Tailormade travel since 1970
Founded in 1970, our parent company Bluebird Travel is a longstanding provider of luxury travel and VIP concierge services. Reconnecting to yourself, others and the natural world has never been more important, so Health Travel was established as a specialist provider of transformative getaways.
With our leading connections in travel, Health Travel partners with the world’s leading wellness hotels , medical spas and retreats to create tailor made wellness holidays for the mind, body and soul.
About Health Travel
Michael Oszmann
DIRECTOR & CO-FOUNDER
A longstanding passion for travel and adventure with over 60 countries under his belt, Mike is on the Health Travel journey. Prior to entering the luxury wellness travel market, Mike developed new business ventures with many of the World’s largest brands such as Shell, HSBC, O2 and Deloitte. He also led the strategy & transformation of a multi-billion pound B2B e-Commerce platform
Toby is a renown leader in the world of luxury travel. He has been at the helm of Bluebird Travel for over 10 years and sits on the advisory board of the World’s largest luxury travel consortium – Virtuoso. He is board member of Snowfall Travel – an industry leading £146m travel technology fund. With his unrivalled sector knowledge, he is the go-to of our VIP clients
Mark Sumpter
HEAD OF OPERATIONS
A travel industry veteran of over 20 years, Mark is a goldmine of knowledge. Previously he led a global operations team at TAG – The World’s largest celebrity travel company. With his love of the great outdoors and his in-depth understanding of luxury hotels, he’s bringing his invaluable expertise to the Health Travel team and our clients
Ian Merryfield
WELLNESS SPECIALIST
With a more than 10 years of experience in creating luxury retreats and holidays for the mind, body and soul, Ian is our in-house wellness retreats guru. He has personally visited many of our partner properties and is on-hand to share his experience with clients
MARKETING & PARTNERSHIPS
Max’s love for travel developed from an interest in marine life, which intertwined with his passions for food and sports, ultimately inspiring a lifelong bucket list that ranges from eating pho in Vietnam to scuba diving with sharks in South Africa. He brings expert marketing rigour from his time working in marketing agencies
Emily Grace
SPECIALIST SALES
Combining a longstanding love for luxury travel, and a natural interest in the world of wellness as a holistic health coach, Emily brings over 10 years of experience to the Health Travel team. With her expertise and passion for both fields, Emily is developing new and valuable partnership opportunities alongside providing exceptional service and advice to our clients.
Charlie Sansostri
CLIENT SERVICES
A trip to China in her late teens sparked Charlie’s lifelong love of travel and her excitement to visit new destinations has only grown since. Her 15 years with Bluebird Travel has brought incredible opportunities to travel and design unique trips for clients.
Clare Tomlin
With her love for travel starting in the adventure tourism industry, Clare has been lucky enough to travel to some remote and interesting places. Her passion is creating bespoke itineraries and once in a lifetime memories for clients. Clare joined us from one of the largest high-end concierge companies.
Maddy Burwash
Maddy got into the world of travel concierge through her passion for providing exceptional service and creating unforgettable experiences for others. Maddy coordinates personalised itineraries, secures exclusive reservations and delivers unparalleled service.
Zero-stress planning FOR your next TRIP
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Your retreat , your way
Health Travel creates exceptional experiences with a highly personalised service. Our handpicked collection of the world’s leading health and wellness experiences is where each journey begins.
Through an initial conversation with a Wellness Specialist, our team develops a picture of your interests, requirements and goals to effectively curate and tailor a transformative experience for you.
From the initial enquiry to after you return home, we are with you every step of the way.
Complimentary wellness concierge
Every retreat is supported by our complimentary Wellness Concierge service, offering a 360-degree approach to your getaway. After booking your experience, your dedicated Wellness Concierge will be in touch to organise the finer details of your trip. They can support with arranging additional spa treatments, transfer times, health questionnaires, pre-departure documentation and more.
The specialists in health & wellness
Our team of Wellness Specialists has tried and tested our wellness vacations to ensure we meet the highest standards of service and support. Many of our team have backgrounds in yoga teaching and competitive fitness as well as being avid explorers themselves, so you’re in good hands for being matched to a luxury retreat that suits your unique self.
Exclusive benefits for you
Through Health Travel’s strong affiliations with the world’s leading hotel brands, each of our trips not only have the best rates, but you also receive exclusive added value benefits. From spa and restaurant credit to room upgrades and complimentary nights, speak to our Wellness Specialists to find out what exclusive extras are available for your next retreat.
How we bring your wellness journey to life
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Transformative wellness retreats for the mind, body & soul
In a demanding world, we all need to allow the mind the time and space to breathe and reset. From meditation and emotional healing to sleep retreats , our retreats provide the tools to take the world in your stride.
From focused fitness retreats and weight-loss spas to all-round health retreats to help balance and restore, we work with leading experts and practitioners to heal, train and rejuvenate the body.
Wellness escapes can fulfill our innate need to grow and develop as an individual. Through soulful experiences in the Himalayas and thrilling hiking and kayaking adventures in Patagonia, reignite passions and explore.
Embark on a transformative wellness journey with Health Travel
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BLUEBIRD TRAVEL LIMITED
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Visit Moscow Tours
Saint Petersburg - Karelia 9 days - 8 nights
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Moscow-Saint Peterburg tour package 8 days/7 nights BEST DEAL (15th of MAY-22d of MAY only)
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Moscow - Velikiy Novgorod - Saint Petersburg tour package 9 days/8 nights
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Moscow tour package 5 days/4 nights including tank riding and Stalin Bunker visit
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Welcome to visit moscow tours.
We provide authentic, informative and memorable tour packages and city tours, at very competitive prices. Visit Moscow Tours are available not only in Moscow, but also in other cities: Saint Petersburg, Kazan, Suzdal and Sergiev Posad. We also organise customised individual programs tailored just for you.
Our guests come in large groups, small private groups, as couples or as single travellers. We take care of and treat our guests with respect in a friendly and warm family environment. We show people our beautiful cities with passion and deep knowledge of their history, culture and traditions.
Our guides are extremely hospitable, helpful and well-informed. They are simply the best because only by providing the best services can we make the world fall in love with Russia. And we are very happy when our guests say that they will definitely come back to Russia and that they will tell all their friends how great Russia is! That is what inspires us to put even more dedication and hard work into our tours, knowing that what we do is positive and meaningful.
Our classic tours include tours of Moscow and Saint Petersburg, two main Russian cities.
Moscow is a big and busy megalopolis and Russia’s capital city, where more than 12 million people live and work. Our capital city is happening place; it is mysterious, elegant, luxurious, fashionable, clean and bright, with its unique legends, traditions and events. It is with great pride that we show the Red Square and the Kremlin, our Underground and Tretyakovskaya Gallery, among other stunning attractions.
Saint Petersburg is our second capital, the second largest city in the Russian Federation. This wonderful city has a strong and lively aristocratic spirit, uniquely Russian royal architecture, magnificent museums and theatres. Saint Petersburg bears the royal heritage of Russia, which can be felt in its air, its streets, parks, monuments, museums and citizens. In Saint Petersburg tours, we will take you to the Hermitage, Peter and Paul Fortress, Faberge Museum and Orthodox Cathedrals. We’re sure you will love it!
If you have a few more days to spare, venture into the dreamy Russian countryside in Suzdal or Sergiev Posad. Suzdal is a small town with a population of about ten thousand people, situated on less than 15 square kilometres. This tiny area is home to 53 historic cathedrals, five monasteries and a kremlin. Church domes are visible like mushrooms from anywhere and everywhere in the town like in a fairy tale. No wonder Suzdal is called the ‘Town Museum”. It is definitely worth visiting!
Just try any of Visit Moscow Tours’ tour packages or any individual city tour, and we promise that you will want to come back to Russia again. Russia is huge with countless amazing places to visit. There are so many unique experiences to be had and energies to be felt that one tour is definitely not enough to explore this vast land. It is also a very safe destination to travel, and we have a tradition of warm hospitality. Our people adore and take care of visitors as our own guests, and even if they do not know your language very well, they still try to be helpful and hospitable.
Our guides will show you the most interesting attractions and historical places, taking you on a journey to the past to enjoy stories of medieval times, the Romanov monarchy, the Soviet Era. And of course, we will show you the contemporary life of our country through authentic local experiences.
We look forward to meeting you soon!
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BLUEBIRD TRAVEL (NE) LTD
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Harmonica melodies of Hansen's disease patients live on
A harmonica band founded 70 years ago by people with impaired vision at a sanatorium for Hansen's disease patients in Okayama Prefecture ended its activities decades ago. The melodies played by the band, however, still live on in people’s hearts as symbols of their quest for freedom and equality.
The name of the band was derived from the shape in which chairs were arranged, in a reverse “V,” in the corner of a meeting hall. Band members thought the shape resembled a bird with its wings stretched out, with one calling it a “bluebird of happiness.” The Bluebird Band started out with 13 members, including players of the harmonica, the drums, the guitar and the triangle.
Kondo, who was born in Osaka Prefecture, was diagnosed with Hansen’s disease around the age of 10. He was segregated at Aisei-en at the age of 11 along with his younger sister. Then, while helping to care for a patient at the sanatorium who had dysentery, he also contracted that illness himself.
In his late 20s, Kondo's condition worsened due to Hansen’s disease, and he lost his sight and the sense of touch in his fingers.
At the time, Promin, a drug for the disease, was becoming widely available, and patients were starting to have a sense of hope. The residents were looking for something they could be enthusiastic about or something that would give them mental strength.
It was during that period that the idea of a band came to him. Kondo was shaken when he happened upon the idea, which made him recall the feeling of a harmonica his father had handed him when he was brought to Aisei-en.
Kondo learned to read scores in braille using the slightest sensations of touch he still had with his lips and tongue. He read scores again and again — until they were smeared with blood. He arranged the melodies for the band and taught them to the members.
Kondo was keen on having members memorize the musical scores rather having them learn by ear. As he wanted the band to perform a wide variety of music, including classical and pop tunes, he didn’t allow compromises.
In his book “Yami wo Hikari ni” ("From Darkness to Light"), Kondo recalls that the band members could barely memorize eight bars a night at first. For them, “it was like trying to swallow bitter medicine,” he wrote. Although he could feel their difficulties, he could also sense their passion.
“We were all longing for something new, and something more beautiful,” he wrote.
'We were not losers'
When the band was formed many of the members had difficulties moving their hands, so the instruments they could use were limited. At the beginning, there were only a few harmonicas on hand, and even the cheaper ones cost two- or three-months’ equivalent of the wages the members earned working in the sanatorium. They still managed to get the instruments, even if that meant borrowing money.
As it was difficult for those with severe disabilities to smoothly use different kinds of harmonica, Kondo devised a "harmonica assembler," which could hold four or six harmonicas of different tones in a fixed position between two wooden boards. This helped expand a band's repertoire, as members could easily play different harmonicas in accordance with the tune of the music.
As the band gradually improved their skills, their reputation spread. They were invited to give concerts in Tokyo, Osaka, Nagoya and other cities, and they traveled to various places to play their original theme tune "Aoi-tori Koshinkyoku" (“The Bluebird March”).
Yasuo Tamura, 92, who accompanied the band and helped carry their instruments, still lives in Aisei-en. "Everyone was singing happily on the train on the way to the venues,” Tamura said, recalling those days. "Mr. Kondo gave music to each and every member. He was a genius.”
It was still a time when Aisei-en was physically segregated, with no bridge connecting Nagashima to the mainland. Despite severe discrimination and prejudice against the patients, the band received loud applause at venues to which it traveled. "The band gave me freedom, too," Tamura said.
In 1976, a little over 20 years after the band was formed, it ended its activities due to the aging of its main members. But Kondo often played his harmonica even after the band was dissolved.
Tomohisa Tamura, 47, a curator at the Nagashima Aisei-en Historical Museum, still remembers the sight of Kondo playing the harmonica at schools where he made speeches, and at Aisei-en for visitors.
Tomohisa Tamura said Kondo seemed to have had some reservations about the band being seen as welfare activities for handicapped people.
“I think Mr. Kondo would be happy that the band is now being reevaluated," he said, quoting Kondo’s own words: “We are victims, but we were not the losers."
Reviving the band's music
Decades after the band was dissolved, 45-year-old Tokyo-based composer Umitaro Abe is now tracing its activities. Abe has obtained the scores of about 80 original tunes as well as sound recordings of some of them.
"They made me think about what music was," he said, adding that he plans to revive the recordings on CDs in the fall.
Abe first learned about the band in 2017 when he was asked by an acquaintance to give a concert at Aisei-en. Asked to play a tune by the band, he heard an old recording for the first time.
“It was stunning,” he said. “Even though the music was mostly played with harmonicas, the passion of the performance was close to that of rock or punk, and you could tell they had practiced a lot," Abe said. The high quality of the band’s performance made him delve into finding out more about Kondo.
Although Abe had studied music history at university, he had never even heard of the Bluebird Band and wondered why it had not received social recognition. Since then, Abe has been studying the scores among Kondo's belongings and talking to people who had known him. In the course of his research, Abe has learned that some of Kondo's compositions included hymns.
Abe said he could also feel the energy of the audience from the recordings. Between performances, the audience would call out each member's name and give a grand applause. “It’s proof that the band had enthusiastic fans," he said. “The quality of the performance is a mirror image of the audience. The audience's expectations must have elevated the quality of the band."
Abe said the music is about reproducing sounds that are invisible but are in one’s head. “For Mr. Kondo, the music may have been the only thing in which everyone could stand on an equal footing,” Abe said. “It seems to me that he was proving himself through the band.”
In turning the band’s music into CDs, Abe plans to use not only the sound recordings but also play the piano himself for tunes that only had score sheets. “I feel like I am having a conversation with Mr. Kondo through the scores,” Abe said. “I want to deliver this sound to as many people as possible.”
This section features topics and issues covered by the Chugoku Shimbun, the largest newspaper in the Chugoku region. The original articles were published Jan. 5.
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Exclusive Travel & Lifestyle Mangement. Tracing its routes back to 1970, Bluebird Travel was founded to provide exceptional experiences for the world's most affluent and influential families. We are the curators and creators, committed to finding bespoke solutions for a variety travel and lifestyle requests. Learn More.
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Founded in 1970, our parent company Bluebird Travel is a longstanding provider of luxury travel and VIP concierge services. Reconnecting to yourself, others and the natural world has never been more important, so Health Travel was established as a specialist provider of transformative getaways. With our leading connections in travel, Health ...
Our decades of experience in C-suite and high-end executive travel tells us that not all business are the same. And so we don't approach business travel with a 'one size fits all approach'. Our corporate customers receive a highly personalised service, more akin to concierge than traditional corporate travel management
Bluebird Travel | 1,040 followers on LinkedIn. We offer a worldwide travel concierge service, with special attention and additional lifestyle management services focused on London. Our worldwide ...
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Bluebird Travel Limited is an active company incorporated on 31 March 1970 with the registered office located in London, Greater London. Bluebird Travel Limited has been running for 52 years. There are currently 2 active directors and 1 active secretary according to the latest confirmation statement submitted on 24th May 2022.
Bluebird Travel, London, United Kingdom. 847 likes · 2 talking about this · 17 were here. We offer a worldwide travel concierge service, with special attention and additional lifestyle manage
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Bluebird Travel's approach is personal and tailored, making it simple with the ability to book via WhatsApp. Meetings, Events & Incentives. Our team have years of experience in arranging some of the finest events and meetings. Perhaps an invigorating corporate retreat is in order? Our sister brand Health Travel are at your service.
"Travel is the main thing you purchase that makes you more extravagant". We, at Bluebird Travel and Tours Ltd, swear by this and put stock in satisfying travel dreams that make you perpetually rich constantly. Having been incorporated in 2023, the company handles all aspect of travels and tours related business such as booking for flight ...
Our founder, Joseph Watfa, started Bluebird in1970 after working as the office manager for a Royal Family. From this experience, he understood the principles of service that must be provided time and time again to such an individual; Prompt, Punctual, Pro-active and Personal. This is the service that Bluebird aims to deliver 24 hours a day and ...
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The Food Tour by Visit Moscow Tours is a perfect chance to sample all the variety of cuisines of the former Soviet Republics and to understand the Russian customs, traditions and ways of life. You will taste Russian, Ukrainian and Georgian food. Meeting time: from 9 a.m. to 4 p.m. Meeting point:
Check out Moscow if you haven't. Huge buildings, huge spaces, best looking girls and a lot of stuff to see, places to go.
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The Bluebird Band started out with 13 members, including players of the harmonica, the drums, the guitar and the triangle. In a time of both misinformation and too much information, quality ...
Hair Artist. He/Him. My name is Christopher and I'm a cosmetologist with 3 years of experience behind the chair. My specialties include lived in blondes, balayages, textured hair styles including braids, and beaded/tape in hair extension installations.
At Bluebird we have a group of talented extension artists that can customize extensions that work with your hair and lifestyle. We offer I-Tip, Tape-in, Hand-tied Weft, and Keratin options. *We require a consultation for new clients looking to book an hair extension service. This consultation is complementary and can be done in person or virtually.