Grand Prix travel
Explore races including Silverstone, Monaco, Las Vegas, Singapore and Abu Dhabi, with ticket and hospitality options subject to availability.
Explore F1 packages
Independent Travel Consultant · Rochdale
Your holiday, personally designed by me.
Award-winning, independent travel advice with 19+ years of industry experience — from family escapes and luxury stays to cruises, honeymoons and tailor-made adventures.
- Diamond Award 2025/26
- Rochdale based
- Personal support
19+years in travel
2026Diamond Award winner
LocalRochdale travel expert
Personalbefore, during & after
Travel, made personal
A real person behind every recommendation.
I’m a Rochdale-based Designer Travel expert with 19+ years in the travel industry and first-hand experience across family travel, long-haul adventures, city breaks and cruising.
My travel story includes Australia, Egypt, Madeira, Cuba, the USA, Caribbean family trips, Royal Caribbean cruising, Florida and Finnish Lapland.
When you book with me, you have one person to speak to from the first idea through to your return home.
Read my story →Sam Barratt at a glance
I’m Sam Barratt, an independent travel consultant based in Rochdale, Greater Manchester, with 19+ years of travel-industry experience. I plan family holidays, luxury travel, cruises, tailor-made itineraries, long-haul trips and sports travel for clients locally and across the UK.
- Based in Rochdale, Greater Manchester
- 19+ years in the travel industry
- Family, cruise, luxury, tailor-made & sports travel
- Personal planning for clients across the UK
Find your kind of holiday
Thoughtful planning for every way you travel.
Sports travel
Big sporting moments, personally planned.
From Formula 1 weekends and darts nights to football finals and Grand Slam tennis, I can bring event access, hotels and travel together into one joined-up trip.
Darts weekends
Build a trip around the World Championship, World Matchplay, Premier League and other major PDC events.
Explore darts trips
Football trips
Plan Premier League weekends, domestic finals and major European or international football occasions.
Explore football trips
Tennis travel
Travel for Wimbledon, the US Open, Roland-Garros, the Australian Open and leading tour events.
Explore tennis tripsClient reviews
What my clients say.
Real 5-star feedback from clients who asked me to plan family holidays, cruises, city breaks and sports travel.
★★★★★10 supplied 5-star client reviewsReviews.io / Designer Travel
“I recently had the pleasure of working with Sam Barratt from Designer Travel for my trip to the 2024 F1 in Schools World Finals in Dhahran, Saudi Arabia, and the Qatar F1 Grand Prix in Doha. From start to finish, Sam's expertise and dedication transformed what could have been a complicated process into a seamless …”
“We have had the pleasure of working with Sam for booking three different holidays: a family ski holiday, a 10th wedding anniversary trip, and a family summer holiday. We were thrilled with the exceptional service Sam provided from start to finish. Sam took care of all the research for us, which was incredibly helpful given our hectic schedules. We provided her with our criteria, and presented us with various ideas and options tailored to our preferences. Her suggestions for where to celebrate our 10th anniversary were particularly thoughtful and we have booked to go somewhere we hadn't even considered before. We're really looking forward to each trip over the coming year, knowing that Sam has meticulously planned every detail. It has completely taken the stress out of planning and booking our holidays. We highly recommend Sam to anyone seeking a knowledgeable, efficient, and personable travel agent.”
“We can't thank Sam at Designer Travel enough for organising our incredible Cunard cruise! From start to finish, the service was outstanding—Sam made the whole process effortless, ensuring every detail was taken care of with professionalism and a personal touch. Her knowledge, efficiency, and dedication to finding us the perfect itinerary made all the difference. If you're looking for a stress-free and seamless travel experience, we highly recommend Sam and the team at Designer Travel. We'll definitely be booking with her again!”
Reviews reproduced from client review imagery supplied from Designer Travel / Reviews.io. View Sam’s Designer Travel profile
My city-break favourite: Funchal, MadeiraFirst-hand knowledge
Advice shaped by actually going.
Personal experience adds context that search results cannot. I continue to build my knowledge through personal travel and industry educational trips.
- Family travel across Europe, USA and Caribbean
- Royal Caribbean cruise experience
- Florida resort and Gulf Coast educational trip
- Finnish Lapland snowmobile adventure
- Australia, Cuba, Egypt and Madeira
Local travel expert
Travel advice in Rochdale, with worldwide reach.
I’m based on Broad Lane in Rochdale and support travellers across Rochdale, Littleborough, Milnrow, Heywood, Middleton, Oldham, Bury and beyond.
Find your local pagePlanning guides
Useful answers before you book.
Practical guides on choosing how to book, planning sports trips, building a Florida family holiday and finding the right cruise.
Consultant vs booking online
Where personal planning adds value and when self-booking may be enough.
Read guide →Sports travel from the UK
How I join event access, hotels, travel and event-day logistics.
Read guide →Florida with a family
How to balance Orlando, rest days, room layouts and coastal time.
Read guide →Travel advice
Your questions, answered
Why use a personal travel expert instead of booking online?
A personal travel expert saves research time, narrows the market to sensible options and remains a named human point of contact around the booking. I also get to know how you like to travel, so recommendations can become more personal over time.
Are holidays booked through you financially protected?
Eligible bookings made through Designer Travel benefit from the protection arrangements that apply to that travel service. Designer Travel sells travel services on behalf of Hays Travel Limited and benefits from ABTA membership L318X; applicable flight-inclusive packages may be ATOL protected under ATOL 5534. The protection that applies is confirmed before booking.
Can you arrange a tailor-made or multi-centre holiday?
Yes. I can help combine flights, accommodation, transfers, tours, cruises and experiences into a trip shaped around your dates, budget and priorities.
Do you arrange family holidays?
Yes. I travel with my own family and understand the practical details that matter when travelling with children, including flight times, room layouts, transfers, family facilities and the pace of the trip.
Can you help with cruise holidays?
Yes. I have first-hand cruise experience and can help compare cruise lines, ships, cabins, dining options, itineraries and pre- or post-cruise stays.
For busy people
Give me the 60-second version.
No long questionnaire. Send me the basics and I can take the conversation from there.
- One named travel expert
- No obligation
- Phone, email or WhatsApp follow-up
Your next trip starts here
Send me the brief. I’ll take it from there.
No call centre. No endless tabs. Just a quick conversation about where you want to go and how you want the holiday to feel.