Sarah Martin - Luxury and Adventure Travel Specialist

01/02/2025

Did you know...
🍃 Switching to rail helps slash your holiday's carbon footprint?

While the British rail network sometimes leaves a little to be desired, most of our European neighbours offer considerably more affordable and reliable transport options.

Rail can be perfect for multi-city itineraries, and it's a lovely way to watch the world go by.

Great for you; great for the planet!

Many of us are striving to be more eco-conscious travellers these days, including reducing our carbon emissions, and one of the ways of doing this is by using rail travel where possible.

30/01/2025

❄️ P A T A G O N I A ❄️

Snappy snaps from my clients' holiday this time last year! Let's call it Throwback Thursday. Time got the better of me last year, but here are some very lovely piccies from Lucy and Jan's holiday in Chile and Argentina last February.

I've sent a fair few clients to this part of the world over the past years, and it's high up the list of places I would liek to visit soon. Perito Moreno Glacier looks particularly stunning, doesn't it?

23/01/2025

Did you know...
🍃 Your next wildlife spotting trip could support local conservation efforts

Wildlife spotting is best done wild. Whether its the majestic elephant or the elusive leopard, I can recommend the best places to spot them and how to support conservation efforts in some of earth's most precious natural environments.

Our local partners help us to arrange locally owned accommodation and the services of local guides - enjoy the best of a destination with someone who knows the area like the back of their hand.

The opportunity to spot new and exciting wildlife plays a big part in people’s decision-making when it comes to choosing their next adventure. With these tips, you can ensure it doesn’t come at the detriment of the animals you’ve come to visit.

22/01/2025

Did you know...
🍃 I can help you get closer to local culture on your next trip

Experiencing the local culture is one of the main reason we love to explore the world. Tasting the food, listening to the music and throwing ourselves into curious customs brings us closer to the heart of a destination. Keeping it local also helps to support local people and ensure the benefits of tourism stay with them.

More and more of us are seeking holidays that give us a truly authentic experience of our destination, in doing so directly benefitting local communities

19/01/2025

Did you know...
🍃 that Travel Counsellors has been supporting The Travel Foundation for a number of years?

The Travel Foundation is an international sustainable tourism NGO dedicated to ensuring tourism has a positive impact on destinations.

Click through to hear more about our plans for "Enriching Escapes" in 2025 (and beyond)

Good travel should be enriching for all. It should bring you deeper into local cultures and give you an authentic taste of a destination; savouring the dishes, the landscapes, and the people that make the special moments along the way, as well as having a positive impact on the communities and envir...

18/01/2025

Bruce P**n Tip - the man behind G Adventures - was one of the excellent speakers we enjoyed listening to at our 2024 conference. Talking about the tourist industry, for better and for worse.

He shared a short snippet of this video with us: The Last Tourist.

If you don't have the time to watch it all, please try to watch the first 5 minutes - you'll quickly get the picture.

Travelling may be more affordable these days, but it should still be treated as a privilege. Let's try to stop messing it up.

THE LAST TOURIST explores how we, as travelers, have the opportunity to be the driving force that paves a new way to travel in a more thoughtful way that pro...

14/01/2025

Did you know...
🍃 I can help you choose hotels that have recognised sustainability accreditations

Green Leaf label hotels have been recognised as having sustainability standards aligned with those created by the Global Sustainable Tourism Council (GSTC).

That could mean they are:
- working to maximise social and economic benefits in their local community
- enhancing cultural heritage
- reducing negative impacts on the environment
- planning for the future with sustainability in mind

Ask me for more details next time we're planning your trip.

Our Green Leaf label is applied to hotels that have been recognised as having sustainability standards that are aligned with those created by the Global Sustainable Tourism Council (GSTC). As such, each have been proven to maximise social and economic benefits for the local community, enhance cultur...

11/01/2025

Speaks many a wise word, does our Kermit.

Being ‘green’ or ‘sustainable’ in the travel industry is one of the biggest challenges or conundrums we face.

The travel industry is responsible for 8-11% of global GHG emissions. Air travel is responsible for 3% of global emissions and flying is the fastest growing source of greenhouse gases.

There's no denying it, and I regularly feel conflicted about the positive versus negative impact of travel.

Meeting people from different cultures, experiencing beautiful places and different lifestyles, enjoying nature and seeing animals and wildlife in their natural habitat... all of these things help us appreciate the world we live in and inevitably help to encourage us to look after it more.

So if we don't want to stop travelling altogether, how can we travel more sustainably and more responsibly?

I will be sharing some articles over the coming weeks to give you insights on what we at Travel Counsellors are doing, what our partners are doing, and what small changes you can consider when travel planning to help reduce your carbon emmissions while away.

In the meantime, did you know...
🍃 I can help you measure the carbon emissions of your trips?
🍃 I can help you choose hotels that have recognised sustainability accreditations
🍃 I can help you plan a wildlife spotting trip that will actively support conservation efforts
🍃 I can help you get closer to local culture on your next trip
🍃 I can help you plant trees to offset your trip's carbon emissions

Each choice may not seem big on its own, but together they can make a positive difference.

08/01/2025

🌴 CLIENT SNAPS - CARIBBEAN CRUISING 🌴

Starting January with a load of smiley pictures and a glowing review 🥰

A big thank you to my clients for sharing these gorgeous snaps from their Dad and Daughter Christmas cruise aboard Virgin Voyages' Resilient Lady.

With stops in St. Maarten, Barbados, St. Lucia, Martinique, and St. Kitts and Nevis, this was a lovely itinerary, and we tagged on a couple of nights in New York for a hit of winter wonderland before returning home (that's one way to adjust to the UK temperatures!).

"I just wanted to say the biggest thank you for all the hard work you put into our holiday, it’s was absolutely brilliant!!! Everything went like clockwork and we had the best time. Thank you again."

I can confirm Harri was beaten by the HUGE seafood meal! 😆

06/01/2025

Happy New Year!

I hope you had a lovely festive break. I've been back in business for a few days already and it's looking like 2025 is going to be a busy one!

What type of holiday do you fancy this year?

05/01/2025

Sustainable Travel has always been important to me and I made a decision last year to try to do more to promote carbon compensation to my clients.

For each £1000 spent with me, I gifted a planted tree back to the customer. It's a small thing, but I hope it helps to increase awareness as well as increasing carbon!

Trees4Travel are an award winning environmental ‘Tech For Good’ company who are helping the Travel Industry work towards 13 of the 17 Sustainable Development Goals set up by the UN General Assembly in 2015.

They provide me and my customers with the tools needed to measure the CO2 production of each trip booked, and the opportunity to compensate these emissions by purchasing trees.

As well as absorbing carbon, by growing trees in developing countries, we can help support local communities through employment and by helping to restore ecosystems. It's a win:win.

And that's not all... alongside tree planting, Trees4Travel invest in renewable energy projects, effectively doubling the compensation of emissions.

I'm proud to let you know I planted 460 trees for my customers throughout 2024, and I plan to plant many more in the year to come. 💚

12/12/2024

Happy Anniversary to me!

I've been a bit quiet on the socials this past year, sorry. Life gets busy, work gets busy. I'm fortunate that my business continues to tick along happily whether I post things on here or not - you lovely lot keep coming back to me for your adventures, and you keep spreading the word. Thank you! I'm really VERY grateful for all of your trust and support. 🥰

I've just returned from a fabulous trip to Cambodia, hosted by one of our local offices (the jetlag is real this time!). In the next few days, once I've caught up on the inevitable backlog after three weeks out of office, I'll share with you some of the many lovely pictures along with my thoughts on the trip. I also had a couple of lovely holidays in the Cyclades islands of Greece earlier in the year, so I'll tell you all about that at some point too. Honest guv, I'll get to it one of these days!

In the meantime, please continue to keep me too busy for socials! It's much more fun planning holidays than framing pictures and attempting to work out how to build a reel...

Thanks again, and hopefully we will continue to explore this wonderful planet together over the next 13 years! 💚

11/07/2024

I'm reading this book atm. It's v good and I'd happily recommend.

I've always enjoyed watching Simon Reeve's travel shows on the tele box, offering a fresh "travel" perspective, highlighting the hardship as well as the beauty. He's also a charming bu**er.

Anyway, as someone who's a big fan of learning from the locals when I'm away from home, the following struck a chord:

"... what had really stood out were the people. For me the strongest memories from that first trip, and from every trip since, are from my encounters with us, with our inspiring, intriguing, long-suffering, comic, clever and caring fellow humans. When we are planning a journey I am always asking and thinking, who are we going to meet? Meaningful encounters with other people in strange parts of the world are the real experience to treasure. If I'm not meeting people then I'm not on a proper journey."

What do you think? Is this your kind of travel?

07/07/2024

🇹🇷 🇫🇷 T U R K E Y (with a dash of french) 🇫🇷 🇹🇷

A few happy snaps from a much needed holiday with my sister in May. Gizmo wasn't happy, but he eventually let me go.

This wasn't the type of holiday I usually opt for - an all-inclusive in Turkey with french-owned Club Med - but it was easy, in a beautiful setting, a great standard of accommodation, delicious food, and we were well looked after.

Linda enjoyed the aquarobics and evening dancing, I had a few hits of tennis and turned out to quite enjoy shooting arrows on an overcast afternoon. We hopped in a cab to visit the nearest town and sampled far too many sweet treat samples (they defo saw us coming 😆), and we hopped on a boat along the pretty coastline to snorkel at a nearby cove. But the main objective was to find some sunshine and relax, and we did just that.

From a professional perspective, I was interested to see how Club Med compared to Neilson and Mark Warner, who offer similar activity filled beach breaks. In my opinion, they all have pros and cons. If this kind of holiday interests you, get in touch and I'll happily talk you through the differences.

05/07/2024

It's been a wee while - sorry!

I've still been looking after lots of smashing trips for my (ever-patient and very lovely) customers, but social media has had to take a back seat to allow me to keep the balance between work, life and sanity.

But now I'm back! At least, that's my intention...😄 Let's be honest, it's much more important for me to make sure my clients holidays are well looked after, but I will try to make time to pop some inspiration on here, share a few of my clients' very special holiday pics (they've been building up!) and tell you about some of the holidays I've been working on. There have been some corkers already this year, so watch this space.

Who knows if the algorithms will show you my posts, but at least if you look me up, you'll know I'm still in business - right?

Have a good weekend, folks. See you next week xx

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