Travel that knows the way
Where the bridge becomes the horizon.
Hello, I’m Richard. Twenty years in travel, more than sixty countries, and one belief that hasn’t changed: the best trips are planned by someone who actually knows the way.
Pontiris is a travel house for people who’d rather be on the journey than lost in a dozen browser tabs planning it. Hand-planned, experience-rich trips shaped around you, with LGBTQ+ insight woven through the journey rather than stamped on top.
This is a small practice, by design. Tell me the trip you’re dreaming of and I’ll write back myself.
Richard · Pontiris Warm, never cold.
Hand-planned, never a script
No template, no concierge desk. Every journey is shaped around you by someone who has spent twenty years learning what makes a trip worth taking.
The journey, not the dozen tabs
I do the part that wears people out, the research, the timing, the order of the days. That way you arrive with nothing to figure out and everything to look forward to.
The welcome, woven in
Twenty years of knowing which doors open warmly, built quietly into the whole trip. Showing you a door that was already open before you got there.
A few trips, as I’d plan them.
Sample · 9 days Crete, the long way round Chania, the Akrotiri coast, and the mountain villages behind it, planned around long lunches and late light. See the sample → 
Sample · 6 days Paris, then the Loire A city on foot and a river by car, this is a first-trip-back itinerary with room built into every evening. See the sample → 
Sample · 11 days The Norwegian autumn Fjords, the Atlantic Road, and the light in October — a slower route for two who like a drive. See the sample → A few stories worth the trip.
A slow guide A slow guide to Barcelona Catalonia’s open city — Gaudí, the sea, and a welcome built into the grid. Read the note → 
A slow guide A slow guide to Seville Andalusia’s easy warmth — the Alcázar at dawn, long shaded afternoons, and the evening you arrive for. Read the note → 
A sunlit guide A sunlit guide to Puerto Vallarta Mexico’s easy welcome — the Zona Romántica, the sunset over Banderas Bay, and why nobody blinks. Read the note → Be among the first to the horizon.
I’m opening to a small first group — the Horizon List — and the list closes at the end of August.
One name on it, drawn from everyone who joins before then, will have their next journey hand-planned by me. Their place, their pace, shaped around the trip they’re dreaming of.
Join by August 31, 2026 to be entered. One winner, drawn in early September and notified by email. No purchase necessary. Full rules.
Be first through the door.
I’m opening to a small first group — the Horizon List. Add your name and I’ll write before anyone else, with the first trips taking shape.
Tell me the trip you’re dreaming of — it’s my favorite part, and it’s how I’ll know where to begin.
Join the Horizon List before August 31, and one name on it will have their next trip hand-planned by me — start to finish, yours to take.
Planning something already? Tell me your trip — that door is open now.
Join the Horizon List
A name, an email, and the trip on your mind.