Custom Travel Planning for your Vacation Beyond the Cruise

Mikkel Woodruff is a travel planner who makes your vacation planning easy.

I help plan your vacation — including before and after (pre- and post) cruise cities, hotels, and activities — so you can claim your time and peace of mind.

Learn How it Works

Specializing in travel to…

Europe:

  • France
  • Germany
  • Austria
  • Spain

United States

  • Alaska
  • Florida
  • North Carolina
  • South Carolina

🌎 If your desired destination is not listed but you still want customized travel planning, please reach out.

  • Aerial view of the town of Vienne and the Rhone River in France during an AmaWaterways Colors of Provence river cruise.
  • Golden limestone buildings lining a street in a quaint village named Oingt, in France's Beaujolais region.
  • Couple in fall clothing in front of a pink building in Melk, Austria.
  • Christmas Market with holiday lights in the European city of Vienna, Austria. A port stop on a Viking river cruise.
  • Bird's eye view of of two rivers and a city below in Passau, Germany.
  • Colonnades and brick of Plaza de Espana in Seville, Spain, taken from a second-story view.
  • White interior of the church in the center of Passau, Germany.
  • Looking out to a medieval town in France, called Oingt, on a misty blue-sky day.
  • Palais Longchamp cascading fountain in Marseille, France.
Mikkel against a blue wallpaper background.

Meet Your Travel Planner

Hi, I’m Mikkel (rhymes with Raquel).

I’m the co-founder of Sometimes Sailing, Sometimes Home, and the Small Ship Cruise Talk podcast — travel resources created to help travelers plan meaningful, well-thought-out trips with confidence.

For years, friends and family kept coming to me with the same request: “Can you just help me plan my luxury cruise?”

The answer is yes!

Let's get Started

I've spent decades planning detailed itineraries, researching destinations, sailing on cruise ships, and learning the nuances that most travelers only discover after a disappointing experience. Over time, I realized something important:

You don’t just need information. You need clarity, structure, and a personal trip strategist.

My role isn’t to sell you a vacation package or book on your behalf. Instead, I design your trip through a proven planning process, helping you make confident decisions, avoid costly mistakes, and build a plan you can book directly while staying in full control of your reservations, payments, and loyalty programs.

I especially love helping travelers like you who are planning a big or meaningful trip — the kind you’ve been dreaming about for years, like a milestone anniversary or birthday — and want to feel excited about it, not overwhelmed.

I am a small ship cruising expert. I know land vacations better than anyone, after planning countless trips to maximize the time seeing a destination before, during, and after a cruise. Let's talk about your dream vacation.

How it Works

1. You Reach out

To start your travel-planning process, simply fill out this questionnaire. After I receive this, I will reach out to book a no-cost consultation call. If we decide to work together, I will begin planning your trip.

2. I Plan Your Trip

With your input and feedback from our conversations, I plan your customized vacation itinerary. This is in your hands within 7-10 business days. This may include flights, hotels, and experiences (including restaurants) based on what we've agreed is the best fit for your needs.

3. We refine Your Itinerary

I will refine your trip after you review the initial itinerary. My travel planning process includes one round of revisions.

4. You Book Your Trip

With the valuable, customized itinerary I crafted specifically for you in hand, you can book your travel, including flights, hotels, and experiences, with confidence.

Arch in the main plaza of Lisbon, Portugal

  • A Stress-Free Experience, Start to Finish

    “I was completely overwhelmed by choosing experiences for my vacation until Mikkel stepped in. Her expertise made everything feel clear and manageable, and I was able to confidently book everything. I couldn’t have done it without her.”
    Stacy Goodman

I design Extraordinary Getaways, customized for you.

The right trip can become a lifelong memory.

Working with me helps remove the stress and uncertainty of trip planning so you can focus on the wonderful anticipation, the experience, and the moments you’ll remember long after you return home.

Let's Get Started
Animated paper airplane in a black circle

FAQs about Mikkel's Travel Planning Services

Yes! You have full control over your travel.

To get started, we meet and you fill out some forms that help me understand the important things to you (like flight time and connection preferences, pace of travel you enjoy, activities you gravitate towards, etc.) and then I get started to work my magic.

The nice thing about working with me, as your Travel Planner, is that the process enables you to have full control of your travel arrangements. You're hiring me to set up an itinerary and my professional recommendations for hotels, activities, and flights. But, ultimately, you're booking your travel. And in the event of a change while you're traveling (for example, if you want to cancel one tour in favor of another) you have completely control since you booked it. Which means that you don't have to wait for a middle man, like a travel agent, to get back to you in order for you to make the change.

Though I absolutely love helping plan people's dream trips, my services do not extend to booking your trip. If you are interested in having someone book your travel in addition to planning things, I recommend a travel agent. Luckily, I have a recommendation for travel agents that we work with and adore!

“Pre-cruise” refers to the days you spend in your embarkation city before your cruise begins, while “post-cruise” refers to time spent there after your cruise ends.

These terms are commonly used to describe the land portion of your trip — and they’re often one of the most overlooked opportunities to make your vacation more enjoyable and less rushed.

For example, if your Danube River cruise begins in Vienna, you might arrive two to three days early to explore the city before boarding your ship. The same is true for a Rhine River cruise that starts in Amsterdam, for instance.

This isn’t just about seeing more — it’s also about traveling smarter. Arriving early helps protect your trip from flight delays and gives you time to adjust to the destination, rather than going straight from a long travel day onto your cruise.

And since you’re already investing time and money to get there, a pre- or post-cruise stay allows you to experience a destination more fully, especially in cities where your cruise may only allow for a few hours or a single day in port.

If you’re not sure how many days to add — or how to make the most of that time — this is something I help my clients plan intentionally, so their trip feels more meaningful, well-paced, and worth the investment from start to finish.

Being independent allows me to recommend what’s right for them, not what pays me a commission. Additionally, as a frequent traveler, I always appreciate when I have full control over my contacts and itinerary during my trip and I wish that for all my clients too. Click here for more information on a travel planner vs. travel agent.