Geoffrey Kent, Founder of Abercrombie & Kent

Today, I’m joined by one of the most well travelled people I have ever spoken to. Geoffrey Kent is the founder, chairman and CEO of the luxury travel company, Abercrombie & Kent, and a titan of the travel industry. Before researching and recording this episode, I didn’t know that much about Geoffrey himself, and now, here in this intro, it’s hard to convey what an extraordinary life he’s led, but I’ll give it a go.

Raised in rural Kenya, Geoffrey’s said that his whole childhood was like a safari. He tells us about living among leopards and elephants and riding horses when he’d barely even learnt to walk. And from there, during a military career where he served in Bahrain, Oman, Yemen, Cyprus, Libya and Malta, he founded Abercrombie & kent - a travel company best known for inventing the photographic safari, changing wildlife travel forever with the ethos “shoot with a camera, not with a gun”.

A born explorer, he’s credited with pioneering “experiential travel” so along with telling us about some of the 156 countries he’s already visited, Geoffrey brings to life the experiences that he’s had along the way, and how we can best enjoy some of the world’s most beautiful countries. We don’t really touch on the fact that he’s also a world renowned polo player, he was the Captain of Windsor Park’s polo team which he played on with Prince Charles; or that he took Prince Harry to Botswana after the death of Princess Diana and sparked Prince Harry’s love of Africa. Even so, this is still a long haul feature length episode, there was so much to cover, it’s a love letter to Africa, and one that I hope you’ll really enjoy. So, here’s Geoffrey Kent.

Destination Recap:

• Monaco
• Florianópolis, Brazil
• Zambia
• Kenya
• Nairobi, Kenya to Cape Town, South Africa motorcycle trip
• Masai Mara, Kenya
• The Aberdare Highlands, Kenya
• Malindi, Kenya
• Royal Military Academy, Sandhurst, England
• South Pole
• Botswana
• Mauritius
• Chief's Camp, Okavango Delta, Botswana
• Bazaruto Channel, Mozambique
• One & Only Le Saint Géran, Mauritius
• Gorilla trekking, Uganda
• Diving in Palau, Philippines
• Helicopter to Base Camp, Mt Everest
• Madagascar
• Greenland
• Antarctica
• Finland
• Helicopter tour of Ethiopia
• Cocos Islands, Costa Rica
• Juba, Southern Sudan
• North West Passage Cruise

You can follow Geoffrey on Instagram here.

Thank you so much for listening today.

If you’re enjoying the podcast, then it would wonderful if you could leave a rating or a review - it really makes a big difference because it helps other people to discover the podcast.

To hear future episodes as soon as they’re released don’t forget to hit subscribe on your podcast app of choice.

To find out who’s joining me on next week’s episode, come and follow me on Instagram, I’m @hollyrubenstein - I’d love to hear from you.

If you can’t wait until then, there’s always the first three seasons to catch up on, from Michael Palin to Rick Stein, and Sir Ranulph Fiennes to Dev Patel.

Thank you so much for listening, and I’ll be back next week.

Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.