Secret Earth (www.secretearth.com), a new trip planning website which launches today, simplifies the process of researching, planning and booking worldwide, independent holidays, be it a weekend break or that trip of a lifetime.

The site, which launches initially with ‘invitation-only*’ access, is thought to be the first website, certainly in the UK, to combine quality content with easy-to-use trip planning and price comparison tools, all in one place.

There are already over 100 destination guides, 1,300 activities & attractions, 550 hotels, and 650 restaurants and bars, with more being added each week, covering destinations from Cape Town to Cappadocia; Alesund (Northern Norway) to Athens.

Secret Earth is the brainchild of two friends, Matthew Roach and John Kat. Both are from corporate backgrounds, where they worked long hours and were frustrated at how long it was taking to plan trips. They identified that to plan an independent holiday travellers needed three things: good recommendations, a way to plan them together, and an easy means to book them. At the time, there were hundreds of sites for booking travel, only a few provided original, high quality recommendations, and even fewer, if any, offering trip planning.

Matthew Roach, Secret Earth’s CEO and Co-Founder said

“We found there was no middle ground for independent travellers like us between going to a specialist tour operator, or going it alone and sifting through literally hundreds of websites giving tips and advice and other sites specialising in booking elements of the trip. Our three-stage ‘Discover, Plan and Book’ process brings this all together with quality and intelligently presented content, insider tips and clever planning and booking tools.”

Secret Earth’s team also includes James Alexander as Editorial Director, formerly Time Out’s Editorial Director and Katherine Gershon as a Non-Executive Director, previously with Abercrombie & Kent, Silverjet and Thomas Cook.