Once you’re bitten by the travel bug, there’s no antidote and I was bitten early in life. From my late teenage years I had a compulsion to travel. I was fascinated by geography, studying world maps and planning new adventures. There’s a big wide world out there and I wanted to see it. 30+ years later, I still do. Degrees of Latitude travel blog was born out of a desire to both document my adventures and hopefully guide an inspire others in their own travel aspirations.
I think the desire to travel was ignited by a childhood growing up in a small English town. Which, although pleasant enough, felt bland and uninspiring. Coupled with an innate belief that a 9-5 job was only ever going to be a treadmill for me, travel and adventure offered an alternative.
Casual jobs began funding extended solo backpacking trips. Summer jobs on the Greek islands paid for themselves (on a shoe string!). Until eventually inspiration struck in my mid-20s to actually work in the travel industry and get paid to travel. Student travel consultant work lead to the corporate airline industry with the likes of Swiss Air and Virgin Atlantic. International business travel trips became the norm. However the corporate world turned out to be as soul sapping as I’d imagined. So I listened to my heart instead of my head, jumped off the treadmill and founded a start-up business of my own.
I’ve been fortunate to travel to 40 countries during my time on this amazing planet.
Surfing and photography have always been passions of mine so I founded a surfing brand. I loved designing products, building a brand identity and learning everything else that running a business entails. The business further enabled my love of travel and creativity, and I knew I’d found my true calling in life. Growing the brand was an incredible experience and, as a consequence, I discovered I must have had an entrepreneurial gene present somewhere. The business grew to a team of staff, a large warehouse and worldwide recognition. Eventually it resulted in a sale which allowed early retirement and you guessed it …. more travel and adventures.
The new phase of my journey has involved a long dreamt of bucket list of destinations and travel adventures to experience with my beautiful wife, documenting them in the Degrees of Latitude travel blog. And although I’ve already travelled to 40 countries, there are so many others we’d like to visit and those I’d like to revisit with her.
We’ve already had the privilege of travelling to a number of the destinations on our list which I’ve enjoyed writing about in the Degrees of Latitude travel blog, along with some previous trips, travel advice, reviews and more. I do hope you find something to inspire in these pages. Happy Travels!
As a footnote most of the images on this blog are mine. If you’d like to see more or give me a follow, I’m on Instagram @degrees.of.latitude