who is the Travel Tortoise?
James, the human behind TTT, has been on holiday to Benidorm, Magaluf AND Tenerife. Aside from that, he has also lived & worked for extended periods in Mexico, Malaysia, Indonesia, Australia, the U.K and Austria. He speaks four languages and has most recently founded a moderately successful outdoor activities & tour company in Vienna. He founded the Travel Tortoise as penance for all the air miles he accrued in a previous life. He chose a tortoise as his mascot because they share numerous characteristics, including lethargy, and extended bouts of foraging and eating. As a keen and interested member of the animal kingdom, he enjoys learning about higher species, mostly primates, but he is not of fan of turtles, as in his words “they steal all the limelight.”
What does he know about slow travel?
Some of the most exciting, rewarding and happy moments of my life were on the road, as it is then that I felt most connected to the world. I do not accept the idea that people who travel are somehow trying to escape from reality, although if they are, then all power to them. In my experience, travelling makes me stronger, wiser and more enthusiastic about life in general. Travel is exciting and travelers are generally upbeat and happy, so the idea of establishing an outdoor activities company, Venture Vienna, came from a determination to enjoy my work, and to stay plugged into nature. I’ve made it my aim to create only sustainable tours and genuinely off-the-beaten-path itineraries, because those are the places I want to be.
And what about wine?
It was in Austria that I developed an appreciation for wine, and here where I developed several wine tours & experiences that aim to connect visitors to a region through a combination of outdoor activities and wine tastings. In Austria, much of modern-day wine production is organic, or damn well close to it, so one could argue it’s the spiritual home of ‘slow wine’. I understand what it means to ‘get’ the ‘terroir’ of a region, and we bring people right into the heart of it to create lasting positive associations between a wine and its origin. We do slow wine travel, I guess. At the heart of it, I understand most people’s need to connect with somewhere new, and that’s what I try to help them do with both Venture Vienna and The Travel Tortoise. And I may also be a bit of a hippy.