From the tourism capital of America, a tour guide for the super wealthy
by Harriet Mays Powell
Travel guru Felix Brambilla founded the Miami-based Overseas Network (ON) back in 2000. Today, his luxury travel empire has 47 offices in 38 countries and boasts a vast web of local contacts and experts, ranging from ranchers in Montana, to ice fishing guides in Minnesota, to villa owners in Tuscany and Tulum. Recently, we paid him a visit at the firm’s North American headquarters in Miami’s suburb of Coral Gables.
Half Italian and half Scottish, Brambilla was born in the south of France, but he tells me that South Florida is the place where he now feels at home. “When you return to Miami, you’re coming back to an ongoing fiesta,” he says. Along with its Miami headquarters, Overseas Network has four other regional HQs that together encompass the globe: São Paulo serves Latin America, Cape Town is the hub for Africa, Geneva handles the European market, and Hong Kong oversees all of Asia. Another 40-plus offices worldwide are either solely owned by ON, are a partnership with an existing upscale agency, or exist as a franchise.
The company’s mission is simple: to create bespoke travel experiences for high-end clients around the world. There is no brochure – everything is a la carte – and itineraries are seldom repeated. Brambilla explains that he and his team are not travel agents but “destination specialists.” Much of a travel agent’s job ends at baggage claim, whereas Overseas Network’s task is to plan and oversee everything. “We take full responsibility for the trip,” says Brambilla. “So, we go from design all the way to delivery and support at the destination.”
Overseas Network targets the rarified upper echelons of the travel market. For example, by providing 24/7 concierge service in 11 languages. Brambilla explains that he can only do this for the people who can afford to pay, and that having to deal with demanding wealthy clients is just an inevitable part of the job. Before the pandemic, around 70 percent of ON’s customers were heading to Europe. But lately, the United States has become the favored destination, followed by Sub-Saharan Africa, where glamorous safaris are increasingly popular and lucrative.
Brambilla prides himself on being able to handle and execute even the toughest assignments. One of his most challenging projects to date, he says, was at the 2022 World Cup soccer tournament in Qatar. At the last minute, the Qatari government reached out and asked him to organize special experiences for all of its state guests. He and his team rapidly constructed two luxury Bedouin camps, pitched in the desert, where 150 World Cup VIPs could relax between matches. They also outfitted traditional dhows, masted ships used in the Indian Ocean, with opulent bells and whistles for cruises on the Arabian Gulf. Given the success of their mission at the World Cup, Overseas Network has recently opened a permanent office in Doha. Collaborations are expected to continue with the Qatari government, as well as with FIFA, soccer’s global governing body.
So, what was his most demanding project ever? A high-net-worth client of a Swiss agency wanted to create an Electronic Dance Music festival in an exotic location. ON successfully staged a five-day event in the middle of the Nicaraguan jungle.
Brambilla’s most otherworldly experience, though, has been to send a client to the International Space Station (spacewalk included), an odyssey that required 14 months of pre-flight training. A more typical ON excursion, on solid ground and within the contiguous Lower 48, is an extended family vacation at an authentic 19th-century town in Colorado. The charge for sole use of the town for a week extends into seven figures, but Brambilla assures me that it’s an unforgettable experience of Americana worth every cent.
My favorite Brambilla trip would have been a voyage aboard a 15-cabin boat down the Rio Negro, one of the largest tributaries to the Amazon in Brazil. The journey included a two-star Michelin chef and a mixologist flown in from Italy, and each guest cabin came with its own speedboat and private guide.
So where does Brambilla see the next travel hot spot? Saudi Arabia, he says, as the country is investing massively in a concerted attempt to show a friendlier face to the world. As for Brambilla himself, he intends on taking things a bit more slowly in the future. Under pressure from his wife, who insists that he has a family as well as a career, he says he’s decided to reduce his annual travel days from 250 to a mere 115. Just a third of the year on the road… such is the price of domestic happiness.
