About Us

What’s different about TravelCafe?

Think of us as a “hybrid.” We’ve combined the best of good old fashioned travel agent service and expertise with the speed and sheer efficiency of some of the most successful online travel websites and some Kiwi ingenuity.

We’ve invented stuff like TravelQuote (it’s really hard to explain concisely – just take our word for it – it’s clever) and TXT & Email alerts to hot deals like the grab a seat fares. We’re working on other stuff too…

With TravelCafe you can access a network of real live travel experts who apply their knowledge and experience to finding you the best possible deal for your travel plans.

We’re a human-powered online travel website! We all work from different places – there’s an office in Napier but most of us work from our homes all over Australasia. When normal travel agents are sleeping we’re not!

We compare cheap airfares and cheap flights (and business and first class flights too) from some of the worlds leading international and domestic airlines, such as Air New Zealand, Thai Airways, Emirates, Royal Dubai, British Airways, Qantas, Malaysia Airlines, Cathay Pacific, Singapore Airlines, Virgin Blue, Pacific Blue and Jetstar.

We search, compare and book cheap flights to Australia and cheap flights from Australia – and pretty much anywhere else in the world. We book holidays, both domestic holidays and international holidays. We arrange and manage business travel and look after frequent travellers from all over New Zealand.

Our clients use our TravelQuote system to book cheap hotels and book car hire via our Website or call and talk through their arrangements in person with one of our Online Travel Brokers.

• Extensive buying power ensuring the best possible prices on everything from airfares to travel insurance to hotel accommodation to hire cars.
• TAANZ Bonding for the absolute protection of our clients
• IATA licensing – enabling any of us to issue any and all airline tickets, in most cases – instantly.
• A vast pool of travel agency expertise (and it’s getting deeper all the time.)

Our history. Founded 33 years ago by an All Black great…

Kel Tremain founded Tremain Travel in 1976 in Hawke’s Bay, New Zealand. The company grew into Hawke’s Bay’s largest travel business eventually becoming a Holiday Shoppe franchise.

In 2002 Chris Tremain rebranded the business as “TravelCafe” combining the conviviality of a local cafe with the busy travel agency business.

Greg Southcombe acquired 50% of the business in 2003 bringing the benefit of his online travel experience from Jetsave and Travel.co.nz. Greg acquired the rest of the business in 2005.

In 2009 the business became a division of Travel Managers Group Limited – a company in which his brother and father are both Executive Directors. Greg remains principal of the three dynamic brands: TravelCafe, Travelscoop and TravelQuote, operating separately.

Today, TravelCafe is an online travel company and rapidly becoming more and more ‘virtual’ with our travel experts working from bases all over NZ.

We think there’s a lot of people out there looking for personal service and real (human) expertise but wanting to access it all online and at a time that’s convenient to them. We have a great (and growing) team of friendly expert travel consultants ready and very able to deliver just that!

While we have a rich history (and we’re fascinated with the nostalgia of travel) we’re very much focussed on what we think travellers need today and will need tomorrow. With this in mind our business is very much about using the most useful tools and technology to deliver the best possible personal service to our clients – wherever they may be.

We’re very active online with increasingly popular websites (like this one and Travelscoop.) And we’ve built quite a following with our email marketing, RSS feeds, Twitter feeds. Did we mention we’ve also recently launched our TravelQuote service and a nifty little service where you can get the scoop on Grab a seat?

We still have a team of consultants based in Napier and the ‘roots’ of the business are proudly associated with the beautiful Hawke’s Bay but as we search for new travel experts our business is rapidly spreading to other parts of New Zealand.

Most importantly though, we’re here online all the time (and just a phone call or email away) when you need to travel.