When I started as a travel agent at just 17 years old, the travel industry looked very different!

We hand-wrote every airline ticket.
We stamped brochures with our agency name & address.
The fax machine was our lifeline.
Credit cards were processed with a good old-fashioned "click-clack" imprint machine.
Five of us shared just one computer.
And smoking was still allowed on planes (my daughter doesn't believe me when I tell her this!)

Fast forward 35 years, and almost everything about travel has changed. But one thing hasn't...

Helping people create unforgettable holidays is still the best part of my job, and working from home allows more flexibility to serve my clients.

Hi, I’m Lorraine, senior cruise consultant & owner of Bespoke Cruise Holidays.

I’ve always loved travelling.

As a child, I was lucky enough to travel abroad with my family, visiting Spain, France and Canada. So perhaps it was inevitable that travel would become a big part of my life.

In 1991, after a not-so-great Travel & Tourism course at Brooklands College, I landed my first job in travel, and, despite being on YTS wages (so definitely not a dream salary!), I’d landed my dream job.

I joined an independent travel agency, Alec Bristow Travel, where I sold everything from UK breaks and European holidays to luxury hotels, and even Concorde once!
Back then, I really only knew of the QE2 when it came to cruising, and when a colleague won a trip on her, I was so jealous, particularly when she was named the agencies ‘cruise specialist.’ Little did I know that I would eventually have my time in the spotlight.

Over the years, I started my family, while continuing working with the big names in travel; Thomas Cook, Lunn Poly and Going Places, and even had a stint selling holidays through Teletext. I loved the variety of travel, but never really enjoyed working for the ‘big boys’.

In 2007, my family packed everything up and emigrated to Nova Scotia, Canada, and that’s when my life turned around, and I began my new career, as a cruise specialist with Cruise Holidays. Working alongside an amazing woman who shared my passion for cruising, my knowledge really grew, and the cruise industry began to change, becoming more accessible, more varied and much more interesting.

Then, in 2009, I finally took my first cruise on Royal Caribbean’s Adventure of the Seas.

I already knew I was going to love it, and I wasn’t disappointed. It spurned a deeper love for cruising & travel. My next cruise was completely different: a river cruise on the Danube with Uniworld, and that was when I really started to appreciate just how different the world of cruising could be.

When we returned home to England in 2013, I continued working with the UK franchise of Cruise Holidays, and, as my career has evolved, since COVID really, so has the way I like to travel.
I’ve never really been a package-holiday person, in fact, the last one I took was back in the early 1990s, to Corfu, and ever since, I’ve tailor-made my own holidays around how I actually want to travel.

That’s how I work for my clients too, as I believe luxury travel should feel personal, be about you, what you want to experience, and what matters to you, rather than simply hitting the ‘confirm’ button on a website.

Also, as I’ve got older & my children have left home, (well, one has, the other won’t take the hint) my own travel style has changed. I had already found and loved river cruising, but was still choosing the large ocean ships, that was until I discovered Azamara, the first small-ship cruise my husband and I tried, and were totally sold on.

Travel has never been more exciting, but it has also never been more overwhelming.

There are more ships, more destinations and more choices than ever before, as well as endless bargain websites, "DEALS," and no shortage of people claiming to be travel agents. That’s where I come in, because having someone you trust, with the backing of carefully selected luxury travel partners, makes all the difference. I cut through the noise and book the cruise holiday you dream of, and sometimes, knowing what not to book is just as important as knowing what to book.

When Cruise Holidays was sadly dissolved in early 2026, our amazing team in Plymouth took the reins, Distinctive Journeys was born, and I was still able to keep my Bespoke Cruise Holidays franchise.

By summer 2026, I had experienced more than 30 ships first-hand; from the enormous Royal Caribbean Symphony of the Seas to intimate river ships, expedition ships, and small luxury vessels. Some were personal holidays, others organised ship visits and tours, alongside earning accreditations from countless hours of intensive cruise-line training.

I don’t recommend cruises because I’ve read about them in a brochure. I recommend them because I’ve experienced them.

That first-hand experience is what led me to find my niche: smaller ships and river cruises, where travel feels more authentic, immersive and personal.

I don’t just sell it. I’ve been there.