Turquoise Holidays

In 2025, Turquoise Holidays received the Condé Nast Traveller Readers' Choice Award for Best Tour Operator in the World, an accolade that recognized not only the quality of its trips but also the approach to travel design that has defined the company since its founding. The London-based outfit operates as a small, passionate team of travel specialists focused on the belief that luxury travel means space, privacy, and soul. This philosophy translates into expeditions and honeymoons custom-built around individual preferences rather than off-the-shelf packages adapted to clients. With over two decades in the business, Turquoise has developed a reputation for paying attention to details that only become apparent once a trip is underway: the handwritten note from the hotel recognizing a milestone, the precisely timed surprise activity, the sense that a team somewhere understood what a traveler actually wanted and got it right.

Turquoise Holidays specializes in long-haul honeymoons and tailor-made journeys for couples, families, and individual travelers seeking once-in-a-lifetime experiences. The company positions itself as a curator rather than a booking agent. Rather than presenting a catalog of properties and asking clients to self-assemble an itinerary, the firm's specialists engage in consultation to understand the traveler's interests, pace preferences, budget, occasion, and travel style. A honeymoon client might describe a preference for secluded beaches combined with cultural encounters, and Turquoise assembles a journey that doesn't rely on obvious combinations but instead weaves together specific properties, activities, and local relationships to create something distinct. A family seeking adventure might end up with a combination of wildlife focus in one country, water-based exploration in another, and cultural immersion in a third, all paced appropriately for children. This bespoke approach requires deep relationships with properties and suppliers in every destination, and a team knowledgeable enough to make real-time adjustments if a client's interests shift mid-journey.

The company operates across nine global regions: Africa, Asia, Australasia, Caribbean, Indian Ocean, Mediterranean, Middle East, Mexico, and North America. Within each region, the company has cultivated specialist expertise. The Africa team, for instance, understands wildlife patterns, the best properties for various park systems, and how to combine safari with cultural encounters in Botswana, Kenya, Tanzania, Rwanda, Zambia, and Mozambique. The Asia team works extensively across Thailand, Vietnam, Laos, Cambodia, Indonesia, Sri Lanka, and India, with knowledge of lesser-known destinations and communities outside tourist circuits. The Caribbean and Indian Ocean teams specialize in honeymoon destinations and island-hopping combinations. This geographic depth allows Turquoise to design journeys that layer experiences in thoughtful ways: a two-week trip might combine wildlife in one setting, temples or historical sites in another, and beach recovery in a third, with all transitions handled smoothly and all properties carefully selected for both their quality and their fit with that particular traveler's expectations.

Turquoise's approach to accommodations reflects the same philosophy applied to itinerary design. Rather than a standard grading system, the team evaluates properties on a detailed set of criteria including location authenticity, service standard, design integrity, and alignment with the traveler's specific values. A luxury property for one client might be a tented camp in a wildlife reserve with composting facilities and communal meals, while for another it's a beachfront villa with private staff. The company works with established luxury hotels like Aman or the Oberoi Group where appropriate, but also with smaller, specialized properties that don't advertise widely. Many are family-owned guesthouses, locally operated eco-lodges, or converted colonial estates run by individuals with deep ties to their communities. This flexibility means that a journey can weave between different accommodation styles to match the progression of activities. A two-week honeymoon might move from a stylish city hotel for cultural exploration, to a wildlife lodge for an immersion, to an overwater bungalow for beach time and water activities.

The honeymoon division is particularly developed within Turquoise's portfolio. The company recognizes that a honeymoon serves a different purpose than other travel: marking a threshold, allowing a couple to move at their own pace, and often carrying expectations for romance alongside adventure. To this end, Turquoise works with properties to arrange honeymoon-specific touches: sunset setups on beaches, private dining arrangements, fruit and flowers in the room, concierge briefing on activities suitable for couples. The team also understands the practical aspects: a honeymoon rarely follows a standard itinerary, as couples often want flexibility to linger in a place they love or change plans spontaneously. Turquoise builds trips with built-in flexibility and maintains enough communication with each property that when a client calls with a last-minute request, it can usually be accommodated.

Family travel is another specialization. The company designs journeys for families with children that balance adult interests with age-appropriate activities and practical realities like nap schedules and flight durations. Rather than treating children as a constraint, Turquoise designs experiences that genuinely engage them. A family might combine cultural exploration with wildlife observation in Africa, with activities structured so that children participate in watching animals while adults enjoy deeper educational sessions. Accommodations are selected partly on kid-friendliness without sacrificing design or comfort. Many properties offer kids' clubs, but Turquoise assesses whether they're actually well-run and whether family time is possible alongside organized activities.

Pricing for Turquoise trips is customized and not published in standard form. The company quotes per-person or per-trip costs based on the specific itinerary, choice of properties, length of stay, and season. Honeymoons typically range from 10 to 21 days, with two-week trips commonly falling into the $10,000 to $25,000 per person range depending on destination and property selection, though luxury options can exceed this. Family trips vary widely based on group size and accommodation choices. The company emphasizes that pricing is transparent and that trips can be designed to fit different budgets, with specialists helping clients understand where to allocate resources to maximize their experience.

Turquoise Holidays is well suited to travelers who value personalization and are willing to invest time in planning for that specificity. The company works best for clients who can articulate their interests and preferences but want expert design rather than DIY assembly. This appeals to honeymooners seeking a memorable, stress-free transition into marriage, families wanting memories built around their actual preferences rather than generic itineraries, and experienced travelers seeking something beyond standard luxury circuits. The fact that the team is small and directly involved in each journey means clients develop direct relationships with their planners, who remain their point of contact throughout the trip. This continuity and attention distinguishes Turquoise from larger operators where multiple departments handle different aspects of a journey.