January is one of our favourite months of the year. If you ask Natalie the reason is simple, her birthday is in January. However there is another reason we love the first month of the year. In London it means one thing, travel shows!
January is home to two of the biggest and best travel shows in London. Last weekend was the Adventure Travel Show, and in two weeks time we have Destinations, the largest travel show in the UK. If you are looking for adventure and travel inspiration for the upcoming year, these are the places to go.
Just imagine, row after row of tropical island getaways (very enticing in what is normally a dreary and cold month in London), snow capped mountain hikes, world cruises, coach trips, overland truck adventures and independent travel ideas all waiting for you to discover. Any wonder why we love these shows.
There is always plenty of inspiration on offer at Travel Shows
If you are looking at booking some type of travel these shows are place to do it, with many companies offering special deals and discounts during the shows. If you are planning a trip independently then it is a great chance to chat to passionate people, pick peoples brains or see what many of the expert companies do which can help in the planning stage.
The other awesome thing about these travel shows is they quite often have excellent forums and guest speaker presentations for you to attend. I love public speaking and find it a real buzz, if there was a way I could get paid to stand in front of an audience and talk about my travels I’d be happy man! This weekend we were lucky enough to hear arguably the greatest adventurer of modern times, Sir Ranulph Fiennes, talk. As well as current adventurers Monty Halls and Dave Cornthwaite speak. Destinations has a fantastic line up of guest speakers as well, and we plan to make a bee-line for Levison Wood’s talk.
Travel Show work mode. Getting ready to do what we love most, talk about travelling!
In the past few years these travel shows have also quite often meant we have been working. In fact Natalie was on the Oasis Overland stand all weekend sharing her passion and expertise about Africa and South America with would be adventurers. I have helped out several companies over the years as well. Again, standing around talking about travel is almost as much fun as travelling itself!
London is not the only city to hold such shows, with all major cities worldwide hosting something similar. So now its up to you, find out when your next local travel show is, head down, get talking and start planning!
– Dean
p.s. Anyone attending the Destinations Travel Show in London, head down to the Oasis Overland stand on the Sunday and say hello to Natalie!
The Smart Way Round 
Hey guys, as usual great blog! Firstly Happy Birthday to Natalie, not sure if it’s still coming or has been but hope it was/will be a happy day! We also have a travel show coming up but it’s only in February which is a pity since most travel companies specials end at the end of January, so no real reason to attend a travel show when you’ve already booked a holiday/tour/travel. But still inspiration for the next year I guess. I still wish though that ours was also in January. Have a good one guys!