Built by travelers who got tired of package holidays.

Started in a Lisbon kitchen in 2011.

Three of us had been guides for bigger operators and watched the same thing happen on every trip — guests arriving at a hotel that didn't match the brochure, dinners at the same four restaurants the bus tours used, and a "local guide" who read from a script.

So we quit, pooled our savings, and started Travel Explorer with one rule: no trip on the site we hadn't personally taken in the last year. Fourteen years later, the rule is the same. That's why the calendar is small.

• Six full-time staff, twelve trip leaders worldwide.
• Every itinerary is rescouted on foot within 18 months.
• We turn down 4 out of 5 destinations we look at.
• No commissions from hotels — flat fees only.