My name is Mark, I’m a 41 year old travel agent from Manchester, England. In this blog you’ll hear all about my travel tales, the good the bad and the occasionally ugly. You’ll get tips, ideas, inspirational photos, insider knowledge from the travel industry and much more! I like to give very honest opinions about places I have been and the experiences I have had, so it will not always be positive, if I think something is decidedly average or worse I will say so!

So I will start this blog by recounting my travel history. Many of the places I mention will be covered more in depth in forthcoming blogs. This is a simple overview.

My earliest travel experiences were 4-5 week summer family holidays camping in France. Memories abound of visiting the Lascaux Caves, the rugged Cote D’Azur, canoeing on the Dordogne, high plateau chateaus and eating Le Vache Qu’Rit baguettes on the beach!

Once I was old enough it was 3 consecutive lads’ holidays to European party destinations, Tenerife, Kos and Benidorm. There were good travel intentions to get away from the clubs and see a bit more of the the place however late finishes and hangovers meant we mainly only saw the beach and hotel pool until we did it all again the next night.

My first real adventure was a 10 month trip to New Zealand, Australia and South East Asia with a good friend of mine. We did the backpacker circuit and saw most of both Antipodean countries, before moving on to the more adventurous countries of Thailand, Malaysia and Laos. Experiences like being crammed into a shared minibus made for 12 people but holding closer to 20  and staying in some $1 per night hotels where the walls didn’t meet be ceilings did nothing to abate my desire to travel.

From here a more full time job beckoned in a dull public sector role until I could stand it not longer and quit for a 3 month solo trip around Central and South America. This was a proper adventure now and after 5 weeks overlanding from Mexico to Costa Rica I flew to Peru and travelled the gringo trail to Brazil, taking in Bolivia, Chile, Argentina and Uruguay in-between.

From here I landed a job at a well known Travel Agents which satisfied my travel bug and meant I kept gainful employment. The generous 30 days leave, sabbaticals and educational trips were good perks of the job. Within this role I have travelled to 20 more countries and it is where I am still based today.

Nowadays I mainly travel with my girlfriend Vanessa. She is a massive ‘FOMOist’ so even holidays where we intend to relax often turn into explorations the likes of Shackleton and Magellan might not have challenged. 

I travel in what I would desribe as a ‘flashpacking’ style. Using staff deals and discounts I get through my travel agent job I occasionally get to stay in some 5 star luxury hotels whilst sourcing my own transport and local tours for a bespoke package of travel.

Welcome To The Blog!