Vacations that splurge on wellness are Lux World’s goal
Melinda Johnston considers herself part travel agent, part spiritual counselor.
Years ago, the Texas native who now lives in the South Wedge noticed an irony among busy people trying to get away from it all. They were “spending more and more money on vacations, on better accommodations, on the whole escape, but so many came back needing a vacation after the vacation. They left behind the things depleting them, but they’d come back depleted,” she said.
So in 2007, Johnston opened her own agency, Lux World Travel, to focus on trips that would enrich clients’ lives long after they returned home.
“I had the idea to create higher-end, customized, authentic wellness tours that embraced the cultures of the world,” Johnston explained. Her typical client needs something different, she said. Something that can’t be created by using the “standard travel model” of consulting tour operators, haggling over prices and cobbling together a cookie-cutter vacation in a few hours.
Johnston’s approach was to begin “building relationships,” from Belize to Bali and Peru to Thailand, with people she knew could provide clients with what she calls transformative experiences.
One of Lux World Travel’s earliest trips was for a family of five to Alaska, with a budget of $40,000. Johnston had six weeks to plan the custom excursion, and she had to take into consideration the family’s Hindu dietary requirements. Ultimately, the trip included a private villa, private guides, trains through the wilderness and the piece de resistance — a chartered bi-plane that flew the family over a glacier, landing them on a remote frozen pond in front of the cottage they’d be staying in. A sleigh greeted them, carrying their luggage.
After arranging that trip, Johnston began booking trips for women emphasizing “mind, body and spirit,” in places like Bali, India and Belize. She discovered that women, especially, “were willing to take time to invest in themselves.” They wanted a personalized experience. They wanted to meditate. They wanted to experience a state of peace and harmony.
“The vacations are all hands-on,” Johnston said. “We get them involved in the local surroundings. I’ll never get people on a group tour bus and drive them up to cathedrals to take photos. It’s not a cattle drive.”
And not all the trips cost tens of thousands of dollars. Lux can work with “all budgets, all tastes,” Johnston said.
Johnston now limits her Belize tours for women to eight to 10 participants who know that they can take part in activities such as wind-sailing and kayaking (the “body” part of mind, body and spirit). But their schedules are their own, from the first glass of rum punch to time for quiet reflection.
“We don’t all eat at 7 a.m. They can wake up when the sun rises, keeping a natural human rhythm. They learn stillness is OK, beauty is OK. They can find comfort in the present moment.”
When Carol Fritz first heard Johnston describe a planned women’s trip to St. George’s Caye in Belize, Fritz admits she was underwhelmed. “Snorkling, zip-lining — well, no, I’d done all that,” Fritz said.
But then Johnston mentioned the yoga and meditation, and Fritz started to reconsider. Fritz and her husband, Gary, lead active lives, volunteering for Meals on Wheels and Rochester General Hospital, going on vacations, kayaking on the lake.
“Our family had gone through some rough times. I had to let go of a lot,” said Fritz. “Gary encouraged me to go, and it was the best thing I ever did for myself.”
It was Fritz’s first “solo vacation.” She discovered that the island had no cars, no TVs and that she would, in fact, be by herself in a private cabin on the water. “It was beautiful. Thatched roof and a king sized bed enclosed in netting.”
With all the time she wanted to meditate, she added a vow of silence for 12 hours, something she had never done before.
“It was a time of deep reflection. A lot memories came to the surface and not necessarily happy ones,” Fritz said. “I ended it feeling more rejuvenated, re-energized and filled not just with ‘Belize peace’ but an overwhelming sense of peace and joy. That’s why I continue to practice (meditation) further so I can maintain it.”
When she returned home, Fritz discovered that her changed self brought out changes in others. She spent more time in “stillness and silence and reflection.” She found herself listening more and talking less. Her relationship with her husband improved. And the family troubles that had confounded her? She managed to let go of the parts she couldn’t control. “I don’t care about all that chaos anymore.”
While Johnston specializes in wellness tours, she also loves customizing honeymoons — and she will work with any budget.
Jill and Shawn Shaw picked Greece for their honeymoon destination and turned to Lux World Travel to arrange a 10-day trip on a $5,000 budget.
Johnson actually managed to spend less than that. “I got them into $1,200-a-night rooms for $250,” she said. “I can’t do that for every trip, but I can try.”
Said Jill, “It was awesome, wonderful. Neither of us have been to Europe and Melinda made it all so affordable.”
Regardless of a traveler’s situation, Lux World Travel’s goal is to help make dreams come true. For instance, Johnston arranged for a single woman to make a three-month odyssey from Cairo to Cape Town, and she planned another’s wish for a “birthday of a lifetime.”
“I had one client turning 50 who wanted to travel around the world in 21 days.” Johnston sent the woman and her husband to California for a tour of Napa, to Singapore, to Bali for eight days of yoga, to Thailand to visit with a “medicine man” featured in the movie Eat, Pray, Love, and to Frankfurt “for a bit of rest” before heading home.
Johnston continues to explore new trip ideas — evidence that she herself is a kindred spirit how she describes her clients: “dynamic people with a fire inside them.”
Upcoming women’s trips include a Zen wellness retreat in Bali (March 22-April 2) and a Cooking in Wellness trip to Italy that includes yoga sessions (May 23-30). Lux also runs ongoing wellness trips to Arizona, Costa Rica, India, Greece and other destinations. For more, visit luxworldtravel.com.
Nancy O’Donnell is a frequent contributor to Rochester Magazine.
This story originally appeared in Rochester Magazine (see more at rochmagazine.com). DC subscribers have free access to the tablet version through the Rochester Magazine app for iPad or Android.
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