“Travel… it leaves you speechless and then turns you into a storyteller.” – Ibn Battuta
That quote is one of my absolute favourites as it is so true! Travel has become so much more than getting from a to b. Infact for many of us, escaping our little island home is something that we look forward to all year round!
I’m Nicki Harrison and for over ten years I’ve been lucky enough to work in the travel industry; first as a travel agent and now, running my own business as a Travel Counsellor. Through this column, Travel Eye CI have kindly invited me to share some of my adventures with you as well as offer a myriad of tasty tip-bits about some of the wonderful destinations and types of holiday you could choose. Welcome to the TCExperience!
When I start planning any of our travels, I always look back on my bucket list. As the years have gone on though, my list seems to keep on getting longer and longer… often leaving my husband in a state of flux wondering where we’ll end up next! Bucket lists are great and being lucky enough to arrange people’s holiday’s for a living, I get to speak to a wide variety of locals and have quickly come to learn that a ‘bucket list’ isn’t the same thing for everyone. For some of us, it’s a list of places like the Caribbean or Maldives, Italy or Dubai; whilst for others it’s not the where but the what, like swimming with dolphins in the wild, western ranching/horse riding (cowboy style) or visiting local families and having a true agritourism experience whilst away.
I use it as an example but swimming with dolphins in the wild is still to this day one of the best experiences of my life. My friend and I had taken a career gap and decided to travel to New Zealand for 5 weeks and spent most of our time exploring the North Island. It was in the stunning Bay of Islands where I had my first experience of swimming with wild dolphins. The guides on our tour were incredible and knew that the pod they’d found had no young and seemed rather playful. We got ‘wet-suited and booted’ and jumped in. I wasn’t even a particularly strong swimmer but I didn’t let that stop me. Once in the water, the dolphins were immediately curious and it didn’t take long before they were interacting with us. When one of them pushed me from my feet a short distance around the bay, I was as giddy as a school girl. Getting back onto the boat in flippers was… interesting (I’m far from graceful even on dry land) but the experience is something I will never forget.
I love hearing from my clients, family and friends to find out what and where is on their bucket lists too. They know, as a Travel Counsellor, it’s not just booking the travel that I enjoy, but making the whole trip truly memorable so that they can come back with stories of their own to share with me and now, through the column hopefully I’ll be able to share them with you too! If you want to share your stories, or plan some new ones, do get in touch!
Nicki Harrison is a Travel Counsellor based in Guernsey. She can be contacted at: 01481 240467 or visit https://www.thebestof.co.uk/local/guernsey/business-guide/feature/travel-counsellors-nicki-harrison/
