Our Mission
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The company mission is simple, and it's all about you - matching you up with the ideal destinations and unforgettable experiences you've been dreaming about.
How do we do that? Through collaboration, listening to you, understanding how you feel, sharing insights, so that we can make the best recommendations for you and your special journey. An advantage we have with our years of extensive travel experience is that we can offer you the chance to connect with our unrivaled network of premiere travel partners. From the beginning, we focused not only on building relationships with you, our guests, but on creating trust and confidence in working with our travel partners. With our fly-fishing roots, we made it a priority to meet and work with the best guides at every location. We developed our own network of fly fishing guides worldwide, nurtured those relationships, expanded them, and today many of those guides are life-long friends. We carried that same unshakable purpose into the larger adventure and luxury tourism arenas - find and work with the best wine guides, city hosts, local concierges, gauchos, artists, river and mountain guides, all people we love spending time with, and in turn, sending our many guests to spend time with as well. In today’s world there are many 5 star destinations with luxury amenities, and spectacular natural locations that inspire awe, but the difference in the most exceptional experiences comes down to the people you share it with, including your guides, drivers, lodge and hotel staff, and others who are an integral part of creating the most memorable human connections. We love designing amazing vacations, and we couldn’t do it without our many friends and travel partners around the globe, all people who share our passion for providing journeys that strive to exceed your expectations. At Tight Loop Travel we offer a turnkey approach to your tailor-made vacation, which means you have a reliable friend you can trust to facilitate every aspect of your journey from the time we begin planning your special experience, to the time you return home. |
Who We Are
Purpose-driven - Sustainable Travel
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"Some people just love adventure, exploring, trying new things. That's us. And we love doing it together."
It's a way of thinking, dreaming, and we think about travel all the time -- about people, places and culture, skiing powder, fishing a sparkling flat, savoring a fine meal, sipping a full-bodied Malbec, watching the sky explode with color at sunset. And then we talk it over and it always turns out that we think about all the ways our guests might want to experience those things too. From our first day as professional fly fishing guides, we instinctively knew that establishing a connection with, and building long-lasting relationships with our clients, was the most important thing we would ever do in this business. And the same was true for our colleagues and providers - from guides, to lodge owners, drivers, restaurant and winery owners, and many others. We started Westbank Anglers in Jackson Hole in 1986 with a great partner who shared our passion, and very soon we were off and running with our travel business. And trust us, we didn't have a plan. It was just, hey, where do we want to go next? It was a special time, when so much of the world was relatively unexplored by fly fishers, especially the world of saltwater. Our guide service in the Jackson Hole and Yellowstone region gave us a great base, and the beginning of a loyal group of guests. Then one day an Argentine outfitter we didn’t know just showed up at our shop and invited us to visit his country for a month. How could we say no? We first visited Argentina in 1989, babes in the woods, but the trip was a success, the outfitter and his guides became our friends, and we began sending our anglers to fish the best rivers and lakes from San Martin de Los Andes to Cholila and Esquel. We rarely saw another angler. Every day was a new marvel. Over the following ten years, our tailor-made fly-fishing tourism business grew to cover the length of the country, from Tierra del Fuego, to Patagonia, Buenos Aires, Iguazu, Corrientes and Salta. But Argentina was just the tip of the proverbial iceberg. We began exploring the world in search of the finest fly-fishing destinations for our blossoming clientele; everywhere from the Bahamas and the Caribbean, to Alaska, Mexico, Chile, New Zealand, Costa Rica, the Seychelles, and points in-between. |
Along the way the Bahamas became a second home, which led us to become the authors of The Bahamas Fly-Fishing Guide. And truth be known, the research for the book was off-the-charts fun, and we have our Bahamian friends to thank for the final result.
After selling Westbank Anglers in 2002, we had more time to renew our passion for Argentina, and to branch off into wine and adventure tourism based out of Mendoza. Our travel just snowballed from there, taking us around the globe a number of times to see and experience so many fascinating destinations, but one thing never changed -- our favorite thing -- talking with our friends and guests, sharing our excitement about how we could arrange trips to those places for you all. For over 30 years now, we have been international travel industry leaders with specialties in fly-fishing, skiing, beach vacations, and luxury adventure tourism. Most recently, we joined up with Protravel International and Virtuoso, a natural progression of seeking to work with the best of the best. That has afforded us the opportunity to further build and nurture our extensive connections to the finest sporting lodges, luxury and boutique hotels and adventure program providers around the globe. And that makes it possible for us to guarantee each of our guests the chance to receive a unique local experience at every destination, with caring service and the finest in lodging, cuisine, and professionally guided activities. Based in Jackson Hole, Wyoming and Mendoza, Argentina, along with our team we are dedicated to designing and customizing itineraries to suit the individual desires of each of our guests. And this is not really work for us, it never has been; it's a passion we live to share with you all. We invite you to be in touch and put our expertise to work for you. Let’s keep dreaming together! Stephen and Kim Vletas Elevated Travel is So Virtuoso - When it comes to experiencing the best of the best in travel, it’s all about who you know. Contact us now - YOUR travel advisor. |
