The No.1 Coach Holiday Site

Bales Worldwide

Bales Worldwide Holidays
Bales House
Junction Road
Dorking, Surrey
RH4 3HL

The Bales Story

Bales Worldwide (formerly known as Bales Tours) is a family run independent tour operator established by George Bales in 1947.

George Bales had been working for an air broker for just three days in 1947 when he decided he could do better on his own and made his first deal from a telephone box. From there he worked from a friend’s flat until he found an office in London’s Piccadilly and launched British Air Brokers on September 1, 1947. Molly Hammond, later to become Mrs Bales, joined the company as George’s secretary in May 1948. Bales took its first step into the leisure market in 1960, when it began organising escorted tours to the Middle East. Within a few years, the pioneering spirit of the Bales family had covered the globe and the company’s tours now range from Borneo to Tanzania, from Canada to the Galapagos, and Tibet to Morocco, offering a mix of the popular and the unusual.

The Bales difference

A Passion for Customer Care

At Bales every member of staff strives to achieve this so that we provide the care and personal attention you deserve.

Family Owned since 1947

Why does this make a difference? We have built our reputation on providing top quality service and personal attention. We are a customer-focused company At Bales you will know that we care about each and every client and we know that you deserve to be provided with the best personal service we can offer.

Scheduled Flights

All our holidays use scheduled flights with reputable international airlines. We make this choice as we firmly believe that you will be provided with a good service in the air and that the reliability of timings is maximised.

Attention to Detail

We are privileged that you choose to travel with us; you deserve the best. Our attention to detail with all our itineraries is second to none. From the early days Molly Bales, our Chairman, led the way in prospecting our destinations and today our Planning staff prospect the areas we present to you, and provide itineraries that reflect our knowledge and expertise in the way the journey should be paced and planned.

Ensuring Your Safety

The responsibility of looking after your welfare and safety is something we take very seriously. We have a Health and Safety Department who have made all the necessary checks on the hotels to ensure that standards are met.

On Call 24 Hours a Day

If you are travelling independently then we provide you with contact details of the agents we work with in your chosen destination, and also a 24 hour Bales number in the United Kingdom. We want your holiday to be perfect and so if an element is wrong we want to put it right as soon as we can so you can continue to have the best experience. If you are travelling with a Bales group, your Tour Manager will of course be on hand to assist you.

Simply the Best

Our local tour guides in many of the countries in which we operate are of the very highest calibre. For example in Egypt, all the guides we use have a degree in Egyptology and a certificate of guiding. They also have excellent communication skills to ensure that you are provided with the information in a way that holds your attention. Many of our clients become personal friends with the guides.

Holidays to Remember

Whether your interest is the countryside, the wildlife, the archaeological sites, the history, the culture or the people, we will provide you with an experience that you will remember.

Tipping

Tipping is included on our escorted journeys. No more the hassle of trying to work out the money and how much you should give to a porter or waiter - you can be assured that Bales will take care of all this.


Flexibility

The choice is yours. We can assist in providing an exclusive itinerary for you, or you can join an escorted journey . You can extend your holiday , you can upgrade accommodation to suites in certain hotels and on certain boats. You can upgrade to business class . It is your holiday - let us help you to make it perfect.

Call Us

We have an enthusiastic, knowledgeable and experienced staff who will be pleased to discuss our holidays with you. Whatever your question or query it is important to you and our staff will spend the time with you to discuss any details of provide further information You may not be ready to book but simply wish to know more about the destination or the products we offer - please do phone and ask us. It is our attention to detail at every stage that makes Bales so special

Private Transfers and Transportation

We consider that our clients want to get to the hotel on their arrival in the destination as directly and quickly as they can. This is why we would always provide private transportation that will only take you or your group to the hotel and will not stop to drop off passengers staying at different hotels. For tailor made holidays you are provided with your own chauffeur-driven vehicle. For groups a coach exclusively for your departure - no more doing a circuit of the town for multiple drop-offs.

Your Accommodation

We carefully select your hotels and cruise ships and always provide the names of the hotels and cruise ships in the brochure itineraries. On many of our itineraries there are specific hotels we select for various reasons. Just one example - on our 17 day escorted ‘Peru and the Andes’ journey you will stay at The Sanctuary Lodge in Machu Picchu. This is a small property owned by Orient Express and is simply a few hundred yards away from the site. This gives you the opportunity to revisit Machu Picchu in the evening when it is open and you can visit the site in the early morning before the visitors who are coming by rail arrive. You can ask us more about the properties by calling us or find more information about the hotels on our web site.