Sydney · Cairns · Swiss Heritage · Worldwide Access

They Know You
Before You Arrive

Luxury Travel Designed for Australians

Every journey begins with a mood board — and ends with a hotel that has already been told exactly how to make it yours. This is what insider access actually looks like.

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Two Australian Offices Sydney NSW · Cairns QLD
Swiss Heritage Precise · Discreet · Exacting
60 Years Combined Team Experience
Preferred Partner Access Upgrades · Credits · Recognition

Where Every Journey Starts

It Begins With a Mood Board

Not a brochure. Not a package. A visual brief that captures the light, texture, pace and feeling you want to live inside — then becomes the instruction we hand to every hotel, villa and guide along the way.

Most travel begins with a destination and a date. Ours begins with a question that is far harder to answer: what do you want this to feel like?

From that conversation we build a mood board — imagery, palette, textures, tempo. It is the single most useful document in the entire process, because it turns something subjective into something a hotel's general manager, a villa's housekeeper and a private guide in Kyoto can all act upon precisely.

By the time you land, your preferences are not sitting in a booking note that nobody read. They have been discussed, confirmed and prepared for by name.

  • 01 The Conversation An unhurried discussion about the journey you are imagining — occasion, pace, company, and the details that matter to you specifically.
  • 02 The Mood Board We return with a visual brief that sets the tone: the properties, the palette, the rhythm of the days. You refine it until it reads like you.
  • 03 The Intervention We brief each property directly, through people we know by name. Arrival preferences, dietary needs, the pillow, the table, the view — all confirmed in advance.
  • 04 The Arrival You walk into a room that already feels considered. Nothing is asked of you. That is the entire point.
Magenta and orange orchids at a flower market — colour palette for a bespoke travel mood board
Cream frangipani blooms — tropical texture in a luxury travel mood board
your palette
Sunlit sandstone architecture against clear sky — architectural texture for a travel mood board
Painted temple mural guardian figure — cultural detail informing a bespoke Asia itinerary

What You Actually Receive

Benefits You Cannot
Book Yourself

Through our preferred partner programmes, every stay we arrange carries benefits added at no cost above the hotel's own rate. Booking direct or through an online platform does not access these. Only an advisor relationship does.

Confirmed Upgrades

Not "subject to availability at check-in" — confirmed at the time of booking wherever the property allows it, and pursued personally by us where it does not.

Property Credits

Typically AUD 150–300 per stay to spend on dining, spa or wellness. On longer stays and at certain properties, considerably more.

Daily Breakfast

Full breakfast for two, every morning, included. A small thing that quietly removes several hundred dollars from a week-long stay.

Flexible Arrival & Departure

Early check-in and late check-out arranged in advance — particularly valuable on the long-haul arrivals Australians know all too well.

VIP Recognition

Your name known at the front desk. Your preferences already in the room. A welcome amenity chosen because of something you mentioned, not by default.

The Unlisted Door

The restaurant with no availability. The private view before opening hours. The villa that never appears on a booking site. These come from relationships, not systems.

Woman carrying a basket through a traditional village compound gateway — cultural access on a bespoke Asia journey
The Arrival Where the door is already open
Gilded temple spire against a clear sky — detail-driven cultural itineraries in Asia
The Detail Nothing left to chance
Willows reflected in still water at golden hour — unhurried days built into every itinerary
The Quiet The day with nothing in it

Where We Send Australians

Four Regions,
Known Intimately

Each region is held by a specialist who travels it constantly. For Australian clients this matters more than most: your journeys are longer, less frequent and carry higher expectations. There is little room for a good guess.

Swiss Alps at dawn — luxury Europe travel from Australia, Sydney and Cairns
Region No. 01

Europe

Our Swiss parentage gives us doors in Europe that most Australian agencies simply do not have. Alpine houses, Mediterranean estates, and the small properties that never advertise.

Swiss Heritage · Held by John Cooney
Misty palm-lined road at dawn in Asia — luxury Asia holidays for Australian travellers
Region No. 02

Asia

Australia's natural neighbourhood, and the region where the gap between a good hotel and a properly briefed one is widest. Japan, Thailand, Vietnam, Sri Lanka and beyond.

Held by Anna Schneider
Tropical lodge pool with daybeds and rainforest beyond — luxury Australia and Pacific journeys
Region No. 03

Australia & the Pacific

Home ground. Lodges in the Kimberley, reef houses off Cairns, Tasmanian wilderness retreats and the Pacific islands worth the flight — with the same benefits applied.

Held by Clint Parker · Sydney & Cairns
Volcanic peak above a line of cloud — remote Africa and South America journeys from Australia
Region No. 04

Africa & South America

The journeys Australians save for. Safari camps, Patagonian lodges and Atlantic coastlines — arranged by someone who has walked them, not read about them.

Held by Bilton Rodriguez · Portuguese Speaking

Why Australians Choose Us

Detail Is the
Whole Proposition

Australia is a long way from most places. That distance means fewer trips, longer stays and far higher stakes on getting it right. Our entire model is built around that reality.

01 The Mood Board Method

Every journey opens with a visual brief that defines its tone before a single booking is made. It is what separates a trip that was arranged from one that was designed.

02 Expert Intervention

We speak to properties directly, person to person, before you arrive. Preferences are confirmed rather than noted. That single step is the difference you feel at the door.

03 Benefits at No Extra Cost

Upgrades, credits, breakfast and recognition are added to the hotel's own rate — not billed on top. The value of an advisor relationship is realised on arrival, not on the invoice.

04 Local, With Global Reach

Offices in Sydney and Cairns, working in your timezone and your currency — backed by a Swiss parent house and specialists across four continents.

05 Built for Long-Haul

Australian journeys are long. We plan recovery days, arrival timing and stopovers deliberately, so the first two days of a holiday are not spent recovering from getting there.

06 One Person, Throughout

No call centre and no handover. The advisor who built your mood board is the person who answers when something needs attention at 2am in another hemisphere.

Our People

Led Locally,
Supported Globally

Your journey is held by one person in Australia, drawing on regional principals who each know their part of the world intimately.

Clint Parker, Australian Principal — Forbidden City Travel Australia, Sydney and Cairns

Australian Principal

Clint “Tina” Parker

Luxury Hotel Specialist · Sydney & Cairns

Clint leads every Australian client relationship from first conversation to final night. His particular strength is the part most agencies treat as an afterthought — the direct, personal briefing of each property before arrival, built on relationships he has maintained for years rather than a form sent to a reservations inbox.

Working across both the Sydney and Cairns offices, and supported by the regional principals, Clint builds journeys with an unusual tolerance for detail. Clients tend to notice it in the small things: the right room, the right table, the right pace on the third day when it matters most.

John Cooney, Founder and Europe Specialist — Forbidden City Travel

John Cooney

Founder · Europe

Swiss-trained and deeply connected across European hospitality. The relationships behind our Alpine and Mediterranean access are largely his.

Anna Schneider, Asia Specialist — Forbidden City Travel Australia

Anna Schneider

Asia Desk

Travels Asia constantly, from Istanbul to Japan. Knows which ryokan is worth the detour and which celebrated hotel is coasting on reputation.

Bilton Rodriguez, Africa and South America Specialist — Forbidden City Travel Australia

Bilton Rodriguez

Africa & South America

A native of Mozambique and fluent Portuguese speaker, bringing genuine cultural fluency to two continents that reward the expert guide.

Find Us

Two Australian Offices

Consultations by appointment, in person or by video — in your timezone, in Australian dollars, with no overnight wait for a reply.

Sydney

New South Wales

47 West Acres
Hurstville Grove NSW 2220
Australia

By appointment

Cairns

Queensland

8 Hanah Close
Mount Sheridan QLD 4868
Australia

By appointment

Start Your
Mood Board

Tell us what you are imagining. We will come back — usually within one business day — with first thoughts and an invitation to talk properly.

General Enquiries info@forbiddencity.au Reply within one business day
Clint Parker Direct clint.parker@forbiddencity.au Australian Principal

Your details are treated with complete confidentiality.
Or write to us directly at info@forbiddencity.au