Meet Christopher Gioitta | Founder of Parea Travel

We had the good fortune of connecting with Christopher Gioitta and we’ve shared our conversation below.

Hi Christopher, how has your work-life balance changed over time?
Before I started Parea Travel, I always thought work-life balance meant grinding all week and then traveling in your free time. Travel was always my thing. I’ve been to over 80 countries, but I always assumed travel was too niche to be a serious career path.

Now that I’m in it, I’ve realized there’s a huge industry around travel. I get to check out new hotels, help people plan their trips – all the stuff I used to do for fun, but now it’s my actual job.

Work-life balance for me isn’t about strict boundaries anymore. It’s about alignment. I built something around what I genuinely love to do, and I don’t feel the need to escape from work, because my work is what I’d be doing anyway.

Can you give our readers an introduction to your business? Maybe you can share a bit about what you do and what sets you apart from others?
A few years ago, I had the crazy idea to bring 20 of my closest friends to Tuscany for a week. As I started planning, I realized how fragmented the group travel process was. A travel agent could help with flights and hotels. An event planner could organize dinners or entertainment. But no one was thinking about the full picture. How do all of those pieces come together to create one seamless experience?

When you travel internationally with a group, there are so many details to consider: what are these 20 (or 200) people doing every day while they’re in Tuscany? Who’s curating the full experience – coordinating transportation, managing event timing, working with local vendors, answering guest questions, and making sure everything actually flows?

That’s how Parea Travel started.

Parea is a hybrid between a travel agency and an event planning company. We focus on international group travel. We manage everything – finding the perfect venue, building out the daily schedule, handling all the backend logistics and admin that make these programs run smoothly.

We’ve really leaned into the shift toward experiential travel. Most of our clients have already stayed at the best hotels. Now they’re looking for something more unique. We’ve built relationships with private islands, luxury trains, and we’re focused on becoming the leader in the new and emerging hotel superyacht market, with products like The Ritz-Carlton Yacht Collection, Four Seasons Yachts, Aman at Sea, and Orient Express Sailing Yachts.

None of this has been easy. When you’re building something new, you’re constantly asking clients and partners to think differently and trust a new approach. It takes time, and it takes the right people who believe in a shared vision. For us, that vision has always been clear: help groups of people see the world without the stress of planning it. And when it all comes together – when the group is laughing, connecting, and making memories – that’s what makes it all worth it.

If you had a friend visiting you, what are some of the local spots you’d want to take them around to?
Miami is definitely one of those cities people either love or hate. Once you actually live here, you realize there is a lot more to the city than over priced cocktails.

If my best friend were in town for a week, we’d start the morning with a 2 mile walk around Brickell Key – it’s peaceful and a big part of my daily routine. I usually throw in my noise canceling headphones and either tune out the world or listen to a podcast (most days it’s How I Built This by Guy Raz). After that, we’d grab breakfast somewhere casual, probably Pura Vida.

At some point, we’re getting out on a yacht – it’s Miami. My favorite spot to post up is Nixon Sandbar, just off Key Biscayne. You drop anchor, music’s playing, drinks are flowing. It’s peak Miami in the best way – but still pretty relaxed.

For food, I’ve been converted on Carbone. I used to hate on it, but I get it now. And I really enjoyed Tam Tam – it’s this little Vietnamese spot that feels like it should be in Brooklyn. Super vibey. It’s hard to find places like that in Miami.

Shoutout is all about shouting out others who you feel deserve additional recognition and exposure. Who would you like to shoutout?
When I was growing up, I spent a lot of time at my grandparents’ house. My grandpa was a hustler. He came from an immigrant family in Italy and spent his career selling anything you can imagine: watches, fireworks, produce, leisure suits, tires. Every week was something new.

He really inspired me to start my first business when I was 16, selling Italian ice cream at outdoor festivals. At the time, it just felt like a fun way to make some extra money on the weekends. But looking back, that side hustle ended up teaching me the fundamentals of business – how to sell, how to talk to customers, how to manage cash and inventory, how to problem solve on the spot.

I didn’t realize it until I was older, but those experiences taught me more about business than any classroom ever could have.

Website: https://www.pareatravel.com

Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/travelwithparea

Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/company/pareatravel

Image Credits
Image credit: Scott Clark