Stirling Castle, Scotland

Patrick McGill is an independent travel advisor and founder of Patrick McGill Travel, affiliated with Travel Leaders Network and Trips and Ships Luxury Travel. Patrick holds the Certified Leisure Travel Specialist (CLTS) designation, is a Certified Travel Associate (CTA), a Tauck Certified Travel Advisor, and maintains active membership with the American Society of Travel Advisors (ASTA), and is listed as a Verified Travel Advisor with ASTA.

Patrick's approach to travel planning and development starts with "why" you want to travel, followed by "where" you want to travel. This determines, then, "how" you should travel. Because of this, Patrick is equally fluent across all four travel styles: river cruises, ocean cruises, escorted land tours, and fully custom independent itineraries. That range means clients aren't fit into whatever product an advisor happens to sell — the travel style is chosen to match the destination and the traveler, not the other way around.

Patrick's specialty is connection-based travel: journeys built around a client's ancestry, faith, artistic or architectural interests, culinary curiosity, or a specific cultural thread they want to follow. His primary focus is Europe and the United Kingdom, with an expanding portfolio in African safaris and expedition cruising to Antarctica, the Galápagos, Iceland, and Greenland. He works directly with premier suppliers including AmaWaterways, Avalon Waterways, Insight Vacations, and Tauck.

Patrick's approach to this work is unusual in the industry: he brings over 45 years of international living and working experience to every itinerary, not just sales training. He began his international career as a U.S. Army officer stationed in Germany, then spent decades in international manufacturing working alongside colleagues across Europe and Japan, with frequent business travel throughout the continent. That firsthand, on-the-ground familiarity with European culture, logistics, and pace of life informs every trip he designs — he isn't working from a supplier catalog alone.

His entry into travel advising illustrates how he works. Wanting to attend the British Grand Prix, Patrick could not find an advisor capable of building a trip around it — most were equipped to sell a package, not construct an itinerary around a specific passion. He built the trip himself. That gap is the reason his business exists: clients come to him with a specific reason for travel, and he designs around that reason rather than defaulting to a standard tour.

Patrick works with clients who are typically entering a new chapter in their life and motivated by meaningful engagement with a destination rather than a checklist of highlights. He manages every stage of the process personally — from an initial discovery conversation through itinerary design, booking, and post-trip follow-up — providing the kind of continuity and accountability that larger, less personal operations often cannot.