What’s your why for travel?

On a pepper plantation in Kampot, Cambodia. A wonderful place which has provided work, healthcare and education for the local community and home to delicious pepper!

Before reading this, close your eyes and think about why you go on holidays or why you travel. What are you seeking? And what was the basis for any trips you decided to go on recently? Did you enjoy them? If so, why? And if not, why not?  

My own why for travel began with my love of reading. I was at the top of the Magic Faraway Tree, dreaming of the Land of Goodies, sliding down Moon-Face’s slippery slip. I was investigating the backs of the wardrobe looking for Narnia; well, my name is Lucy after all….

My sisters and I with our cousin Simon, also roped into the dressing up!

I spent my childhood not just reading, but lost in my imagination in general, creating adventures and stories with my sisters. Our fancy dress box was used daily as we became the protagonists in our stories and went on adventures around the house and garden.

Flower Girls in Dorset where we were living at the time and the perfect place to re-enact our many of our adventures

 I was therefore delighted to discover, as a child via trips with my parents, that I could go on actual adventures. That by simply driving our car onto a ferry and crossing a small body of water, we would end up in a land so changed from my own. Where the language, food, countryside and cities were entirely different. It was like discovering that the lands at the tops of trees did in fact exist. And I was even more excited to learn that there was a world full of more of these lands for me to explore.

My sisters and I eating foccaccia whilst sitting on a wall in Portofino. We moved to Milan, Italy when I was 8 years old and as a family we spent weekends exploring Italy!

 And not only this, much as my fancy dress days allowed me to become someone else, so too when we go on trips. When we travel, we become new people. We step out of what is our daily routine. We become exotic as we are not local. We may not look the same. We may not speak the same language. The habits and customs of that country may differ from our own. And we are charmed and interested by it all. Like children, we are absorbed and fascinated once more by the world around us, even though all we have done is changed country. When travelling we are once again the child who was curious about everything.

With the wonderful Hung, my lovely local guide, in Northern Vietnam

As I have grown older travel has also become much more about personal connection. When I was recently in South East Asia, visiting Vietnam, Laos and Cambodia for work, the thing I found most compelling was the connection with the people. The stories they had to tell. I found myself very emotional at various points of the trip and it brought home to me just how vital that is to me and how travel reminds us of our connection with the wider world and our humanity.

In a lovely tea shop in Hanoi, Vietnam. We enjoyed delicious Lotus tea, all presented in a lovely traditional style. This man produces all the tea and spends most of his life on his plantation way up in the North of Vietnam.

In fact, it’s an interesting juxtaposition, that we seek out that which is so very different from us, whilst simultaneously bonding over what joins us; the shared human experience.

This Buddhist monk approached me to practise his English, but was very shy hence him covering his mouth! In Phnom Penh, Cambodia.

What was my Why for setting up Diamond Skies Travel? To make travel better. There’s a reason that’s our slogan. I want to make travel better for both the people going on the trips and for the people whose countries they visit. I had seen tourism destroy the experience for both and wanted to do it better, to be better as a travel company, to give back and to give the clients a better experience.

Vespa riding in Rome recently with some lovely clients. A lot of fun and the best way to see the city!

So, before planning your next trip, close your eyes and think about your why. You never know, it may change the way you travel for the better.

 Bon voyage!

Sunrise over Europe. No filter needed. Just Mother Nature doing her thing