About
About Ultimate Villas
A carefully curated villa collection from
The Ultimate Travel Company
With decades of experience behind us, our villa holidays are shaped by real expertise and genuine care. Each home has its own character, with architecture that belongs, materials that feel honest, and spaces that breathe. We take care of everything, from travel arrangements to the small details that make a stay effortless, all handled by one team you already know and trust.
Homes worth travelling for
Ultimate Villas is the first standalone villa portfolio from The Ultimate Travel Company. The collection focuses on architecturally significant, heritage-led and authentically restored private homes across Europe, chosen for a genuine sense of place, thoughtful design and immersive surroundings.
Rather than assembling hundreds of properties, we have taken a deliberately curated approach. Every home has been visited and personally vetted, with an emphasis on craftsmanship, history and the kind of lived-in luxury that cannot be manufactured.
What we look for
(and what we don’t)
A villa can be beautiful and still not work: bedrooms that don’t suit a group, terraces that catch the wind, pools that feel exposed, or a layout that leaves everyone on top of each other. We pay attention to the practical details as much as the photographs.
So when we recommend a home, it’s because it holds up in real life: the flow, the privacy, and the way it works day to day.
Off-market villas, shared privately
Many of our villas are kept offline, offered to us privately by owners who value discretion. If you are not seeing the right fit on the website, it may simply be that the best options are shared directly, based on your dates, group size and preferences.
While we feature standout properties across Europe and beyond, our deepest roots are in Tuscany and the Balearics, where long-standing partnerships give us access to some of the region’s most exceptional stays.
From The Ultimate Travel Company
Ultimate Villas is backed by The Ultimate Travel Company’s three decades of tailor-made expertise. In 1991, The Ultimate Travel Company was born: a specialised, privately owned travel company with far-reaching knowledge and a personal touch, founded by Nick Van Gruisen, Rowan Paterson and Hamish Van Gruisen.
Nick, Rowan and Hamish are all still actively involved day to day, sharing their experience and know-how with the team. Ultimate Villas is led by Archie Paterson, Head of Villas, who oversees the collection and the way each stay is planned.
Ultimate Villas brings the service our clients come back for, built over decades, into the villa world. We recommend from a carefully chosen mix of listed and off-market homes, with the details checked and everything looked after from first conversation to journey home.
The villa, and everything around it
A villa stay can be one chapter of a bigger holiday. With Ultimate Villas backed by The Ultimate Travel Company, you can combine the privacy of a home with the freedom of a tailor-made journey, before, after, or in between.
We can add a few days in a city, link two regions, or build a route that gives you contrast: coast and countryside, food and culture, time together and time to explore. And if you want to keep it simple, we can do that too, with the right touches arranged in the background.
“Honest advice matters, because you can’t switch villas the way you switch hotel rooms.”
Archie Paterson is the driving force behind Ultimate Villas. He built the collection with a simple belief: a villa should feel right long before you arrive. He looks for what photographs rarely capture: how a house sits in its landscape, the line of sight from the terrace, whether the pool area feels exposed, and how the layout works when a group is actually living in it. It’s not about a glossy finish for its own sake, but about ease, liveability and a home that genuinely delivers.
As Head of Villas, Archie shapes Ultimate Villas from the ground up. He identifies and secures the homes we represent, visits and revisits them, and checks that standards stay consistent. He also develops the owner relationships and the trusted network of independent partners on the ground, so support is capable, discreet and close by. For clients, he’s a steady point of contact before, during and after a stay, helping with the decision that matters most in villa travel: choosing the right home the first time.
Archie’s entire career has been in luxury villa rentals. Before launching Ultimate Villas, he spent over five and a half years with a boutique agency curating villa travel for high-net-worth clients across Europe. That experience sharpened his eye for what luxury looks like in practice, what represents genuine value, and how to be transparent about the quirks that make villas so individual.
His deepest roots are in Tuscany and the Balearics, where long-standing relationships open doors to exceptional homes, including privately offered villas kept offline by owners who value discretion. Ask Archie what makes a villa “Ultimate” and he’ll talk about a sense of place, understated comfort, and flow: spaces that are easy to live in, and a week that runs smoothly. Menorca remains his personal constant, a destination he returns to for its landscape, its pace and the pull of being close to the sea.
Choosing the right villa
Whoever you’re travelling with, finding the right villa is about knowing what matters most to you. Here are a few pointers from our team to help narrow the search and make sure the villa you choose feels right from the moment you arrive.
Location is everything, but not always what you expect
You don’t always need to be by the beach. Often, the most beautiful villas are set slightly inland, with space and views that coastal properties can’t match. If being near the sea is a must, we’ll tell you what’s within reach and whether the trade-off is worth it.
Ask yourself: Do you want total seclusion, or to be able to walk to a village for coffee? How much driving are you happy to do?
Think about how you’ll use the space
Some villas are made for outdoor living; others are cosy and atmospheric indoors. Are you planning to spend long days by the pool, cooking at home, or heading out most of the time? It’s worth thinking beyond just the number of bedrooms.
Ask yourself: Do you want a big kitchen for group dinners? Separate spaces for different age groups? A shaded terrace for long lunches?
Be open to what you can’t see online
Many of our most exceptional villas aren’t listed on our website. Owners prefer to keep them discreet, and we understand why. These homes are available through us directly and often offer something truly special.
Top tip: If you can’t find exactly what you’re after, ask. The villa that fits might not be public facing.
Let the villa shape your trip
Some villas are destinations in themselves. You might plan less sightseeing than expected, simply because you don’t want to leave. Others are perfect springboards for exploring the region. Either can work beautifully, as long as it suits your rhythm.
Ask yourself: Do you want to explore every day, or unwind in one place?
Let us show you what makes a villa stay Ultimate.
We visit and vet the villas we represent, then plan around them with the same care we bring to tailor-made travel. Tell us what your villa holiday should look like and we’ll suggest a shortlist, including off-market villas shared privately.