Case Study: 50th anniversary leadership program
The trip a 50-year-old Swiss travel company couldn't run themselves.
For their 50th anniversary, Globetrotter wanted a three-day experience for 33 of their leaders that they couldn't build in-house. We split the team into four groups, took away their phones, and handed them paper maps.
Globetrotter Travel Service is Switzerland's specialist in tailor-made travel: Bern-based, 220 staff, 16 branches, five decades in business. These folks know how to plan a trip. It is literally what they do.
For their 50th anniversary they wanted a three-day experience for 33 of their leaders that they could not build in-house. They were already working with FeelViana, one of our preferred venues on the northern Portuguese coast, and they came to us on a referral for one reason above all: customization. They did not want a package. They wanted it built from scratch.
Their idea was bold. Split the team into four groups, send each to a different corner of Northern Portugal, no phones, no GPS, no internet, paper maps and clues only, then bring everyone back together to share what happened. Good bones. We took it further.
The concept: four groups, no GPS
Four groups, four regions, four completely different two-day journeys, each one themed: sea and craft, wine and river, nature and adventure, urban and culinary. No GPS. No phones. Just a handcrafted roadbook of cryptic clues and a paper map. The journey itself became the team-building exercise. Getting a little lost was part of it.
The handcrafted roadbook, printed for the 50th.
Three days across Northern Portugal
Day 1, four regions at once. From Porto airport the groups scattered. One ran salt traditions in Aveiro and a leitao dinner with winemaker Mario Sergio at Quinta das Bageiras in Bairrada. One walked the vineyards of the Douro with Alvaro, then a pottery workshop and a homemade family dinner. One went canyoning in Geres and bottled wine at Arthur's estate. One did a pastel de nata class, walked a stretch of the coastal Camino, and sat down to a Francesinha dinner at Marta's home in Vila do Conde.
Day 2, converging on Viana do Castelo. Papier-mache with Fernanda and a wood-fired-oven lunch. A private boat drifting silent through the terraced vineyards of the Douro at Pinhao. A convent-sweets workshop with Rosa. Fruit picking at Arthur's, pottery painting in Guimaraes. Then everyone checked in at FeelViana.
Day 3, the finale. All 33 brought back together at Mosteiro de Arga, a centuries-old mountain monastery. They arrived after dark, by 4x4, winding up an off-road mountain path toward the monastery lit against the night. Jorge and Isabel, who had hosted one group's cooking class two days earlier, prepared a full traditional Portuguese menu for the whole company. That arrival is the moment the CEO says he will never forget.
Paper maps and clues only. Getting lost was part of it.
The part nobody saw coming
Every group was bringing something back without fully knowing why. Convent sweets. Orchard fruit. Custard tarts. And Group 3's own Vinho Verde, bottled and labeled by hand at the winery, with the Globetrotter logo on the label.
When the four groups reunited for lunch at FeelViana, arriving from four different corners of the country, each one set down what they had made or harvested. Four separate journeys, one shared table. They had built the reunion themselves, piece by piece, without realizing it. That is design. Not logistics.
Why it worked
This is the CDV model in one program. We are not a broker and we are not a DMC. We are the operator on the ground, with the relationships that turn a clue into an evening in a real family's kitchen instead of a stop on a tour. Mario. Sergio. Alvaro. Arthur. Jorge and Isabel. Fernanda. Rosa. Marta. Real people, real homes, in places standard tourism never reaches.
Twenty years of those relationships is the only reason a trip like this is even possible.
“The moment when we walked through the middle of the forest toward a secluded monastery, with soft trance music playing in the background. An unforgettable setting for an anniversary dinner.”
In their words
What the client said.
“As specialists in tailor-made travel, our goal is to offer every customer a personal travel experience. That was our ambition for the Portugal trip too: not just to see and consume well-known sights, but to find our own path around Porto, enjoy local specialties, and get a glimpse into everyday life by looking over the shoulders of the locals. CDV delivered on this perfectly.”
“I would recommend CDV to anyone looking for something beyond off-the-shelf solutions and standard team events like escape rooms. Teams that value meaningful experiences, creativity, and genuine connection, with a strong local touch and the chance to truly immerse themselves in the culture.”
In the pressCovered by Swiss travel-trade publication travelnews.ch. Read the travelnews.ch article
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