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Recent Travel By Design press coverage:

	The Observer - Holiday Clinic - Family Holidays The special trip to North America 'A STRESS-FREE TRIP, WITH A BIT OF ADRENALINE' Read more >
	The Mail on Sunday It’s official: Go to Travel By Design for the best travel advice Read more >
	Travel By Design, joint honeymoon sponsors to the Granada Reports Wedding of the Year 2006 courtesy of LIVINGEDGE Magazine. Read more >

Contact us by email on info@travelbydesigngroup.com or phone on 01625 584195

Phileas Fogg went round the world in 80 days, but an Alderley Edge travel agency has managed to arrange the journey in just seven.

And by surpassing the feat of the fictional character from Jules Vernes famous book and providing other tailor-made luxury holidays for the Cheshire set, Travel by Design has scooped two prestigious awards.

The family-run agency owned by sisters-in-law Kristina and Irene Hulme picked up the accolades of Small Leisure Agent of the Year and UK Luxury Retailer of the Year at the travel industrys Agent Achievement Awards at Londons Royal Lancaster Hotel.

Kristina, who launched the company in 1990 on the upmarket Cheshire villages high street, counts several local celebrities among her clients.

"But we're very discreet and private", she said, before adding: "But it's more our attention to details that matters most. With us you're not buying off the peg. Hence the name."

One example of Travel by Designs special bespoke service was when they heard that a clients journey from their hotel in Yosemite National Park in California to the airport would take much longer because of a diversion caused by a landslide.

"We instantly contacted the hotel and arranged for a hamper to be made up so they could have a picnic to break up the journey", said Kristina, working with the Association of Independent Tour Operators.

It was the first time that Travel by Design had been nominated for the awards, so it made success all the sweeter for Kristina.

"We've known people who have been nominated about 10 times and never won anything, so we feel especially pleased", she said.

The company with a total staff of just four - specialises in the luxury end of the market, although they claim they can suit every budget, and exotic destinations include the Azores, Canada, Australia and New Zealand among many others.

"We are now finding that, because of our individual service, the grandchildren of some of our original clients are now asking us to design holidays for them" said Kristina.

Travel by Design have a very simple ethos: To match their clients to the most suitable destination, accommodation and most importantly, the right travel experience.

• Travel By Design was started by Irene and Kristina Hulme in 1990 as a small family concern. It now has a broad client base, both local and throughout Cheshire, Manchester and beyond.
  
• Kristina Hulme has been a Panel Member of AITO Specialist Travel Agents - dedicated to providing the highest quality service for their customers - for five years.
  
• Travel By Design’s motto is: ‘The difference is in the detail’.
  
• The company sells interesting holidays to destinations all over the world and all its consultants are well travelled.
  
• Travel By Design specialises in bespoke travel to Canada and the USA.

Since 1990, we have arranged travel for the discerning who seek the guarantee of personal service and high standards.  Extensively travelled consultants offer advice and experience at our family owned and actively managed Travel Agency in the heart of Alderley Edge.  We are:

• USA Travel Counsellors as appointed by the Visit USA Association
• Canadian High Commission Appointed Specialist Agent
• Far East, Australia and Bermuda Specialists
• Luxury Cruise Consultants
• Tailor Made Planning experts for Europe

We are based on the high street in the village of  Alderley Edge, North Cheshire, and offer a unique booking service `Travel by Appointment` to design your individual itinerary. We have maps, books, videos, postcards, letters of commendation and we manage our own `Very Good Book` for reference based on returning passengers opinions, which is more than just an `under the counter` travel agent`s guide.

We are described by our clients as `ideas people` and in our agency the `Thanks by Design` board is testimony to our efforts. We have been described as having the ability to create a memory and not just a holiday.

Roger Bray a travel writer with the Guardian Newspaper, wrote in his column.......

Kristina Hulme, of Cheshire based Travel by Design,  has come up with another way (of arranging bookings). Customers seeking advice on Saturday afternoons, when the shop is usually busy, must make appointments.  And, mirroring a policy adopted by some restaurants, she asks them to telephone and reconfirm that they are still coming. `We give them a glass of wine and it works really well.  It means that we can concentrate on complicated itineraries`.

Contact us by email on info@travelbydesigngroup.com or phone on 01625 584195

The special trip to North America

'A STRESS-FREE TRIP, WITH A BIT OF ADRENALINE'

Jill Carter, 49, a youth worker, and Peter Kay, 48, a careers adviser, live in Nottingham with daughter Jessie Carter-Kay, 17, and son Harry Kay, 14

Jane Dunford, The Observer, Sunday February 17 2008 - Read full article.

To make an appointment with the Travel By Design team to discuss any travel plans, ring 01625 584195 or email on info@travelbydesigngroup.com.

Travel by Design in Alderley Edge was recently singled out as one of the best travel agents in the country by a major national newspaper*. Describing the service provided by Travel By Design’s staff as ‘faultless’, the article praised the professionalism, the in-depth research and the confidence with which queries were handled by the four-strong Travel By Design team.

The mystery shopper-style investigation put five of the UK’s best travel agents to the test with a series of questions designed to assess the level of service that customers would normally receive. Travel By Design emerged the clear winner.

Kristina Hulme, who founded the company with her sister-in-law Irene Hulme 16 years ago, comments:
“We are delighted by this accolade. The secret of our success is a broad mix of different elements. We are specialists in our field, so we can offer authoritative guidance on destinations, activities, airlines and all travel-related queries. We have all travelled extensively and have first-hand knowledge of the destinations that we recommend. Most importantly, we strive to offer our customers 100% satisfaction.”

What made a small travel agency in Cheshire stand out amidst the competition?

Kristina Hulme continues: “Mass market travel agents are allocated just a few minutes to sell a holiday, whereas we understand the need for time to talk through the various options and for the customer to reach a decision that they are completely happy with. Our appointment system works particularly well because we allow sufficient time for each customer. It can take up to an hour to book a single-centre holiday or several hours to plan a multi-centre trip. People are spending money on a holiday unseen, and it is our job to ensure that it fully lives up to their expectations. The fact that we spend time getting to know our customers and booking the right holiday for them is a huge factor in explaining why they return to us time and again. We are currently enjoying a 90% conversion rate from this service.”

Around 70% of Travel By Design’s customers have booked with them before and many who used the company’s services when it first started, 16 years ago, now have grown children who plan their own honeymoons and holidays with the same travel agent their parents have always used.

Kristina and Irene boast a wide range of industry contacts, which has particularly helped in securing their status at the forefront of their profession. They have received accolades from the Canadian High Commission - a country in which they specialise - and Kristina has served as a member of the AITO Specialist Travel Agents’ Panel** for five years.

Continues Kristina: “We regularly deal with the Managing Directors of the specialist companies with which we work and this allows us to go the extra mile for our clients. Taking a strong interest in industry issues means that not only are we privileged to have the ear of those who can really make dreams happen, but we are also in the very best position to advise our clients on all the issues affecting their holiday.”

To make an appointment with the Travel By Design team to discuss any travel plans, ring 01625 584195 or email on info@travelbydesigngroup.com.

Travel By Design is committed to making customers’ travel experiences special, particularly if they have specific interests or occasions in mind. Here are just a few examples of the kind of service that makes its customers return to the Travel By Design shop in Alderley Edge time and again. The team has:

• Arranged for a steam rail enthusiast to travel on the footplate of the Rocky Mountaineer Train in Canada. They also organised a special 70th birthday trip for one customer on the Rocky Mountaineer so that she could enjoy the journey from the front seat, with the best views and a complimentary bottle of champagne to make the occasion even more memorable.
  
• Ensured that couples travelling to exotic destinations have had the opportunity to enjoy pre-booked dining in the most romantic of locations, to make the evening even more special. Among these was a couple who dined by candlelight at the end of a pier, on the edge of the Indian Ocean in Mauritius. Says Kristina Hulme: “Touches like these, organised in advance by us, make all the difference to special occasion trips.”
  
• Delivered Easter eggs to families holidaying in Whistler, Canada, as they were unable to take any with them for the children, being heavily laden with skiing gear.
  
• Organised a trip to South Africa for a couple whose interests included both wine tasting and horse-riding. They were able to enjoy a tailor-made horseback wine tasting tour.
  
• Rung the person responsible for information on the Pacific Coast Highway in California to find out if a client’s route was affected by road-works. The customer was duly advised of the diversion so that the planned journey was as little affected as possible.
  
• Pre-booked a special 40th birthday gondola ride for a customer in Venice, plus an adjacent boat with a video camera so that happy memories of the experience were recorded.

To make an appointment with the Travel By Design team to discuss any travel plans, ring 01625 584195 or email on info@travelbydesigngroup.com.