Chartwell Vacations was formed through the integration of two travel agencies, Chartwell Travel & Tours, Inc. (founded in 1972) and Great Vacations, Inc. (founded in 1996).  The company was originally located in Union, New Jersey and moved to a state-of-the-art office center in Rutherford, New Jersey in April, 2006.

The original company, Chartwell Travel & Tours, was founded by the late Bernard "Bernie" Sorkin, an astute entrepreneur with interests in mutual funds, insurance and real estate.  Mr. Sorkin started the business as a way to offer high-value, low-cost incentives to the salesmen (and their families) who worked for his various companies.  The travelers were so impressed with the way he organized such great trips they encouraged him to offer the trips out to their friends and the social clubs to which they belonged.  Soon thereafter Chartwell Travel became one of the biggest producers of group trips in the New York metropolitan area.

Chartwell Travel trips were always known to be a great value.  Using friendly guides, convenient flight schedules, well-situated hotels and the like, Chartwell group trips became very popular with many well-traveled consumers who wanted great service.  Many large companies in the region offered Chartwell trips as part of their employee benefits program.  And many times Bernie, himself, would lead a trip of Chartwell travelers along with his wife, the late Bea Sorkin, to make sure everything was organized and taken care of well.

With the early 2001 integration of Great Vacations, Inc. into the Chartwell business, the company began to more expertly serve thousands of consumers with custom travel plans at value prices.  With access to thousands of vacation choices at discount prices, the vacation planners at Chartwell Vacations are able to expertly handle any kind of vacation need, big or small.

Today, the company continues to offer high-quality, low-cost trips to Europe, the Caribbean, Mexico, the Western parts of the United States, South America, China and Central America.  These Chartwell Exclusive trips use some of the best-value hotels, cruise ships, guides and escorted tour companies in the world - saving travelers hundreds, if not thousands, of dollars on their vacation.   And as a proud member-owner of the Ensemble Travel Group, a leading group of privately-owned travel agencies that specialize in leisure travel, Chartwell Vacations is well poised to offer tremendous value to its customers.