From Our Family to Yours

A Family Business

I grew up with SJ Villas very much part of family life. There were always conversations about houses, owners, clients and places Judy had just discovered. A villa in Greece would be discussed over lunch; a call from an owner in France might interrupt dinner; photographs from a new house would be passed around the table.

Today, Judy and I run SJ Villas together, and those conversations still happen.

We disagree occasionally — as mothers and sons do — but we share exactly the same instinct about what SJ Villas should be. Personal, curious, fast-moving and, above all, human.

The photographs accompanying this Travel Note were taken over lunch in the garden with our family. In many ways, they capture what we spend our working lives trying to create for other people: a beautiful place, a table, good food, plenty of conversation and uninterrupted time together.

Because ultimately, that is what a villa holiday is about.

We Advise, We Don't Sell

Over the years our collection has grown to hundreds of villas across some extraordinary corners of the world, but we have never wanted to become a catalogue of houses.

We still travel constantly. We walk through the bedrooms, try the pools, find the nearest beaches, meet the owners and ask far too many questions. We want to know whether a house really works for small children, whether you can walk into town, where to buy the best fish and which table to book for Sunday lunch.

Sometimes we come home having found a wonderful new villa. Sometimes we decide a house isn’t quite right for us.

That first-hand knowledge matters because every family is different. The villa we recommend for grandparents taking three generations away may be completely different from the one we suggest to old friends celebrating a birthday.

Our job isn’t simply to find you a villa.

It is to find your villa.

The Little Things

After nearly 20 years, some of our favourite memories aren’t necessarily about the grandest houses.

They are the birthday cakes organised at the last minute, the boats found when everything appeared fully booked, the chef who remembers exactly how a family likes breakfast, or simply knowing which bedroom a returning guest will want before they ask.

Those details matter to us.

Many of the families who first travelled with Judy now travel with me too. Children who once came on holiday with their parents are beginning to organise trips of their own. Owners have become friends. Clients recommend us to their friends, siblings and children.

That sense of continuity is something we’re incredibly proud of.

More Time Together

Next year SJ Villas celebrates 20 years.

We have visited a lot of houses, travelled a lot of miles and had more adventures than we could possibly count. There are new destinations still to discover, new villas to find and plenty more journeys ahead for Judy and me.

But as we approach that anniversary, I’ve been thinking less about where we’ve been and more about why we started.

And I think the answer is around this table.

Holidays give us something increasingly precious: time together. Time away from routines and distractions. Time for long lunches, swims before breakfast, conversations that run into the evening and memories that somehow become part of a family’s history.

For nearly 20 years, we’ve been fortunate enough to help create the setting for those moments.

To everyone who has travelled with us, recommended us to friends, trusted us with their holidays, opened their homes to us or simply followed our journey — thank you.

Here’s to more places, more adventures and, most importantly, more time together.

From our family to yours.

Tom