The Big Travel Podcast

The Big Travel Podcast: Exploring Life-Stories Through Travel. Taking you on a journey of discovery, with a wonderfully diverse selection of characters, The Big Travel Podcast explores life-stories in travel; from childhoods with little money but a spirit for exploration to fabulous tales of exotic climes and incredible adventures. Celebrities, authors, sports people, politicians, famous faces from TV, radio, music, stage and screen, SAS soldiers, adventurers and ordinary people taking extraordinary journeys tell their story of life through travel, and through this, The Big Travel Podcast finds out what it is about travel that inspires us, that makes us laugh, love, cry and sometimes cringe yet above all keep travelling. The Big Travel Podcast is hosted by Lisa Francesca Nand, travel journalist, presenter, writer and filmmaker.

Episodes

164. In Madrid with Simon Hunter; Madrid Newsrooms, Old Sherry Bars and Benidorm Sun Lounger Wars

June 14, 2024 • 48 mins

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 Spa...

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163. Barbara Buczek; From Poland to Kentucky, Saudi Cruising to Everest Base Camp and The Emotional Tug of Those White Cliffs of Dover

April 21, 2024 • 53 mins

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 ...

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162. Ash Bhardwaj; Walking The Nile, Slipping Down the Himalayas & Exploring Why We Travel

April 5, 2024 • 74 mins

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 ...

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161. Faisal Sheraiff; Saudi-Influencer on Saudi’s Changes, the Old Markets of Riyadh, Dream-Scapes in Alula

March 21, 2024 • 32 mins

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 ...

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160. Hassan Saeed; Maldivian Resorts, Island Culture and the Importance of Loving Your Community

March 4, 2024 • 45 mins

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 ...

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159. NEW SEASON IMMINENT!

February 19, 2024 • 4 mins

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 s...

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158. The Big Travel Podcast Christmas Special 2023!

December 18, 2023 • 20 mins

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, m...

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157. Nitin Sawhney CBE; Racism in Kent, India on Horseback, Mandela at Home

October 22, 2023 • 63 mins

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, ...

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156. Motoring Journalist Ben Oliver; Belfast Troubles, Braving An Open Top Bentley To The Arctic Circle, Manoeuvring A Mini Up the Himalayas in Monsoon

July 1, 2023 • 48 mins

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 sl...

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155. Warwick Davis; Cookies with Carrie Fisher in California, Varanasi with Karl Pilkington, The Seven Dwarfs of Auschwitz and The World’s Best Pencil Museum

June 14, 2023 • 34 mins

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 pan...

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154. Rachel Riley MBE; Holocaust Education, Ukrainian Refugees, Wildlife in the Galapagos & Maths for Travel

June 7, 2023 • 29 mins

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...

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153. Robert Munns; West End Theatre with Madonna, Sailing The Pacific With MS and Life-Changing Conscious Decisions

May 18, 2023 • 73 mins

Robert Munns, CEO of sailing charity Oceans of Hope UK, left the graft and glamour of West End theatre for a life on the seas. He’d not long had a shock diagnosis of Multiple Sclerosis when a chance encounter in a harbour changed the course of his future. Rob and Lisa talk West End theatre’s transformation, working with Madonna, happy days sailing the Med, the ‘raw shock’ of his diagnosis, the physical and emotional enormity of sai...

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152. Freya Ridings; Nana’s Piano, From a London Shed to LA’s Best Studios, Love Island & Much More

March 16, 2023 • 38 mins

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...

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151. Suzy Buttress from The Casual Birder Podcast; Antarctic Endeavours, Mexican Whale-Watching & Emotional Eclipses

January 12, 2023 • 66 mins

It was a passion for birding and indeed podcasting that lead Suzy Buttress to establish the wonderful Casual Birder podcast, for which she travels extensively, tracing birds and indeed other wildlife around the world. We discuss her recent expedition cruise to the Falklands, South Georgia and Antarctica, dealing with anxiety when having heard two people sadly lost their lives on the same journey, how whale-watching in Baja Californ...

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150. The Big Travel Podcast Christmas and New Year Special!

December 15, 2022 • 50 mins

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-songwri...

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149. Kevin Chaplin; Growing Up Under Apartheid, Inspiring Township Children and the Power of Travel to Expand Horizons

December 1, 2022 • 43 mins

Kevin Chaplin left behind his banking career to establish South Africa’s Ubuntu Foundation and rescue the Amy Foundation, named after American student, Amy Biehl, from bankruptcy. Kevin and I talk about growing up under apartheid, the hardship of life in the townships, the challenges faced by Cape Town’s children and young adults, taking a team of young singers to LA, taking a team of young hockey players to Northern Ireland, his b...

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148. Iszi Lawrence; Travelling Nowhere with Shaun Keavney, Decolonising History & Flying Solo to Australia age 6

November 17, 2022 • 58 mins

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 ...

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147. Tony Michaelides; Legendary Rock Promoter on Bowie, Joy Division, U2 & Manchester’s Finest Exports

November 3, 2022 • 70 mins

Tony Michaelides finds it uncomfortable to call himself legendary, as one would, but he is indeed legendary in the music business…promoting acts including U2, The Stone Roses, David Bowie, New Order, The Police, Depeche Mode, Simply Red, Bob Marley, Massive Attack, REM, Matchbox Twenty, The Pixies, Elvis Costello, Genesis, Johnny Cash, Whitney Houston, Annie Lennox, Tom Petty, Peter Gabriel…and many more. Born in Manchester he res...

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146. Sara Tasker; From Passport-Less to Wanderlust, Struggles of Special Assistance Travelling and The French House That Stole Her Heart

October 19, 2022 • 48 mins

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 wheelch...

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145. Cyber Crime Expert Lisa Forte; Battling Somali Pirates, Skyscraper Climbs in Kazakhstan & Descending Deep Into Abandoned Mines

October 5, 2022 • 47 mins

Cyber Crime Expert, climber and caver Lisa Forte has been voted one of the 100 top women in tech, starting her career plotting against Somalian pirates in the Middle East. Having travelled extensively for both work and fun we talk offending the locals in South Korea, climbing frozen waterfalls in the Alps, scaling skyscraper-height granite in Kazakhstan, spending her 21st birthday on Kilimanjaro, the deeply humble experience of tra...

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The Big Travel Podcast

Episodes

.css-14f5ked{margin:0;word-break:break-word;display:-webkit-box;-webkit-box-orient:vertical;box-orient:vertical;-webkit-line-clamp:2;overflow:hidden;}164. In Madrid with Simon Hunter; Madrid Newsrooms, Old Sherry Bars and Benidorm Sun Lounger Wars

.css-r6mb8g{margin:0;word-break:break-word;display:-webkit-box;-webkit-box-orient:vertical;box-orient:vertical;-webkit-line-clamp:1;overflow:hidden;}163. Barbara Buczek; From Poland to Kentucky, Saudi Cruising to Everest Base Camp and The Emotional Tug of Those White Cliffs of Dover

162. Ash Bhardwaj; Walking The Nile, Slipping Down the Himalayas & Exploring Why We Travel

161. Faisal Sheraiff; Saudi-Influencer on Saudi’s Changes, the Old Markets of Riyadh, Dream-Scapes in Alula

160. Hassan Saeed; Maldivian Resorts, Island Culture and the Importance of Loving Your Community

159. NEW SEASON IMMINENT!

158. The Big Travel Podcast Christmas Special 2023!

157. Nitin Sawhney CBE; Racism in Kent, India on Horseback, Mandela at Home

156. Motoring Journalist Ben Oliver; Belfast Troubles, Braving An Open Top Bentley To The Arctic Circle, Manoeuvring A Mini Up the Himalayas in Monsoon

155. Warwick Davis; Cookies with Carrie Fisher in California, Varanasi with Karl Pilkington, The Seven Dwarfs of Auschwitz and The World’s Best Pencil Museum

154. Rachel Riley MBE; Holocaust Education, Ukrainian Refugees, Wildlife in the Galapagos & Maths for Travel

153. Robert Munns; West End Theatre with Madonna, Sailing The Pacific With MS and Life-Changing Conscious Decisions

152. Freya Ridings; Nana’s Piano, From a London Shed to LA’s Best Studios, Love Island & Much More

151. Suzy Buttress from The Casual Birder Podcast; Antarctic Endeavours, Mexican Whale-Watching & Emotional Eclipses

150. The Big Travel Podcast Christmas and New Year Special!

149. Kevin Chaplin; Growing Up Under Apartheid, Inspiring Township Children and the Power of Travel to Expand Horizons

148. Iszi Lawrence; Travelling Nowhere with Shaun Keavney, Decolonising History & Flying Solo to Australia age 6

147. Tony Michaelides; Legendary Rock Promoter on Bowie, Joy Division, U2 & Manchester’s Finest Exports

146. Sara Tasker; From Passport-Less to Wanderlust, Struggles of Special Assistance Travelling and The French House That Stole Her Heart

145. Cyber Crime Expert Lisa Forte; Battling Somali Pirates, Skyscraper Climbs in Kazakhstan & Descending Deep Into Abandoned Mines

Popular Podcasts

164. In Madrid with Simon Hunter; Madrid Newsrooms, Old Sherry Bars and Benidorm Sun Lounger Wars

163. Barbara Buczek; From Poland to Kentucky, Saudi Cruising to Everest Base Camp and The Emotional Tug of Those White Cliffs of Dover