David and Lucy - Our story:
It all started when I was approached by David, at a party, with a novel chat up line about how he was starting a new business which involved lots of travel and he needed a business partner. The ‘lots of travel’ bit got me interested and two weeks later we found ourselves spending a month in Kenya with a dilapidated Land Rover and thanks to our airline - no clothes. Not much business was done but we had a wonderful trip and returned home determined to start a travel company recommending the places we loved. Following two years of extensive travelling and research Ultimate Honeymoons was launched in 2002. Two years later we got married and to my great excitement we were able to experience one of our own Ultimate Honeymoons. To make sure we got the most out of it we took a 3 week honeymoon to include South Africa, the Seychelles and skiing in Zermatt! Now six years on we still travel as often as we can, both to visit current hotels and research new ones and the team has grown from the two of us squished in a cold dark office sharing one desk and one computer to five of us in a cosy and thankfully warm country office in Dorset.
Ultimate Hideaways and Ultimate Family Hideaways:
For the first few years we decided to specialise in honeymoons, however we soon found we had our honeymooners returning a year or two later asking us to help them arrange another wonderful holiday. Knowing what they enjoyed on their honeymoon made it easier for us to suggest hotels to suit them. This led to us starting Ultimate Hideaways, featuring many of the same hotels at Ultimate Honeymoons but with a few additional ones. The same research and care goes into Ultimate Hideaways that we have always put into Ultimate Honeymoons.
Since we started Ultimate Honeymoons our own family situation has changed and we now have a beautiful one year old daughter and another one on the way (often the consequence of getting married). Not wanting to limit our own travels we find ourselves travelling with our daughter more often than not and therefore have started to look at hotels in a new light, specifically those that welcome our daughter as much as they welcome us. This has led us to starting Ultimate Family Hideaways (website coming soon).
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How are we paid:
The best thing about using us is you don't pay us for our services! We get paid a commission by the hotel, so the price you pay us for your hotel is the same as if you went to them direct and in many cases less than you could get direct. For full published airfares we have to charge a £20 per person booking fee.
The benefits you get from using us are:
- We organize all your flights, transfers and accommodation for you.
- We make sure that there is always someone to meet you at the airport and you never have to catch a dilapidated local taxi, unless you want the experience!
- We have been to all our camps and lodges so can recommend the best suited for you.
- We check out the best rooms and the best views, so that we can advise you on whether an upgrade is really worth it, is the 'Sea View' really a sea view or do you need binoculars.
- You can pay for your holiday in Pounds Sterling and therefore don’t have to transfer money abroad in a foreign currency. We use Travelex Business for all our Foreign exchange transfers and this means you get a better rate of exchange then the Credit Card companies give you if you pay the hotels direct with a credit card.
- If you need help when you are in the middle of Africa or your flight gets cancelled or you just need some packing advice we are here to help you. And we can promise that trying to locate luggage yourself, which has stayed behind in Terminal 5, from your mobile on a beach during your holiday is a pretty miserable experience. I can’t promise we will fare any better with Lost Luggage lines than you but at least we can sit here all day trying.
- And most importantly all travel arrangements which include flights, booked through us are fully protected and bonded by our ATOL licence and the Civil Aviation Authority
Late Bookings:
We are often asked if booking late means good discounts. The answer is sadly no in most cases, unless you are flexible on hotel, dates and even destinations. The flight cost on the main scheduled carriers such as British Airways just go up as you get nearer to the time and the availability at the hotels just gets less and less. Many of the boutique hotels, camps and lodges we use have very few rooms so last minute bookings rarely get the availability. Our advice is book as soon as you know exactly what you want to do or you will end up kicking yourself if you have planned the perfect holiday and it isn't then available when you try and book. We can often hold rooms and flights for a week or so, to allow you to have a look at all the options but after that the hotels release these holds.
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