Collette's Christian Leibl-Cote has a theory: if you need a holiday to recover from your holiday, something has gone wrong. The Executive Vice President of Global Sales — whose family has run the company since its 1918 founding — makes the case that a well-run small-group tour doesn't strip the adventure out of travel; it gets you closer to it.
His favourite proof point is a night on safari in Africa, when he and his young son woke to chewing and grunting outside their tent canvas. A hippo, it turned out, was grazing metres away. His son's panicked "are we going to be okay?" got an honest "I have no idea" — and a story the family will be retelling for generations. That, he argues, is the real product: not logistics, but memories.
The mechanics behind it are Collette's Explorations range, launched in 2008 and now spanning more than 60 small-group itineraries worldwide. Groups average around 19 guests with a cap of 24 (African safaris run even smaller, at 14-18), which unlocks boutique hotels of 150 rooms or fewer and experiences that couldn't absorb a full coach. The company keeps destination designers living in-region — two in Italy alone — whose job is to hunt down the kind of access independent travellers rarely find. Leibl-Cote's own example: joining truffle hunters and their dogs in Italy, eating scrambled eggs cooked with Prosecco and fresh truffle on the spot, then ending up at dinner with pasta, wild boar sausage and homemade wine in a hunter's family kitchen.
There's a freedom angle too. Well-located hotels mean you can walk straight out into a city on a free afternoon, and on suitable itineraries guides take groups on the Paris Metro or London Tube — so you can navigate confidently on your own the next day. Collette backs it with an 82% survey response rate it claims to read in full, which is how it spotted that Japan visitors rave most about meeting ama divers long after they've forgotten the big-city stops.
For Australian travellers, the trend is toward depth over box-ticking: fewer countries, more time, and repeat trips like a dedicated Sicily or a new coastal Tuscany itinerary. Eight new Explorations tours are planned for 2027, with more than a dozen to follow in 2028. Practical reassurances include guaranteed departures (the company says it won't cancel for low numbers, even running tours for two or four guests during COVID), an Australian cancellation waiver allowing cancellation up to 24 hours before departure for a cash refund minus the deposit, and home-to-airport chauffeur service at selected international airports.
Who's this for? Anyone who has spent hours researching restaurants and still ended up eating somewhere ordinary, or who likes the idea of independent travel but not the admin. Handing the arrangements to someone with local contacts can get you closer to the experience you were trying to build yourself — and leave energy left over for actually enjoying it.
