Why did I choose to become a travel agent?

In truth, it’s not entirely altruistic.
There is an endgame.

I wanted to do something that would enable me to travel more.

Before I had a family, I was lucky enough to see large parts of the world. Living in Africa for four years made that much easier — for three of those years I even had my own car. I hitch-hiked widely in Kenya in the 1980s, including a couple of memorable journeys on light aircraft.

In the 1990s, while working as a teacher in Botswana, long school holidays gave me the time and freedom to travel extensively across Southern Africa — Botswana, Namibia, South Africa, Zimbabwe, Swaziland and Lesotho — as well as flying to Zanzibar and Malawi.

I loved the adventure. The people. The vast landscapes. The safaris and the wilderness. That sense of curiosity carried me further afield too, to Indonesia, Borneo, Lombok, Bali and Java.

At that stage of my life, I assumed there would always be more time. I dreamed of Australia and New Zealand, of crossing North America by train, travelling the length of Chile, and one day taking the Trans-Siberian Railway. Travel felt open-ended and limitless.

I also imagined taking my family on adventures — the kind of one-off education that comes from seeing the world beyond the classroom.

What I didn’t plan for was my first child having additional needs.

As a baby, we did manage to travel with him back to Southern Africa, but part of that time was spent in hospital when he became ill. From that point on, travel changed. Not overnight, but quietly and decisively. It became more complex, more cautious, and sometimes simply not possible.

Now, a quarter of a century later, I find myself in a different place again — an empty-nester, feeling the freedom that brings, but no longer wanting to backpack or rough it.

What hasn’t changed is my curiosity. I still want to experience new places and cultures. What has changed is how overwhelming the travel landscape can feel. There are so many extraordinary destinations, holiday styles and companies offering wonderful trips that I find myself stuck in decision paralysis.

What I really want is quite simple.

I want someone to help me narrow the field.
Someone who asks what I want to get out of a holiday.
Someone who can present thoughtful, realistic options I can sensibly afford.
Someone who takes care of the booking and is genuinely interested in me having a good experience.

And that’s when it clicked.

If I’m feeling this way — with experience, curiosity and limited appetite for stress — there must be others who feel the same. So instead of pushing through the overwhelm, I decided to solve the problem properly.

That’s why I chose to become a travel agent.

Not to sell holidays for the sake of it, but to help people think differently about travel, to make sense of the options, and to plan trips that feel right for who they are now — not who they were twenty years ago.

If you’d like to have a chat about travel — with no obligation to book anything — I’d be very happy to talk.