Why People Who Swear Off Group Travel Are Booking Private Jet World Tours: The Real Clue Is in the Aircraft and Headcount

Larry King owned his own Citation M2 light business jet and had flown it on nearly ten long-haul international trips, including one 72-day round-the-world journey. In theory, he should be the toughest sell for a private jet tour operator — he knew how to fly a plane himself and was used to being in control of his own itinerary. But in the end, he and his wife Judy, along with four friends, signed up for National Geographic Expeditions' 21-day Africa trip aboard a retrofitted Boeing 757 carrying 75 passengers.

He described his motivation plainly: he wanted to hit all the highlights without spending two months doing it, and without missing a single stop. "You get on board, eat, sleep, and wake up ready for the next adventure." He also noted that the operator's advance planning around safety was one of the reasons he chose National Geographic.

This is exactly what these round-the-world charter trips are now trying to do: convince people who fly their own planes — or who flatly say "I don't do group travel" — to hand over the controls.

From Around the World in Eighty Days to Antarctic Ice Caves

This category traces back to 1995, when TCS World Travel partnered with the American Museum of Natural History to retrofit a commercial aircraft into a small-group charter, reimagining a Phileas Fogg–style world tour with museum-selected scientists on board. Thirty years later, the same model has expanded to more aircraft types and harder-to-reach destinations — China's World Heritage sites, Machu Picchu, Easter Island, the Gobi Desert, Kazakhstan, and the Himalayan region. TCS has even added an Antarctica leg to one of its recent itineraries, where travelers can walk into ice caves.

"What people want is to be transformed," said Jennifer Lew, VP of Product at TCS World Travel. "It's about the experience itself, not checking a box, and not just owning something few people have."

The differences in aircraft and passenger count across operators actually reflect the distinct clientele each one targets. TCS uses a 150-seat Airbus A321 retrofitted with lie-flat beds and a curated wine list, carrying 52 guests on its own tours; the version operated for Four Seasons Private Jet Experience carries 48 and adds a lounge. Abercrombie & Kent similarly retrofits commercial aircraft, with its group tours carrying 48 to 50 passengers, while its more refined Small Jet Journeys caps out at just 10 to 16. National Geographic's 757 version seats 75. Onboard, there's typically a cabin crew, a physician, an executive chef, an expedition leader, subject-matter experts, and photographers.

Aman Jet Expeditions goes even smaller — an Airbus A319 that takes just 16 guests, configured with side-facing lounge seating and enlarged bathrooms. On the ground, every traveler or group gets their own driver and private guide, with stays at Aman's own properties. "We have a lot of celebrities and high-profile people who don't want to be slotted into a group tour, or crammed into a minibus and a big hotel," said Catherine Heald, founder and CEO of Remote Lands, Aman's partner on these charter trips.

Blaine Adams, a financial advisor from Houston, has already taken three Aman Jet trips with her husband, with a fourth booked for October. "We don't do group travel," she admitted, saying she was hesitant at first — but was quickly won over by the flexibility of the Aman itinerary. "We like being able to get off on our own, with our own driver and guide. It's so easy to switch between doing our own thing and rejoining the group."

Operators focused even more on discretion and rare access, like Blue Parallel and Sienna Charles, put the emphasis on places most people simply can't get into — a private tour of the Sistine Chapel at the Vatican, or a French winery that's normally closed to the public. "We obsess over every detail of the journey," said Jaclyn India, founder and CEO of Sienna Charles. "It's not just a room in London — it's the Library Suite at the Connaught." Blue Parallel, meanwhile, weaves a sense of adventure into its itineraries: hiking the Perito Moreno Glacier in Patagonia, dog-sledding in Lapland, cycling through Morocco's Atlas Mountains.