We offer expert-led cultural tours, tailor-made holidays for individuals and bespoke group travel. Here are some of the things which make us special:
We are small and perfectly formed
Temple World is a boutique tour operator offering affordable luxury with exceptional personal service. Our staff are committed to providing holidays and journeys which go ‘beyond the brochure’ to create enriching experiences. We don’t have shareholders pushing for higher margins and big profits like our larger rivals, which means we can offer top-end service on the ground for less.
We are absolute experts in our field
With over 30 years in business, at our core is our team’s vast destination expertise. We don’t sell destinations we don’t know. We’ve been there – often many times! In many cases we’ve lived there too, and this is how we know the many small local details which make holiday run smoothly and include special insights to help you to see a side to a destination that others may miss.
Everything we do is tailored around you
Every tailor-made itinerary or bespoke group itinerary that we prepare is hand-crafted from scratch, with hotels, guiding or excursions carefully chosen to meet your requirements and preferences. Humans, not computers, design your holiday. Our bespoke service costs nothing, but makes the world of difference.
We know culture, but we also know beaches
We know that not everyone wants a cultural holiday every time. We’ve got beach holidays covered too, and you can relax in the knowledge that we’ve applied the same personal attention and destination expertise to those that we do to our other holidays. From Bora Bora to the Maldives, we’ve been there too and we’d love to share them with you!
We started off as a cultural tour specialist and providing enriching cultural experiences is still at the heart of what we do. Temple World was founded by Dr David Price Williams and his wife Sue in 1985. David, then a lecturer in Archaeology at the Institute of Archaeology at UCL, had been running tours for students to see overseas fieldwork in Africa, the Middle East and the Eastern Mediterranean since the 1970’s. David was lucky enough to meet his wife on one such tour!
Realising that expert-led educational travel had a far wider appeal, they set up Temple World to give the unique opportunity to the general public to explore the history, archaeology, history and earth and life sciences of a destination and its sites with an expert.
Temple World has grown hugely since those early days, and now offers private explorations and set-departure tours to all seven continents as well as working with the alumni associations of Oxford and Cambridge Universities to create and operate exciting scholar led tour for their travel programmes.
How our Tailor-made service works
Have a look at the sample itineraries on our website for inspiration, then get in touch by phone or email to have a chat to one of our experts for advice. When you’re ready we will start going into the details of planning your trip.
Call us on 020 8940 4114
Create a bespoke itinerary
We’ll work on a draft itinerary for you to look at which matches your budget. We’ll keep refining it for you until it’s perfect, then you can confirm it with a deposit.
Receive a full briefing
Before you travel, we’ll send you a full set of documents, including a detailed itinerary, country notes and even suggested reading if you’d like some.
Help whilst you’re abroad
While you’re away you’ll be in the hands of our long-standing local partners but we’re always available in case you need us, with a 24 hour phone number.
