Premium travel is about much more than staying in an expensive hotel or flying in a premium cabin. For many travellers, the real luxury is having a journey designed around their individual interests, preferred pace and priorities.
That is where Premium Tours come in.
A premium tour combines carefully planned travel with quality accommodation, personalised experiences, comfortable transport and a higher level of individual service. Rather than fitting your holiday around a standard itinerary, a premium tour can be shaped around you.
From exploring Japan with a private guide to combining a South African safari with Cape Town, or travelling across Australia and New Zealand on one carefully coordinated journey, premium touring opens up a more personal way to see the world.
This complete guide explains what premium tours are, what they can include and how to decide whether this style of travel is right for you.
A premium tour is a high-quality travel experience designed to offer greater comfort, personalisation and convenience than a conventional package or standard escorted tour.
Premium tours may include carefully selected accommodation, private transfers, experienced local guides, international and domestic flights, planned excursions and special experiences.
The key difference, however, is personalisation.
Rather than simply choosing an existing itinerary and departure date, a Tailor-Made Premium Tour can be created around factors such as:
The result is a journey that feels much more personal than an off-the-shelf holiday.
Standard tours can be an excellent way to explore the world, particularly for travellers who enjoy travelling as part of a larger group.
However, they usually operate according to a predetermined itinerary.
Departure times, hotels, sightseeing stops and the amount of time spent in each destination may already be decided.
Premium private touring offers significantly greater flexibility.
Instead of travelling with a large group, you might travel independently with your partner, family or friends while using private drivers and local guides throughout the journey.
You can spend more time exploring the places that interest you and avoid experiences that do not.
This creates a journey that feels less like following a timetable and more like discovering a destination your own way.
Exactly what is included will depend on your destination and personalised itinerary.
At Round The World Destinations, private tours can incorporate international and domestic flights, taxes and surcharges, baggage allowances, luxury accommodation, private air-conditioned transfers, English-speaking local guides, selected entrance fees and breakfast where relevant.
Eligible arrangements also benefit from ATOL protection.
Additional experiences and upgrades can then be incorporated depending on how you want to travel.
Where you stay can completely change how a destination feels.
Premium tours focus on accommodation selected for its quality, comfort, location and suitability for your particular journey.
Depending on the destination, this could include:
It is not necessarily about choosing the most expensive property available.
It is about choosing the right accommodation for your journey.
Moving between destinations should feel like part of the holiday rather than an inconvenience.
Premium tours can include private transfers between airports, hotels and destinations, helping make complex journeys significantly easier.
Depending on your itinerary, transport could also involve domestic flights, rail journeys or other carefully coordinated arrangements.
This becomes particularly valuable on multi-centre holidays where several destinations need to work together smoothly.
A knowledgeable guide can transform the way you experience a destination.
Rather than simply visiting famous landmarks, local guides can provide insight into a country’s culture, history, food and everyday life.
Private guiding also provides more flexibility than travelling as part of a large tour group.
You can ask questions, focus on subjects that interest you and often experience destinations at a more comfortable pace.
Premium travel is often defined by experiences rather than possessions.
Your itinerary could include a private wine tasting, wildlife safari, scenic rail journey, local cooking experience, private boat excursion or another activity chosen around your interests.
These personal touches help turn a good holiday into one you remember for years.
Premium Private Tours combine the benefits of premium travel with the freedom of travelling privately.
Instead of joining a large group of strangers, you travel with the people you choose.
That might be:
Private touring can be particularly attractive when visiting destinations where local knowledge and transport arrangements make independent planning more complicated.
You still have the expertise and organisation associated with a guided tour, but without having to structure your entire holiday around a large group.
A Tailor-Made Premium Tour takes personalisation one step further.
Instead of adapting an existing package, the journey can be created from scratch around your requirements.
Perhaps you want three nights in Tokyo but five in Kyoto.
Maybe you want to combine a South African safari with vineyards and a relaxing beach stay.
Or perhaps your dream journey involves Australia, New Zealand and several Pacific islands.
A specialist travel planner can look at the entire journey and determine how flights, accommodation, transfers and experiences should work together.
This approach is especially useful for complicated multi-country journeys.
Almost anywhere.
The best destination depends entirely on what you want from your holiday.
Popular options include:
Japan works particularly well for premium touring because there is so much variety to experience. Tokyo’s modern energy can be combined with Kyoto’s history, regional cuisine, traditional experiences and journeys into lesser-visited areas.
South Africa can combine wildlife, coastlines, vineyards, cities and spectacular landscapes within one journey.
A premium itinerary might combine Cape Town with the Winelands, a private safari experience and time relaxing on the coast.
Australia’s enormous scale makes thoughtful itinerary planning particularly valuable.
Sydney, Melbourne, Queensland, the Great Barrier Reef, the Red Centre and Australia’s wine regions can all form part of a personalised journey.
New Zealand offers mountains, fjords, vineyards, beaches and extraordinary road journeys.
Premium touring allows you to explore these landscapes while incorporating quality accommodation and experiences suited to your interests.
India offers extraordinary history, architecture, food and culture.
Private touring can make exploring the country significantly easier, particularly when transport, accommodation and local guides are coordinated in advance.
From Machu Picchu and the Sacred Valley to Lima and the Andes, Peru combines remarkable history with dramatic landscapes.
A thoughtfully planned premium itinerary allows sufficient time to experience each destination properly.
Not at all.
Premium tours can work extremely well for many different types of travellers.
Private touring gives couples greater privacy and the freedom to create a journey around shared interests.
Honeymoons are naturally suited to tailor-made travel because the itinerary can combine memorable experiences with time to relax.
Family travel becomes much easier when transport, accommodation and activities have been selected around the needs of both adults and children.
Small groups can enjoy the social aspect of travelling together without joining a much larger organised tour.
Premium private tours can also work well for families travelling across several generations because accommodation, activities and travel pace can be selected with different requirements in mind.
That depends on what you value most when travelling.
If your only priority is finding the lowest possible price, premium touring may not be the right choice.
However, the value becomes clearer when you consider everything that goes into planning a complicated journey.
A premium tour can save hours of research and coordination while giving you access to professional destination knowledge and carefully planned logistics.
For many travellers, the biggest benefits are:
Time
Someone else handles complicated planning.
Convenience
Flights, hotels, transfers and experiences work together.
Comfort
Accommodation and transport are selected with quality in mind.
Personalisation
Your itinerary reflects what you actually want to experience.
Support
You have someone to contact when circumstances change.
Confidence
Important elements of the journey have been professionally coordinated.
Premium travel is therefore less about extravagance and more about creating a better overall travel experience.
The two terms overlap, but they are not necessarily identical.
A luxury holiday often focuses heavily on the standard of accommodation, facilities and service.
Premium touring takes a broader view.
A premium experience might combine an outstanding hotel with a private guide, carefully coordinated transfers, personalised activities and an itinerary specifically designed around you.
The quality of the whole journey matters.
That is why a boutique property in an extraordinary location could sometimes be more appropriate than a conventional five-star hotel.
The more ambitious your holiday becomes, the more complicated the planning can become.
A single-destination holiday may involve a handful of bookings.
A multi-country premium tour could involve:
One change can affect several other parts of the itinerary.
Working with an experienced travel specialist means these elements can be considered as one complete journey rather than a collection of unrelated reservations.
Round The World Destinations is a family-run independent tour operator with more than 20 years of experience creating tailor-made worldwide journeys.
Our team uses first-hand destination knowledge to build personalised trips rather than restricting travellers to fixed packages.
Being independent also means we can consider options across more than 350 airlines and trusted travel partners worldwide, helping us create journeys around your priorities.
You can also benefit from our VIP Concierge Service, giving you personal support if plans change while you are travelling.
Eligible bookings receive the additional reassurance of full ATOL protection.
Whether you want to explore a single country in greater depth or create an ambitious journey across several continents, we can help bring every part together.
You do not need to arrive with a finished itinerary.
Start with the basics:
Where would you love to go?
How long do you have?
Who will be travelling?
What experiences matter most?
What level of accommodation do you prefer?
What is your approximate budget?
A travel specialist can then use these details to recommend destinations, routes and experiences you may not have considered.
Your initial itinerary can be refined until the balance of destinations, experiences, comfort and budget feels right.
The best journeys rarely feel mass-produced.
They reflect the people taking them.
Premium Tours provide the opportunity to travel with greater comfort and support while retaining the freedom to experience destinations in your own way.
Whether that means exploring Japan with a private guide, experiencing a once-in-a-lifetime African safari or combining several countries into one extraordinary journey, a tailor-made approach puts your priorities at the centre.
At Round The World Destinations, we create journeys around how you want to see the world.
Ready to start planning? Explore our Premium Tours or request a personalised quote and tell us where you would love to go next.
