

Travel guru, guide-book author, journalist and the man to the whom world turns for anything travel related; Simon Calder is the Man Who Pays His Way, has hitchhiked all over the world and is also the man who over 12 years ago gave podcast host, Lisa, her first official travel writing commission. So we owe him everything. As an impoverished travel podcast we can’t offer him money but we CAN bring him onto The Big Travel Podcast and share his wonderful wisdom on this travel packed episode.
We pack in so much travel, including:
Being Mr Travel
Some listeners’ questions – sally throwing her knickers at him
ABTA superstar
What he dreads to be asked
His favourite place to visit
The beauty of Scotland
Climbing Ben Nevis
The Island of Harris
The Island of Lewis
Midges
Not being fancy
Not going to 5 Star hotels
Hitching a lift with the manager of Mark Warner
Taking his family to Mark Warner
Feeling awkward with posh places
The future of the package holiday
Package holiday changes on July 1st 2018
Thomson’s, Thomas Cook and TUI
Travelling with young families
The Belgian Riviera
Poland and the Baltic Riviera
Gdansk
Combining holiday and work
The 2010 Icelandic ash cloud
Getting home on a boat
John Cleese
Immingham and the far side of Grimbsy
Lille, Eurostar, Dover to Brighton
British Airways
Paris
Overcoming unexpected travel changes
Not knowing how many countries he has been to
Should he count?
Not wanting to compare notes
Hiking the Teide in Tenerife
Playa Las Americas
Santa Cruz, Gran Canaria, El Hierro, Gomera
The Meridian
How travel changes with kids
How travel has changed
The Instagram travel experience
Love of the postcard
Poste Restante
Lima, Peru
The remoteness of South Georgia
The Falklands
Ernest Shackleton living on seals
Feeling out of his comfort zone when travelling
Going to the Lake District with The Woodcraft Folk age 6
Climbing mountains when you’re scared of heights
Not falling off Mount Kenya
Being the highest person in the world in Aconcagua Mountain in Argentina
The Himalayas
Argentina’s economic turmoil
Lisa’s trip to Argentina
How visiting as a tourist is a virtuous thing versus over tourism
Transferring wealth from richer countries to poorer countries
Barcelona, Santorini, Thailand. Kho Phi Phi
Airbnb
Santiago in Chile, The Galapagos,
Teaming up with Bear Grylls for the Discovery Channel
The best way to see the Northern Lights – Bergen, Norway, coastal express.
How travel is a lot cheaper these days
The democratisation of travel
Instagram, what’s app
His travel highlights in a quick fire round: Crawley and the Cuban Missile Crisis,
Frisking people at Gatwick Airport, Getting mugged in Costa Rica (on Christmas Day! Which is also his birthday), hanging onto the back of a dustcart in turkey, hitching into someone’s garage, getting a lift in a digger in Greece, getting a lift in the boot of a car in Germany
His first job, cleaning planes for British Airways at Gatwick
Island hopping in Greece, mishaps when hitchhiking. Neuschwanstein Castle in
Bavaria in Germany by the Austrian border
Tony Hall the founder of Lonely Planet
Hadrian’s Wall, Aviemore, being mistaken as Nicholas Crane from Coast and also Louis Theroux
The Man Who Pays his Way for the Independent
Frank Barrett and becoming travel editor of the Independent
Not taking free trips because he wasn’t given any!
Trusting the travel industry
Mumsnet and the instagram influencer argument
The ethics of taking freebies
The way social media and travel blogging has democratised travel writing
How competition is a very good thing
The importance of transparency
How safe and fantastic it is now to be a traveller
His last very important point that will keep us all travelling
Taking a rubbish boat trip to Greenland