I came to this business from social work and for the first ten years or so, kept thinking I’d have to get back to a “real job” eventually.  I figured, until I got there, why not have a little fun?  Since then, I’ve been to Bhutan, Tibet, Ethiopia, Vietnam, the Arctic Circle and on and on. I’ve hiked the Andes, the Himalayas, the Simien Mountains, and the Tonkinese Alps. There’s a set of “Most Famous Travel Hikes” on Trekkers’ “to-do list” that include Mt. Kilimanjaro in Tanzania, the Inca Trail in Peru, and the Milford Track in New Zealand... by now, I’ve done and loved them all.  
 
And though I prefer trekking to fine dining, I still like to hit the spa to get in shape for my once-yearly, “challenging” adventure trip. I know a lot about Spas. In recent years, I’ve added bicycle tours and walking holidays in Europe to my list.  In 1999 I realized I’d been to La Paz Bolivia three times and Paris only twice, so tamer places are now in the mix.  After all, it’s more useful for me to know all the great little hotels in Paris than what it’s like to visit the orangutans in Kalimantan!

I love my traveling lifestyle but it’s also about getting my clients on flights during a snowstorm or getting them home from across the globe when there’s a medical emergency.  For me, it’s more of addiction than a vocation.  It’s not easy getting the only seats left in the sky, but I always do.   

It’s an adrenalin rush and I’m not the only one here who secretly likes going into weather/strike/emergency over-drive.   There’s nothing I love more than a report from a happy client describing how they walked past the long re-booking queues en-route to boarding their protection flight.  Hearing, “it was such a great vacation, exactly what we had in mind” is pretty great, too.