So proud to be named as one of Conde Nast Travel’s Top Travel Specialists for 2026 🙌🏻
What an honour to be up there with the best in the biz.
Thank you @cntraveler ! ✨
It’s been a (long!) while so I thought it was time I reintroduced myself and #InternationalWomensDay felt like as good a day as ever!
I’m Sarah, founder of Studio Wanderwell, a boutique luxury travel design company responsible for creating incredible time off and memories for our travellers all over the world.
So where did travel start for me? I think it was with my dad and his handwritten letters of love and adventure, sent from the far corners of the world when he travelled to for work.
Grabbing these letters from the doormat, I used to gobble up dad’s stories of the people he’d met and his impressions of what he’d seen.
I still have all these letters today, and love to re-read them! 💌
As a family we also travelled lots — to Singapore, Indonesia, to see my dad’s family in South Africa, Mauritius, our villa on Lake Como in Italy, France, Portugal… so it’s hardly surprising that I ended up where I am!
Fast forward a couple of decades to when I had my own kids, I realised how precious time off with family, friends and loved ones is. I wanted to use my passion for travel to help others make life-long travel memories too.
And so Studio Wanderwell was born.
We’re here to create experiences that our travellers will remember for a lifetime - the feeling when you first see an elephant in the wild, the adrenalin when you sailed over rugged mountains in a hot air balloon at sunrise, the joy of celebrating a 20 year anniversary or big graduation with loved ones in the foothills of the Alps.
This is what gets us out of bed in the morning and I love what we do!
The other thing that gets me out of bed are two fast-growing little humans...but that’s a story for another day.
Other random facts about me?
* I’ve been in a Hollywood film, “Wild Child,” — just look for the blonde girl with bunches in the lacrosse team (cringe)
* I always ‘customise’ meals when ordering food at restaurants. Especially pizza. It drives my husband insane.
* I used to be a ski instructor in Austria in my past life so you’ll find me in the mountains if it all goes wrong!
I’d love to hear what makes you tick and gets you excited so that we can plan a great adventure together. 🩵
In the words of the birthday boy and our greatest national treasure @davidattenborough
‘No one will protect what they don’t care about; and no one will care about what they have never experienced.’
And this, really, is the greatest privilege of travel don’t you think?
Not the Egyptian cotton thread counts. Or perfectly plumped pillows. Not the fancy bath tubs.
It’s the opportunity we have to get out into the world and see, first-hand, just how magical it is ✨💫
To stand (or swim!) somewhere that makes you feel small in the best possible way. To go quiet because you’ve just seen something that you can’t quite believe is real. To come home buzzing, curious and caring more about the world than you did before.
Because that’s what really matters…right?
More than anything else, this is why I want to show our children the world, and what I hope they take from our adventures 🌍
And how I want to help our travellers to explore the world too 😍
What a privilege it is to be able to do that 🩵
Thank you @rascalvoyages
⭐️ Congratulations Emily! ⭐️
Hugely proud and excited to announce that our very own superstar travel designer Emily is a finalist in the @ttgmedia Luxury Travel Awards!
Since joining our small but mighty team earlier this year, Emily has made a huge impact; she brings bags of enthusiasm, incredible charm and amazing attention to detail every day as well as a huge wealth of knowledge and creativity to plan adventures for our globe trotting travellers.
This recognition for New Luxury Travel Designer of the Year is so well deserved- well done Emily 🤩 👏🏻!
Island life, one wave at a time, salty hair, sandy toes and a heart full of island dreams 💙
I’ve wanted to go to Bequia forever…And now I’ve been, I want to keep going back to Bequia forever!
If you’ve no idea where I’m talking about and need to look it up on the map I’ll save you a job- Bequia is a tiny island in St Vincent and the Grenadines, a short puddle jump hop from Barbados and Grenada but a million miles away from the hustle and bustle of these touristy islands.
It’s the Caribbean as it was 50 years ago and as I’ve always loved it…barefoot living, jerk chicken and shrimp tacos on the beach, rum punch and beers with your feet in the sand as the sun goes down.
It’s not polished, it’s not shiny and it’s not flashy. It’s real, smily and full of soul. There aren’t any big resorts here, there are cute rainbow coloured cottage style boutique hotels and villas on an island where after just a couple of days everyone knows your kids names and remembers how you like your coffee ( or cocktails, who am I kidding) 🍹
If you’re a big brand luxury resort kinda person you might look away now, because Bequia may not be for you. But if you’re the kind of person who looks for the real deal in a place and who wants to get away from normal life and swing in a hammock sipping on rum punch, this might just be the island for you. 🏝️
Bequia you were everything I hoped you’d be and more. Until next time 💙💙💙💙
And just like that another school year is done.
How the heck did that happen?
On the one hand, day to day moments seem to last forever - you’ll know this if you’ve ever tried to put a small kid to bed or spent a freezing afternoon in a play park 🙄.
But on the other hand, the years seem to whizz by in a flash.
Isn’t life wild!
I read recently that by the time your kids are 12 you’ll have spent 75% of your time together with them, and 90% by the time they’re 18. This one stuck with me 🥹
The years will keep galloping by so don’t forget to grab those moments together while you can, because before you know it they’ll be all grown up.
If you’ve already got summer adventures planned with your families, enjoy! 🤩
If you haven’t, let’s see if we can pull something out of the bag for you for this August.
But if planning a last minuter isn’t realistic or all feels a bit much, let’s chat about the next holiday.
Because let’s face it, the C word 🎅🏻 will be here before we know it. And if that’s your next big chunk of time out of school, work or uni, we’re here to help you make the most of it.
Happy summer everyone! And happy 4th to all those celebrating today 🇺🇸
In and amongst the craziness of the summer travel season we have some exciting news!
Say hi to Emily 👋🏻🤩
Our small but mighty Studio Wanderwell team is growing and I’m thrilled to welcome Emily Herbert who has joined us as a luxury travel designer 🙌🏻
As an experienced travel advisor, Emily will be working alongside me, Antonia and the wider team to create amazing adventures for all our fabulous travellers.
With plenty of air miles, passport stamps and travel stories under her belt, we can’t wait for Emily to start bringing her knowledge, expertise and love for intrepid adventures to you all.
Exciting times ahead! 💙
Sometimes our role isn’t just about planning a trip. Sometimes our job is to give you the confidence to step outside of your comfort zone to experience things you would never have imagined.
When J&B asked us plan a week’s trip as an extension to a London work trip, they had Europe in their sights. But it was early March and it was obvious to us that Morocco would best hit the spot.
While this wasn’t a trip that they’d ever considered, they trusted us.
Reports like this from happy travellers always make our day, but when we know we’ve surprised them as well, it brings double the joy 💙
#studiowanderwell
“You always seem to be off gallivanting somewhere!”
I hear this A LOT from my non-travel friends and I’m guilty as charged. ✈️
But while it looks like a picnic, all of this travelling is work, albeit from a bush camp or Costa Rican casita, not a conference centre.
It’s actually our job to explore as many corners of the world as possible because how else can we confidently advise you if we haven’t walked the walk?
So when you see me globetrotting, 9/10 times I’m on a FAM (familiarisation) trip, aka a research trip and these usually fall into two camps - planned and personal FAMs.
Planned FAMs usually involve a minute-by-minute schedule to see absolutely everything you can possibly see in a short space of time. By the end of the day our brains are spinning with hotel rooms, destination facts and a ton of ideas from the amazing suppliers we’ve met up with on our travels.
This kind of trip usually involves a new bed every night, long road journeys (where the real talk happens!) and meals snatched on the hoof (I will never forget eating three meals in a row from a Japanese vending machine...).
Personal FAMs are a little different. Rather than being hosted on a schedule, these are trips we plan for ourselves for destination research. They’re usually slower paced so we don’t get to see as much.
But there’s more time to take it all in, really get to know a new spot and experience a place in the way that YOU would. Albeit with a notebook in hand furiously scribbling notes and the laptop always in sight because this is work, not play after all!
My March trips to Tanzania and Rwanda were top notch hosted FAMs and my trip to Kenya next week is a personal FAM with my favourite safari buddy @alexbentall invited along to enjoy the ride (as long as he packs in time). We’ll be checking out two amazing safari properties in the Mara. First up the new @greatplainsconservation Mara Toto Camp, a tiny gem with four treetop suites and then the majestic clifftop @angamasafari which I’ve been dying to see for years (wait for photos of the views!) ✨
All in the name of research for YOU.
Follow for more safari spam and DM me if you want a deeper dive into my intel 🤓
Packing...unpacking....packing...unpacking
An action packed couple of months of international travel has meant a lot of luggage and laundry this Spring!
And I’m all in for this!
While some people call it admin...I call it anticipation. A trip is truly never long enough for me so I love to roll the preparations in.
While laundry is a faff I could do without, I love getting ready to travel. Making lists, creating neat little piles and playing packing cube tetris to fit it all into the bag is all part of the fun.
Obsessively Googling the weather, justifying 3 pairs of sunglasses for a 4 day trip (all in the knowledge that there’s no way I’ll pass the Sunglasses Hut at LHR without a stop), and squeezing as many plane snacks as possible into my hand luggage because it’s totally fine to snack for 9 hours solid.
This is me. Neat little piles of green, beige and brown.
And then there’s @alexbentall who just this morning asked me what day we’re travelling.
I’m 99% sure he has no idea what airport we’re travelling from on Monday, I’m 100% sure he ordered the wrong malaria tablets (we just reordered the right ones!) and I’d say it’s still 50-50 whether he knows we’re going to Kenya or Tanzania. And there’s absolutely no chance his packing will commence until 5.56AM on Monday morning when the airport taxi is due at 6:00AM. See image 3 - his suitcase that as of today is still full of ski kit, for a safari in 5 days time 🤦♀️
Many incredible qualities he has, but trip planning ain’t one of them! But actually, he kind of doesn’t need to worry about any of this, because I will always have it covered.
Crazy busy in a stressful job and juggling a million things, he doesn’t have a second to think about it. When he’s in situ, wine in hand, it all feels worth it, but I know the hoops to jump through put him off taking the trip sometimes!
Sound familiar?
Alex is much like so many of our travellers. But while we won’t pack your case (sorry!) we will do all the heavy lifting for your travels and hold your hand through the process so that you don’t have to worry about a thing.
Controversial opinion: I don’t think your honeymoon should be the most important trip that you take with your partner.
Please don’t get me wrong, we LOVE planning honeymoons. We love helping you to create incredible memories together in beautiful places to kick off your married life, and stories to share with the grandkids.
But actually honeymoons are probably the time in your marriage when you are already MOST connected with each other.
The time that you really need trips like this is a few years down the line when real life starts to snowball. When you realise it’s been months since you held hands and had a conversation that isn’t about whose turn it is to take the bins out (not mine, by the way!)
I get that the logistics of childcare, work scheduling and life commitments doesn’t always make it easy to do this, but if you have the glimmer of an opportunity, take it.
Whether you just want to lie side by side on a sun lounger, hike a mountain together or learn new kitchen skills with an Italian nonna, taking a marriage-moon can do wonders for your relationship and greater harmony all round when you get back home to real life.
So in the spirit of putting my money where my mouth is, I’m taking @alexbentall to Kenya later this month, for a marriage-moon in a happy place for both of us out in the African bush. More to follow!
