Welcome To SMO Travel
Enjoy Authentic Travel Experiences Planned by Us & Inspired by You
We get it— you want a vacation that allows you to explore the world at your own pace and create lasting moments. We also get that making all travel components connect perfectly can feel exhausting and overwhelming.
But that is where we step in with our extensive knowledge and connections within the travel industry, which allows us to create an itinerary that perfectly suits your travel style and vision.
HOW ARE WE DIFFERENT?
We Believe In Travel That Is
Immersive & Inspiring
We create personalized itineraries for unique cultural experiences so you can enjoy unforgettable memories that last a lifetime.
As a specialized travel agency, we focus on the experience, designing personalized itineraries according to your travel goals and vision. And with our exclusive network of industry leaders, it won't take long before everything quickly falls into place.
Meet Your Travel Advisor
Stephen Otten
Founder & CEO
I was born and raised in Ellicott City, MD, and lives there to this day with my wife and 3 kids. My love of travel began an early age because of travel soccer. I was able to travel all over the country for tournaments but got my first experience with international travel during the summer prior to my junior year in high school. My team had the opportunity to participate in 2 tournaments in Denmark at the time Holland, now commonly called the Netherlands. This experience was eye opening, getting to meet kids from different cultures and delving into new cuisines. To this day I still miss dipping french fries into mayonnaise like I did in Amsterdam; mayonnaise here in America just isn’t the same. Not to mention our stop at a McDonald’s in Germany on our bus trip from Denmark to Amsterdam and seeing beer on the menu, left a 16 year me wanting to move to Germany right away.
But like everything else, life gets in the way, and my aspirations for travel had to be put on the back burner as I tried to finish school and begin to raise a family. But it only took a planned large family Disney cruise to reignite that flame. The cruise was professionally planned, and when I returned, I decided to investigate booking a trip for my family and found it wasn’t as easy as it looked. Knowing that I am intelligent and having difficulty, I wondered how others may be feeling about planning their own vacations. That led me to opening my travel business with Cruise Planners, and I was off and running.
Things were going great, but that all changed with the global pandemic. With travel shutdown, I had to re-evaluate my relationship with a big travel company and decided that it was in my best interest to go out on my own and narrow my focus on river and expedition cruising. This move allowed me to stop trying to offer everything to everyone, essentially being a jack of all trades, and instead become a master of a few to better service my clients. I have since opened the business to offering tours, safaris, and custom itineraries.
When I am not busy planning trips, I can be found at my kids sporting events. Either I am at one son’s baseball games, the other son’s swim meets, or my daughter’s dance performances.