Coming out of the pandemic, there are plenty of people with healthy bank accounts looking for something memorable. Travel agents are reporting a much bigger rise in luxury tourism than other sectors, although anecdotally, it's more about special experiences than bling.

One Australian company known for its unique tours is Crooked Compass. When I speak to its founder, Lisa Pagotto, she's in the middle of writing the itinerary for a new trip that will go into South Bougainville in Papua New Guinea. It will be the first time foreigners will be able to see the new Siwai Cultural Show, and also includes a visit to the decommissioned Panguna Mine and a hike to Yamamoto's plane wreck.

"The type of travellers who come to us, they're people who are very well travelled and they have this incredible sense of curiosity," Lisa explains.

The trips run by Crooked Compass are good examples of an increasing post-pandemic trend, where there seems to be some hesitancy about a standard crowded bus tour through Italy, for example. These small-group tours instead visit destinations far from the usual hordes, where the focus is on cultural immersion and uncommon experiences in countries like Yemen, Ethiopia, or Afghanistan.

"A lot of these places are not places that people regularly go to because they have been in some sort of modern conflict or some sort of modern turmoil or tribal clash. And now that it's settled, our type of travellers want to be the first to go there because that's when it's going to be in its most true form," Lisa says.

Each traveller has their own idea of what an "epic" tour means - and there are some incredible options out there at the moment.

Captain's Choice has a 13-day tour through the South Pacific, flying in a private jet and staying at resorts in countries like Tonga, Samoa, and Vanuatu for $32,000 per person. Join TCS World Travel for a 10-day tour of Iceland by private jet, exploring some of the country's most dramatic landscapes (and most luxurious hotels) for $80,000 per person. Or there's the incredible 23-day Cultural Treasures journey from Abercrombie & Kent that includes Bhutan's Tiger's Nest monastery, Petra in Jordan, a polo match in Dubai, and a mini road trip in Sicily, all by private jet, for $200,000 per person.

Australian travellers know Abercrombie & Kent's luxury tours well, but what's less known about the company is that it also offers private tailor-made tours. There was a time when tourism was like fashion - only the wealthy could buy bespoke and the rest of us got ours off the rack. But an increasing trend even before the coronavirus is affordable personalised private tours - with nine days in India's Rajasthan starting at about $6000 per person with Abercrombie & Kent, for example.

Even tour company G Adventures, which began with backpackers as its main customer base, now offers customised private tours at very reasonable rates. If you can get a group of eight people together, then you can have the whole tour to yourself, which means you'll have the ability to make changes to the itinerary. Some examples of per-person prices are eight days in Egypt from $1300, 15 days in Morocco from $1100, or nine days in Costa Rica from $1200.

But you don't need to travel to the other side of the world to have these epic holidays. After all, they're supposed to be about the experiences, not just the destinations. When we were all locked down in Australia, for example, Lisa Pagotto worked with some of her clients to create tailored domestic experiences that felt as sensational as any overseas vacation - the sort of thing that would be impossible to arrange by yourself.

"One time we choppered people into a remote beach on the Eyre Peninsula and gave them GPS coordinates and they had to go and just start digging in the beach and they dug up these eskies that were full of champagne and oysters that come straight from Coffin Bay," Lisa tells me.

And ultimately that's where I think the best value and opportunities are with any of these companies. Using a travel agent or a tour company to do the logistics you can't be bothered to arrange is fine. But using them for experiences and journeys that you couldn't practically organise without local knowledge and contacts - that's something special.

Whether it's into remote destinations, to luxurious seclusion, around the world to the most iconic landmarks, or just a unique experience here in Australia, expect to find more of these epic and custom tours from now on as we look to make the most of our time away.