All travellers know the feeling when the road has tired them out and they long to be home. But can the sense of home arise somewhere other than where you have built your life? Viktoria Pechenkina, founder and CEO of the premium international travel agency Luxury Support Travel, with twenty years of experience, knows where and how you can truly feel at home — and her answer is precise.
The English word hospitality comes from Old French hospice, meaning hospitable home. That etymology resonates at the core of her business. She invites her clients to view tourism as a high art: the creation of being at home when away from home.
Imagine what this looks like in practice. The book you forgot at home is already on your business jet seat, with the bookmark placed where you left off. Upon arrival, there is water of your favourite brand in a glass bottle in a modern car driven by an erudite driver with impeccable English — who will not speak unless you ask, knowing that after the flight you prefer to ride in silence.
You arrive at the hotel early in the morning and, without formalities, settle into your villa. Even though you are here for the first time, you have no regrets about the room. The interior in dark tones and high-tech style feels familiar.
There is a scent in the air like someone baking a cinnamon pie. The bed is oriented toward the east — your personal guarantee of peaceful sleep. On the dressing table, fresh violets that your spouse arranged somehow, though they don’t grow in this climate.
Your beloved dog rests on a velvet pillow at your feet. At noon, without adjusting your morning run or sacrificing breakfast, your spa appointment is confirmed. The travel itinerary avoids banal sights and crowds entirely — it contains unique places that Google will not tell you about, closed to the wider public.
The ability to evoke a sense of home in every corner of the globe, Pechenkina says, is the highest level of mastery for travel experts who create non-package journeys. As the English writer Terry Pratchett wrote: you haven’t really been anywhere until you’ve got back home.