The Big Travel Podcast

Picture the scene... Lisa and Simon Hunter (Madrid based journalist) are in the centre of Madrid at the fabulous Ocean Drive Hotel with a balcony over- looking over the Opera square having a chat about politics, celebs, nightclubs, tapas and more before heading up to the rooftop pool for a Vermouth...On this episode we talk..the short trip that turned into a lifetime love of Madrid, becoming the go-to person for British news on Spanish TV, big stories in the busy newsroom in El Pais, the surprise abdication of King Juan Carlos, Spain’s mad politics, the eerie quiet over the city at the time of the 2004 bombings, the violent ETA period, spending ‘several years’ in Spanish nightclubs, beautiful beaches in Cadiz, arguing over sun loungers in Benidorm, old sherry bars and ‘la hora del Vermouth’ Simon’s fantastic ‘Walk & Eat’ tapas tours, oh and Simon’s new abs! So much to unpack there. Join us in Madrid now! Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Ash Bhardwaj travel-writer, film-maker & author of the new book Why We Travel is today’s wonderful guest – discussing… the rugby trip to New Zealand that changed his life, walking the Nile with his friend Levison Wood, getting dangerously lost Walking the Himalayas, the magical Sufi festival in the Sudanese desert, the pilgrimage with his father’s ashes to the Ganges, an 8500km route through Russian borderlands, ayahuasca therapy in Geneva, the curiosity gene which makes people more likely to travel, the mindset of wonder and awe & much more. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

We’re back for our new season and starting with an extra special episode recorded in the beautiful Maldivian resort of Dhigali where our presenter Lisa recently spent an idyllic week. Who better to give us a real look at life in the Maldives than resort manager Hassan Saeed who, having dropped out of school age 14 and one of 11 siblings, very quickly had to start start work. We talk growing up in the islands, happy days working in his grandfather’s tin workshop, how the arrival of tourism changed the Maldives, entering ‘a completely different world’ in tourism, spending a year at sea, being on a ferry at the time of the 2004 tsunami, navigating Covid, ‘island culture’s’ happy laid-back attitude, feeling incredibly proud of the beautiful resort he has helped create and the power of loving the community you live in. Lisa travelled to Dhigali and Velassaru Universal Resorts with the wonderful Kuoni www.kuoni.co.uk. It was utter paradise! Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Hello and welcome to The Big Travel Podcast Christmas Special 2023 special…featuring the Casual Birder Podcast’s Suzy Buttress on celebrating the winter solstice in Antartica, Countdown’s Rachel Riley and her husband’s post-Strictly wind down in the blue lagoon in Iceland, musician and writer Nitin Sawhney having a Hallmark picture perfect Christmas in the US, actor Warwick Davies being towed on sledges behind huskies in Lapland, motoring journalist Ben Oliver on a Marrakesh rooftop accompanied by the atmospheric sound of the call to prayer, singer songwriter Freya Ridings’ memorable childhood Christmases round the piano at her Nana’s house in Coventry and Robert Munns from charity Oceans of Hope UK, spending every Christmas with his parents in the same house in Northamptonshire and this year watching the KING’S speech! Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Motoring journalist Ben Oliver was born amid the troubles in Belfast with the family moving to ‘slightly dull Reading’ when he was 6. On this episode we talk about his life-changing teen travels to Israel, Syria, Gaza & Kurdistan, the glory 90s and noughties days of magazine journalism, how LA porn sets are like a clinical operating room, driving an open-top Bentley up ‘the blood highway’ to the Arctic Circle in winter, the road sliding away in the Monsoon on an insane Himalayan trip in a Mini to the highest driving point in the world, North Korea being one of the most bizarre travel experiences, the joys of EVs and much more. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Rachel Riley, Maths expert, Gadget Show & Countdown host, MBE for services to Holocaust education grew up in Essex by way of Manchester. We talk about the astonishing story of her Jewish mother’s family escaping from what’s now Russia, the family member who was stabbed by a mounted Kossack and ended up a Gaucho in Argentina, taking in Ukrainian refuge, spontaneously marrying her Strictly co-star, Russian dancer Pasha Kovalev in Las Vegas, roping in Robbie Williams for the entertainment, wildlife watching in the Galapagos…using maths to get good travel deals and so much more. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Freya Ridings’ beautiful, heartfelt music, gives you a wonderful sense of her warm and open personality and you’re going to LOVE Freya’s stories here on the podcast; Learning to play on her Nana’s piano, growing up in a musical, talented family (her Dad is the voice of Daddy Pig!), Lost Without You being played on Love Island, getting engaged in Lake Como, battling back from Australia before lockdown, struggling to allow herself to travel for fun, but, how the beauty of travel allows for (and I quote) ‘time outside your environment to think new thoughts and have new ideas’. Full of wonderful thoughts, ideas and indeed music for the release of her new album Blood Orange, we are delighted to have Freya Ridings on the podcast. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

With… Franz Ferdinand’s Alex Kapranos in New Zealand, podcaster & author Iszi Lawrence in Australia, charity founder Kevin Chaplin in Cape Town, celebrity vet Marc Abraham building a sand Christmas tree in Thailand, author Hannah Bourne-Taylor rescuing a pangolin in the rainforest in Ghana, Hollywood actor Minnie Driver on beach Christmases in California, comedian & podcaster Cally Beaton ice skating in Central Park, singer-songwriter Nina Nesbitt’s winter wonderland in Iceland, contemporary artist Firouz Farman Farmaian in the family riad in Marrakech, campaigner Jamie Klingler remembering Philadelphia book stores with her mom, Ibizan DJs The Mambo Brothers drinking cold beer on the beach in Rio, Hotelier Marc Rahola on family Christmas in Ibiza, international travel nanny Nanny Sharz in Jamaica, singer-songwriter Foy Vance wishing he’d not gone to Lanzarote, abandoned places explorer ‘Greg Abandoned’ on a Christmas nightclub romance in London and Big Brother star Pete Bennett with a drunk Santa in the Caribbean. What’s not to love??? Happy Christmas from us here at The Big Travel Podcast xx Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Author, historian, comedian, podcaster and co-presenter of the travel that doesn’t actually go anywhere – ‘Your Place Or Mine’ with the wonderful Shaun Keavney – Izsi Lawrence is on the Big Travel Podcast. Iszi and Lisa talk… Britain’s most fixable landmarks, The British Museum, Ju Jitsu fighting suffragettes, de-colonising history, dinosaurs, earthworms, the slave trade, Charles Darwin, Bovril, flying solo to AUSTRALIA age 6, the Moroccan side of her family and so much more. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Instagram Expert, Creative Coach, Photographer and Author Sara Tasker spent lockdown obsessing about the perfect French house and if you follow her on @me_and_orla you know she’s an expert in making things look beautiful. We talk French bakeries, river beaches, Insta retreats, West Yorkshire, how she got into her work, the challenges she faces when travelling as a person with a disability, getting left on a plane due to her wheelchair in airports, growing up with parents that didn’t have passports, childhood holidays to Blackpool Pontins, our mutual embarrassment of ‘second home problems’ and so much more. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Singer-songwriter Nina Nesbitt grew up half Swedish and half Scottish in a little Scottish village, kicking off her career age 15 on YouTube before very quickly making a name for herself. Nina talks about touring with Ed Sheeran and Example, overcoming stage fright, fainting in Hong Kong, the confusing familiarity of Australia, a surreal radio tour of the US, deep dish pizzas in Chicago, Philly cheese steaks, having her ex Ed Sheeran write a song about her and going straight to LA after recording this podcast to go on James Corden’s Late Late Show. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Ibizan hotelier Marc Rahola went from hotel telephone exchange boy to founder of a chain of boutique hotels and properties by, in his own words, making a series of happy accidents and mistakes. Od Hotels now have many properties all over Europe including the beautiful Ocean Drive Talamanca where Lisa and Marc have coffee and explore… how a Paris Hotel CD inspired Marc’s boutique hotel concept, expanding to the Cote D’Azure, Madrid, Barcelona, Sevilla, London and more, feeling at home in London’s Notting Hill, gigging with his band, Freddie Mercury and George Michael’s Ibiza, ALL the DJs, recommendations for hidden Ibiza and how Darwinian adaption and remaining curious can be the making of a game-changing business. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Michael Palin describes Trevor Dolby’s book, One Place de L'Eglise, as "a timeless story of what it is that makes France irresistible”. Former publisher, Trevor, and his wife Kaz discovered a medieval house in virtual ruins in Languedoc, just off the local village square and the resulting book, widely known as the new ‘Year in Provence’, follows them as they navigate language difficulties floods and freezing winters, colourful characters in the local bar…all with the backdrop of the scent of thyme and lavender, the warmth of sun on stone walls, nights hung with stars…and how they came to create the perfectly imperfect dream French home. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices