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Willow Mile Press

The desk in St Louis: +1 (314) 862-4517

the full catalogue, with prices, seasons and what each one includes

Reserve a vacation package in St Louis from twenty-five trips, priced per person

Twenty-five trips, nine to fourteen nights, $1,500 to $5,070 per person, every one of them open to reserve through this desk. Each is filed under the popular request it answers, and each page states the season, what the figure covers and who the trip is wrong for.

$1,500

Start from the trip you came in asking forSend a booking request

A narrow gap in a line of coastal cliffs opening onto a pale crescent beach and calm turquoise water beyond, clear morning light

Every way to reserve a vacation package in St Louis starts with somebody naming a place. Most catalogues then start with what a company wants to sell; this one starts with the twenty-five things people ask for most often and this desk declines.

Most catalogues start with what a company wants to sell. This one starts with the twenty-five things people ask Willow Mile Press for most often and we decline to arrange, and each of those twenty-five wishes leads to one trip we will place instead. You can reserve a vacation package here the same way you would anywhere else, by telling us dates and who is coming, but you get to the trip through a request we turned down, which is an odd front door and worth explaining before you use it.

The reason we work this way is that the refusals were happening anyway. Somebody would call the office in St Louis asking for a specific island in a specific month, we would say the honest thing about crowds or heat or the price of a room that week, and then the useful part of the conversation would begin. We decided to put that second half on the page instead of keeping it in the phone call. Nothing here is a judgement about the person asking. Santorini in July is beautiful and the people who want to go are right about why. It is also, in that particular month, a place where twelve thousand cruise passengers can come ashore in a single afternoon onto a town built for a few hundred, and that is a fact about the town, not about you.

The twenty-five trips you can reserve

Every trip below is open to reserve today. The square counts how close it sits to the request it answers: four sides is the same wish at a different address, one side is a different kind of trip altogether.

the same wish, a different addressa different week, or the country next dooronly the reason for going survivesa different kind of trip altogether

What people ask for

What this desk will reserve

From

You asked forBanff and Lake Louise

We will reserve insteadNine nights in the Kootenays

hot springs, ferry crossings and small mountain towns in southeastern British Columbia

from $2,840 per person

You asked forDubrovnik

We will reserve insteadNine nights on the Peljesac peninsula

vineyards, oyster beds and a coast road with room on it

from $4,840 per person

You asked forKyoto in cherry blossom season

We will reserve insteadNine nights in Kanazawa and along the Noto road

the same warm week, three hours north of the crowd

from $4,150 per person

You asked forMarrakech

We will reserve insteadNine nights in Taroudant and the western High Atlas

walled town, argan country and the road over Tizi n Test

from $2,230 per person

You asked forSantorini in July

We will reserve insteadA nine night stay on Folegandros

the same white town, the same sea, a tenth of the people

from $3,570 per person

You asked forthe Amalfi Coast

We will reserve insteadA nine night stay on the Cilento coast

the quieter shoreline that begins where the coaches turn back

from $2,240 per person

You asked forthe Camino Frances

We will reserve insteadA walking route north through Extremadura and Castile on the Via de la Plata

the old southern road, twenty-two walkers a day in season

from $4,290 per person

You asked forthe South Island of New Zealand in three weeks

We will reserve insteadNine nights in the Catlins and southern Otago

one coastline, walked slowly, instead of the whole island

from $3,720 per person

You asked fora Danube river cruise

We will reserve insteadThe Iron Gates by road and boat

the gorge where the river narrows and the road climbs

from $1,770 per person

You asked fora Greek island hopping week

We will reserve insteadNine unhurried nights on Ikaria

one island, one bed, one ferry each direction

from $2,010 per person

You asked fora Norwegian fjord cruise

We will reserve insteadNine nights on the Helgeland coast

twenty-two crossings, a rented cabin, and no arrival announcement

from $4,040 per person

You asked forBali

We will reserve insteadFourteen nights on Flores

an island where the road is the itinerary

from $4,430 per person

You asked forCosta Rica, zip lines and volcanoes

We will reserve insteadA highland and coast week in Chiriqui province

cloud forest, coffee farms and a warm gulf in one province

from $1,750 per person

You asked forPetra and Wadi Rum in a long weekend

We will reserve insteadNine nights walking the Dana Biosphere and the trail south toward Petra

a walked descent from oak highland to desert floor

from $4,330 per person

You asked forthe four day trek to Machu Picchu

We will reserve insteadA guided walk into Choquequirao from Cachora

a ruin two days from the nearest road, walked slowly

from $1,500 per person

You asked forthe Golden Circle in Iceland

We will reserve insteadNine nights on the Snaefellsnes peninsula

a west coast headland with one road around it

from $5,070 per person

You asked forthe Scottish Highlands by coach tour

We will reserve insteadA slow week in Sutherland

north coast crofting country, one bed for four nights at a time

from $3,600 per person

You asked forAngkor Wat

We will reserve insteadEleven nights in Champasak province and on the Bolaven plateau

temples with nobody at the gate, coffee farms, the Mekong going wide

from $3,890 per person

You asked forPrague, Vienna and Budapest

We will reserve insteadNine nights in Moravia, the wine country and limestone caves of the Czech southeast

one region, one bed, no travel days spent in transit

from $3,310 per person

You asked forthe Cinque Terre

We will reserve insteadNine nights walking the Monti Sibillini

high grass, limestone rims and small towns in inland Marche

from $4,530 per person

You asked forthe Serengeti in migration season

We will reserve insteadNine nights on the Rufiji in Nyerere National Park

the same wildlife year, watched from a boat instead

from $4,630 per person

You asked forTulum

We will reserve insteadNine nights in Campeche and the Rio Bec country of southern Mexico

walled town, limestone forest, four Maya sites with almost nobody in them

from $3,670 per person

You asked fora Caribbean all-inclusive week

We will reserve insteadNine nights in the south of Guadeloupe

the same warm water, without the wristband or the fence

from $2,260 per person

You asked fora Galapagos cruise

We will reserve insteadA supply ship passage through the Marquesas

the working freighter that still carries passengers north

from $4,510 per person

You asked forParis, Rome and Venice in ten days

We will reserve insteadNine nights on the ground in Emilia-Romagna

one region, four towns, no morning spent hauling bags to a platform

from $3,910 per person

What holds across all twenty-five

Every trip in this catalogue was picked because we can place it with an operator we have dealt with before, at a price we can put in writing, in a season when the place is genuinely at its best rather than merely open. That last condition removes more candidates than the other two combined. A great many destinations will sell you a room in their worst eight weeks, and a booking office that only checks availability will happily hand it to you.

The rest is consistency of handling. The operating company runs the trip and puts the bill in front of you itself, under its own terms, which you will see in full before anything is confirmed. Willow Mile Press arranges it and is paid a commission by that company after you come home, which is why there is no card field anywhere on this site and no checkout to reach. We do not advise on entry paperwork, insurance or anything medical, and we say so on the the frequently asked page rather than letting you find out at the wrong moment. We hold no opinions for sale, grade nothing, and award no marks to any operator or hotel. The catalogue is short because it is limited to things we can stand behind, and it will stay in this range rather than growing to cover everything anyone might want.

runs from

$1,500 to $5,070 per person, based on two sharing

priced against

your actual dates, not a sample week

what the figure covers

accommodation, named transfers, guided days where the trip includes them

what it does not cover

flights unless stated on the trip page, meals outside those listed, anything you add locally

who bills you

the operating company, directly, under its own terms

who we are paid by

that same company, as commission, after you return

written figure takes

two to four working days once dates are fixed

changing your mind

terms sit on the the note on getting your money back, operator by operator

A saddle between two rounded green summits with a lake far below on the far side, cloud shadow moving across

Reserve a vacation package without paying us anything

A reservation here starts as a request, not a transaction. You send dates, the number travelling and any fixed points you cannot move, and somebody reads it. Requests are read in the order they arrive and answered within one business day. A figure costed against the days you actually named takes two to four working days, because we go back to the operator rather than quoting from a rate sheet that may be six weeks stale. If the answer is that your dates do not work, you will get that in writing too, with the reason. The order of everything that happens after you send the form is set out on the the working method, and if you would rather see the wishes first, the whole list of twenty-five sits at every request paired with its trip.

This office keeps no counter hours and publishes none, because a printed opening time would be a promise about a person rather than about the work. What is promised instead is a deadline: every request that reaches the form is read in the order it arrived and answered within one business day, and if the answer needs longer than that you will get a note saying so and what it is waiting on.

Put a request in front of the desk

This form is open 24/7 and takes booking requests at any hour. It asks for no card number and no payment, because nothing is ever paid to this office. Requests are read in the order they arrive and answered within one business day.

No card number is asked for on this page or held anywhere by this office, and sending this costs nothing and commits you to nothing. A request is not a reservation: nothing is held in your name until the operating company confirms it in writing and you have read its terms.