The holiday planning process can often be stressful and time consuming. Even after choosing your destination, you still have to identify the best flight deals, organise airport transfers, find prime accommodation and plan your activities. With DIY travel, you also have the risk of something going wrong, such as flight cancellations or missing your transfers.
An escorted or a guided holiday is the perfect solution, you can leave all the holiday planning to the experts.
Travel Department offers guided holidays to over 100 destinations worldwide. Our holidays are fully escorted, which means return flights, hand-picked hotel accommodation, guided transfers and expert local guides for all excursions are included in the holiday. These holidays are truly great value and are competitively priced.
Booking a guided holiday is so simple, all you need to decide is your destination and you can easily book online or over the phone. Once your holiday is booked, you can sit back and relax while the experts plan your perfect escape.
Stress-Free

Escorted holidays are continuing to rise in popularity. It is ideal for anyone looking for a stress-free experience, particularly for long-haul trips to destinations such as India, China and South Africa. In such places, you’re dealing with an unfamiliar culture and foreign language, so it definitely helps to leave the planning to the experts so you can be sure you have the best holiday itinerary possible and see the main highlights of your chosen destination. Guided holidays are not just limited to long-haul travel, so whether you're looking for a city escape or a short break, you will also benefit from expert local guides.

Knowledgeable Guides
On an escorted tour, an experienced and knowledgeable local guide can offer extra comfort and ensure you have an authentic experience. The quality and passion of a great local guide is second to none when it comes to a well-organised escorted tour. Guides can also offer a safer experience than solo travel, particularly on long-haul trips if you’re reluctant to be a camera-toting tourist in an unfamiliar location. Most escorted holidays also include some free time for leisure, which offers you the best of both worlds! It’s even better that you always have an expert guide on hand who can offer suggestions for what to see and do in your leisure time.
Escorted holidays are tried and tested, so you know that you are getting the best travel experience possible, and you can also take comfort in the fact that escorted tours are secure and protected. If something goes wrong, you will have a local guide to assist you and the company on the other end of the phone to help.

Meeting like-minded travellers
Also, it’s often the people you meet on holiday that are the highlight of the entire trip and you’ll have amazing memories of the shared experiences you had together. The beauty of an escorted tour is that you will be travelling with a group of like-minded people.
Start planning your next trip for 2019, visit www.traveldepartment.ie and make it your new year’s resolution to discover a new destination.
This blog post has been edited from an original article which appeared in the Irish Independent on October 26th 2017.