Back

View all destinations
  • Africa

  • Asia

  • Caribbean

  • Central America

  • Europe

  • Middle East

  • North America

  • Oceania

  • South America

Africa

Through its extraordinary wildlife safaris, environmental majesty and ancient traditions, Africa is an epic storybook adventure. Experience unparalleled luxury via rainforest, coastline, dessert and mountain.

Asia

Intoxicatingly beautiful and rooted in custom, Asia reveals a heightened mysticism and generosity of spirit throughout each celebrated region. Discover centuries of culture and engaging hospitality with every step.

Caribbean

Choose from an ever-increasing portfolio of luxury resorts and private islands along the azure waters of the Caribbean. Marine adventure, culinary perfection and complete seclusion all have a spot on the day’s agenda.

Central America

Soothing vistas and diverse eco-adventure await in Central America. See the sun rise over the rim of a volcano, roam the ruins of the Mayans, ride through nature conservatories and paddle through jungle mangroves.

Europe

A multitude of environs– coast, country and city – make for a feast of diversity in Europe. The unique histories, gastronomic extravagance and cultural riches bring a deluxe profusion of Old World elegance.

Middle East

Ancient cultures and modern pleasures coalesce in the fascinating nations of the eastern Mediterranean and those ringing the Persian Gulf. Encounter pockets of immense historical significance, refined opulence and breathtaking beauty.

North America

For enjoying a stateside sojourn, drinking in Canada’s natural wonders or exploring the magnitude of Mexico, this continent offers spectacular diversion. Find flavours to arouse every taste bud and an array of cultures to match.

Oceania

A world of exotic wonder awaits in Australia, New Zealand and the South Pacific islands. Drift through romantic nights and endless days of natural splendour, aquatic adventure, decadent resorts and epicurean delights.

South America

From the beaches of northern Brazil to the southern tracts of Patagonia, this continent is the sum of a thousand parts. Experience ancient cities and heritage haciendas, volcanic hot springs and vibrant café cultures.

Explore a world of luxury

View all destinations

Cruise Destinations

Whether you dream of island-hopping your way down Caribbean island chains, connecting the ocean waters with a Panama Canal cruise, or sailing into an exotic Mediterranean port at cocktail hour, our expert Travel Designers can curate the luxury cruise vacation of a lifetime.

Explore a world of luxury cruising

Search all cruise types

Safari Destinations

What can you expect from a Tully Luxury Travel safari? In a word: magic. You will witness extraordinary wildlife amid untamed beauty and unparalleled luxury. You will take a thousand pictures – and make a thousand more memories.

Podcasts

Luxury travel’s most inspiring stories told by its most celebrated icons. From wildlife experts, fashion designers and artists, to historians, chefs and more, this inspiring podcast series is designed to show you the world’s most exclusive travel experiences through the eyes of the people that know them best.

See all Podcasts

Explore our media

View all media

Our Partners

What is the Tully Difference? The most satisfying travel experiences are the ones that captivate and transform you as a person and that deepen your connection to the world around you. It is that belief that fuels our desire to create rewarding travel experiences for people who are passionate about discovering the essence and heart of a destination.

View all Preferred Partners

The Tully Difference

Learn more

[]

5 Reasons Why You Need a Travel Agent

By Tully Luxury Travel | 02-18-2020 |

Private Travel

Want to rent a villa in Tuscany and do it on your own? It’s simple. Just type “Villa Rentals Tuscany” into Google, then wade through the four and a half million responses - most of which look the same, whether they are good or bad, legit or bogus. Spend just 10 seconds at each vetting site, and you’ll be done in a year and a half - and still won’t have rented anything.

Travel advisors are even more important to luxury travelers, who ironically often think they know a lot about travel and rely on their own misguided sense of expertise. But while a good advisor is so vital that it is simply foolish to plan a high-end trip on your own without one, they can also help travelers of all budgets.

Here are the 5 reasons why you need a travel agent:

1 | Emergencies

This is the one most applicable to the average occasional travel. Stuff happens, and whether you believe in climate change or not (spoiler alert, it’s real), big weather events have become more commonplace, widespread, and unpredictable, and sooner or later Mother Nature is going to bite you when flying. But there are plenty of non-weather events disrupting flights, cruises, trains, and destinations, from civil unrest to volcanic eruptions to disease outbreaks to massive wildfires to labor strikes. And just about every year you read about an airline that went bust and shut down suddenly, stranding passengers. One phone call to your travel advisor makes all the difference in the world.

Anything that causes canceled flights (or cruises, etc.) means hassles, but the people who get through this process the most smoothly and the ones who get rebooked first and get the few available seats are usually the ones who used a travel agent. It’s that simple. First off, you actually have someone to call, versus long lines at banks or airport phones masquerading as “help desks.” But good agencies are constantly monitoring their clients’ flights and they usually know about your problem before you do - and often have a resolution before you even call them. They also have direct access to airline GDS (global distribution system) and don’t have to wait on long phone holds to get ticketing changes made. It’s worth noting that according to the U.S. Department of Transportation, nearly two percent of all domestic flights were canceled in 2019, a significant increase from the previous year and the highest rate since 2014. Midway through the year, MSNBC reported that passengers were being bumped from flights - involuntarily - at a rate three times higher than a year earlier.

2 | Expertise

No one knows everything about travel, no matter how deeply they are involved in the industry. Some travelers cheat their way around this by sticking to brands like Four Seasons or Ritz-Carlton wherever they go, but in many tourism hotbeds like Fez, Morocco, all the best hotels are ones you have likely never heard of. This is where a travel advisor’s knowledge cannot be beaten. And while even the best travel agent can’t know everything either, the good agencies parcel things up, so they have a safari expert, a cruise expert, a honeymoon expert, and so on, and they all work together.

It is important to remember that these advantages are not just for luxury travelers. Good travel advisors do not just know what the best hotel is, they know what the best hotel is for you and your budget and can help you find the right fit. As we will see shortly, they can also save you a lot of money, no matter what style you travel in.

3 | VIP Connections

Whether you are trying to book space at a coveted 8-villa safari lodge in Africa or get a room in a top Paris hotel during Fashion Week, most hoteliers keep emergency inventory, and guess who gets it? The travel advisors they have known for years book a lot of guests and send them a lot of business. It works this way with lots of things in the travel industry, from hard-to-get dinner reservations to the resort’s best ski instructor to a city’s top art expert as a private museum guide. Anytime there is scarcity, there is no substitute for personal connections, and the best agents have built these over years or decades. Plus we are living in the age of “experiential travel,” and good advisors create one-of-a-kind experiences most people would never have imagined in the first place.

Travel advisors provide clients with access: access to people, places, and experiences that could never be replicated, much less imagined. A great travel advisor has invested time and relationships in creating their ‘black book’ of contacts and relationships so that when their clients travel, they are treated as VIPs, not just credit card numbers. Everyone likes being treated like a VIP.

Seemingly simple things often annoy even the most seasoned travelers, but these irritants can be smoothed out by good advisors. One biggie is having your room ready to check in when arriving in Europe early in the morning after an exhausting overnight flight. I’ve seen lots of travelers, told to wait for hours until their room was ready. Do you think they tell that to a top agency who books them all the time???

4 | Extras

When you get more than you expected for the same price, that’s a great deal, and with travel advisors, this happens all the time. The cruise industry is a perfect example of very large inventories that fluctuate in supply and demand each week, with a large audience of repeat customers who cruise again and again for years. The cruise lines do not want to lose the loyalty of those customers - or the agents who steer hundreds of them each year to particular brands. Yet it basically costs the line no more to have you stay in a deluxe suite than a basic room if that suite is available, and with the size of today’s ships, it often is. But who gets these upgrades? Advisors. Professionals who specialize in cruises have enormous volume clout and are legendary for routinely getting clients one or two class stateroom upgrades, free shore excursions, onboard credits, and all sorts of things - for the same exact price you pay going direct.

In an age of automation, it may come as a surprise that many new clients skew on the more tech-savvy side, and come for the first time seeking guidance on their honeymoon, The millennial generation specifically may have seen their parents use a travel advisor, but don’t feel like they need one - until they are deep in the spiral of research. By shifting gears to planning with an expert, they feel liberated from the immense pressure of choosing the ‘best’ resort - because the travel advisors are cutting through the noise of all the conflicting opinions they’re seeing online. If you’re with a good agency, their team has actually been to the properties firsthand - not to mention has personal relationships with the General Managers. It’s all about personal relationships translating into exceptional experiences for our clients.

5 | Better Trips

At the end of the day, this is the bottom line, the big win you get with a good travel advisor. They know more than you do, they are better connected, they have access to benefits you can’t get yourself, and they can match and often beat any prices you find. They plan a better trip and then provide a safety net. Having a top travel designer can make you an instant VIP, and certainly will save you time and hassle, and quite possibly money.

Subscribe to our Newsletter

Inspiring travel ideas and advice from our travel designers delivered straight to your inbox.

Submit

Subscribe to our Newsletter

And gain access to travel promotions exclusive to Tully Luxury Travel through our vast network of some of the largest service providers in the travel industry.

We hope to show you the Tully difference on your next journey.

Tully Luxury Travel | Newsletter Subscription

  • Send

  • This field is for validation purposes and should be left unchanged.

false