ABOUT US
Travel Matters is a multi award winning independent luxury travel agency in South West London, established in 1999.
Our dedication as well as our strong sense of responsibility is what drives our passion to create exceptional tailor made family holidays, which ultimately helped us achieve our certified B Corp™ status.
We are utterly dedicated to crafting bespoke conscious travel experiences. We prefer engaging our clients through personal thorough discussions, practicing our unparalleled expertise in order to design journeys which ultimately turn into unforgettable lifelong memories. Our passion for excellence and rigorous attention to detail simply reinforce the fact that every journey will be harmonious and worry-free, empowering the traveler to explore, be inspired, and truly come to know, respect and fall in love with the culture of a destination.
OUR TEAM
Karen
FOUNDER
Travel Matters was Karen’s first baby twenty-five years ago. Since then, she has been juggling travel, work life and family life. Her experience is wide and varied including taking seniors around Europe with ‘Page & Moy’, hosting double-decker bus tours with Top Deck Travel and running her own Tour Operating and Wind Kitesurfing programme in Portugal.
During Karen’s career, she has been collecting knowledge from over 70 countries, so can be found slipping from English into fluent French, German or Portuguese, often helping in those tricky hotel booking negotiations!
10 years ago, Karen was holidaying along the River Ganges (Varanasi), when she had an epiphany - how can we make travel matter? Inspired, she created the Travel Matters Make Travel Matter Campaign, an awareness initiative to encourage more responsible & sustainable travel.
Maryna
Senior travel Advisor
Travel Matters fountain of travel knowledge!
Maryna is from Belarus and came to live in the U.K in 2007. Traveling is Maryna’s second biggest love after her family. So far her itchy feet have taken her to over 60 countries. A true adventurer, Maryna always tries to stay off the beaten track and travel the roads less taken. Her travel experience covers more traditional city and beach breaks as well as jungle tracking, mountain climbing, white water rafting and cycling. In fact, she has cycled thousands of miles in Asia and knows Thailand, Laos, Malaysia, Cambodia, Vietnam and Sri Lanka as well as the back of her hand. She is particularly passionate about animal welfare and spent several weeks working in various animal shelters in Sri Lanka. She is an avid theatre goer as well having a great interest in international cuisine.
Monika
Senior Travel Advisor
Born and raised in Poland, Monika has always been passionate about travel. After working for several years in the corporate world, she decided the time was finally right to reignite her passion for travel and pursue a far more fulfilling career with Travel Matters! Her curiosity for finding hidden gems & exploring them has made her a true specialist. Monika's passion for travel has taken her to several countries, although she developed her specialist travel knowledge in South East Asia. Here, she spent almost two years living and working as a qualified Divemaster and has exceptional expertise about diving destinations.
Whilst travelling through Asia and appreciating its beauty & cultural diversity, she enhanced her knowledge and understanding of ocean conservation. Monika loves the great outdoors, and all kinds of water sports and often embarks on mini-trekking or camping adventures with friends and family.
Catherine
travel Advisor
From an early age Catherine daydreamed of adventures! It wasn’t until she was 16 that she got her first real taste of travel, as she was transported to the hectic, hot and colourful Sri Lanka staying with a mixture of Singhalese & Tamil families who opened her eyes to the value of cultural exchange. Next, was Ecuador - an expedition of climbing mountains, camping on beaches and piranha fishing in the Amazon. Catherine’s stayed in some of the world’s most luxurious places, from high-end cabins at Dunton Hot Springs in Colorado to the King’s Suite at the Taj Lake Palace (Rajasthan). An avid rock climber, Catherine enjoying trips, including Thailand and New Zealand. Recently, she spent 6 weeks with her daughter in Mexico, swimming with sea lions.
Catherine is also a trained coach and enjoys using her coaching skills to help discerning travellers and family adventurers dream up and plan their ideal trip.
Jacky
Travel Advisor
Jacky hails from Australia…or as she calls it, Oz!
Previously, Jacky had a career in finance, which enabled her to work in New Zealand and Japan and to live in Paris. Jacky has been organising family holidays, for her husband & children, for decades and has clocked up an impressive twenty-something visits to the Caribbean. When she’s not found sprawling on a postcard-esque beach, Jacky can be found putting on her walking boots and trekking in the likes of Nepal.
With her love for travel combined with her enthusiasm for organising and researching every detail of a trip, Jacky is an ideal advisor when it comes to crafting memorable travel experiences in the likes of Asia, Caribbean or Oceania and much more.
Alexia
Travel Advisor
A globetrotter since childhood, Alexia has always had a passion for travel and has visited 39 countries (and counting). Although she has lived in the UK since 2014, she also considers Mexico and the US her forever homes. Alexia lived and studied in France & India during her university years, before entering the corporate world of fashion marketing. However, she always knew that travel was her true love so working with Travel Matters was the perfect fit.
A native of Mexico City, Alexia loves to share the beauty of her country through food, music and culture. Above all, she believes in the impact of global travel and how it can inspire people of all ages. When she’s not dreaming of her next destination to visit, she’s home in Essex with her husband and two sons & two dogs. Get in touch with Alexia to help plan your next family adventure anywhere in the world.
Elisa
travel Advisor & Writer
A Sicilian travelling soul with an innate love for adventure - Elisa has always been curious about other cultures and civilisations.
Her career started with social projects linked to sustainable development, human rights, environmental issues and her journey into tourism began with studying traditional communities in Brazil. Today, Elisa is recognised as an international expert and ambassador for Community-Based Tourism.
She is a travel writer and a committed community storyteller, dedicated to bringing the grassroots stories of positive impact to a global stage. Elisa is passionate about photography, the sea and the indigenous cultures. She is fluent in four languages and has started learning her fifth.
Zoe
travel Advisor
Zoe was born in Scotland but grew up in Bahrain, Canada and England. Summer holidays during her childhood were spent backpacking from island to island in Greece with her family where her passion for exploring was ignited.
In her twenties she taught English to children in a tsunami affected village in Sri Lanka where she fell in love with the people, culture, food and way of life. She made the island her home for several years designing incredible tailor made holidays for families and small groups, including designing women’s small group tours to India, Russia, Canada and Croatia.
As a Mother, she is keen to keep exploring and push the boundaries of family travel to enable her daughter to have as many adventures as possible.
Petra
Communications Officer
Petra is one of the best connected people in the travel industry and joins us after a 30 year career in television, 19 years of which were with Travel Channel International, the leading global travel broadcaster. As the face of Travel Channel, Petra was responsible for award winning documentary style travel programmes in which she planned complicated itineraries and travel arrangements for the presenters and crew. Petra has visited over 100 countries, most recently St Kitts and Nevis where she swam between the two islands…it’s fair to say that Petra loves an adventure-fuelled holiday!
Her knowledge and presence in the travel industry is due to extraordinary experiences like when she lived in Italy and Hong Kong. In 2013, Petra took a sabbatical to spend six months travelling around South America.
Matt
Business Development
Matt’s curiosity for travel stems from studying Heritage, Social & Sustainable Tourism Policy. As an associate member of IEMA, Matt assists in Travel Matters day-to-day commitment to sustainability.
Coming predominantly from a hospitality background, he has an eye for high levels of service and luxury products, but also loves stepping into the unknown! During his time working in management in health & leisure, he was lucky enough to encounter individuals who were conditioning themselves for challenging goals abroad, so combined promoting Sustainable & Responsible Travel, alongside adventure and outdoor activities. Still a fully qualified Swimming Instructor, he enjoys a holiday with the ideal blend of physical activities (preferably water related), food, music and a bit of nightlife.
Rebecca
Sustainable Business CONSULTANT
Rebecca’s journey in Sustainable Events & Tourism began with the implementation of an ISO20121 certified Sustainable Management System at a well known Destination Management Company. Since then, she has been busy supporting Hotels, Events Agencies and Destinations to address their priority negative impacts, and to maximize opportunities for positive change.
Rebecca is delighted to support Travel Matter’s mission to provide respectful and sustainable travel experiences that are embedded in a regenerative methodology aimed at bringing value to places and all who reside there.
Rebecca is British, but has been living in Barcelona for 20 years. She loves cooking & getting out into nature…if the two can be combined, even better!
Talya
travel ambassador
Talya has cultivated a life-long love of travel from her early years journeying around Spain, to her stint organising overseas trips for the Victoria & Albert Museum and her time spent living in Singapore.
As the Founder of the leading parenting blog Motherhood: The Real Deal, Talya is passionate that travel should not have to stop once you have a family. Family holidays are an incredible way of growing together and rediscovering yourself in those wilderness years spent deep in the trenches of parenting.
Always dreaming of her next getaway, Talya is forever looking to immerse herself in adventure. sights, smells, sounds, tastes, people, language & culture.
As a london based luxury travel agency, We design bespoke itineraries suited to your wishes, time and budget. Gain some inspiration from our Experiences section and let your mind wander the globe.
Travel Matters is a proud member of ‘The Transformational Travel Council’, a network of professionals who promote and develop destinations across the UK, Europe and worldwide. This group of businesses are pioneering the Travel Industry and understand the powerful and delicate environmental, cultural, social and emotional impact Tourism.