About us
Neilson Holidays was born out of a passion for all things active, and that passion lives and thrives to this day thanks to our staff’s addiction to sports. It doesn’t matter if you want to windsurf in the Med, ski the powder of the Dolomites or cruise the Ionian on your very own 40ft yacht, we’re on hand to coach and encourage your move from a fly and flop to a truly memorable holiday.
We started out as two separate companies in 1978. Neilson Ski was founded by John Neilson and the company soon became a pioneer of modern ski holiday delivery. Following various ownership changes during the 1980’s, it was acquired by Thomas Cook in 1996.
At the same time, Jim Baerselman founded Dinghy Sailing in Greece and pioneered the overseas sailing market by teaching people to sail dinghies in, you guessed it, Greece. Then in 1985, Owners Abroad Group acquired the company and traded as Falcon & Sovereign Sailing, a specialist in yacht flotilla holidays. Sunworld Holidays then acquired Sovereign Sailing in 1994 and in 1996, Thomas Cook acquired Sunworld Holidays.
For those two decades, we became better and better at putting together activity-based holidays, one company doing fun things in the snow, the other having adventures in the Med. Then in 2001, Thomas Cook, decided that it would make perfect sense for us to join together. That was when the famous orange logo was created, and Neilson Active Holidays as we know it was born.
From our base here in Brighton Marina (yes, that's our office pictured), we create our award-winning beach, sailing and ski holidays and continue to perfect the art of making everyone feel welcome. No matter what your levels of experience or favourite activities are, Neilson Holidays really do let you relax as hard as you like.
In December 2013, Thomas Cook put us up for sale and we were snapped up by Risk Capital Partners, backed a management buyout. Neilson Active Holidays became a wholly independent holiday company making us masters of our own destiny once again.
We continue to develop holidays we love to share with our guests, and we look forward to welcoming you to the mountains, the water and the beach in the near future.
If you’d like to get in touch with us, please head to our our contact details page.
Neilson is a trading name of Neilson Active Holidays Ltd. Registered Office address: Locksview, Brighton Marina, Brighton, East Sussex, BN2 5HA. Registered in England No. 02987304. ABTA Y6127. ATOL 10794