Specialties
Refined authenticity — the finest side of authentic.
Authentic travel too often means roughing it, and luxury travel too often means a hotel that could be anywhere. We work in the space between: the genuine version of a place, delivered with the comfort and care a discerning traveler expects.
In practice that means the manor house still run by the family that has owned it for generations rather than the international chain. The restaurant locals book for their own anniversaries. An evening somewhere that doesn't ordinarily take groups. We choose what the people who live there value most, not what the industry finds easiest to sell — and then we hold it to a standard that holds up at this level.
Small-group fixed departures capped at 14 travelers, and private itineraries designed from scratch for couples, families traveling together, and friends who want their own dates and pace.
Destinations: Norway, Sweden, Denmark, Finland, Iceland, Ireland, Switzerland and Argentina, with private itineraries also in Scotland, England and Wales.
Our travelers are typically 50 and over, widely traveled, and particular about detail. They ask hard questions; we prefer it that way. We name the actual hotels rather than hiding behind "or similar," we quote the real price, and we say plainly when something in a plan won't work.
History
Established in 2013.
Marcelo Guimarães first traveled to the Nordic capitals in 2011, after two decades in science and engineering. What he found bore little resemblance to the brochures, and in 2013 he started a company to show people what he had actually experienced. The first group left for Finnish Lapland in January 2014.
The years that followed shifted the work from selling trips to designing them: slower itineraries, smaller groups, local hosts in place of scripted guides. Then came 2020. Rather than cancel, we rescheduled more than 85% of affected travelers, and most took the journey they had booked.
Clients kept asking us to go beyond Scandinavia. In 2024 we became SilverOpus — silver for the wisdom we celebrate, opus for the masterpiece we craft together — and carried the same approach into Ireland, Switzerland and Argentina. Marcelo now leads a team of travel professionals with firsthand knowledge of the places we send people. Formerly Discover Scandinavia Tours.
Meet the Business Owner: Marcelo G.
Marcelo spent close to two decades in science and engineering before travel became the work, and the habits carried over. He still builds an itinerary the way an engineer builds anything: by looking for the place where it breaks. Tight connections. Thin transfer windows. The four-hour drive someone optimistically described as two.
Brazilian by birth, he first traveled to the Nordic countries in 2011; the company exists because of that trip. He actively participates in the design of all SilverOpus programs himself, which means the person shaping your days has walked them. He will also tell you, before you book, when what you are asking for is a bad idea — most people seem to appreciate that.
Away from the company: traveling the world, music, mathematics, and time with his wife and daughter.
