Your travel experts

I fell in love with travel accidentally. Growing up in the Peak District I was obsessed with hill climbing and dreamt that one day I would climb Everest. So I went to teach in Nepal, where the Himalayas would be within reach.

Amazingly, I’m one of Real Holidays longest serving members of staff, having started in 1998. My love of travel began from birth; I can credit my parents for nurturing an appreciation of the world.

I’ve worked for Real Holidays for almost 20 years, and what I’ve loved most about my job is the huge variation in my work.

Since my teens, a love of travel has influenced many of my choices from my GAP year, university and now at Real Holidays. I feel lucky to be able to incorporate a passion for travel into my job.

I think I must have been born with a love of travel embedded within me. As a little girl, I longed to travel to far-off lands. I finally got my chance on my gap year, when I worked in Zimbabwe for 6 months.

Travel has been interwoven into every important part of my life. For me, life is a journey, and I can’t imagine a time when I’m not exploring a new part of the world.

I come from a long line of family that work in aviation and at a young age I was exposed to travel – I was just six weeks old when I first boarded a plane for far-off lands.

Twenty years and counting for me at Real Holidays! I’ve been here a long time, and I’ve seen many changes in travel destinations, hotels and how we book holidays but what has always stayed consistent is the foundation of Real Holidays.

My most formative years were spent living in Africa, where I was the ultimate bush child having adventures that I can only dream of giving my children. We also called India & Pakistan home which gave me a deep respect for diverse cultures.

My first taste of the freedom of travel came when I was separated from a hostess as an unaccompanied minor aged 11. Being lost in the airport didn’t faze me and I was transfixed with the planes landing and departing to far-off lands.