A lifetime of adventure

I established Love to Explore for a couple of reasons. First and foremost, I want to share the people, places, and experiences that I’ve had with others. Second, it’s about as close to a proper job as I can manage.

I’ve been exploring for a long time. From childhood trips to the Caribbean and Indian Ocean, to adventures involving hippo charges in the Ugandan outback (formative, in more ways than one), my travels have become part of who I am. 

That's why, when I left school, I rather shied away from the traditional path. Instead, I bought a Peugeot 106 and drove it to Mongolia. Then I got my Ocean Yachtmaster certification and turned my attention offshore. My parents were thrilled when I told them that I’d be sailing a dinghy around the UK – all of it. But I did. And, in doing so, I became just the third crew to accomplish it. They were even more thrilled when, having stepped ashore, I told them that I fancied a trip around the world. The inaugural Oyster World Rally, to be exact; a journey that took in 25 destinations, 27,000 nautical miles of sailing, and 17 months. 

After another couple of years at sea – literally, not figuratively – I decided it was proper job time. And 6 years at a prestigious luxury tour operator crafting itineraries, visiting destinations far and wide, and experiencing some of the world’s most magnificent properties have led me to Love to Explore. 

We can’t wait to help you plan your very own extraordinary journey; to provide you with a taste of the remarkable experiences we have to offer.

Ludo

Travel’s role in my life has always been a pretty big one. In fact, as I type these words, I’m looking out to the jagged cliffs that frame the harbour in Sydney – the city that I’m lucky enough to call home these days and from where I write about the wonderful places that Love to Explore can take you. In large part, my childhood revolved around the trips that I’d take with my family, crisscrossing the globe during school holidays to marvel at its wonders. I remember a ride over the Murchison Falls in Uganda in a plane so unairworthy that the spray generated a couple of hundred feet below us permeated the cabin, dripping from the fuselage at such an alarming rate that it was impossible not to wonder whether the crocodiles – the backs of which we could see lurking in the Nile – might be dining on something a little different that afternoon. I remember, too, trips to Europe to sample cultures that seemed at once so familiar and so alien; supermarkets that looked and felt like the local Sainsbury’s, only to contain entire aisles dedicated purely to goat’s cheese.

In so small part because of these happy holidays, I studied Modern Languages at the University of Bristol, spending a year in Paris and Lisbon as part of my degree, as well as endless summers on the hunt for more adventures. There were camper van voyages down through France and Italy, a couple of months on the road in Colombia, the odd reading week on a beach with my family in Mauritius. Since graduating, I’ve worked as a Creative for an agency in London before moving down under, during which time I’ve written about travel, where it can take you, and how it can make you feel.