Our Story

Since launching in 2010 Holiday Architects has set out to really listen to our clients – we get to know you, we get to know your travel needs and we design the perfect holiday to match. By operating in this manner, and avoiding the standard off-the-shelf packages offered by many other travel companies, we’ve become one of the fastest-growing and most-trusted tour operators in the UK. Underpinning all of this is the expertise of our team: each committed to servicing their specialist destination, backed up with a dedicated country website packed full of unique hotels, quirky excursions and engaging holiday suggestions. Every one of our team has visited their destination many times (often even lived there), has many years’ experience in the travel industry and is carefully chosen to fit with our friendly and helpful team culture. This means when discussing your travel plans, you’ll have the peace of mind that you’re not only speaking to a genuine expert but a real person who cares about you and your holiday.

We believe we are better than anyone else at listening to your travel aspirations and turning them into perfectly designed holidays, but of course that is not always easy to substantiate, which is why we were extremely proud in 2019 to be named Wanderlust magazine’s ‘Top Tour Operator of the Year’, for the second year running, gaining a 100% satisfaction rating from their readers. Competition at these awards is fierce, so winning brings us a great deal of pleasure and pride as it means we have lots of very happy clients!

Don’t just take our word for it though; you can read more about our clients’ experience of Holiday Architects by visiting our Trustpilot page found here.

Multi-destination holidaysRTA_gold_Top Tour OpWebRTA_2020_bronze_tour-top-op

Tailor-Made Travel

Tailor-made travel starts with a blank sheet of paper and a conversation with one of our experts, and finishes with a holiday that’s been designed specifically for you. Nothing is set, nothing is off-the-peg, or off limits. You depart when you want, see what you want, stay where you want. It used to be that tailor-made travel was a relatively expensive way to go on holiday, but this isn’t the case any more: and we’ll make sure we stick to whatever budget you give us for the trip.

How We Work

Everything we do is designed specifically for you, and that design process starts with an initial conversation. We like to have that conversation to get to know you and understand the key things you want to get out of the holiday and we find the best way to do that is a friendly chat over the phone (or email if you prefer), where we take the time to really listen to what it is you want from your trip. We’ve travelled to our specialist destination many times, so we’ll also provide plenty of inspiration and ideas that we feel may best suit you. It’s because of our knowledge and experience that we are also able to offer honest advice about a destination, as we’ve most likely stayed in that certain hotel or gone on a particular quirky excursion ourselves; this will ensure you are able to make the right choices for your trip.

Next, your dedicated specialist will carefully design you an itinerary, with a price, and send that to you within 48hrs. This is very much a first draft and we can revise as necessary until we’ve got it exactly right for you. This is where we differ from our competitors as you’re not just going to get a standard itinerary, but something which is designed to your requirements with care. We take huge pride in our clients having the best possible holiday. Upon booking, you can rest easy, as your money is 100% protected either by our ATOL bonding or through our Trust My Travel membership. Things don’t end there though, as our dedicated team is here on the phone and on the ground; to provide you with great service and peace of mind throughout your trip, so you can focus on your next discovery.

How it all works

The Team

One of our greatest strengths at Holiday Architects is the experience of our team (on average we each have over 10 years industry experience and have visited our destinations numerous times, if not actually lived there); that experience enables us to give honest, helpful advice and put together tailor-made holidays to your exact specifications. Our office culture is also very important to us; this having been recognised in 2018 as we were named Best Place to Work in the annual Gloucestershire Business Awards.

Behind the scenes, the team are (ably?) assisted by the two company founders, Damien and Andrew. Both of them had an expat upbringing in the dim and distant past, so it’s almost inevitable they’ve ended up establishing a travel company. Damien is heavily involved in the marketing side of the business, whilst Andrew takes care of day-to-day things, like making the coffee.

T&Cs and Financial Protection

Once you pay the deposit for your holiday you’ll be entering into a contract with us, which is governed by our terms & conditions – so it’s particularly important that you read through these before making your booking. Please click the link below for our terms & conditions.

Holiday Architects Terms and Conditions

It’s undeniable that Covid-19 has had a massive impact on the travel industry. However, with more travel restrictions lifting week by week, we couldn’t be happier to be back designing incredible holidays for you! We understand that when considering future travel, booking with confidence will be of utmost importance to you, find out more about what we’re doing to help here:

Travel with Confidence

We understand how important it is for you to have peace of mind and know that the money you give us for your holidays is properly protected. We also know that the regulations and protection methods are confusing, overlapping, full of various acronyms and not easy even for seasoned industry professionals to understand! Please follow the link below for full information on the ways your money is protected when you book a holiday with us.

Holiday Architects Financial Protection

Privacy Policy

Holiday Architects is committed to ensuring that your privacy is protected. Should we ask you to provide certain information by which you can be identified when using this website, then you can be assured that it will only be used in accordance with this privacy statement.

Privacy Policy

Carbon Offsetting

As much as we love it, we’re aware that travel comes at a cost. So, as a company we are committed to doing our bit to create positive change with our trips. That’s why we’ve partnered with carbon measurement and reduction specialists, Path Net Zero, to offset the emissions created by our holidays. Path Net Zero have created a data-backed carbon calculator that allows us to measure the carbon emitted by the trips we design around the world. After a long testing period we’ve calculated the offset cost to be around 1% of a Holiday Architects trip value. As we are 100% tailormade and create every clients’ trip from scratch, it’s impossible to be totally accurate on this, but we’re doing our best!

Read more about Carbon Offsetting at Holiday Architects