Tom Barber

About Tom

Tom Barber, Co-founder and Brand Director of Original Travel

Tom graduated from Durham University in 1995 with a degree in psychology before becoming a journalist, writing for titles including GQ, The Independent, Tatler and the Evening Standard.

In 2003, with friends Nick Newbury and Alastair Poulain, he co-founded Original Travel. The original idea, Big Short Breaks – tailor-made adventures offering maximum experience for minimum time off – quickly expanded into longer, more complex journeys worldwide.

Over two decades, Original Travel has been voted Best Tour Operator at the Guardian/Observer Travel Awards, won multiple Condé Nast Traveller accolades, and had more consultants named among Condé Nast Traveler’s Top Travel Specialists than any other UK or US company. The business continues to innovate with concepts such as Philantourism and flight-free tailor-made travel.

Alongside his role as Brand Director, Tom has been Travel Editor at Esquire and editor of the in-house magazine Original Traveller. He is married with four children, affectionately known in the business as the ‘Guinea Kids’ because their feedback has helped develop Original Travel’s family offering.   

Favourite Travel Moments

How long have you got? I caught the travel bug early, falling in love with trains on the overnight sleeper to Inverness. It felt like magic: going to sleep in industrial England and waking up among the Scottish moors.

Since then, the best trips have been with my family, always shaped around the children’s ages and interests: an adventure across South Africa from Cape Town to a riding safari in the Waterberg; cultural but fun city breaks in Rome and Paris; snorkelling in Oman; surfing in Portugal; and messing about in boats in Corfu. I believe travel broadens a child’s mind every bit as much as academic learning, which is why we are already planning Costa Rica, California and Canada, and, when they are teens, Japan and India.

Some places become touchstones. Soneva Fushi in the Maldives is one: the children would return tomorrow, and it is just as magical as a couple. Cycling Lucca’s medieval walls with my children and parents was another highlight, a perfect three-generational trip of gelato, towers and tortelli al ragu.

Other standouts include diving pristine reefs with my elder children thanks to PADI’s Bubblemaker course (the reason we launched Original Diving), husky sledding beneath the Northern Lights in Swedish Lapland, yomping across wild Corsica, Sri Lanka’s many attractions and arguably the greatest destination of them all – Japan – which my wife and I adored and which is top of the list for the children soon.

I have also cherished bonding journeys with my father in Uzbekistan, my mother on the Steam Ship Sudan in Egypt, and my children everywhere from Lapland to the Red Sea. Those trips, across generations and one on one, are the most meaningful of all.

Our Vision for Travel

Travel should be about connection, restoration and understanding, not just a list of places visited. At Original Travel we borrow from the Japanese art of kintsugi, where broken pottery is repaired with gold lacquer to create something more beautiful than before. We see travel in the same way: before Covid it was dazzling, but cracks were showing in the spread of overtourism and unchecked flight growth. After the pandemic we have the chance to rebuild travel stronger, more mindful and more meaningful. That’s why we champion Kintsugi Travel: positive-impact approaches such as Undertourism, Flight-Free Travel, Community-Based Tourism, Indigenous Tourism and Philantourism (choosing to visit down-on-their-luck destinations). In every case the principle is the same: travel should benefit visitor and destination alike and be a genuine force for good.

This shapes everything we do. Each trip is designed from scratch, rooted in real expertise and authentic encounters that go deeper than clichés. We encourage clients to discover new angles on familiar places or hidden corners away from the crowds, which our concept The Secret Series champions. We also take sustainability seriously, absorbing all client and staff emissions through our own reforestation projects and promoting rail over air wherever possible.

For us, travel should broaden horizons, support communities and help protect the planet. Every journey should be part of the solution, not part of the problem.