“Brendan Tours” was incorporated in California in 1969 by Michael Keady, Jim Murphy and Bill Lawless which launched our first tours to Europe and to the South Pacific. Throughout much of the 1970’s and 1980’s, we continually added new continents to our offering starting with our first African tours in 1974, our South and Central American tours in 1984, our Eastern European, US and Canada tours in the late 80’s. In the early to mid 1990’s, the company launched a number of related vertical in the air consolidation and cruising markets. The first decade of the new millennium presented numerous opportunities which allowed the company to invest in a company called “Newman’s South Pacific Vacations”, in Airtickets.com and in the addition of offering escorted tours to Asia. In January 2002, we changed our name from “Brendan Tours” to “Brendan Worldwide Vacations” to better reflect the touring services we offer. This name was selected by the staff of Brendan. In 2006, The Travel Corporation purchased Brendan and renamed it Brendan Vacations which is now known to the trade as “Brendan”.

St. Brendan Our company is named after Saint Brendan of Clonfert who is Patron Saint of Travelers. He is well known for his legendary journeys. Brendan's reputation as a traveller rests, however, on the Navigatio Sancti Brendani, an account written by an Irish monk in the ninth or tenth century. More than 100 medieval Latin manuscripts of this Voyage of Saint Brendan still exist, and there are versions in Middle English, French, German, Italian, Flemish and other languages. The story has been much embroidered from its original factual basis and it is impossible to separate fact and fancy. However, an epic modern voyage led by Tim Severin in the 1970s showed that it was possible to sail a coracle of wood and leather to America, and consequently that Irish monks might indeed have preceded Christopher Columbus by several centuries.