One big moment a day
We pace trips around a single highlight per day, then leave room to wander, nap or stay for another drink.
One kitchen table, one honeymoon, fourteen years of routes
We’re a San Francisco travel agency of eleven designers who have each lived where they plan. We’ve been drawing trips by hand since 2012.
A note from Graham
We started because a booking site sent two friends to the wrong island
In 2011 my best friend’s honeymoon flights landed them in Malé with no transfer, no villa on the right atoll and a 2 a.m. phone call to me. I’d spent six years guiding in the Indian Ocean, so I fixed it from my kitchen. Then their friends asked me to plan theirs.
Sunmile still works the way that first trip did. You talk to one person. That person has been there, usually more than once. They draw a route that fits your pace, price it honestly per person, and stay on the phone while you travel.
We’ve grown to eleven designers and 64 countries. We have not grown a call centre, and we never will.
Graham Whitlock
The route so far
Fourteen years, plotted the way we plot your trips: a stop at a time, with nothing skipped.
2012
One desk on Harbor Lane
Graham plans 41 honeymoons in the first year, every one to the Indian Ocean, every one by phone.
2014
Leilani joins from Ubud
Our first Bali small-group trip runs with nine travellers. It still runs, now with a cooking class she insisted on.
2016
The Mediterranean desk
Marco Ferri brings fifteen years of Greek ferry timetables in his head. Island hopping becomes our second-busiest route.
2018
A human on the phone, 24/7
We launch the on-trip helpline, answered by a designer, not a script. Average pick-up time today: 40 seconds.
2020
The year nobody travelled
We rebook or refund 3,140 trips without a single cancellation fee, and keep every designer on payroll.
2023
Japan & East Asia
Yuna Sato opens our Asia desk. Rail passes, ryokan nights and the quiet side of Kyoto join the catalogue.
Today
64 countries, 18,400 travellers
Eleven designers, 126 ready-to-book trips and the same rule as day one: one person owns your trip from first call to last transfer.
Four things we won't trade away
They cost us bookings sometimes. We keep them anyway.
A person, not a portal
Your designer’s direct line is on every document. If plans change at 3 a.m., you call them, not a queue.
Prices with nothing hiding
Per-person prices include flights, taxes and transfers. If a fuel surcharge lands, we say so before you pay.
Leave places better
Locally owned stays first, guides paid fairly, and 1% of every booking to reef and trail projects we visit.
Travel designers
The people who'll answer your call
Meet all eleven
Licensed, bonded, insured
IATA-accredited agentWe issue airline tickets directly
ASTA member since 2013American Society of Travel Advisors
California Seller of TravelRegistration no. 2148731-50
Client trust accountDeposits held separately until you travel
$1M professional liabilityErrors & omissions cover
24/7 on-trip helplineAnswered by a designer
Your trip is the next stop on the route
Book a free 30-minute call. Tell us who’s coming and roughly when; we’ll send two route sketches within two working days.
- NowCall
- +2 daysSketch
- +1 weekRefine
- ThenGo