A luxury travel adviser was once shorthand for someone who booked business class flights and called it bespoke. That figure has been replaced by something altogether harder to define – and considerably harder to access. The new breed speaks less about destinations than about understanding their clients. The UHNWs who have spent their lives making consequential decisions, have learned to recognise when someone else is better placed to make them.
What unites the best of them is a rejection of the holiday as a simple afterthought in one’s life. ‘There must be something stronger than the word “holiday” for us,’ says Jules Maury, head of Scott Dunn Private, whose teams across London, New York, Singapore and California have secured private audiences at the Vatican and after-hours access to the pyramids at Giza. ‘Each time you tap into what a guest loves, you’re not really talking about travel. You’re showing them that you understand their interests.’
Jaclyn Sienna India of the members-only Sienna Charles – whose clients include George W. Bush and Mariah Carey – is equally precise: ‘All billionaires are different in what they think and value.’ Excellence, however, is not negotiable.
Explore the 2026 Spear’s Travel Indices:
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Increasingly, that excellence looks less like a suite upgrade and more like a shift in perspective. Rvival, four years old and already thriving on word of mouth, takes influential figures – executives, footballers, public figures – entirely out of their usual context, placing them alongside conservationists and craftspeople. ‘Influencing the influencers in how to protect the great outdoors,’ as its founder Eliza Brown puts it.
At Abercrombie & Kent for instance, advisers are finding that travelling by private jet and wanting to give back are no longer contradictions – the company raised over $2 million for community projects in 2025 alone.
The Spear’s Index of the best luxury travel advisers reflects a sector where money can secure anything but the truly scare commodity becomes someone who understands you well enough to know what you need. The top travel advisers understand this before their clients do. That, more than any private island or perfectly engineered itinerary, trust and access is what they are really selling.
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- Methodology
- The best travel advisers: some names to know
- The best travel advisers: the complete list
- Contact us
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Methodology
Each year, the Spear’s Research Unit reassesses and refreshes its rankings of the leading providers in each sector by gathering data from and about the advisers and firms themselves, assessing submission forms, collating nominations, carrying out peer reviews, reviewing data from third-party sources, gathering references and recommendations, canvassing experts and conducting hundreds of interviews.
Advisers are evaluated using a proprietary scoring system that assigns different weightings to certain attributes. These scores feed directly into each new set of rankings in the Spear’s Indices. Each of these indices are published first online (according to the research calendar) and then in print. Print publication takes the form of the annual Spear’s 500 directory, which includes the top advisers in every index.
[See also: A guide to the Spear’s 500: Everything you need to know]
Each featured adviser is profiled on spears500.com. The site allows users to search the Spear’s database of more than 4,000 entities to find one (or more) to meet their specific requirements by filtering for specific attributes such as an adviser’s location, their specialist expertise and information about their client base.
The best travel advisers: some names to know
Jaclyn Sienna India
- Focus: Centi-millionaires and billionaires
- Ranking: Top Recommended
- Firm: Sienna Charles
In the world of billionaire travel, there are few companies that operate at the same level as Sienna Charles. According to the members-only travel agency, it caters to the world’s 0.1 per cent – those with a net worth exceeding $100 million. Regardless of the nine-figure sum in your bank account, becoming a member is a rigorous process involving a vetting interview and a two-hour onboarding call.
‘We build out a profile of the client to understand what parts of a trip are important to them, what they’re willing to spend, how much time they like to spend on a vacation,’ founder Jaclyn Sienna India tells Spear’s. ‘All billionaires are different in what they think and value.’
Sienna Charles’ clients – who include former president George W Bush and music icon Mariah Carey – demand one thing above all else: excellence.
Read Jaclyn Sienna India’s full profile on Spears500.com
Oliver Corkhill
- Focus: Ski chalets and resort hotels
- Ranking: Top Recommended
- Firm: Leo Trippi
Oliver Corkhill is the co-founder of the Viadi Group, a collection of high-end travel companies, but it is for Leo Trippi, the award-winning ski operator, that he is recommended by Spear’s.
Winner of world’s best ski travel agent at the World Ski Awards for 12 consecutive years , Leo Trippi specialises in the most exclusive ski chalets and hotels in resorts in Europe, and its heli-skiing tours have been featured in publications such as Elite Traveler.
The travel adviser tells Spear’s that Leo Trippi works with ‘a globally diverse pool of HNW and UHNW clients’ to create tailor-made adventures. As well as sourcing luxury ski chalets with a range of spa facilities, Corkhill’s firm can also help World Economic Forum delegates find accommodation each January in Davos, and secure Mediterranean villas in the summer months.
Read Oliver Corkhill’s full profile on Spears500.com
Jules Maury
- Focus: Exclusive access
- Ranking: Top Recommended
- Firm: Scott Dunn Private
‘There must be something stronger than the word “holiday” for us. These aren’t holidays. These are just extraordinary,’ Jules Maury, head of Scott Dunn Private, tells Spear’s.
Maury and her teams in London, New York, California and Singapore are dedicated to crafting the perfect experience for each client, planning unique itineraries and paying attention to even the smallest details.
It’s not hard to see why Maury’s peers consider her a legend in the industry: she has given travellers access to some of the most spectacular locations and opportunities around the globe, including private visits to the the Vatican and the pyramids of Giza, curated tours of the finest museums, and a private vineyard tour and behind-the-scenes access at an iconic chateau.
Read Jules Maury’s full profile on Spears500.com
Graham Carter
- Focus: Personalised travel
- Ranking: Recommended
- Firm: Unforgettable Travel Company
Unforgettable Travel Company’s Graham Carter certainly knows a thing or two about luxury travel.
The firm’s co-founder makes a point of involving himself with trip planning – generating ideas and developing a true understanding of travellers’ needs in order to provide an elevated level of service. ‘A lot of experiences we offer for clients, I’ve tested myself. I flew a fighter jet last year just to test the experience for a client,’ Carter tells Spear’s. ‘We know what we’re talking about.’
Carter and his team specialise in providing a personalised service. If clients need to charter a yacht, a private jet or a helicopter, for example, or require accommodation or tickets for events, all is handled by the dedicated private client team.
Read Graham Carter’s full profile on Spears500.com
Elizabeth Patch
- Focus: Luxurious adventures
- Ranking: Top Recommended
- Firm: Abercrombie & Kent
Elizabeth Patch manages the private client team at Abercrombie & Kent, where she works with an international roster of UHNW clients, including celebrities, royalty and politicians, many of whom come via the company’s concession at Harrods.
Patch’s passion for travel stems from her upbringing in Anguilla, which led to a ‘wanderlust I’ve never been able to shake’. Her approach reflects a broader shift towards experiential travel; Abercrombie & Kent often adopts an ‘adventure by day, luxury by night’ philosophy. One highlight, she tells Spear’s, was organising a private orchestra performance in Iceland that was staged against the backdrop of a dormant volcano.
Read Elizabeth Patch’s full profile on Spears500.com
Tom Cahalan
- Focus: Safari & beach destinations
- Ranking: Recommended
- Firm: Dorsia Travel
Over the last decade, Tom Cahalan has transformed his passion for luxury travel into Dorsia Travel, a private agency serving tech magnates, media icons and elite sports figures.
Specialising in safari and beach destinations, Cahalan ensures every itinerary meets his exacting standards, often testing hotels, villas and private islands himself. ‘I undergo a strenuous test to check every place where I send clients,’ he tells Spear’s with a laugh, reflecting his famously hands-on approach.
Cahalan has been called the ‘most opinionated man in travel’; his well-known blog, which has been integrated into Dorsia Travel, evaluates destinations without PR fluff.
Read Tom Cahalan’s full profile on Spears500.com
The best travel & holiday advisers: the complete list
Click on the individual names to be directed to more detailed profiles on Spears500.com. The table is ordered by ranking and then alphabetically.
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