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You are browsing the UK site. Visit our US site.
You are browsing the US site. Visit our UK site.
You are browsing the US site. Visit our Rest of World site.
You are browsing the UK site. Visit our US site.
You are browsing the US site. Visit our UK site.
You are browsing the US site. Visit our Rest of World site.
Family Holidays
Our team is full of family travellers, meaning we know what it takes to make sure everyone enjoys the experience just as much as each other.
Couples Holidays
Our couple itineraries are paced perfectly for you to enjoy the very best a country has to offer whilst making sure you enjoy the quality time together you’re after.
Group Holidays
No matter what the size or the occasion, we’re well versed in taking larger groups of people away for those special adventures.
Honeymoons
We’ve been crafting dream itineraries for newly married couples for years. Learn more about the ins and outs of our honeymoon service here.
Multi Generational Trips
From very small to very big. Families come in all shapes and sizes, and our multi-generational holidays are perfectly designed to tick the boxes for the whole family.
Anniversary Trips
Whether you’re celebrating as a couple, or across multiple generations, our anniversary trips are crafted around the milestone – and the people sharing it.
Travel With Teens
This is a list of the very best places to travel with teenagers – one that’s crammed with bragging rights (for them) and bonding moments (for you).
Grown Up Family Holidays
As your children become adults, your family trips are also due to change and grow. These are our favourite trips for you and your grown up family.
Solo Holidays
Our travel experts have experienced the thrills and challenges of solo travel, all with the aim of producing some of our most immersive and exciting itineraries.
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Safari Holidays
With a team of experts that have worked as conservationists and wildlife photographers, we have the expertise to make your safari dreams come true.
Remote Destinations
We’ve chosen these experiences, destinations and adventures to bring you closer to the great outdoors. This is your ticket to our wonderful world.
Unusual Holidays
The world may be conquered, but enough secrets remain to keep us up all night, dreaming of ways to whisk you off to the most unique corners of the globe. Where first?
Adventure Holidays
Hike across mountain ridgelines, scramble across glaciers and kayak down rivers – these trips are designed to immerse you in vast wildernesses and ancient cultures.
Beach Holidays
Porcelain shores, perfect seas and swaying palms; the allure of a beach break is hard to ignore. Which is why we handpick the best beachfront boltholes to offer you…
Food Holidays
Food and travel have long gone hand in hand, and we have put together some mouth-watering trips that capture the palate, of countries across the world. Bon appétit.
Slow Travel
As the world becomes busier, slow travel has never felt so fitting. Whether it’s meeting fishermen in Maine or learning the Dukha-way in Mongolia, take time to connect.
Eclipse Holidays
Eclipse travel celebrates our place in the wider cosmos. Let us take you to wherever in the world the eclipse is at its most arresting, and we’ll do it in style.
Proposal Service
Found the one and want to propose in style? The moment will be a memory forever and we’re here to help you make sure it’s the most perfect moment for you and your loved one.
Train Travel
“It’s not the destination, it’s the journey.” We’ve all heard this, haven’t we? And with these captivating luxury train journeys, we’ll show you the joy to be found travelling across the world by rail.
The Pursuit of Feeling
From impassioned and emotive journeys, to podcasts and our Feelings Engine, you’ll find something to move you and something to soothe you. We want to fire your heart and provide food for your soul.
Set Jetting
Swapping salubrious saloons and questionable lodgings for sumptuous hotels and eye-opening experiences, each of our show-stopping journeys will take you behind scenes of some of TV’s most awe-inspiring locations.
See You in the Moment
You need only bring yourselves – your people, your histories. We’ll provide the moment itself. The anticipation, the togetherness, the memory. This is something to savour. This is something to remember.
Field Trip
Education begins in the classroom, but it’s IRL that younger generations put their lessons to the test. Field Trip is a curriculum of educational encounters around the world.
Take me on a Story
A series of family experiences celebrating the transformative power of the books we loved when we were young, and the stories our children have come to adore.
Get Lost
Designed as a once-in-a-lifetime challenge, train with elite survival experts before traversing a polar, jungle, coastal, mountain or desert region in your mission back to civilisation.
Blink
The ultimate luxury camping retreat. From the Sahara desert to the Andean Mountains, with Blink anywhere you can envisage it, we will create it.
Bring it Back
Bring It Back will embed you in an entirely different way of thinking, and of learning about a culture directly from its experts on the ground. You may be surprised by what you discover.
The Great American View
This series of breathtaking journeys culminate in some of America’s most legendary sights. They are the places you’ve always sought out, and now it’s your time to find them.
James Bond
We are proud to have been selected as the official travel partner to curate James Bond inspired trips.
Agatha Christie
We’ve been hand-picked by Agatha Christie Limited to help bring Agatha’s world-famous Grand Tour to life through a series of episodic trips across Africa, Australasia and North America, and a unique prelude in London.
Tasting Notes
Eating at a Michelin – starred restaurant is one thing. But now you can learn about the country through the lens of some of the most critically acclaimed chefs in the world, by travelling with them on the ultimately culinary experience
Take the Open Road with Auberge
With the iconic hotel brand Auberge Resorts, we’ve created a new series of tailormade, luxurious road trip itineraries. Emblems of America’s most iconic landscapes, regions, and people.
Remarkable Drives of Discovery with Auberge
Following on from the much lauded ‘Take the Open Road’ series, here’s five brand-new bespoke, multi-destination trips created with our friends at Auberge Resorts Collection. Delve deeper than ever before.
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Explore our inspiring experiences based on when you want to travel and how you want to feel.
A captivating mix of old traditions and new wave popular culture, South Korea is unveiling a new and exciting side to Asia. Classical beauty and deep-rooted history sit side by side with modern innovation and a fast-paced food scene, all encircled by a dramatic coastline that shifts from beach paradise to winter wonderland with the seasons. It’s true, a tailormade holiday in South Korea is full of the unexpected.
When you visit South Korea with us, we’ll blend its natural beauty with ancient traditions to design a luxury South Korea holiday exclusively for you.
Our luxury South Korea tours unlock unparalleled cultural experiences. Private sessions with Buddhist monks reveal ancient meditation practices within centuries-old temples, while master craftsmen open the doors to their workshops, sharing the delicate artistry of traditional ceramics. In Seoul, celebrated chefs guide you through hidden markets before hosting intimate cooking classes in their private kitchens. Expert curators provide after-hours access to contemporary galleries, offering an insider’s view of Korea’s dynamic art scene. For deeper immersion, we arrange tea ceremonies with esteemed masters and private performances of traditional music in historic hanoks.
The best way to experience South Korea is by joining a guided tour through the full-metal flowering of Seoul’s electrifying streets. Sample tteokbokki – spicy rice cakes slathered in molten red gochujang sauce – where these distinctive silver trays line the bustling food stalls of Hongdae, or treat yourself to the warm embrace of Korean pajeon pancakes, stuffed with fresh leeks and green onions – their cakey texture rich with ink-black soy sauce. Your tour will take in the intimate physicality of Korea’s streetlife while remarking on the ways in which history has shaped this supercharged city – from laid-back artistic Insadong district to the bustling epicentre of South Korean baseball in Jamsil.
Beyond Korea’s rich heritage, we offer insider access to its vibrant contemporary culture. Private dance workshops with K-pop choreographers unveil the precision behind world-famous performances, while exclusive studio tours provide a behind-the-scenes look at music production. In Seoul’s Gangnam district, personal stylists curate bespoke fashion experiences, from custom-fitted hanbok with modern interpretations to private appointments with leading K-beauty specialists.
South Korea’s cherry blossom season transforms both cities and countryside from late March through mid-April. While Jeju Island heralds the first blooms, our specialists curate visits to quieter, lesser-known locations, far from Seoul’s crowds. In Gyeongju, historic temple grounds and ancient city walls provide a graceful backdrop for hanami, blending natural beauty with cultural heritage. In Jinhae, private guided tours wind through the Naval Port’s carefully preserved cherry tree tunnels, where evening illuminations add a touch of refined drama. For photography enthusiasts, early morning access to key sites ensures uninterrupted encounters with this fleeting, ephemeral spectacle.
As a country steeped in history, blessed with remarkable culture and scenery, and buffeted by its attention to service and detail, South Korea is fast becoming a favoured destination for luxury honeymoons. In the southern tip of the country, Jeju Do is the country’s largest island, drawing crowds for its Hawaii-level beaches, luscious countryside, and glamorous seaside hotels. Find rest and relaxation here, after the fast cultural pace of Seoul, and the historic eye-candy of Gyeongju.
Seoul
South Korea’s booming, boisterous capital.
One of the world’s most addictive and untouched hubs for nightlife, food, history and culture, Seoul alone is one of the best reasons to travel to this famed East Asian country. Poised between the future and its own storied past, Seoul’s jubilant architecture ricochets from impossible glass skyscrapers to the tranquility of historic Bukchon Hanok Village, and will find you tucking in to piquant mouthfuls of kimchi and tempura on the bustling streets of Hongdae, or browsing walls of contemporary art at the city’s towering Leeum museum. It is generous, endless, and unrelentingly cool.
Busan
Busan offers a sophisticated counterpoint to intense Seoul.
Here, urban energy meets coastal charm, with centuries-old temples like Haedong Yonggungsa perched dramatically above the East Sea. The city’s culinary heartbeat pulses through Jagalchi, Asia’s largest seafood market, where expert guides reveal rare delicacies and local specialties. For a more refined take on Korean spa culture, Busan’s traditional bathhouses offer intimate, tranquil alternatives to Seoul’s bustling complexes.
Gyeongju
The country’s historic capital is a ‘museum without walls’.
Gyeongju offers some of South Korea’s best and most enviable hotels and makes for a quite remarkable change of pace from shuttling Seoul. Here, in this ‘museum without walls,’ temples and historic ruins scrape the skyline, while bright sprays of cherry blossom thicken the city’s plentiful branches. From the startling architecture to the exquisite food, Gyeongju’s most arresting feature is Daereungwon park, where rolling ancient green tumuli – or burial mounds – flow across the manicured grounds.
Four Seasons Seoul, South Korea
Park Hyatt Busan, South Korea
Hilton Gyeongju, South Korea
Spring (late March to mid-May) and autumn (September to November) are the two peak seasons for good reason. Spring brings cherry blossom across Gyeongju, Jinhae, and Jeju Island — the country is genuinely beautiful, and Black Tomato can arrange early morning access to key sites before the crowds arrive. Autumn delivers warm temperatures and vivid foliage across the mountain regions and temple grounds. Summer (June to August) is warm and humid with a rainy season in July; winters are cold and dry, particularly in Seoul, though conditions are manageable and crowds are minimal. If cherry blossom is a priority, aim for late March to early April — the exact window shifts by a week or two each year.
South Korea is often described as what Japan felt like twenty years ago — genuinely curious about visitors, less visited by international tourists, and without the sense of having been optimised for tourism. Seoul is faster, louder, and more raw than Tokyo; the food culture is more communal, more generous, and considerably more affordable. What South Korea shares with Japan is a layered history and genuine reverence for craft — whether in ceramics, tea ceremony, or taekwondo. The key difference for a Black Tomato client is access: Korea’s version of private and behind-the-scenes is still being discovered, which means we can offer experiences that are genuinely rare. If you have already been to Japan several times, South Korea rewards equally serious travel.
Seoul in particular is well-signposted in English, and younger Koreans in the capital often speak it confidently. Outside Seoul, English proficiency drops, which is one of the strongest arguments for travelling with a private guide rather than independently. Black Tomato provides English-speaking guides throughout — the kind who know which local restaurant has the best haemul pajeon, which market stalls to approach, and how to navigate the nuances of a Buddhist temple visit or a traditional craft experience. The language difference adds character to the trip rather than difficulty, and our specialists ensure it never becomes a barrier.
South Korea is increasingly requested as a honeymoon destination, particularly among couples who want something more layered than a beach retreat. Seoul provides the dramatic, high-energy contrast — rooftop restaurants above Bukchon Hanok Village, private cooking classes in Gangnam, cherry blossom strolls through Gyeongju in spring. Jeju Island in the south offers the quieter coastal counterpoint: clifftop resorts, empty black-sand beaches, and a pace that pulls completely away from the capital. A well-constructed South Korea honeymoon combines both. Black Tomato builds each itinerary around how the two of you want the trip to feel, not around a fixed package.
The cost of a luxury South Korea holiday depends on duration, the number of cities included, the level of accommodation, and the experiences built into the itinerary. South Korea offers exceptional value relative to comparable trips in Japan or Western Europe — without any compromise on quality. Black Tomato builds every itinerary from scratch. Speak to one of our South Korea specialists to discuss what the right trip looks like for you.
