Our mission is to create journeys that illuminate the world’s most remarkable cultural achievements through learning. Every one of our tours is led by an expert who has spent a career immersed in the subject – not a guide reciting facts, but the person who has curated the exhibition, written the book, or led the excavation.
Martin Randall Travel was founded in 1988 on a simple premise: that travel is transformed by the calibre of the person leading it. Nearly 40 years on, our roster of experts includes museum and gallery directors, working university professors, and bestselling authors. We choose them with great care: knowledge is of paramount importance, but so is the ability to communicate and host our groups. The brief is not merely to inform but to stimulate and engage, entertain and enrich.
Our expert speakers
The scholars, academics, authors, broadcasters and curators we collaborate with offer a deeper level of experience in a subject. Educational tours, study tours, cultural tours – whatever the label, the principle is the same: the person leading the group is a specialist in what you have come to see. Here are a few of them:
Medieval historian at the University of East Anglia, taught at London, Cambridge and Oxford, and formerly a research fellow at Jesus College, Oxford. He specialises in the period 700–1200, publishing on western kings, secular élites and their records, and leads four different tours across France and Germany.
View tours with Hugh Doherty →
Art historian specialising in Spanish art and sculpture, and Director of the Wallace Collection, London. Formerly Chief Curator of Dulwich Picture Gallery and Assistant Curator of 17th- and 18th-century European paintings at the National Gallery. His exhibitions include Murillo & Justino de Neve: The Art of Friendship and Goya: The Portraits.
View tours with Xavier Bray →
Writer and Italian-garden specialist, and author of Italian Gardens: A Cultural History. The Land Where Lemons Grow was a Sunday Times bestseller and won the Guild of Food Writers' Book of the Year; Lev's Violin was BBC Radio 4's Book of the Week; The Fire in the Mountain, on Sicily and Etna, followed in 2026.
View tours with Helena Attlee →
Senior Lecturer in Vietnamese Studies at SOAS, University of London, specialising in modern Vietnamese literature, film and religion. She read Vietnamese Studies at Charles University in Prague and took her doctorate there, having first visited Vietnam as a student in 1983.
View tours with Dana Healy →
Professor of Mediterranean Archaeology at Cardiff University and a former Director of the British School at Athens. Has directed excavations around the ancient city of Praisos in Crete since 1992; author of the Runciman Prize-winning The Archaeology of Ancient Greece and Knossos: Myth, History and Archaeology (2023).
View tours with James Whitley →
Emeritus Professor of 19th-Century Art at the University of Edinburgh and Senior Curator at the National Galleries of Scotland from 2001 to 2024. Her books include Monet and London: Views of the Thames (2024) and Globalizing Impressionism (2020). She has spoken about Monet and Van Gogh on BBC Radio 4's In Our Time.
View tours with Frances Fowle →
Professor of Chinese Studies and Director of the Lau China Institute at King's College London, and the author of some twenty books on contemporary China. He spent seven years in the Foreign and Commonwealth Office, including as First Secretary at the British Embassy in Beijing, and later headed the Asia Programme at Chatham House.
View tours with Kerry Brown →
Plantsman and garden design specialist, formerly head gardener to the Queen Mother at Royal Lodge and curator of the gardens at the Royal Horticultural Society at Wisley. He now runs his own horticultural consultancy in Dumfries and Galloway and appears on radio and television.
View tours with Colin Crosbie →
Simon Sainsbury Curatorial Fellow at the National Gallery, London, and a specialist in late medieval art, particularly the painters of the 15th-century southern Netherlands. He took his PhD at the Courtauld Institute in 2022 and has taught there widely; previously a consultant to the Old Master Paintings department at Christie's.
View tours with Nicholas Flory →
Award-winning journalist and historian, and former Madrid correspondent for the Economist and the Guardian, having lived in Spain for more than 25 years. His books include Ghosts of Spain, Isabella of Castile, winner of the 2018 Elizabeth Longford Prize for Historical Biography, and El Generalissimo, his biography of Franco.
View tours with Giles Tremlett →
Art, architectural and design historian, whose research follows artistic and cultural exchange across Europe and the wider Mediterranean, particularly between Andalucía and Sicily. Senior Fellow at the Institute of Historical Research and tutor at Oxford's Department for Continuing Education. Currently writing a book on 20th-century Italian design for Reaktion Books.
View tours with Philippa Joseph →
Editor of Current World Archaeology and one of the leading scholars of the Roman frontiers in Britain, author of Hadrian's Wall: Creating Division and co-editor of three volumes on Roman frontiers. A visiting fellow at Newcastle University and a lecturer for Cambridge's Institute of Continuing Education, he has excavated in Bulgaria, Sicily, Italy and Britain.
View tours with Matthew Symonds →
Professional sommelier, Italian Wine Ambassador and WSET Educator, and a Professor of Italian Wine and Culture. A wine writer, international judge and host of VOICES for the Italian Wine Podcast, she was born in the United States, moved to Europe in 1990 and has lived in Italy for over seventeen years.
View tours with Cynthia Chaplin →
Cultural Heritage Curator at the National Trust and formerly Head of Adult Programmes at the British Museum, with earlier posts at the V&A, Sotheby's Institute of Art and the Bagri Foundation. An independent scholar of Buddhist art across Asia, he lectures on the subject in Britain and abroad.
View tours with Freddie Matthews →
Distinguished art historian and museum administrator, formerly Surveyor of The Queen's Pictures and Director of Dulwich Picture Gallery. Studied English Literature at Oxford, followed by an MA in History of Art at the Courtauld Institute. Has written extensively on English 18th-century portraiture, and curated exhibitions on Dutch and Flemish 17th-century art at the Queen's Gallery.
View tours with Desmond Shawe-Taylor →Experience the world’s greatest cultural achievements with expert speakers, seamless travel & privileged access. Discover the tours below.
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Since 1988 we have been the most influential organisation in the field of cultural travel. Our expert speakers are a key ingredient in our tours. Academics, curators and researchers, they are selected not only for their knowledge but also for their ability to communicate clearly and engagingly to a lay audience.
Special arrangements are a feature of our tours – for admission to places not generally open to travellers, for access outside public hours, for private concerts and extraordinary events. In innumerable ways, we lift our clients’ experience far above standards which are regarded as normal for tourists.
Most of our tours run with between 10 and 24 participants. Our travellers are self-selected by common interests and an endorsement of our ethos, and you are highly likely to find yourself among link-minded companions.
The price includes nearly everything, not only the major ingredients such as hotel, the costs of the lecturer and manager but also tips and drinks with meals. You can secure your booking today with a 15% deposit. We provide full financial protection for our package holidays.
We select our lecturers through reputation, interview and audition and provide them with guidance and training.
Between 10–22 participants can usually join our small group tours, though the upper limit can be lower dependent on the tour.
We accept payment by debit card, bank transfer or credit cards credit (AMEX, MasterCard, Visa).
A confirmation e-mail is sent as soon as possible (it will take longer if you book over the weekend and/or have selected to receive documentation by post).
Your final balance is due eight weeks before the tour departs. A reminder is sent a few weeks in advance of this, along with an itinerary for the first day of the tour.
Final Documents will be available online two to three weeks before the tour departs – the full itinerary, a participant list and any background notes. If you live outside the UK, hard copies will be given to you on the first day of the tour.
Yes - tips for all lecturers and excursions are included in our prices.
No. While we offer group flights from London on most tours, joining these is entirely optional. You’re welcome to make your own travel arrangements and meet the group at the destination – either at the arrival airport or at the first tour hotel.
Yes, we are able to arrange room upgrades and additional nights at the tour hotel for you. Bear in mind though that it is not unusual for hotels to offer a price better to individuals than to tour companies, especially close to departure, so you may be better off booking independently.
In the vast majority of cases, no. Some of our clients like to ‘dress up’ for dinner. We neither encourage nor discourage this. Occasionally at opera houses or a particularly grand restaurant will require a certain level of smartness, but we will advise about this well in advance.
Yes, many of our tours can be easily combined, allowing you to make the most of your stay.
© 2026 Martin Randall Travel
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