The Best Luxury Travel Companies in 2026: Who to Book With, and When
“Luxury travel company” covers four different businesses: advisor networks, bespoke tour operators and planners, deal platforms and matchmakers. Most travellers pay for the wrong one. This guide explains what each does, names the strongest firms in each, and identifies the bookings where skipping all of them is the better move.
- The four kinds of luxury travel company
- Virtuoso: the advisor network
- Abercrombie & Kent: the original operator
- Kuoni, Scott Dunn and Black Tomato
- Extraordinary Journeys: the family and safari planner
- Zicasso and The Luxury Travel Agency
- Luxury Escapes: the deal platform
- When to skip the middleman
- How to choose: a five-point test
- Questions readers ask
The four kinds of luxury travel company
Advisor network
Virtuoso, The Luxury Travel Agency
How they are paid: supplier commission, with an occasional planning fee.
Best for: hotel stays with perks, cruises, complex logistics.
Weakness: advisor quality varies enormously within a network.
Bespoke tour operator or planner
Abercrombie & Kent, Scott Dunn, Black Tomato, Kuoni, Extraordinary Journeys
How they are paid: margin built into the trip price.
Best for: multi-stop itineraries and destinations that need people on the ground. Only some employ their own guides and ground teams.
Weakness: a premium of 15–30% over assembling it yourself, and long lead times.
Deal platform
Luxury Escapes
How they are paid: negotiated net rates, sold at a markup.
Best for: opportunistic resort stays on flexible dates.
Weakness: inventory-led: you go where the deal is, not where you want.
Matchmaker
Zicasso
How they are paid: free to the traveller; how it is paid is not disclosed.
Best for: comparing specialist proposals without the legwork.
Weakness: you still depend on the quality of the matched agency.
The trade-off. Every model adds a layer of margin. That layer buys accountability, access or perks, and for the right trip it is worth paying. For the wrong trip it is friction. The rest of this guide is about telling those apart.
Virtuoso: the advisor network
Virtuoso is not a travel agency. Based in Fort Worth, Texas, it is a network of independently owned agencies whose advisors share preferred relationships with more than 2,200 partner hotels, cruise lines and tour operators. Its own pages give two sizes for the network: more than 20,000 advisors on one, 9,000 in more than 26 countries on another. To “book through Virtuoso” is to book through an advisor at a member agency, which sets its own fees and terms; our Virtuoso review explains who you pay.
For hotel stays the arithmetic is favourable. A Virtuoso booking at a partner hotel generally carries a preferred rate, daily breakfast for two, a Virtuoso-only amenity such as a spa credit, an upgrade on arrival if one is free, and early check-in or late check-out; Virtuoso says the benefits vary by property. The hotel pays the advisor’s commission, so the guest usually pays nothing extra. Amex Fine Hotels & Resorts offers a similar package to Platinum cardholders, and the comparison is close enough that we set the three side by side in booking direct vs Amex FHR vs Virtuoso.
The weakness is variance. A network this size holds brilliant specialists and order-takers alike. Its advisor directory filters by specialisation and destination; use it, and interview the advisor before committing a complex trip to them.
Abercrombie & Kent: the original operator
Abercrombie & Kent shaped the modern luxury tour operator: Geoffrey Kent started it in Kenya in 1962 with what the company calls the first luxury photographic safari. It is now 85% owned by the Heritage Group of Manfredi Lefebvre d’Ovidio, and it claims more than 55 offices in more than 30 countries. That network is the product: when a connection fails, the people fixing it work for A&K, not for a subcontractor. Our Abercrombie & Kent record scores it 86/100.
The catalogue spans private jet journeys, expedition cruising and tailor-made itineraries on every continent, but safari is the core and also where the pricing question is sharpest. A&K sits at the top of the market, and for East Africa a dedicated safari planner often delivers comparable camps and guiding for less. Our luxury safari operator index scores the lodge companies whose camps A&K sells; before committing to a generalist’s price, get one quote from a safari specialist for the same camps. The Power Rankings score the planners, A&K included.
A&K is hard to beat for multi-country African itineraries, for first-time visitors who want a single accountable party, and anywhere political or logistical complexity makes local offices valuable. It is beatable on single-destination trips to well-trodden ground, where you pay a global brand’s overhead for a route a specialist runs weekly.
Kuoni, Scott Dunn and Black Tomato
Three firms lead the tailor-made market for British and, increasingly, American travellers.
Kuoni: the establishment choice
Started by Alfred Kuoni in Zurich in 1906 and trading in Britain since 1966, Kuoni is the oldest name in this guide and the most conventional. Since 2015 it has belonged to Germany’s DERTOUR Group, part of REWE. It is strong on the Indian Ocean, the Far East and honeymoons, with high-street stores and personal travel experts who handle everything from flights to transfers. Its appeal is reassurance: deep supplier relationships, ATOL-protected packages (ATOL 0132) and a published 24-hour duty line. For the Maldives, Mauritius and Sri Lanka its buying power often produces prices below self-assembly. Our Kuoni record scores it 84/100.
Scott Dunn: the polished all-rounder
Scott Dunn began in 1986, when Andrew Dunn founded it as a ski company, and grew into a full tailor-made house with particular strength in ski, family travel (its Explorers kids’ clubs have run since 2000) and honeymoons. It has been owned by Flight Centre Travel Group since January 2023. Trips are built by destination specialists, and it publishes a 24-hour emergency line. Our Scott Dunn record scores it 82/100.
Black Tomato: the inventive one
Black Tomato was founded in London in 2005. Its signature product, Get Lost, drops clients into remote wilderness with the destination undisclosed until departure, and it is the one price the company publishes on its main pages: from £20,000 per person for two sharing. For travellers who have done the obvious trips, it is the most distinctive product in this guide. Our Black Tomato record scores the company 62/100, mostly because most other trips are priced on enquiry.
All three reward long lead times: the best guides, villas and camps are contracted 6–12 months out. Our guide to booking lead times across luxury travel covers the windows category by category.
Extraordinary Journeys: the family and safari planner
Extraordinary Journeys
Extraordinary Journeys is a tailor-made planner founded in a New York apartment in 2008 by a mother and daughter, Marcia and Elizabeth Gordon, and now based in Washington, D.C. Since 2022 it has been 65% owned by the French group Voyageurs du Monde and its British arm Original Travel; Elizabeth Gordon holds the rest and still runs it. It plans 39 destinations, 16 of them in Africa, owns no camps or hotels, and says trips start at about $1,000 per person per day, with a five-day minimum.
Book it for families and multigenerational groups: many of its planners are parents who travel with their own children, the company says. Book it for Africa with planners who have lived there, from Marcia Gordon’s eleven years in Kenya to a concierge team and trip coordinators working from Johannesburg, Cape Town and Nairobi, among other cities. And consider it for Japan and Southeast Asia: it publishes eight private Japan itineraries from USD 16,000 a person and ranks fourth of ten on our Japan index, and its head of Asia, Lauren Jafry, is on Travel + Leisure’s 2026 A-List, the company says. Look elsewhere for a single lodge you could book direct, a budget below about $1,000 a day, or a 24-hour line published before you pay: its published number keeps US Eastern office hours.
“Chris curated a set of experiences around our food-loving family that matched our preference for more authentic and local activities both cultural and culinary.”
Its scores are set on the same published criteria as every other company’s. Prices are its own published starting prices, read on 6 October 2026.
Zicasso and The Luxury Travel Agency
Zicasso finds you a specialist instead of being one. Submit a trip brief and it introduces two vetted specialist companies for that destination, who respond with competing proposals. The matching is free to the traveller, who then books and pays the chosen specialist under that company’s terms; Zicasso does not say how it is paid. Its sample trips start at USD 2,500. It works best for defined single-destination trips such as Japan, Italy or Peru, and less well for vague briefs. Our Zicasso review covers how the specialists are chosen.
The Luxury Travel Agency, founded in 2013 with offices in Toronto and Nashville, is the boutique end of the advisor model: a single high-touch agency, a Virtuoso member since 2019 with the hotel perks that brings, and more emphasis on itinerary design. It says custom itineraries begin at $20,000. Agencies like this suit travellers who want one long-term relationship, because the value grows as the advisor learns your preferences. Our Luxury Travel Agency review sets out its fees and registration.
Luxury Escapes: the deal platform
Founded in Melbourne in 2013, Luxury Escapes is the volume player: limited-time packages at four- and five-star properties, bundled with inclusions such as breakfasts, spa credits and transfers, and sold at a claimed discount to rack rates. You scan what is discounted and decide whether you want it.
The discounts are sometimes real and sometimes set against inflated reference rates, and the inclusions are worth their face value only if you would have bought them anyway. We tested the claims in our review of Luxury Escapes. It suits flexible travellers who check the direct rate before buying.
When to skip the middleman
Every firm above earns its margin on complexity. Take the complexity out and the margin buys nothing. Four cases where booking direct, or through a transparent marketplace, usually wins:
Private aviation. Charter is a quoted product. Get quotes directly from operators or brokers with published pricing, and see jet cards vs charter vs fractional ownership for which model fits your flying.
Villas. Curated villa platforms have made the agency layer largely redundant for standard rentals; for staffed estates and event bookings an operator still adds value. Our luxury villa rental company index compares the platforms, and how to book a luxury villa covers where the line sits.
Experiences and guides. Private guides, after-hours museum access and day experiences are marketplace products now: GetYourGuide lists private options with reviews, often for far less than an operator would charge.
Hotels where you hold status. Top-tier loyalty benefits (suite upgrades, guaranteed late check-out, lounge access) often beat advisor-programme perks, and advisor bookings often do not earn elite credit. The right luxury travel credit card can bring that status faster than stays will.
How to choose: a five-point test
- Count the moving parts. One hotel? Book direct or through a Virtuoso advisor for the perks. Five countries, bush flights and permits? A tour operator’s accountability is worth the margin.
- Price the alternative before you commit. Get one specialist quote for any trip a generalist prices above $1,000 per person per day.
- Ask who is on the ground. Own offices and employed guides, or subcontracted local companies? Both can work, but only one tells you who answers the phone at 2am.
- Check what the booking channel costs you in benefits. Advisor perks, loyalty benefits and card programmes are mutually exclusive more often than travellers realise. Pick the richest one per stay.
- Insure independently. A standalone policy, bought separately, travels with you across every booking channel.
Partner
Planning a family safari or a private Japan trip? Extraordinary Journeys plans both, with starting prices published on each itinerary.
Enquire with Extraordinary Journeys →Read the review first →Its scores are set on the same published criteria as every other company’s.