About Mike

I was born in England (the year is a secret!) and at 10 years of age migrated to Australia with my parents to live in Brisbane, Queensland. After teachers’ college and university, I was a teacher for 23 years during which time I taught in Australia and the UK. 

I really enjoyed teaching but the system got to me, so in 1986 I quit and entered the travel industry to join my wife who was already running our company UK and European Travel. She is Hungarian-born, and I like to think that I have an encyclopedic knowledge of Britain, so we set up a specialist agency for Britain and Europe.

Since then we have been the Australasian representative for many well-known British travel companies and tourist boards. For many years I also operated my own award winning tours of UK and Europe and have travelled extensively by car, rail and coach throughout Britain and Western Europe. In recent years I have been actively involved in organizing travel for individuals and groups to exotic destinations like Russia, Mongolia, Siberia, and Transylvania.

Today I like nothing better than helping others by sharing my insider travel knowledge and experiences in what is hopefully an honest, informative, entertaining, and humorous way.

If you want to know more about my travel career and what I’ve done then please read on.

Travel Career – Summary and Highlights

1986–1989

• Co– founded UK and European Travel as a specialist tour operator/wholesaler.

• Chairman of the first Jetset Travel franchise owners group in Queensland.

• Compiled, produced and distributed nationally the first London Apartments brochure for the Australian market.

• Australian representative for Country Holidays, Britain’s largest holiday cottage rental company.

1990–1999

• Compiled and distributed nationally “UK and Europe As You Like It” a 56-page travel brochure containing a wide range of travel programs including manor houses, hotels, bed and breakfast, apartments, cottages, canal boating, car rental, ferries.

• Compiled and distributed nationally “Wales As You Like It” a 16-page brochure with a range of Welsh travel programs including manor houses, hotels, bed and breakfast, cottages, and canal boating.

• Official Australasian representative for Jersey and States of Guernsey government tourism bodies from 1995 to 2001 with a dedicated brochure distributed in Australia and New Zealand.

• Organized the visit to Jersey and Guernsey of the presenter, and production/film crew of the popular Australian TV travel program “Getaway”. Two 10 minute segments appeared nationally on Channel 9.

• Official Australian representative for Country Holidays, Pride of Britain Hotels – Castles and Manor Houses, Hoseasons Holidays – Canal Boats and Cottages, Caledonian Mac Brayne Scottish Ferries, Condor Channel Isles Ferries, Avanti London Apartments.

• The first Australian tour operator invited to attend a Northern Ireland Travel Industry Show in Belfast as a guest of the British government.

• Twice awarded a Highly Commended by the Australian Federation of Travel Agents (AFTA).

• Composed and conducted numerous special interest group tours to Britain and Europe.

1999–2001

• Sales Manager Australia/New Zealand for Travco London Pty Ltd, a leading supplier of hotels to tour operators and travel wholesalers. Supplied all hotels to Flight Centres Australia (Infinity Holidays) for their first Britain and Europe brochure.

2002–2004

• Co-founded Britain & Europe–on–line, an online site offering a wide range of product including hotels, apartments, cottages and canal boating. Britain & Europe–on–line became Australian distributor for Octopus, the world’s largest and first on–line hotel booking engine for travel agents.

2004 –

• Director Sales and Marketing for Eastern Europe Travel/Russian Travel Centre, Australia’s premier and longest established specialist to the destinations.

• Product Manager for Eastern Europe Travel program and brochure

• Groups Manager for Eastern Europe Travel/Russian Travel Centre

• Author, Blogger, Trainer, Travel Advisor/Consultant, Speaker