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!

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Barbara Buczek spent ten years in the management team at the Port of Dover but over two years ago moved continents to establish Saudi’s new cruise scene with Cruise Saudi. Born in Poland she felt that travelling at an early age to Kentucky to attend a US high school gave her the travel bug. On this episode we talk about the special relationship with the UK have with Dover, the emotional tug of those white cliffs, how travelling by sea gives you a different perspective, feeling like she is living through history witnessing the cultural changes in Saudi, climbing to Everest Base Camp, jogging through a Taiwanese forest, the unbeatable feeling of running the London marathon and much more. 

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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.

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Faisal Sheraiff, influencer and entrepreneur, lives in Saudi Arabia with his fashion designer wife and two children. He was born in the US to a diplomat father and an anthropologist mother and has travelled to 50 countries. We discuss Saudi’s changes and international tourism, living in Jeddah by the sea, beach days, coffee shops, large family gatherings, Cristiano Ronaldo, F1, tennis & golf, the bustling old markets in Jeddah and Riyadh, the dream-world desert landscapes of Alula and wanting to be the person that trawls ancient world markets and shipping back the antique artefacts but actually coming home with a fridge magnet.

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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!

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We are happy to announce the imminent arrival of our new season of episodes and as usual we have a few wonderful surprises for you – some on location episiodes from destinations as varied as Copenhagen to the Maldives – some new partners for sponsorship and also a very exciting annoucment as to what Lisa is up to with some travel plans that can also involve you! Yes you. Watch this space. In the meantime feel free to say hello on social media - Lisa Francesca Nand - and subscribe to the podcast so you don't miss us! x

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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!

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Nitin Sawhney’s Kent childhood included regular attacks by racists, but he threw himself into music, joining school friend James Taylor’s band. Flying to India via Kabul aged 8 he found himself a child mascot riding horseback through the streets, he felt liberated by Liverpool at university, he studied accountancy but ending up creating a hit comedy show with Sanjeev Bhaskar, he’s recorded with indigenous musicians the world over, including Australia, Brazil, South Africa and Spain, interviewed Nelson Mandela at his home in Johannesburg and worked with just about every important figure in modern day music. Discussing everything from the connection between Flamenco and Rajasthani gypsies, working with Gary Lineker and refugees on his new album, Identity, being withheld at security in LA before being sent to hospital and so much more.  

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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. 

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Actor Warwick Davis' first trip abroad was to California at the age of 11 to star in Star Wars, a big jump from his day to day childhood in Surrey. On this episode we talk…Carrie Fisher feeding him cookies in the Redwood forest, sweltering in a rubber head-mask in the deserts of Tunisia, being a Goblin with David Bowie, causing mayhem in India on An Idiot Abroad with Karl Pilkington, entering a panda enclosure dressed as a baby panda in China, family holidays in Dubai, the poignant trip to Auschwitz he made for his brilliant documentary The Seven Dwarfs of Auschwitz, the ‘majestic’ pencil museum in Cumbria and so much more. 

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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. 

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