Navigating the Danish public transport system, at a very early age, doesn’t sound like the most magnetic of ‘travel stories’, but it has stayed with me. How new and different and exciting everything seemed. But also, how familiar.

Growing up in San Diego with the ocean as my backyard, it was easy to imagine a world beyond. So I went looking for it. A year with a host family in the rural Ecuadorian Andes. The depths of Patagonia at Torres del Paine. The otherworldly silence of Bolivia’s salt flats, staring back at myself in the reflection. More recently, deep-sea fishing off the coast of Norway’s Lofoten Islands on a Black Tomato research trip, the elemental beauty of that place teased something different out of me. It reminded me that luxury isn’t always a thread-count or a wine list. Sometimes it’s “just” the quiet of the wildness – and the lure of the unknown.

Being a Travel Expert is about having the whole world on recall, and knowing how to deftly navigate the stops. I draw on the moments that have meant the most to me to help steer the travellers who get in touch toward their own. And it all starts with something as simple as a conversation.