Many keen travellers pack their dreams of cultural immersion away with their backpacking gear from their twenties. However, with a little extra cash and an open mind to exploring in style, luxury travel doesn’t have to mean the end of authentic traversing.

Luxury travel is often perceived as being overly lavish and out of touch, with many doubting the possibility of an authentic experience when someone orchestrates your trip from touchdown to take off. But, in reality, the expertise of a luxury travel agent could be the very making of your trip. 

At 44, Ashley Sant is a well-seasoned traveller, having lived in London, Madrid and Australia during her twenties, she was determined to ensure that having three children didn’t put an end to her travels. 

Unphased by booking a random Airbnb in Brooklyn, New York or a last minute ‘cheap’ flight to New Zealand, Ashley isn’t someone you’d typically describe as a luxury traveller.

However, for her dream trip to Oman in 2019, with limited planning time but excess cash, she decided to break the habit of a lifetime and turn to a luxury travel agent to help her.

“It was the trip of a lifetime, and it’s still one of the best places I’ve ever been. I’d never been to Oman, nor did I know anyone who had, I wanted to reassure myself that we would be somewhere nice and safe.

“It was somewhere me and my husband have wanted to go since we watched it on a random travel documentary years ago, most non backpacking trips where you travel that far are considered luxury, so that’s how I ended up going through a luxury agent.”

At the time, Ashley’s children were aged six, nine and twelve. During the two-week trip they camped in the desert for four nights.

“I don’t think camping in the desert screams luxury, but actually, what was a luxury was knowing exactly how and where to do it. I must admit the nice hotel we returned to was also a major bonus.” 

She explains she definitely had some reservations, thinking it might just be closed off resorts ‘where I may as well be somewhere a four-hour flight away rather than nine hours plus,’ but actually, the travel agent’s knowledge and experience turned out to be ‘invaluable’ to her trip.

“They planned all my highlights- camping, trips to surrounding villages, days at stunning beaches and visits to some of the most beautiful buildings I’ve ever seen, many of which google doesn’t do justice and I wouldn’t have known were worth seeing.”

Travel enthusiast Hayley Bailey French has worked for luxury travel agency Elegant Resorts in Chester for ten years. She spends her days carefully crafting and booking clients’ dream destinations.

With a lengthy clientele list of some of the richest people in Cheshire including Manchester United royalty Alex Ferguson, and reality star Dawn Ward, she knows all about the travel desires of the wealthier side of society.

“Weirdly, there’s a sort of opposite snobbery from some travellers about luxury travel. You’d think it would be the luxury travellers looking down their noses at the backpackers but ironically, it’s usually the other way around.”

Whilst she admits an authentic cultural experience isn’t always necessarily top of luxury clients’ priority list, ‘some do just want to lie in the sun and be looked after for a fortnight’.

There are clients who come to her wanting a balance of the high-end lifestyle, as well as a chance to engage with the history and culture of their destination.

“We always try to cater to what our clients want and give them the opportunity to see the ‘real’ version of their destination.”

Hayley explains “I don’t love the term ‘real’ because it’s all real, just because it’s where the locals live doesn’t make it anymore ‘real’ than the really touristy areas.

“However, I do believe to fully understand the beauty of a place, you need to get involved, and sometimes luxury travel helps you do that to a whole new level.”

One example she gives is the Khlong Lat Mayon Floating market in Bangkok. “I organised this for a client a few weeks ago, it’s an authentic Thai market on water, where locals sell their native dishes.

“Another exclusive experience we book is Buffalo riding in rural Thailand, it’s something loads of families use for farming, and Thai children are often spotted riding them. It gives visiting children a chance to feel like locals, and annoyingly for their parents, it’s always the first thing they mention when they get home.”

Luxury travel agents do extensive research on destinations across the globe, they meet with clients to draw up detailed travel plans- catering to all their wildest desires, needs and outrageous requests. 

“Basically, it’s our job to make people’s dream holidays happen, essentially we are the gurus of travelling, but specifically on a big budget.”

Hayley explains that luxury travel is a great option for families inclined towards adventure, because they can access authenticity, without worrying about the mishaps, as that’s what they entrust the agency to handle. 

“We’ve had people who will save for a few years to book a trip through us, I think it’s because they can’t wing it like they could when they backpacked in their twenties, but they still need more than a traditional Brits Abroad sort of family holiday.”

She clarifies, “The difference is that in between their exploring, they can put their feet up, relax and enjoy a 5-star resort.”

Having just got back from two weeks in Tulum, Mexico herself, Hayley explains: “Through my job I knew about loads of hidden gems. One being a gorgeous secret beach, you access it through mountain ruins, and it was breathtaking.

“I think it’s a total myth that you can’t be a true traveller whilst enjoying the finer things in life.”

Ashley admits she hasn’t planned another trip using a luxury travel agency, although joked she wishes she had after booking a ski trip to Italy over Christmas, where she ‘arrived to absolutely no snow’.  

“I’ve honestly never felt as connected to a culture as I did with Oman, and I think it’s because the way that the trip was planned meant I could be spontaneous and know all the basics were in place.

“If you can justify the costs, and especially if you have kids, I’d recommend looking into a luxury agency. And that’s from someone who backpacked with like £100 to my name.”

She explains particularly if it’s your first time in a country, or if it’s a shorter trip, you can fully embrace the whole experience. And, if anything goes wrong there is someone just down the phone who is being paid to help you. 

Ashley says she would always advocate for playing it by ear when you go somewhere new, however it’s ‘naive to just think you can just waltz in anywhere’.

“In my experience, local communities, especially in Asia, are really welcoming and friendly, but I do think some travellers forget that these are people’s homes.

“It’s not a competition on who can get to go to the coolest places and agents will give you realistic advice on being respectful.

“I think if you have that drive to explore, you will do it no matter what, so why not get a little bit of help with all the boring bits of travelling?”