About Us

About Us
Input your text here! The text element is intended for longform copy that could potentially include multiple paragraphs.
Input your text here! The text element is intended for longform copy that could potentially include multiple paragraphs.
Input your text here! The text element is intended for longform copy that could potentially include multiple paragraphs.

Our Mission to lead with Service

Halal Travel Guide is making it easier for you to enjoy unique travel experiences designed by travel experts and local guides. 

Our partnerships produce more than individually crafted trips designed with Muslims in mind.

Together with our homegrown travel experts, we’re breaking down barriers and building connections that make life better.

So what does Halal Travel Guide offer?

  1. We host group trips together with local hosts, designed with  Muslim travellers in mind;
  2. We curate free digital travel guides;
  3. We help destinations better understand the needs of Muslim travellers.

Our Values

  • ✨Excellent Service: Each guest who books to travel with us is taken care of on an individual basis, right from the moment you reserve your ticket. There's a reason why we only have 5* reviews!

  • 🌿 Being Mindful, Intentional & Responsible: Our trips are centred around benefiting both you and the destination you visit.

  • 🤝 Building cross-cultural bridges: We work together with locals in each destination, helping you enjoy unique experiences and build new friendships.

  • 🌙 Travelling to seek knowledge: Hear stories from the locals, from Bosnia to Barbados and everywhere in between.
  • 💚 Hosting you with love: As soon as you book with us you'll receive personal care and support as a valued member of the HTG Club.

Supporting local
businesses

Quality-assured
trips

Exploring Muslim heritage

Halal Travel Guide is a signatory to the new Guiding Principles launched by the Future of Tourism Coalition.

As a signatory, we commit to place destination needs at the centre
of our business practises and do our part to build a better tomorrow for travel and tourism.

Image

In the Media

Soumaya Hamdi Halal Travel Guide

Our Founder

Soumaya T. Hamdi

For as long as I can remember, I’ve loved the idea of travelling the world.
Who doesn’t?

I’d spend hours flicking through my History of the World Book learning about the Ancient Egyptians and their pyramids, the stories of the Tsars in Russia, and exploring the world through travel and nature shows.

Growing up though, the only destination we’d travel to as a family abroad was North Africa, mainly a) to visit family and b) because it was easy being a Muslim traveller there. Most of the time though, we’d ‘staycation’ in the UK. Speaking with other young Muslims, I’ve found that a lot of us can relate to the experience of taking home-cooked meals to the beach and wearing makeshift modest swimwear because we knew we wouldn’t find halal food nearby, and burkinis were only – mercifully - invented once we got older.

Beyond North Africa, I didn’t really travel abroad much before the age of 23. I didn’t take a Gap Year and travel through Europe like many people my age, or spend summers volunteering abroad.

So, when I had the chance to travel through Singapore, Malaysia, South Korea and Japan in the summer of 2015, I jumped on the opportunity. I loved every minute of the adventure, navigating my way with my husband and 5-month-old baby in a small rental car.

The thing is, I was surprised by how difficult it was to find online recommendations for halal food in Malaysia – the places the locals would recommend - and how little trip planning information was catered to Muslim travellers. Malaysia is easily one of my favourite countries and one I had been planning to visit for years, but I felt like trip planning was harder than it needed to be.  In Seoul, I was surprised that despite my outward appearance, I didn’t receive unkind stares or the cold shoulder – in fact it was the complete opposite. The locals were curious about my hijab but in a friendly way, and I lost count of the amount of times complete strangers would offer their help, smile, or even strike up casual conversation.

I realised that there are a lot of barriers that get in the way of Muslims enjoying much better travel experiences, and I started to wonder,

  • How might we change the way we travel so that it benefits not just the traveller but the local community/destination as well?

  • How might we empower young Muslims to feel confident in their Islamic identity through travel?

  • How might we bridge the disconnect between like-hearted people from around the world using both digital and real-life solutions?

I couldn’t find a travel company that gave the solutions to these problems, so I decided to try and find these solutions myself.

And that’s the story of how Halal Travel Guide was born.