Custom itineraries built one traveler at a time — guided by locals, woven through hidden places, and crafted for the moments you'll remember forever.
In the business of memory-making
No crowds. No cookie-cutter tours. Every minute is considered — from the moment you step out your front door to the moment you arrive back home — so you experience a place through its people, its culture, and the doors only a local can open.
Tell Steve what you're after — history, thrill, indulgence, or pure escape — and he builds a plan for exactly that.
Hand-picked guides, hosts, and experience-makers give you the real place, not the tourist façade.
The hidden gems most travelers walk right past — found through 40 years of relationships worldwide.
As busy or as relaxed as you like. Solo, couples, families, or small groups of friends — all welcome.
Begin the journey
Four quick choices and we'll shape the starting point. Steve takes it from there — refining every detail with you until it's perfect.
Make your selections above and we'll sketch the beginning of your trip…
Send this to Steve →A few of Steve's worlds
Starting points, not packages off a shelf — each one fully reshaped around you.
Kanazawa, Takayama & Kyoto by rail — castle towns, craft districts, and tea houses between the cities.
Fjords, fishing villages, and slow mornings on the water — landscape as the whole point.
Anchorage to the northern slope — glaciers, wildlife, and roadhouses few travelers ever reach.
The Serengeti and Ngorongoro with guides who track the herds by instinct, not itinerary.
Cloud forests, volcanoes, and hidden beaches — with hosts who know every trail and tide.
Vineyard tables, hill-town markets, and long lunches with the families who grow the food.
Lake cabins, city design, and the everyday rhythms of Swedish life — lived from the inside.
How we work together
A design fee secures Steve's time and expertise; a 50% deposit gets your trip underway and is applied toward your travels.
A signature trip, lightly tailored to your dates, party, and interests.
Semi-custom — a journey reshaped around your interests, pace, and pace of life.
Fully white-glove. Complex, multi-country, built entirely from scratch.
From hello to home again
A relaxed conversation about what you're dreaming of.
Steve sketches your journey; a deposit gets it underway.
We polish every detail together until it's exactly right.
You go — supported, connected, and free to simply enjoy.
You come home changed, with stories that last a lifetime.
Your travel advisor
For more than 40 years, Steve Fader has been perfecting a single craft: designing trips that feel nothing like tourism. What began as meticulously planned journeys for his own family has grown into a calling — creating custom, curated trips for travelers all over the world.
His gift is connection. Steve builds personal relationships with guides, hosts, and experience-makers in each place, so his travelers step behind the shiny curtain to the hidden gems most people overlook — not a single stone left unturned in what can be seen, heard, smelled, or tasted. And because no two travelers are alike, every itinerary flexes around you: as busy or as restful as you wish.
From across Japan to Northern and Eastern Europe, through Central America, and all the way to the northern slope of Alaska, Steve has spent a lifetime chasing that next special moment to share. He's not in the business of crowded, commercialized tours. He's in the business of memory-making — and he'd love to make yours.
Plan a Trip with SteveIn their words
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Start the conversation
Tell Steve a little about the journey you have in mind. He personally reads and replies to every inquiry — usually within a day or two.
Prefer to reach out directly?
Email bigstepstravel@gmail.com