Kicki Smith is an Independent Travel Expert who specialises in organising luxury holidays.
She organises all kinds of overseas itineraries with great care and clearly knows a thing or two about cars and motoring choices in this context.
Kicki is also a member of the Athena South Downs Group (ie a FOXY Partner) so we decided to find out more about her, her travel business and choice of car.
Please introduce yourself Kicki.
I’m a personal travel agent working from home.
It’s the best job ever!
I help organise and sort peoples holidays for them whether it’s a little short break, at home or abroad, to that long awaited far flung holiday – they are all SO important to everyone so we can take some space out of our hectic lives.
I am Swedish and have lived overseas and travelled for most of my life. My first stint abroad with my family was when I was 3 years old and we moved to Pakistan for nearly 4 years – that was a great adventure.
Nowadays I love spending time with my family and friends – we like entertaining and of course we travel a lot as well.
What car do you drive?
I recently changed my car and now drive a brand new Peugeot 3008 – it is absolutely fabulous! We drove down to the south of France this summer and managed to fill it with good food and wine to bring home. It drove like a dream.
At home I mainly use it to visit customers and networking groups and weekends visiting friends around the UK.
Are there any particularly memorable car trips to relate?
As you can imagine, there have been many journeys in many cars as we like taking road trips!
But one very funny journey I recall was when the girls were small and we drove to see my sister in law in Paris. That meant one 5 year old and a 7 month old baby plus our au-pair in the back seat. We had a Volvo 740 estate at the time and managed to pack ‘normal’ luggage, baby food, nappies (to last a lifetime it seemed), travel cot, high chair and baby bottles – a real packing challenge – but we had a great time and got into central Paris without any tantrums or other mishaps.
Whilst there my older daughter found out she loved artichokes and my younger one found salad with vinaigrette dressing and loved that too – it’s funny the little things you remember.
Another wacky one was when we were living in London and a friend had an iconic Morris Minor. I didn’t drive it but on one occasion when I was in the car it just ‘died’ at the traffic lights – my friend had to get out and use a starter handle at the front of the car!
I wouldn’t have known what to do with that gizmo so this is probably the funniest experience for me so far, but happily it did restart the car and I’ll know better the next time!
What about future cars Kicki?
I’m not sure what my next car will be, probably something similar to the current one, as I need something with a good boot size and comfort for our many road trips. If I had a dream car it’d probably be a Volvo XC90 – we have had a few Volvos and they are so good, comfortable, reliable, sturdy and fabulous! And it’s Swedish….
For More Information
You can contact Kicki via her email address – kicki.smith@ite.travel.
Kicki’s Luxury Holidays Facebook Page.
