Make your travel matter
We are a family focused travel agency based in South West London, founded on the principle of service. With our expertise, knowledge and attention to detail, we'll ensure your family travel arrangements from the UK will be enjoyable and memorable. We are pleased to be celebrating our 11th year of trading.
When it comes to booking your travel arrangements, we firmly believe in speaking with you about your ideas. The internet has it benefits and is useful to obtain information but given the sums of money involved in purchasing a holiday, we want to make sure you get your choice right. There are always questions that need answering, so we think it is helpful to have human contact.
It’s not often that we think about the impact our holidays have upon the places we choose to visit. In addition to the often unseen ecological impact, there are a great number of other factors, some economic, some environmental.
We make it our business to not only organise holidays which minimise on negative impact whilst maximising on quality, but to educate our clients as to how they can continue to make a difference in their future adventures. We work closely with some selected tour operators who are pioneers in this area. Contact us to discuss how your holiday choices can make a difference to the countries you visit.
Click on the links below to follow through to our destination pages for more information on our range of tours.
Africa
Asia
Indian Ocean
North Africa & Middle East
The Americas
Give back to the places you visit
As part of our commitment to the destinations we promote, Travel Matters has teamed up with TravelPledge, rather than set up our own charity or give back scheme.
Many of our customers want to give and TravelPledge enables you to put something back into the places you visit - contributing to making better places for people to live in and to visit.
TravelPledge, in partnership with the travel industry, identifies, defines and screens a wide range of social and environmental projects both overseas and in the UK. It then promotes and facilitates online donations in partnership with the travel industry, allowing tourists to donate to trusted projects that will appeal to their own motivations and holiday destinations.
TravelPledge is run independently from Travel Matters - no member of our staff is employed by the charity. We do however make a yearly corporate donation that goes towards the running costs of TravelPledge the charity - this ensures that TravelPledge retains none of your donation meaning more gets to your chosen project.
Projects we are supporting
United Kingdom - A holiday for others
South Africa, Klipgat - Bicycle maintenance, community owned bicycle shop
Zona Maya, Mexico - Bee Conservation
United Kingdom - A holiday for others
Project goal
Help at least six families to get a break away from home during 2009/ 2010.
For most of these, it will be their first ever holiday together as a family and will provide the chance for them to put their troubles behind them and create some all-too-rare happy memories.
Details
Over two million UK families are unable to afford even a simple week-long seaside break. The implications of this, for the wellbeing of individuals, families, communities and the UK as a whole are profound.
Families are referred to the Family Holiday Association by welfare professions - either from the social services, or from other charities such as Barnados or domestic violence shelters. Provided that the families meet their criteria they can allocate holidays to them on a first-come-first-served basis. All families are offered a week-long seaside break (often in one of the Family Holiday Association's caravans). The vast majority of our holidays are taken in the UK, using public transport. The breaks, therefore, both support local economies at UK seaside resorts, and have a negligible environmental impact.
To donate, click here
South Africa, Klipgat - Bicycle maintenance, community owned bicycle shop
Project goal
To provide a 3-day bicycle repair & maintenance workshops, to 5 local community members working in a community bicycle shop - the only one in the area.
The 3-day course is specifically designed for the communities needs. It will include theoretical and practical work to equip the individuals with the necessary skills to provide a one-stop-service to the community. Not only will they gain practical know-how in advanced maintenance and repairs but specialist skills in "fixing" buckled, bent and "untrue" wheels - a much needed skill in this area! This training will allow them to generate valuable working in the shop, that provides a sustainable service to the community.
The community received their first container of 352 recycled second-hand bicycles from the UK via Re-Cycle UK, a charity organisation, responsible for providing used cycle to countries globally. These bikes are sold, rented and in some cases donated to the local community.
A bike to ride to school, a bike to go to the shops, a bike and load-carrying bicycle trailer to run a business from, a bike to fetch a 25+ kg bag of maize meal, a bike to haul an ambulance trailer. All have been possible since the introduction of this project.
To donate, click here
Zona Maya, Mexico - Bee Conservation
Project goals
Conservation of the endangered Meliponini bee/ improving livelihoods through beekeeping. This project aims to conserve the endangered Meliponini bee and offer improved livelihoods to a woman's cooperative of bee keepers.
Details
The ultimate aim is to develop and supply honey-based spa products for the tourism industry. The project is planning to replant the area with Lipia flowers, the bees principle source of food, which has declined due to deforestation.
The Meliponini bee is an endangered species of honey bee, which needs to be protected and conserved. Beekeeping could also offer alternative income to Mayan communities, who currently live a subsistence life and have no opportunity to benefit from the huge opportunity tourism could offer. We are working with the villagers to replant the areas surrounding their community in order conserve the honey bee. The honey could be used in future to develop luxury soaps and other spa products for the tourism industry. The project aims to help the womens co-operative develop a sustainable business to improve lives within the village in to the future.
To donate, click here
Explaining donations via TravelPledge
By working with TravelPledge you can be confident of where your money is going, how it will be spent and what will be achieved. TravelPledge will even update you by email once the project you have chosen to support has been complete.
» TravelPledge is a UK registered charity (No.1122270) and retains 0% of customer donations to their chosen projects.
» Donations (including Gift Aid) made through TravelPledge are processed by Charities Trust*, also a UK registered charity (No.327489).
» Charities Trust charges 4% on gross donations (donation plus Gift Aid). This nominal fee includes card charges and processing.
» Projects are not charged any fees to appear on TravelPledge or our site.
» TravelPledge advisors, there to highlight risks or concerns relating to the projects screen all projects before they go live.
» Charities Trust maintains the lowest costs in the sector. If you know of a more cost-effective way to donate online and process Gift Aid claims, please let us know.