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 are extremely proud of our awards over the years. We’ve been recognised in the Wanderlust Reader Awards every single year since 2016 – an achievement we’re extremely proud of. Competition at these awards is fierce (we’re up against the big boys in travel!), and they’re voted for entirely by you – our clients. So, winning the gongs gives us so much pleasure and pride as it means we’re doing what we always strive to – designing holidays that knock your socks off and leave you returning home very happy indeed.

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.

It’s undeniable that the travel industry was hit incredibly hard by Covid-19. But, we’re a resilient bunch and are so excited to be back doing what we do best – designing tailor-made holidays for you, our wonderful clients. As we navigate this new normal, we understand that planning a holiday may raise more questions and worries than it has done in the past. And that’s why we’re here and arguably more valuable than ever before. When you pick up the phone and book a holiday with us, you book with the confidence of knowing a real live human is on the end of the phone at all times, ready to help answer any questions or solve any problems that may arise.

To find out more, visit our Travel with Confidence hub here.

Louise first travelled to Latin America almost 20 years ago, after escaping a ‘sensible’ but dull corporate job in London. She took off for a year travelling from South America to New Zealand, Australia and the Far East but the continent where she first landed became her new travel passion. Inspired by her Mexican godmother’s stories and her love of the colour, culture, history and music of this vibrant part of the world, she was smitten! Since returning from that trip, she has been working in travel ever since and has had the chance to visit some spectacular places in Latin America for research. Hard to pick favourites but the wild and rugged plains of Patagonia and the beautiful peaks of the Andes in Peru and Ecuador fuel her other love of mountains and hiking while the Galapagos, Antarctica and Ibera wetlands have been some of her top wildlife highlights in the world. She also has a nerdy fascination for the history of ancient civilisations from the Aztecs to Mayans and Incas.

Dawn’s passion for all things travel started over 25 years ago, some of the highpoints include living and working in Mexico for 5 years, swimming with whale sharks and spending time learning the Mayan calendar and the Huichol culture fueled Dawn’s passion for Central America leading her into a career setting up small group trips aiding conservation in Costa Rica.  Dawn’s love of wildlife and adventure naturally took Dawn back to Costa Rica’s rich diversity and myriad of wildlife and activities several times. Dawn’s Costa Rica adventures included whitewater rafting, ziplining, kayaking, scuba diving and hiking her way around this magical country, key highlights include turtle watching seeing hundreds of (hatchlings) hatch and spotting an elusive sloth family and an abundance of quetzals!

Behind the scenes, Lou and Dawn 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.

Find our full Terms & Conditions, Financial Protection and Privacy policies here.

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