Awards

 

The Guardian & Observer Travel Awards - 2008 Announced on October 11th 2008

Best Small Tour Operator - Second place


We are absolutely thrilled to have received this award in such a hard fought category - being pipped to the post by just 0.1%!  We are especially pleased as this honour has come our way after only four summers of operation. We are indebted to the many guests who voted for us to whom we would like to offer our most sincere thanks. You know where our aspirations lie next!

  • The Guardian & Observer Travel Awards constitute the UK’s most prestigious awards
  • The awards are the result of the UK’s largest independent travel survey
  • The award is voted for independently by members of the public – not by a panel of judges
  • This honour follows just four seasons (the vote was conducted prior to this season)

As well as thanking our guests we would also like to thank our family of property owners and their teams, together with the entire Exclusive Escapes team for their considerable enthusiasm and commitment.

We fervently believe that our property portfolio and associated services go somewhat beyond the normal scope of traditional ‘tour-operating’ (an expression we abhor incidentally). We also believe with a passion we have only just begun to achieve what is ultimately possible and assure our guests we will continually strive to improve.

We thank you all once again for your support - it is very much appreciated.

Best Small Tour Operator

  • 1 Audley Travel                     98.9%
  • 2 Exclusive Escapes          98.8% 
  • 3 Transindus                        96.0% 
  • 4 Rainbow Tours                 95.8% 
  • 5 Journey Latin America     94.9% 

Click here for the full Guardian & Observer Travel Awards results.

 

The Guardian & Observer Travel Awards - 2007 Announced on October 6th 2007

Best Brochure of the Year - Second place

We are again delighted to have achieved success in these prestigious and discerning awards.

We thank our team enormously for all their efforts and look forward always to discovering ways to continually improve our portoflio and service.

Should you wish to receive a copy of our latest, hopefully innovative, offering please select this link.

 

The Guardian & Observer Travel Awards - 2006 Announced on October 8th 2006

Best Brochure of the Year - Winner


We are pleased to have won this most prestigious award with what was only the third brochure of our exciting new venture.

We thank the many people involved in this considerable team effort and the entire Exclusive Escapes team for their considerable enthusiasm and commitment.

We assure our guests we will strive to improve upon this excellent start, and look forward to a positive performance in the Best Tour Operator category once established long enough for inclusion in the list of nominees. 

 

The Guardian & Observer Travel Awards - 2005 Announced on September 17th 2005.

Best Tour Operator Website of the Year & Best Brochure of the Year - commendation


In what was only our second summer, we were absolutely thrilled to have received a Commendation - third place - in both these prestigious categories.

 

 


Mail On Sunday - 2005


We were delighted to start 2005 with the publication of the following article which appeared shortly after the launch of our 'Hidden Turkey 2005' brochure. Our guests tell us that the new 2006 brochure is a step up from last year - we hope you will agree!

You can’t beat a good brochure. Despite the net, they are still the most popular way to book a break. Here is our guide to the best… and the worst.

Looking for the inspiration for your travels? Despite the increasing importance of the internet as a medium through which to sell holidays, brochures still serve as the main shop windows for most holiday companies.

The Mail on Sunday Travel team has reviewed nine brochures that have caught our eye recently. We’ve analysed each for its allure and quality of information, and converted our judgements into a percentage score.

EXCLUSIVE ESCAPES 87% - First Place

The Company
Specialist in upmarket Turkish holidays (mostly to the Lycian coast) which was recently set up by a former director of Tapestry Holidays. This summer will be its second season.

The Brochure
No one had anything but praise for it. We liked the stunning photography, the excellent information on each featured region (including lengthy descriptions of resorts and beaches, the summaries of cultural sites and activities on offer nearby), the amount of details on hotels and villas and the clear pricing.

‘Very professionally produced,’ was one verdict. However, a caveat was voiced. ‘The company is virtually unknown. Will its holidays live up to what the brochure promises?’ - see Exclusive Escapes comment below.

OTHER RESULTS
For reasons of politeness we have chosen not to reproduce the editorial on other companies, electing simply to provide their overall evaluation.

Aspire - 40%
Seasons in Style - 50%
Audley Travel, Africa & the Indian Ocean – 52%
Simply Travel, Portugal & Madeira – 62%
Tapestry Holidays, Croatia – 65%
Classic Cottages – 70%
Trips Worldwide, Mexico & Central America – 77%
Laskarina Holidays – 82%

A GREAT ESCAPES SUCCESS
CONGRATULATIONS to Exclusive Escapes. That it and Laskarina Holidays scored so highly shows how brochures that concentrate on one country or region have a much easier task of conveying memorable flavour of what they are offering than those that cram the world into one tome.

It was also noticeable that the higher-scoring brochures tended to be those that were good at demonstrating the companies’ expertise.

These days, when we can arrange our own trips by digging around on the internet, firms need to work that much harder at spelling out to us why we will benefit from entrusting our holidays to them.

A COMMENT FROM EXCLUSIVE ESCAPES
We were of course delighted to receive this recognition for our brochure which is always the result of a lot of very detailed work by our team. However thorough our approach to the brochure and website we can assure you that it is merely symptomatic of the great care and pride we have in our levels of service both in the UK and Turkey.

We are delighted to report that feedback from our guests to date (2004 & 2005) has been exceptional - higher than ever before in our teams experience.

Our passionate aim is to continually push the boundaries ever further!