on vacation takes real planning. We’re building trips where the food is sorted out before you go, starting with a dedicated Windstar cruise in the works for 2029.
Explore Alpha-Gal Vacations
From the road
The Travel Journal
When we travel to the places we send you, we write it down. Day-by-day notes, photos, and honest first impressions, starting with two weeks across French Polynesia.
Read the journalStart here
Plan my trip
Tell us a little about the trip you’re imagining. The inquiry form opens in a new tab. Leave your contact details and a few notes, and we’ll write back personally.
It takes just a few minutes. Tell us where you’d like to go, when you’re thinking of traveling, and anything else that matters: an occasion, a must-see, a question you’ve been sitting on. Planning fees start at $300, and there’s no obligation to book.
Start my trip inquiry (opens in a new tab)Prefer to talk first? Call or text (757) 798-3817 or email excelsustravel@gmail.com.
Destinations
A few favorites, and a world beyond them
We plan travel all over the world, and every trip is built one at a time, for one set of travelers. The places below aren’t the whole map. They’re just some of our favorites, and a good place to start dreaming. Picturing somewhere else entirely? Tell us, and we’ll build the trip around it.
French Polynesia Island Stays
French Polynesia is where Excelsus began, and it’s one of the specialties we hold certifications in. Tahiti, Moorea, Bora Bora, and the outer islands each feel different, and picking the right one matters more than people expect. That’s what a specialization is for. We match the island, the resort, and the room to the trip you want: overwater bungalow or garden villa, lagoon days or mountain hikes, a celebration or total quiet.
We coordinate transfers, inter-island flights, tours, and special requests with partners we trust on the islands, so things run smoothly from the moment you land.
Good for
- Once-in-a-lifetime trips that have to be right
- Island-hopping across two or three islands
- Travelers who want local knowledge, not guesswork
Windstar Cruises
Windstar’s small sailing ships and all-suite yachts sail all over the world, calling at smaller ports and anchoring in bays and lagoons the big ships can’t enter. It still feels like yachting, because it is.
Pair the sailing days with time ashore (a few nights in port before or after, a local tour, time to explore on your own) and the trip really comes together.
Good for
- Honeymoons and milestone celebrations
- Sailors at heart who want a ship that still feels like a yacht
- Travelers who want to see several places without repacking
The Maldives
A scattering of coral atolls in the Indian Ocean, home to some of the calmest resorts anywhere. The difference between a good Maldives trip and a great one is the match: house reef or sandbank, lively or secluded, seaplane or speedboat. It’s worth a conversation before you book.
We also sort out the routing and the transfers, and if you like, a few nights somewhere else along the way, so getting there feels easy too.
Good for
- Overwater villa escapes and honeymoons
- Snorkeling and diving over house reefs
- Travelers who want to truly switch off
The Caribbean
The Caribbean isn’t one destination. It’s dozens, and each island has its own character. St. Lucia’s Pitons, the sailing grounds of the Virgin Islands, quiet villa islands, grand old resorts: all of it a short flight from home.
We plan Caribbean trips of all kinds: luxury resorts, private villas with staff, crewed yacht weeks, and small-ship cruises, including the alpha-gal friendly Windstar sailing in the works for 2029.
Good for
- Shorter getaways that still feel a world away
- Multi-generational and group trips
- Sailing, diving, and beach time in equal measure
Central America
What Central America does best is contrast, packed into short distances. On the Caribbean side you’ll find cayes and reef towns; Belize’s barrier reef is the largest in the northern hemisphere. A few hours inland, the land climbs into volcano country, coffee highlands, and cloud forest. Nicaragua’s Ometepe Island sums it up: two volcanoes rising straight out of a huge lake, beaches at their feet. Ocean and mountains aren’t two separate trips here. They’re the same stay.
We build trips here as one journey, beach days and mountain days woven together, with the transfers, ferries, and timing worked out so it never feels rushed.
Good for
- Travelers who want beach and mountains in one trip
- Reef snorkeling and diving off Belize’s cayes
- Adventure mixed with slow, warm downtime
Southeast Asia
Few regions reward a bit of planning like this one. In Thailand you get temple towns and some of the best food anywhere, then the Andaman coast: limestone islands, longtail boats, water in impossible shades of blue. Indonesia spreads across thousands of islands, from Bali’s rice terraces and temples to quieter corners you can only reach by boat.
The trick is the order you do things in. Which islands pair well, which coast suits the season, how to mix the famous sights with the places in between. Get that right and the trip flows instead of zig-zagging.
Good for
- Island-hopping by longtail boat and ferry
- Temple, culture, and food-focused journeys
- Travelers mixing iconic sights with quieter islands
Beyond this page
Somewhere else in mind?
This page covers a few favorites. It isn’t a boundary. Europe, Africa, expedition cruising, a honeymoon, a big anniversary: if a trip is worth planning carefully, it’s worth a conversation. Tell us where you’re dreaming of going, and we’ll be honest about whether we’re the right people to plan it. If we’re not, we’ll say so and point you toward someone who is.
Tell us where you’re dreaming ofAlpha-Gal Vacations
Dinner, planned as carefully as the trip
Alpha-gal syndrome is an allergy to mammalian meat and related products, usually triggered by a bite from a lone star tick. For people who live with it, every restaurant menu becomes a risk assessment. We plan vacations where that work is done ahead of time.
Why this exists
This isn’t a marketing niche for us. It’s personal. We know firsthand how hard it is to find a safe meal on vacation, and how fast one careless kitchen can undo a whole trip. That experience is why Alpha-Gal Vacations exists.
How we plan it
Every alpha-gal trip starts with the food. Meals are built on vegan menus, with fish and fowl as the proteins. No mammalian meat, and no dairy, which many people with alpha-gal react to as well. We work out the details with suppliers before you travel, so you can sit down and order without cross-examining every plate.
In the works for 2029
A Windstar cruise, designed for alpha-gal travelers
We’re working with Windstar Cruises on a 2029 Caribbean sailing where the whole ship’s dining is planned around alpha-gal: mammal-free menus built on vegan foundations, plus fish and fowl, drinks screened for hidden animal products, and an alpha-gal specialist on board. Dates and pricing aren’t out yet. Join the interest list and you’ll hear first.
Join the 2029 interest list (opens in a new tab)Not just the cruise
Alpha-gal friendly planning applies to any trip we build: a resort, a villa, a cruise, anywhere we can have the dining conversation with the kitchen before you arrive. If there’s a trip you’ve been putting off because of the food, tell us about it. That is exactly the kind of trip we started Excelsus to plan.
Talk to us about a tripTravel Journal
Notes from the road
We travel to the places we plan, and we write it down as we go. The journal is a day-by-day record from our trips: the properties we inspect, the tours we test, and the things we’d want you to know before you book.
Now writing: French Polynesia
Two weeks across Tahiti, Moorea, and Bora Bora. Market mornings in Papeete, lagoon tours, a jungle grotto on Tahiti Iti, property inspections, and plenty of notes on what surprised us. We’ll add new trips as they happen.
The journal opens in a new tab.
About
About Excelsus
Excelsus is a small travel studio founded by Brian Wendl. It rests on a simple belief: an exceptional trip isn’t luck. It’s planned.
Specialist knowledge, personal service
Brian is a Virtuoso travel advisor and a Gold-level Certified Tahiti Specialist. He plans luxury vacations, cruises, and celebrations all over the world, for people who would rather get a trip right than get it fast. French Polynesia is his signature specialty. It is not his only one. Every trip is handled end to end by someone who knows your name and your itinerary: flights, hotels, transfers, tours, and the special requests in between.
Excelsus is also home to Alpha-Gal Vacations, trips planned from the menu up for people living with alpha-gal syndrome. The project has personal roots, and we’re building it carefully, starting with a dedicated Windstar cruise planned for 2029.
EXPLORE. EXPERIENCE. REMEMBER.
Credentials
Brian’s credentials
-
Virtuoso Travel Advisor
Brian Wendl is listed as a travel advisor with Virtuoso, the global network of luxury travel advisors. View Brian’s Virtuoso profile (opens in a new tab)
-
Certified Tahiti Specialist (Gold)
Brian is listed as a Gold Specialist in Tahiti Tourisme’s Certified Tahiti Specialist directory. French Polynesia is a signature specialty for Excelsus, from Windstar sailings to island stays across the Society and Tuamotu islands. It is one specialty among the trips we plan all over the world. View Brian’s Tahiti Specialist profile (opens in a new tab)
Directory specialties: Taha’a, Tahiti, Rangiroa, Adventure, Cultural, Honeymoon, Luxury, Wedding.
Specialty badges:
- Multi-Island Itinerary Building
- Tahitian Guesthouses
- Cruise Options Overview
- Sustainable Tourism Principles
- Tahitian Language and Cultural Etiquette
- Family-Friendly Accommodation
- Honeymoon Planning
- Diving in The Islands of Tahiti
Start a conversation
No pressure, no obligation. Tell us about the trip you’re dreaming of, and we’ll give you a straight answer about how we can help.
Contact ExcelsusContact
Talk to Brian
Call, text, WhatsApp, email, or start an inquiry. Whichever is easiest for you. You’ll hear back from Brian personally.
-
Phone
(757) 798-3817
Call or text. If we’re traveling or with a client and miss you, leave a message or send an email and we’ll get back to you as soon as we can.
-
Email
excelsustravel@gmail.com
For inquiries, ideas, or trips already in motion.
-
WhatsApp
+1-757-798-3817 (opens in a new tab)
Message Brian on WhatsApp. It’s handy while you’re traveling, or if you’d rather chat than call.
Planning fees
Planning fees start at $300. Every trip follows the same four steps (Enquire, Consult, Proposal, Travel), and we’re still on hand while you’re traveling. See How We Work for the full process.
Send an inquiry
The inquiry form opens in a new tab. Leave your contact details and a few notes about the trip you have in mind, and we’ll reply personally.
Tell us where you’d like to go, when you’re thinking of traveling, and anything else that matters: an occasion, a must-see, a question you’ve been sitting on. Planning fees start at $300, and there’s no obligation to book.
Start my trip inquiry (opens in a new tab)Prefer to talk first? Call or text (757) 798-3817 or email excelsustravel@gmail.com.