Here at 101 Holidays, we conduct regular interviews with the people behind the UK’s finest travel companies. This week we meet up with John Brough, founder and managing director of Authentic Adventures.
Formerly known as Andalucian Adventures, the company specialises in small-group activity holidays including photography and painting breaks. John lives in Gloucestershire with his wife Rachel and their 12-year-old son.
* Where did you go on holiday last summer and why? Any plans for next summer?
Cornwall draws us back time and again for family holidays. I’m a keen sailor and before I had my own business I used to head off from Fowey for a month or longer in summer. We love the freedom of camping and coastline walks.
Last year we went riding across the remote landscape of southern Morocco on a camel train, to the Valley of the Roses. Finding enriching new environments for our holidays is an enjoyable part of the job and that area of southern Morocco, Taroudant, has become one of the most popular new destinations for our painting and singing holidays.
My wife Rachel is a keen artist and she had a long-held dream of going to India, which we arranged for her birthday last year. We were captivated by Kerala (pictured top right) and added it as a long-haul destination for painters in this year’s brochure. It’s an extraordinary place for painters, a colourful landscape of lush vegetation and wildlife reserves where you may get a glimpse of the last few tigers in existence. Next year, I’ll be exploring Tanzania and Botswana to add to our wildlife photography holidays.
* What is your favourite bolthole in the UK, and why?
A few miles off the tip of England there are white sandy beaches like a tropical paradise, with very few people. I discovered them while sailing from Ireland to Falmouth and we’ve been going to Scilly (pictured top centre) on holiday for the past 12 years. When our son was a toddler we used to rent a cottage where the children’s laureate Michael Morpurgo stays while writing his books. His story Why the Whales Came is set on the island of Bryher, the wildest of the Scilly Isles.
Scilly is like a best-kept secret, somewhere people go back to time and time again, they’ll book the same place for next year before they leave. Tresco was one of Authentic Adventures’ first destinations for painting holidays.
* If you could spend a long weekend in any city abroad, which would you pick, and why?
I have a great love of the natural parks of Andalucia in southern Spain. Nestled amongst the raw craggy mountainous terrain is the city of Grenada. It has the wonderful juxtaposition of cultures of the region’s history. It has the Moorish tiled palace and rose garden, which was irrigated by the Moors, settlers from Morocco, and flamenco dancers in the city square.
* Please tell us three items that are always found in your luggage.
Maps, compass, and now – sadly – an iPhone.
* What one thing would most improve people’s overall holiday experience?
It’s all about people – local guides with the local knowledge are the gate-keepers to the places we visit and bring the area to life in addition to making our guests feel welcome.
* What has been your worst holiday experience?
A cheap package holiday to Corfu. I needed a rest when my back was bad 25 years ago but the hotel turned out to be next to the airport – we took the first flight we could find back home.
* Tell us your favourite hotel: in the UK; in mainland Europe; in the rest of the world.
Hell Bay on Bryher in Scilly.
Zuhayra in Zuheros, Andalucia. It’s where I started the business.
Cocobay Resort, Kerala.
* What is the most exciting project your company is working on right now?
We’re broadening our horizons. Photography and Painting Safaris in Africa will be a new departure for us. However, if I can pull it off I think singing in Cuba will be the most exciting.
* Thank you, John.