Five travel designers in a small studio on Black Oak Hollow Road, working slowly on a short list of clients each season.
After fifteen years arranging private travel for a small group of Bay Area families, Franklin opened Halcyon Skyways with a simple rule he still keeps: never take on more clients in a quarter than the team can comfortably look after by hand.
That rule has shaped everything since — who we hire, how many trips we plan, the calls we choose to take. We turn away more enquiries than we accept. The clients we do work with tend to stay for years, and often pass us on to their children.
Franklin spends roughly four months a year on the road himself. The rest of the year he is in Sunnyvale, usually at his desk by seven, usually on the phone with someone in Tokyo or Florence by eight.
Three nights is a minimum almost everywhere. Two cities in a week is rarely a holiday — it is a logistical achievement.
The best hotel in a city is usually the one with the concierge who remembers your name. We work with the people, then the places.
If a country is wrong for you this year, we say so. If a famous hotel has slipped, we say that too. We aren't paid by the brochure.
We have a website because we have to. The real work happens on the call afterwards.
Your planner stays your planner — from the first call through the last debrief. No handovers, no shared inboxes.
Wherever it makes the trip more beautiful, we'll suggest the slower way over the faster one.
Franklin Beach opens Halcyon Skyways from a borrowed office above a bakery in downtown Sunnyvale. Three clients in year one.
The studio moves to its current home on Black Oak Hollow Road. First long‑form journal piece — on a winter in Hokkaido — is published.
A second planner, then a third, joins the team. The waiting list opens for the first time, and has been open ever since.
Sixteen years in, ninety‑six percent of the clients we book are returning travellers or friends of returning travellers.
