Handcrafted holidays to lesser-known places

"This year's award goes to a company that's best known for doing something that is, on the face of it, ordinary: providing package holidays to Greece. Lots of companies do this. Few will take you to tiny unknown towns, you invariably fall in love with, to stay in small family-run hotels. Few strive so hard to put you among the locals, rather than in the poshest hotel, away from the action. It's a travel buzzword, but this company pulls it off: its holidays are 'authentic', without the hairshirt - or the price tags - that often involves. Now the company has an ever-growing list of destinations, but the Med is its home turf, and we hope It will continue to combine innovation with authenticity there for another 47 years." - Stephen Bleach, Travel Editor