Our story · About Alaya Tours: Every language agrees: it is a beginning.

Alaya is founded by two best friends who have spent more of their adult lives boarding planes than staying home.

The name

aláya

/ ah · LAH · yah /

Every language that touches the word agrees on one thing: it is a beginning.

Kapampangan

Dawn

And east, the direction the sun chooses first. The hour before a place has decided what it wants to be.

Something in you wakes up.

Sanskrit

Dwelling

An abode, a place of rest, the root behind “Himalaya.” In Buddhist thought, the quiet keeper of every experience you’ve ever had.

Something in you settles in and is changed.

Arabic

Noble

Words built on this sound speak of what is high, noble, and sublime, worth the reaching.

Something in you comes back a little more.

Why we built it

The trips that changed us were never the fast ones.

Merald spends his weekdays as an operations head and industrial engineer in tech, the version of himself that plans and systemises and makes sure things run on schedule. Mirjan spends hers in the aisle of an aeroplane, having seen more airports and more time zones than almost anyone we know. We’ve been best friends for years, and travellers for longer.

Somewhere along the way, we both noticed the same thing: the trips that actually changed us were the ones where we stayed a little longer than the itinerary called for. Where we ate the meal that wasn’t on any list because someone’s cousin insisted. Where a place stopped being a photo and started being somewhere we, briefly, belonged.

That’s what we wanted to build. Not another tour company racing to add more countries to a brochure, but one built around arrival: the dawn kind, and the dwelling kind, and, if we do this right, the noble kind too.

We’re starting here, in the Philippines, with people like us. But this was never meant to stay small in spirit, only in group size. Wherever you’re reading this from: come dwell with us for a while.Merald & Mirjan

Mission

Travel should mean something by the time you land back home.

We don’t believe in visiting thirty landmarks in one day just so you can post it and forget the experience two years later. We want to make sure you’re never the same person who walked in. Learn a little, live a little.

Vision

Southeast Asia’s most trusted name in curated, transformative travel.

Known not for how many places we go, but for how deeply we go there.

Our standard

What we hold to

Six things we hold to on every departure, every line. The difference between a tour and a trip that stays with you.

01
Small by design
Capped group sizes, always. Intimacy isn’t a marketing word here. It’s a headcount limit.
02
Considered, not rushed
Fewer stops, longer stays. The itinerary has room to breathe, and so do you.
03
Curated, not catalogued
Every trip is hand-built by people who’ve actually been there, not assembled from a supplier catalogue.
04
Local and real
Real guides, real hosts, real relationships, not a scripted “cultural experience.”
05
A line for every appetite
Rugged or restful, group or private. Alaya meets you where you are, not the other way around.
06
Founder-led, traveller-tested
Built and run by two people who travel this way themselves, not a booking platform with a nice logo.

The founders

One part discipline, one part restlessness.

Merald Ayson

Managing Director

Chief Route Architect

An industrial engineer and operations head in tech, the one who plans, systemises, and makes sure things run on schedule. Writes Wandering Emerald on the side.

merald@alayatours.com

Mirjan Hipolito

Head of Brand

Chief Charm Officer

A flight attendant, beauty queen, and creator who has seen more airports and time zones than almost anyone in the room, and still plans her own trips while boarding.

mirjan@alayatours.com

In our own words