Your Guide
Gigi Coulson
Executive Director & Certified Fora Travel Advisor
Gigi is a retired scientist, historian, and avid traveler who designs and leads every journey with scholarly, on-the-ground insight.
Personal Expertise
Having spent years navigating international travel independently, I understand the questions, challenges, and opportunities travelers encounter before and during a trip.
Exclusive Partnerships
Through Fora’s preferred partnerships, clients may enjoy access to VIP amenities, preferred rates, hotel credits, room upgrades, priority services, and other exclusive benefits when available. Best of all, commissions go directly to Costumers of Color nonprofit.
A World of Possibilities
I plan curated journeys, offer personalized service, and plan memorable experiences. I can assist with:
• Luxury and boutique hotels
• Ocean and river cruises
• Flights and airfare planning
• Private drivers and transfers
• Rental cars
• Group travel
• Guided tours and excursions
• Family vacations
• Honeymoons and celebrations
• Multi-country itineraries
• Safari and adventure travel
• Custom international journeys
Personalized Service
Every traveler is different. I take the time to understand your priorities, preferences, and vision so your trip reflects what matters most to you.
FROM SIMPLE TO EXTRAORDINARY
No trip is too simple and no dream is too ambitious.
Whether you need a hotel near a conference, a rental car for a road trip, a cruise through Alaska, or a once-in-a-lifetime adventure across East Africa, I can help coordinate the details and connect you with trusted travel partners around the world. To get started, send me your info here at my intake form here and I’ll contact you for a chat.
Philosophy
Travel Well. Travel Wonderfully.
CoCo Travels designs historically grounded travel for small groups, not mass tourism, with proceeds supporting Costumers of Color’s mission. Gigi designs each itinerary to highlight local voices, beautiful spaces, and historical traditions, guiding travelers toward connection, not just impressive photographs. The nonprofit mission we support keeps the focus on responsible travel and quality over quantity.
Where Curiosity Becomes Connection
Born from Gigi’s twin callings, planning and storytelling, CoCo Travels grew into a journey through history where learning, reflection, and human connection matter more than checklists, and every itinerary is crafted with curiosity and care.
About Gigi
For fifteen years, Gigi Coulson traveled to Northern Italy and the UK as an independent scholar researching medieval and Renaissance history. That work kept leading her back to the same question, how to bring the places she had spent years studying to more people, and how to bring more people into the history itself.
That question led her to found Costumers of Color, a nonprofit building multicultural belonging in historical costuming and public history. CoCo Travels carries that mission into the field directly. Every dollar of proceeds from CoCo Travels supports Costumers of Color’s programming, and every itinerary is built around the places where history is still lived in rather than viewed from a distance.
Gigi’s deepest expertise lies in Northern Italy, including Venice, the Veneto, Emilia-Romagna, Lombardy, and Tuscany, along with the UK, particularly Scotland. Her itineraries favor artisan studios, terme, osterie, agriturismo farms, historical villas, and small museums well off the usual routes, and throughout, she highlights the stories of those whose roles in shaping Europe are too often left out.
Gigi spends a minimum of two months in Europe each year, keeping her routes current and her local partnerships close.
