I don't think Global Affair was ever born because I wanted to work in travel.
It was born because travel changed me.
And then life changed me again.
For most of my childhood, I escaped into books. Looking back, I think they gave me somewhere safe to explore when the real world often felt confusing. I travelled through magical kingdoms, across continents and through centuries without ever needing a passport.
Books had rules I understood. Real life often didn't, and I think that was why I loved them so much.
Even as an adult, travel felt daunting. Airports had invisible rules that everyone else seemed to know instinctively. There were passports to remember, security to navigate, forms to fill in and endless little uncertainties that my brain would happily turn into reasons not to go.
What if something goes wrong?
Every unanswered question quietly became another reason to stay where I felt safe.
Then Alex came along.
Like most parents, I wanted to give him everything I could.
But there was one thing I was determined not to give him.
My fears.
I remember making that decision over spiders, of all things. I've never liked them. I still don't. But I couldn't bear the thought of Alex inheriting a fear simply because it belonged to me.
So I learnt to live with them. Not love them—let's not get carried away—but enough that I could put a glass over one, slide a piece of paper underneath and take it outside instead of panicking.
At the time, I thought I was teaching Alex something.
Looking back, I think he was teaching me.
Because once I'd started asking myself which fears belonged to me, and which ones I wanted to leave behind, I couldn't stop asking the question.
When Alex was eight, we travelled together for the first time.
I don't remember deciding that this trip would change anything.
I certainly didn't know it would change me.
I just remember looking at him and realising that I wanted to show my son the world.
I wanted him to know that “different” wasn't something to be frightened of. That there were endless ways to live, think, eat, communicate and experience life.
The irony is that, while I thought I was showing him the world, he was quietly teaching me how to see it.
That was when I fell in love with travelling.
Not because I wanted to collect countries.
Because I fell in love with curiosity.
I fell in love with finding the places that make my soul sing and quieten my mind.
I fell in love with noticing the little things. The independent coffee shop tucked away down a side street that somehow makes the best coffee you've ever tasted. The bookshop I'll wander into despite not understanding a single title because, for some reason, bookshops always feel familiar. The way the sea quietens my thoughts before I've even realised my mind was noisy.
I fell in love with sharing those discoveries with my son.
Then, just as life seemed to be opening up, Long Covid arrived.
It changed almost everything.
Suddenly time looked different.
Energy looked different.
Possibility looked different too.
There were days when getting through the day felt like enough, let alone travelling across the world.
Long Covid taught me something that has never really left me.
The Story Behind Global Affair
What if I get ill?
What if I don't like it?
"I fell in love with noticing the little things. The independent coffee shop tucked away down a side street that somehow makes the best coffee you've ever tasted. The bookshop I'll wander into despite not understanding a single title because, for some reason, bookshops always feel familiar. The way the sea quietens my thoughts before I've even realised my mind was noisy."
We always think we'll have more time.
More energy.
More opportunities.
Sometimes we do.
Sometimes we don't.
That isn't meant to sound sad.
Oddly, it isn't.
It's freeing.
It reminds me that if something matters, we shouldn't always wait for the perfect moment.
Sometimes the perfect moment is simply the one we have.
I think that's where Global Affair really began.
Not as a business—as a belief.
That everyone deserves the opportunity to experience the world in a way that's right for them.
Not somebody else's version of adventure.
Their own.
Whether that's a weekend in Cornwall or three weeks in Thailand.
Whether you're travelling with children, with different needs, with anxiety, with accessibility requirements or simply with a carefully saved holiday fund that represents months, or even years, of hard work.
Every journey is valid.
I don't want to help people tick countries off a list.
I want to help them collect moments.
Because I know how easily life can change.
And because I know, from experience, that sometimes one journey can quietly change the way you see the rest of your life.
If Global Affair can help even one person take the trip they've been quietly talking themselves out of, then I think we'll have built something worthwhile.
Ali x
