Luxury travel has always come down to some sense of place. The best hotels offer a beautiful way to experience it—through architecture, service, and cuisine—but really immersing yourself in a destination requires leaving the four walls of your hotel behind. Of course, figuring out how to do that is another matter. How many times have you started planning some activities for your trip, only to find yourself drowning in an endless sea of recommendations, private guides, and supposedly once-in-a-lifetime experiences?
That’s the idea behind The Luxury Collection Expeditions, a new portfolio of immersive travel experiences designed to bring guests closer to the people, traditions, and landscapes that define a destination. The Luxury Collection, Marriott International’s portfolio of more than 130 hotels and resorts across over 40 countries and territories, is expanding its role as a gateway to the places it calls home. Think private access to rarely opened temples in Japan, a hands-on winemaking master class in Spain, or a journey through the Greek islands by helicopter and yacht. Each experience has been meticulously curated and deeply vetted to connect travelers with local experts and cultural traditions, while drawing on the hospitality and service that define the brand.
“At the Luxury Collection, we have long believed that a destination reveals itself through its people, rituals, and landscapes, and through the knowledge passed down over time,” said Bruce Rohr, vice president and global brand leader of The Luxury Collection. “Expeditions are a natural expression of that belief, inviting our guests to venture beyond the walls of their hotel and into the living fabric of a place.”
The inaugural collection offers 10 Expeditions in three forms, from multi-day journeys spanning several destinations to single-day discoveries and hands-on residencies with specialists. The grandest are the Private Tailored Journeys: multi-day itineraries linking destinations and Luxury Collection hotels through private transportation and expert-led experiences. In Japan, The Imperial Journey spans 10 days across Tokyo, Kyoto, and Nara. Guests will visit a samurai residence, make sushi with a fourth-generation master, explore rarely opened temple spaces alongside a resident monk, and dine with a geisha in Kyoto. The Aegean Odyssey links Mykonos, Paros, and Santorini by helicopter and yacht, with a private archaeological tour of Delos and tastings of indigenous Greek grape varieties in a historic Santorini wine cellar.
But the real showstopper is Italy’s Grand Italia Rally. Inspired by the country’s legendary endurance races, it is a seven-day loop from Milan to Venice to Florence and back again, driven in a pristine 1955 FIAT 1100 TV Spider or 1962 Alfa Romeo Giulietta Spider. The route’s three legs thread through Lombardy, Veneto, Emilia-Romagna, and Tuscany, visiting some of Italy’s most iconic Luxury Collection properties along the way: Casa Brera in Milan, The Gritti Palace in Venice, and The Excelsior in Florence. Best of all? A support van carries your luggage the entire time—so all you need to do is worry about living your best dolce vita.
Day Discoveries are tailored toward travelers who prefer a single, perfectly composed day. At Suiran in Kyoto, Farm to Fermentation follows the city’s rich preservation culture, as its name implies, from farm to fermentation, where up to four guests learn the rice-bran technique of nukazuke before a field-side picnic and teppanyaki dinner. At The Phoenician in Scottsdale, Arizona, Desert Icons goes behind the scenes at the Desert Botanical Garden, then on to a private tour of Frank Lloyd Wright’s former winter home and studio, Taliesin West.
The third category, Residences & Collaborations, is the most hands-on. At Hotel Marqués de Riscal in Elciego, Spain, The Art of Winemaking spans five days of harvesting with a viticulture team and blending a personal wine in the laboratory. Afterward, your blend ages in French oak before 40 custom-labeled bottles ship to your door. At Salterra in Turks & Caicos, guests can join marine scientists in a coral nursery, explore secluded flats with a bonefishing expert, or kayak through the Northern Cays before stargazing beneath the island’s dark skies.
Taken together, these new Expeditions span everything from a few illuminating hours to bucket-list journeys across entire regions. What connects them is an emphasis on the people who know a place best—the historians, artisans, chefs, winemakers, and conservationists who offer a window into the heritage and traditions that have shaped it. And in an era when travel inspo is everywhere, there’s something appealing about having the hard part handled by the pros who know a destination intimately.
