I Have Loved It All

As is the case with many travel-nuts, my early days were peppered with jaunts around the country, and an immersive exchange experience to Tahiti. Learning to bargain was eye-opening, particularly in French, igniting in me an intense curiosity about our incredible world, its landscapes, cultures and languages.  After studying linguistics at university, I told my poor mother I would be travelling for 12 months… 12 years later…

Those 12 years of O.E. started in the UK and extended across most of Europe, the Middle East, Asia and North America. In the process I fell into some wonderful, character-building roles like sheep shearer, dog walker, housekeeper at the Savoy in London, nanny and stable hand. Not bad for a kid who thought she would grow up to be a vet!

But once you’ve caught the travel bug, it pulls you in like a magnet, so I leapt into my first proper job in the UK, as an airport representative for a very large package holiday company – so far in distance and style to what I do now! My days were mostly spent ensuring people got on planes to the right destination at the right time – more difficult than you might expect given most of them were drunk by 10am and several had to be uplifted from the luggage carousel. Happy days…

I consider myself, especially these days, as being extremely fortunate to have travelled extensively through Europe, North Africa and the Middle East, Africa, Central Asia, the Indian Subcontinent, South East Asia and China, Canada and South America.  Always keen to get to know the locals and get under the surface of a place, my linguistics background came in very handy, and I now speak French, Arabic and Sign Language.  Learning even a few words of any local language opens doors and hearts faster than you can imagine!

I am often asked about my favourite travel experience, in my mind akin to being asked which is my favourite child!  There have been so many (experiences, not children): getting lost in the back streets of Cairo with locals trying hard to be helpful and me just getting more lost, playing foosball with child monks in Bhutan and getting whumped in the process, curling in -20oC in Austria, buying handcrafts off the prisoners in Easter Island’s jail,  watching laying turtles on a beach in Oman, sipping cocktails as thunderstorms roll dramatically across Lake Como, wandering the souks in Tripoli as fascinated locals asked for selfies with the blond chick who spoke Arabic.

I specialise in creating wonderful travel experiences in Asia, the Indian Sub-Continent, The Middle East and North Africa, Europe and Scandinavia. So if you would like to come face to face with a Bengal tiger, dabble in a bit of barefoot luxury in the Maldives, try the national dish of chilli cheese in Thimphu, stay in a luxurious riad in Morocco, discover the delights of Mostar and Barcelona or learn where to bargain for carpets in the souks of Egypt or Turkey, give me a call.

I have loved it all.