The Tour Leaders

Arif hails from Eastern Turkey and started tour leading in Cappadocia in 1998. His first tour outside Turkey was Syria — no training, a local guide who had no idea what he was doing, and a group that never found out.This episode covers getting the minibus stuck in the Moroccan desert for six hours after someone at head office decided to swap the 4WDs for budget minibuses to save money — go figure. A broken down boat in a Thai national park after dark, a panicking passenger, and monkeys screaming from the forest. And what it meant to spend a decade leading tours across Turkey, Syria, Egypt, Morocco and Southeast Asia before ending up in Helsinki.Arif still thinks the human touch matters more than the algorithm.Enjoy the ride.

Tracy grew up in Wagga, studied maths and geophysics, and answered a classified ad to become a tour leader in Egypt. She thought it might last a while. It took years.She led tours across Egypt, Jordan, Morocco, India, Turkey and Eastern Europe — learning quickly that sometimes confidence mattered more than experience.We cover getting lost in Moroccan medinas, a spike through her toe in Todra Gorge (and walking on it anyway), a midnight hospital visit in Casablanca, a train that quietly crossed into Belarus without visas, and hearing about 9/11 in fragments at a station in Varanasi.Tracy is now an air traffic controller in Melbourne. Both careers started with ads in the paper.Enjoy the ride.

Richard came to tour leading the wrong way around. Most people travelled first and fell into it. Richard was working a corporate job in London, went to Thailand for his sister Anna's wedding (Series 2), and just never quite went home.His recruitment interview consisted of being in the right place at the right time — specifically, the Baghdad Cafe in Bangkok, where Roachie (Series 1, Episode 2) spotted him, established he had a pulse, and offered him a job.This episode covers a tuk-tuk accident on his very first tour that landed two passengers in a Phnom Penh hospital, managing the paperwork while quietly panicking on the phone to Andy (Series 1, Episode 5). A border guard on the Tibet-Nepal crossing, faced with a man and no photos for his visa, simply handed him a bag of other people's portraits and said pick one that looks like you. A nine-month overland trip from Istanbul to Kathmandu — through Iran, the Karakorams, western China and Tibet — where every week brought another landmark he'd never thought to look for. Richard lived and worked in Siem Reap from 2012 to 2018. Angkor Wat was essentially his back garden.He now lives in the Scottish Highlands. He still gets up early.Enjoy.

Before Anna was a tour leader, she lived alone in a hut in the Himalayas. No electricity. No running water. She banged a pan each morning to warn the snakes she was coming.Anna was built for this.In this episode — a motorbike robbery in KL that took the tour funds, the passports, and everything else. SARS quarantine in Bangkok. Pigs on motorbikes in northern Thailand. And an unexpected invitation to break fast with a family living in Cairo's City of the Dead.She also met her husband on a Cairo rooftop, got married on a Thai beach, and let a gecko decide which city to call home.Enjoy.P.S If this brought back memories — send it to someone you travelled with.

Spencer trained me in Egypt in 1997 — back when applications were handwritten and camping tours ran on vodka and very little sleep.We cover Siwa Oasis, public toilets in Xi’an, ejecting a self-proclaimed Messiah from a tour in India, and the moment a passenger showed Kim Jong-il parody videos in North Korea.We talk about staying steady in a crisis, running back-to-back tours in Rajasthan, China before it changed, and the places that never quite leave you.Here's Spencer.

KJ’s tour leading stories span Turkey, training trips, and the art of entertaining a bus full of strangers. This episode is about improvisation, memory, and the strange facts you invent to keep people listening.She reminded me of a training trip in Turkey, where we decided to tell our passengers that Atatürk’s horse was loosely translated as Mr Tickles (it was the only 'alternative fact' that passengers would remember about Ankara)!Enjoy the ride with KJ.

Emily’s tour leading years took her from Thailand’s nightlife to yoga and quieter paths. This conversation reflects on change, burnout, and learning what you don’t want along the way.Emily took me to my one and only Full Moon Party on Koh Phangan — technically the day after — and what I saw made me never want to go back...Enjoy the listen.

Amit became one of the first Nepalese tour leaders for his company, earning his place the hard way. This episode looks at resilience, identity, and what it meant to lead travellers through your own country.What to say about Amit? His path into tour leading was vastly different to the majority of us.Enjoy the ride.

Holly travelled overland from Istanbul to Kathmandu, collecting stories that took time to surface. This is a slow-burn episode about memory, patience, and journeys that can’t be rushed.As the memories return, the stories begin to flow.You can check out Holly's amazing photos at Big Wide World Photography

Buzz led tours through Mongolia at a time when there were no phones, no safety net, and no clear plan. This conversation includes permafrost, plague avoidance, and what leadership looks like when everything is uncertain.Wow. What a chat this was.Book your next trip with Buzz through House of Travel NZ

Andy’s path to tour leading took him from banking to Southeast Asia — and straight into trouble. From bus crashes to Cairo markets, this episode is about chaos, luck, and surviving it all with humour intact.Andy never went looking for trouble — it just had a habit of finding him...Enjoy the ride.

Some people are built for the road. Others just never stop being curious.This episode is a conversation about what it takes to keep doing the job — and still see the world with fresh eyes.Meet JP. I trained with him in Vietnam in the early noughties, and he’s a hard act to follow. His groups love him — and once you hear him, you’ll understand why.More than twenty years in, he’s still out there, with a calm, almost Zen approach to the road… and an appetite for just about anything.Enjoy.

Kate was a tour leader whose strength, resilience, and presence left a lasting mark on everyone she travelled with.This conversation is about friendship, endurance, and the women who quietly held things together on the road.Meet Purple Kate. I really don’t have enough words to describe her — but Wonder Woman comes to mind. Another friendship that has stood the test of time.Enjoy the listen.

Roachie's tour leading career started in Turkey and unfolded through chaos, responsibility, and lifelong friendships.This episode moves from humour to high-stakes moments that defined travel before the internet.A friendship that has endured across time, but started with an accusation of theft...If you want to know more about Roachie, you can find him at Craig Roach - Gallipoli Artist and Battlefield Guide.

Liddy began tour leading in Cairo in the late 90s, back when nothing was searchable and friendships formed fast.This conversation is about intuition, long-term friendship, and the people you meet when you’re far from home.Liddy was the first person I met when I arrived in Cairo to start tour leading back in 1997. The first thing she told me was that she’d had a dream about me the night before — that I was short with brown curly hair (which I am). It was instant friendship.If you want to know more about her company, you can find her at Stubborn Mule Travel.