Expressions Holidays is a privately-owned company that was set up in 1989 by the two director-owners, Marcelle Hoff and Martin Garland. Beginning with a small range of personally-selected hotels throughout France, our purpose was to offer a personal service based on first-hand knowledge and professional advice to clients who appreciated this approach, far removed from a traditional, mass-market package holiday.
This tailor-made approach offering a personalised, quality service was much appreciated by our clients and we were soon asked to expand our range of holiday destinations. We expanded into Italy and to this day, have a highly-developed, in-depth programme of holidays to Italy.
Gradually we developed further-afield destinations, both in response to the wishes of our clients, many who were becoming faithful regulars each year, and in response to destinations that we researched and found to be a perfect fit for our type of specialist approach. So, in addition to France and Italy, we offered the Caribbean, the Indian Ocean, New Zealand and Sri Lanka in particular, as well as other worldwide destinations. More recently launched was a dedicated programme to Spain, along the lines of our Italian and French holidays.
Whilst holidays to the Caribbean and the Indian Ocean tend to be luxury beach holidays, staying in one or two top-quality resorts, the holidays to the other destinations are most often a mixture of touring holidays (where we put together an itinerary of any number of nights and include the travel arrangements, which may be by train, fly-drive or accompanied by a driver-guide, depending on the destination), stay-put or single centre holidays and special interest holidays with a theme or flavour.
As well as our destination-specialist holidays another very important development has been the range of special interest, lifestyle and occasion holidays that we offer. These include our holidays for families, touring holidays, cookery holidays, spa holidays, garden tours and holidays by train.
Significantly, no two of our holidays have ever really been the same. This degree of personalisation was fundamental to the company ethos on the outset and remains at the core of our service today. Clients have an enormous amount of choice in terms of departure date, method of travel, duration and combination of hotels, regions and activities.
A few years ago, we created our strapline, ‘The Art of Intelligent Travel Organising’. It sums up brilliantly exactly what we do and how we look after the interests of our clients.
Our team
Our specialist travel advisors have experience of living and working in the destinations we offer. With this in-depth knowledge, we provide the best possible information and advice to clients during the planning of their holiday. In addition to their personal experience of the destinations, we also send them on regular trips abroad to experience the countries, the hotels we feature and a variety of methods of travel. Most of our team also speak at least one other foreign language, including French, German, Italian, Spanish and Portuguese. Many members of our team come to us as graduates from Exeter and other top universities. We also employ current Exeter students, both as undergraduates and post-graduates, for part-time work.
Our clients
When writing about us as a company, we have to mention our clients too. Everything we create has a client focus with the aim of providing a well-crafted and well-executed holiday experience. In us our clients find like-minded souls who understand the value of – and thrive on – creating the perfect holiday itinerary. All arrangements are tailored to individual desires and requirements, including the finest details like restaurant reservations, spa treatments, wine-tasting, museum tickets or local excursions. It is this ‘concierge’-style service that keeps our customers returning to us every year. Yet we also pride ourselves on providing value for money, important even at the top of the luxury market.
Awards
Over the years we have accumulated various awards and accolades. In 2002 we received an award from Deloitte-Touche as being within the top 100 fastest-growing companies. In addition, we have received various awards from tourist boards (Italy), for our brochures (Shades of Green, holidays to Australia and New Zealand), magazines (Conde Nast Traveller) and most recently the British Travel Awards for our programme to Spain, as a specialist operator.
Financial Protection
Flight-inclusive package holidays are ATOL protected by the Civil Aviation Authority. Our ATOL number is 3076.
Non-flight package holidays are financially protected by The Association of Bonded Travel Organisers Trust Limited (ABTOT). As a member of ABTOT, Expressions Holidays has provided a bond (licence number 5263).
ABTOT cover provides for a refund in the event you have not yet travelled or repatriation if transportation was included in your package. Please note that bookings made outside the UK ar only protected by ABTOT when purchased directly with Expressions Holidays. Please refer to our booking conditions for full details.
We are also members of AITO (the Association of Independent Tour Operators), an organisation of some of Britain's best specialist tour operators.
We have chosen not to be members of ABTA (Association of British Travel Agents) as we are a tailor-made specialist tour operator and not a travel agent, and we feel that the Association of Independent Tour Operators (AITO) is an organisation that represents our interests, as a tailor-made specialist, best.
Links:
www.caa.co.uk
www.aito.com
www.abtot.com
Our location
Having been based in Belsize Park, London for 20 years, Expressions Holidays moved to Devon in 2009, and we are now based in the flourishing regional capital and university, cathedral city of Exeter. We have offices in an accessible location on the outskirts of the city, yet only 10 minutes from the city centre. If you would like to arrange a visit, please call us. We look forward to meeting you.