TAKING OFF : Pack Up + Go
WORDS / LAUREL DELP | PHOTOS / COURTESY OF PACK UP + GO
Surprise ! For customers of this millennial-owned agency , destinations are a mystery .
Lillian Rafson
You have to ask : What gives a 23-year-old woman with absolutely no experience in the travel business the idea that she can start a travel agency ? Lillian Rafson had a unique idea and the passion to pull it off .
Her company is Pack Up + Go , a breakthrough agency that provides customers with surprise trips across the United States . A survey asks clients for details ranging from their climate preferences to their cultural interests . Do they want to lie on a beach , visit museums , ski , hike , or is the perfect vacation spent grazing through restaurants or on a pub crawl ? Clients are also asked where they ’ ve traveled , so that Pack Up + Go isn ’ t sending them to the same old escape . Trips come in different price categories , so of course that factors into the considerations .
Once Rafson and her team have the information in hand , they plan the trip . The twist is , the customers have no idea where they ’ re going until they ’ re actually on their way . A week before departure , an email provides essential details , such as the weather report at the destination , packing suggestions , and where and at what time the journey begins . Then a
22 / THE COMPASS / SPRING 2021 vaxvacationaccess . com / thecompass