Working with a travel advisor comes with all sorts of benefits. Not only do these professionals eliminate the stress of planning by dealing with all of the details (visa requirements, bookings, etc.) but they also provide incredible insight and unparalleled access that gives you value you couldn’t get any other way. Whether it’s with a private dinner at the foot of the Pyramids at Giza, an exclusive nighttime visit to Beijing’s Temple of Heaven, or a dance lesson with a Cuban rumba master, a seasoned advisor can help turn your next vacation into the experience of a lifetime. In Travel + Leisure’s 19th annual A-List, we showcase our picks of the 148 top agents and tour operators in the business.
The founder of Exeter International has grown his company to include offerings throughout Europe, but as an advisor, he remains focused on his first love: Russia and the former U.S.S.R. A Russian speaker, he arranges exclusive experiences in major cultural centers — say, a private performance from the Georgian national dance company in Tbilisi — and more out-of-the-way destinations, like the Armenian countryside, the Silk Road sites of Uzbekistan, or the medieval towns of Russia's "Golden Ring," northeast of Moscow.
This group, which shares its industry knowledge with the editors of T+L, oversees tens of thousands of individual trips annually. While not all of these experts personally look after clients, many do — and the rest have teams who excel at orchestrating memorable adventures.