Tailored Travel News

We are so pleased to announce that our very own Sandy Cornish has won The Excellence Award in the recent Group Leisure & Travel Awards 2021. Voted for by group travel organisers, the Award recognises people in the group travel trade who go the extra mile to make your job as a group travel organiser that much easier.

Who would have thought that a travel company would be saying ‘It is so exciting for us at last to be taking people on holiday!’ In 2021 we had 72 tours depart and those on our tours to Venice and Naples in January 2022 felt priveleged to have those places practically to themselves. Without exception, the fantastic feedback from Group Organisers has been that all have had a wonderful holiday and all the better for the fact that their tours come after being confined to quarters for so long.

We are delighted The National Tourist Organisations of Great Britain and Northern Ireland have recognised that Tailored Travel have followed government and industry COVID-19 guidelines, ensuring processes are in place to maintain cleanliness and aid social/physical distancing during all our tours.

From the soaring peaks of the Julian Alps and the subterranean world of the Postojna Caves, to sparkling Lake Bled with a tiny Baroque chapel on a picturesque island and dramatic Bled Castle looming above and the beautiful Adriatic coast, Slovenia has it all. In Ljubljana, Slovenia’s capital, Baroque facades mix with Art Nouveau splendours and the 20th century architecture of native Jože Plečnik.

Carmen Luscombe has been organising her tours for members of the Devon Federation of Women’s Institutes with Tailored Travel for many years now. Her first tour was to Norfolk in 2011. With a tour every year since and three in 2016 and another three planned for 2017, she’s obviously doing tours which are popular with her members. So we’ve asked Carmen for her thoughts on the experience and insight she has gained from being a successful Group Organiser.

Whether with your group or your family, we all know how important a holiday can be. For some it is something they hear about but don’t experience. So for the third year running we have taken a group of families from Peckham on a 6 day summer holiday to enjoy what we hope is the experience of a lifetime. This year we took 39 children and 18 adults to Devon. Last year 51 travelled to Northumbria and in 2014 it was 37 to Norfolk. We cover the cost of everything including that all important seaside ice cream!

Now that the Autumn tours have been and gone, all at Tailored Travel have a chance to draw breath. But now it’s that bit quieter, it’s the perfect time for us to make some planned changes. So Rebecca has moved across from Operations to work alongside Michael and Damian in the Sales Department. With her move, we decided to expand the Operations Department and in October were delighted to welcome new recruits Jana and Vasiliki.

The Reichstag, Brandenburg Gate, Checkpoint Charlie, the former Berlin Wall, Alexanderplatz and Museum Island are more than enough to enthuse and excite your group on a five day tour of Berlin. But just a two hour drive south of Germany’s capital lies Dresden whose own celebrated art museums and reconstructed old town offers either a wonderful two night add-on to your Berlin tour or a destination itself in the heart of Saxony for your next group tour.

David Moye has been the travel organiser for North Lincolnshire DFAS and before that East Midlands Area DFAS for 10 years now. In 2013, having travelled to all parts of the British Isles, David felt it was time to expand his group’s horizons with an annual flight tour. After spotting an advert in NADFAS Review and then on the recommendation of other NADFAS travel organisers at the next Area meeting, it was to Tailored Travel that David turned for his group's first foreign venture, a tour of the Amalfi Coast, Herculaneum, Pompeii and Naples.

We all feel better for a little care and attention. When you are pampered or get your hair done, maybe you have a bit more of a spring in your step. And the Tailored Travel website is no different to the rest of us. We’ve given it a bit of a makeover to give it a cleaner, fresher feel. In reality, it’s still the same source of inspiration for our Group Travel Organisers as it was before but now it’s easier on the eye and easier to navigate around. It's also now mobile friendly so you can easily navigate the site on your tablet or smart phone.

Back in February 2006, Michael and John had a tough decision to make. Which of two excellent candidates were they to choose as the company’s newest recruit? Damian came from a sales background in the group travel market. While Louise’ experience as a PA made her the perfect candidate to work alongside Sandy in the Operations Department. It was Michael who came up with the inspired solution. We recruited them both!

Of course, we can take your group on tour to Paris. But, unless they stay in the outskirts of the city and so run the gauntlet of the Paris rush hour each day, they’ll also pay top prices. Rates for central Paris hotels of a suitable standard are not cheap to put it mildly. We think we may have a rather special alternative for you. Why not stay on full board basis on a luxury river cruiser moored on the Seine, in the shadow of the Eiffel Tower?

Maureen Wilcox, the group organiser for Reigate and Redhill U3A, has been travelling with Tailored Travel for 10 years now. She started with North Wales in 2005 and then annual tours to the Rhine, Holland, Valkenburg and Northumberland. Since her first flight tour to Jersey in 2011, her group have flown to Lake Maggiore, Northern Spain and Lake Garda. This May she will take 63 to Croatia’s Istrian Riviera.

Running great group holidays is really just a by-product of our aim to make things as easy as possible for you, the group travel organisers. Our latest way of seeking to help you is to put your group’s own tour on our website so that you and your members can view the tour online and share it with friends and family. Hopefully, this will make it easier for you to distribute details of your tour to as wide an audience as possible.

After Kate’s departure in November to take up a job closer to her Harlow home so that she can better balance the demands of being a new mum, we were delighted to welcome Becca and Petra into our Operations Department in December. With Nicola, Louise and the Operations Manager, Sandy, there are now five in the department and we have a great team to ensure that everything that the Sales team promise is delivered on tour.

On 27^th June The Royal Picture Gallery Mauritshuis in The Hague reopened after a two year €30m expansion project. The unveiling of this renovated 17th century Dutch palace gives visitors a chance to see some of the greatest masterpieces of the Golden Age reunited under one roof.

Peter Medhurst travels the world as musician and scholar, giving recitals and delivering illustrated lectures on music and the arts. He studied singing and early keyboard instruments at the Royal College of Music and at the Mozarteum in Salzburg. His Music & Art in Secret Venice tours with Tom Abbott earlier this year were so successful that he is repeating them in 2015.

In recent weeks the Pound has hit exchange rate levels against the Euro that have not been seen since 2008. With the Pound now buying over 25% more than at its lowest levels, and the so-called ‘experts’ predicting an even stronger pound for 2015, the good news is doubled.

When Michael started the business back in 1998 and then his brother John joined him two years later, Tailored Travel was two men & a phone. Four years later the foundations of the business had been lain and it was time to introduce a non-family member! And so it was that Sandy Cornish joined Tailored Travel as head of Operations on 12 July 2004. 10 years later and Sandy is still with us and now heads up an Operations team of four.

"What a beautiful city Valencia turned out to be, we would never have thought of going before you suggested it – a real gem and somewhere we will certainly be re-visiting to see the bits we missed. Nothing was too much trouble for our guides and they made the city come alive for us. Thank you Tailored Travel for making it possible..."

When I took on the job of tour organiser I really was in the dark! I found an advertisement in a magazine for Tailored Travel and rang the company. I believe it was Michael to whom I talked. His response was positive and helpful with his advice re: numbers, mode of travel etc. What was promised was given. Arrangements work like clockwork...

There are many joys in travelling with a group. Trying to hear your guide in a hushed gallery or during a walking city tour on crowded streets isn’t one of them! It may be that you have a group of 30 and not all of you can be within easy earshot of the guide all the time. The solution is ‘whisper’ audio headsets, which enable everyone to clearly hear what’s being said all of the time even at a distance of up to 150 metres.

There was a time when going to work meant exactly that: one would get up, get dressed, have breakfast and leave the home to physically go to work. In today’s global world, information can be accessed practically anywhere and so the idea of being ‘in the office’ is not as it once was. Now with homeworking, staff can be in the office without ever leaving home...

Vienna is a destination that more and more of our Group Organisers are choosing to include in their upcoming travel programmes. And why not? It really does have so much to offer – the history and cultural legacy of the Habsburgs and the Austro-Hungarian Empire, the natural beauty of the River Danube, the tranquillity of Vienna Woods and the music of Strauss. Having lived in Vienna, Nicola in Operations was delighted to be asked to revisit her ‘second home’... Show full story

We understand that without our wonderful Group Organisers there would be no Tailored Travel. After all, it’s the Group Organiser who decides where the next adventure will be, rallies the members to book and acts as the liaison between us and the group. So we’ve asked Margaret Kyle of South Leicestershire U3A for her thoughts on the experience and insight she has gained from being a successful Group Organiser... Show full story

This spring has seen the eagerly awaited opening or renovation of a number of wonderful museums and galleries and, with them, a fantastic excuse for you to incorporate visits to some (or all!) of them in your upcoming travel programme. We’ve chosen just three highlights to whet your appetite - Amsterdam’s wonderful Rijksmuseum, Munich’s Lenbachhaus Museum & the Mary Rose Museum in Portsmouth...

By way of introduction we thought we’d give you a brief guide to the Tailored Travel team – in our opinion, the best there is in the group travel market. Leading you briefly through the process from the first call into the Sales Department, to the Operations Department who ensure that everything that has been promised by the Sales team is delivered and finishing with the Accounts Department who handle payments and invoicing... Show full story

UPDATE: After a long, hard winter of training, our managing director John finished this year’s London Marathon in a fantastic time of 3 hours and 13 minutes. John was delighted with the whole experience, “The Marathon was fantastic! The weather, the crowd, the atmosphere and I was really pleased with my run.” Show full story

The First World War was a turning point in world history. It claimed the lives of over 16 million people across the globe and had an impact on the lives of everyone. 2014 marks the 100th anniversary of the beginning of conflict, supposedly The War to End All Wars, and is a chance to pay our respects to the fallen. What better way of doing that than by taking your group on its very own First World War 100th anniversary tour?

We understand that without our wonderful Group Organisers there would be no Tailored Travel. After all, it’s the Group Organiser who decides where the next adventure will be, rallies the members to book and acts as the liaison between us and the group. So we’ve asked Jane Cornelius of Newbury DFAS for her thoughts on what it takes to become a successful Group Organiser... Show full story

We’ve been working hard over the last few months on our brand new Group Traveller brochure and we’re delighted to say that this has just been mailed out. Featuring over 80 suggested group tours to UK, Europe and worldwide, we hope there’s something to whet the appetite and feed the imagination of you and your members.

Nestled at the centre of the Mediterranean with Sicily to the north, Greece to the east and North African and Arabic influences from the south, as Damian and Louise found out on their inspection visit earlier this year, Malta is a melting pot of cultures. With no less than nine UNESCO World Heritage sites, Malta is a perfect destination for groups looking to explore Renaissance cathedrals, Baroque palaces and Neolithic temples. And approximately 300 days of sunshine each year make it ideal to escape the colder British months. Show full story

We understand that without our wonderful Group Organisers there would be no Tailored Travel. After all, it’s the Group Organiser who decides where the next adventure will be, rallies the members to book and acts as the liaison between us and the group. So we’ve asked Carole King from Avon Federation of WIs for her thoughts on what it takes to become a successful Group Organiser: Show full story

Here at Tailored Travel we understand that every group is different. That’s why every single Tailored Travel tour is individually designed for your group and your group alone. Wherever and whenever your group want to go and whatever you want to do when you get there, your group tour will be tailor made to your exact requirements. After all, it’s your holiday not ours! Show full story

Damian Wright will be well known to many of our clients. For group organisers that are new to Tailored Travel it will be either he or Michael who will be your first contact with Tailored Travel. So, by way of introduction, we thought we’d give you a little peep into Damian’s working day to see how he turns that first call into the colour brochure for your tailor made tour. Show full story

With the Queen’s Diamond Jubilee, the London Olympics and the Paralympics this year, it’s easy to think that 2013 may have a sense of ‘the morning after the night before’. But with the recent opening of the Titanic Experience in Belfast and Derry being chosen as the UK City of Culture 2013, as far as Northern Ireland tourism is concerned 2013 is a very big year indeed. Show full story

We understand that without our wonderful Group Organisers there would be no Tailored Travel. After all, it’s the Group Organiser who decides where the next adventure will be, rallies the members to book and acts as the liaison between us and the group. So we’ve asked Elizabeth Hodgson from Barnet U3A for her thoughts on what it takes to become a successful Group Organiser: Show full story

During this time of economic woe, it’s nice to be able to report some good financial news for a change. In recent weeks the Pound has hit exchange rate levels against the Euro that have not been seen since those carefree days before anyone had heard of Lehmans and LIBOR. With the Pound now buying over 25% more than at its lowest levels, the good news is doubled. Show full story

We are delighted to announce that Kate in our Operations Department gave birth to a beautiful baby boy on 24^th August. Oscar Cole came into the world at a healthy 7lb 2oz. Mother and baby are both doing well, as is husband Dan, the other man in Kate’s life. Kate will return to work in June of next year but in the meantime is getting used to the joys of being a new mother. Show full story