A small studio with long letters behind it.
Vacations by Design is a Birmingham travel studio and a network of vetted local planners in eight countries. Small on purpose: every enquiry is read by a human, and every trip is designed, not assembled.
It started quietly.
For years, friends would ask us where to eat in Tokyo, where to stay in Marrakech, which valleys to drive through in Patagonia. We would write back with long, considered answers, paragraph after paragraph of opinionated suggestions drawn from people we trusted on the ground.
By the summer of 2024, the answers had started to look like itineraries. We had quietly built a network of local planners: chefs, former hoteliers and second-generation guides, people who knew their countries the way only someone who lives there can.
The studio operates as Vacations by Design Limited, a company registered in England and Wales. The actual trips are shaped wherever you're going.
To send travelers somewhere they couldn't have found alone.
Every trip we design is, in some small way, an introduction: to a chef, a valley, a tea master, a fishing village at the end of a road. The point is not to see the world. The point is to meet a part of it.
Three things we won't compromise on.
Depth over coverage
Coverage is overrated. We design trips that go deep into one country at a comfortable pace: long lunches, second nights, days with no plan. The travelers who leave happiest are the ones who didn't try to see everything.
People, not templates
Every planner is interviewed and trusted by us, individually. Every itinerary is shaped from your brief; there are no template trips and no copy-paste days. A real human reads every enquiry that comes through.
Honest pricing
One flat design fee, quoted up front and credited when you book. No hidden commissions, no upsell pressure, no recommendation we wouldn't make to a friend. If we don't think a trip is right for you, we'll tell you.
The kettle's on in Birmingham.
Tell us where you've always meant to go, or just ask us something. Every message lands with a person, not a queue.
Get in touch