From learning to scuba dive on the Great Barrier Reef and driving an overland truck through South Africa, to trekking to base camp in the Annapurna, Louisa has experienced some of the most enchanting places on Earth. With a background in interior design, Louisa has a natural eye for beautiful spaces – making her perfectly placed to discover the most stylish and thoughtfully designed villas on the Mediterranean. Having now travelling through Europe with her young family, she brings a keen understanding of how a villa needs to work effortlessly for every generation.
What do you never travel without?
A sense of curiosity.
What would you wish you had with you if you were stranded on a desert island for six months and why? You can choose a luxury and something practical.
My luxury item would be my favourite pillow from home, and for something practical – an unlimited supply of fresh water.
If you could travel with anyone in the world, who would it be and why?
My children – because seeing somewhere new alongside them always changes how I see things too.
What is your most memorable travel moment?
Reaching Annapurna Base Camp in Nepal – about 4,100 metres up – after roughly ten days of walking from Pokhara. It was equal parts exhausting and extraordinary.
What was your worst travel disaster?
Realising I’d fallen for a carpet scam in India when I was 22.
What’s your secret hidden gem (such as a little bookshop, restaurant, café, little-known museum/gallery, artisan shop)?
In Corfu, there’s a little linen shop where the owner hand-embroiders the most beautiful pillowcases and sheets. She’s in her mid-70s and was taught her craft by her grandmother, and the shop feels like a living thread of family history. The walls are lined with photographs of generations of her family on the very same site, weaving and sewing in the same traditions.
What’s the most unusual client request you’ve received and were you able to fulfil it?
A guest booked a villa with a full team of staff, including a chef, but they still wanted to bring all her own saucepans and crockery from the other side of the world – as well as their own resident chef. We arranged for everything to be shipped over and set up in the villa kitchen ahead of their arrival.
If you hadn’t worked in travel, what would you have liked to have done?
Interior Design.
If you could retire to anywhere in the world, where would it be and why?
I wouldn’t want to be too far from my friends and family in the Cotswolds because that’s where I feel most at home. But if I could bring everyone with me, I’d retire to New Zealand’s South Island, it’s one of the most peaceful, majestic places I’ve ever been, with a sense of space and calm that’s hard to beat.
Favourite book(s) and why?
The Year of Magical Thinking by Joan Didian.
