A Travel Company Is About to Lead You on Thrillist-Curated Trips IRL

Group tours always impart the vague sensation of being a kid on one of those school outings where the crossing guard makes everyone hold onto a rope while they shuffle along. Such conditions are fine for small children, who can’t drink and have no money. But they are unnatural for adults -- which is why the really savvy group tours leave you free to explore a place and spend as much or as little time with the group as you like.

Thrillist is excited to launch a new collaboration with For the Love of Travel, a small start-up company that curates group trips -- the kind you actually want to go on. It's for people who want to experience a place in the company of others, but don’t want to get pulled around to the same four cliche tourist stops with people they have nothing in common with. The crux of it is, on these jaunts you’re going to be in good hands: FTLO’s, ours, and most importantly, your own.
 

Food trucks in Downtown Portland
Food trucks in Downtown Portland | Grant Faint/Gett Images

FTLO Travel launched about two years ago with their Weekender Series -- creating Friday-to-Sunday itineraries aimed at people who live within 200 miles of the destination. They’ve gone on to make a name for themselves with incredibly cool international travel packages, which last a week or more; founder and trip curator Tara Cappel gushed about the Lapland trip, where the group went dog-sledding and snowmobiling and visited an old fishing vessel that had been converted into a floating spa. On their Greece trip, they take a moment for must-visit Santorini, but mainly focus on the more authentic, less-touristy islands of Milos and Paros. “We’re trying to take people places that still feel Greek,” Cappel says. “So it’s really not what you’d see with most other tours out there.”

Now Thrillist is helping the FTLO team bring back their domestic weekend trips with a bang, organizing three-day itineraries for Los Angeles, Denver, Chicago, Portland, and Seattle, with another five cities in the pipeline. We help FTLO Travel dig up the kind of fun, organic, not-canned things to do that we already love sharing with you, and then their team handles all the logistics and puts you on the ground to actually do those things.

Each itinerary is carefully curated by the FTLO Travel team and Thrillist editors who know and love and live these cities -- so rest assured you’re not getting some re-heated list thrown together by someone Yelping their way through rando picks. We want to show you the new, insidery, under-the-radar spots locals love -- but also make sure you hit the iconic must-sees every city has to offer. (Coloradans, for instance, know that anyone who gives you an Denver-area itinerary that doesn’t include Red Rocks is terribly mistaken; some things are popular for a reason).

Cinespia Presents 'The Fifth Element' at Hollywood Forever
Cinespia Presents 'The Fifth Element' at Hollywood Forever | Rich Fury/Stringer/Getty Images

“I’m super excited about taking people to Cinespia, in LA, which is at the Old Hollywood Cemetery,” Cappel says. “It’s definitely a very unique LA experience. We're also going to a Second City show in Chicago, a definite bucket list experience.”

Basically, you get yourself to the city, and for $699 (currently), FTLO x Thrillist will introduce you to a new town and an armload of possible new friends. “The connections people make on the trip are honestly the best part -- we see friendships, even relationships, form on our trips,” says Cappel.

Before you sign up, you’ll fill out a quick profile so the FTLO Travel folks can get a sense of how and with whom you’ll have the best time. Then you’ll hop on the phone with someone on the team to work out some personal recommendations.

“Having people fill out profiles helps us curate the groups according to what people are looking for. So, if someone says they’re single and ready to mingle, we can suggest certain trips that would be a good fit," says Cappel. “There is a lot of value in having trip mates who are on the same page.”

Sign up here for our daily Thrillist email and subscribe here for our YouTube channel to get your fix of the best in food/drink/fun.