✨ Welcome back to our series, TravMedia's Travel Writer of the Week! ✨

Each week, we'll be shining a spotlight on one of the incredibly talented, passionate, and inspiring Journalists or Editors from our amazing community.

This week, we'd like to shine the spotlight on travel journalist - Olly Beckett.

We hope you enjoy - happy reading !!

Where are you based?

Camden Town, UK, minutes from one of London's most popular tourist attractions.

What outlets do you write for? Who is your audience? What are your travel specialties?

I write for my own publication – Mountains Magazine – as well as for other titles such as National Geographic Traveller, Adventure.com and Fodor's. My audience is those with a curiosity about the world who aren't afraid of a little adventure to satisfy that curiosity. My specialties are mountain tourism, soft adventure and – because I once worked in the industry – cruise.

Are you in-house or freelance (or both)?

In-house for Mountains Magazine (the first issue of which appeared in shops in September), freelance for whoever will have me.

What are your professional pet peeves?

AI. And editors who don't give opportunities to new writers. But mostly AI.

In your past professional life you were …

A farmhand, a kitchen porter, a marquee assembler, a chocolate factory worker (no, I'm not an Oompa-Loompa), an outdoors shop worker, a senior marketer for companies including Norwegian Cruise Line and Expedia, and a freelance marketing consultant. Less of a portfolio career, more of a blundering forwards.

Where would you like to return to?

New Zealand. And Switzerland. And Canada. And Argentina. And…so many places. Basically, anywhere that has tall mountains, excellent hiking opportunities, good food, and a decent, indulgent hotel to come back to after days of being in the wild. I'd also happily go back to Antarctica, but I'm not sure I can justify another trip.

What's on your bucket list?

Tibet has been top of the list since I read Seven Years in Tibet as a teenager. There's something about the remote monasteries, sacred places and, of course, vast mountains that really appeals (although I know it will have changed significantly since the 1940s/50s). Greenland makes the list for both its culture and sheer emptiness. Northern BC and the Yukon, too, for the same reasons.

Where do you travel for fun?

Croatia. I've been many times now and, no matter where I go, it always exceeds my expectations. Peaceful beaches, perfectly clear sea, pretty towns that wear their history with elegant understatement; good times come easily in that country. Also, as I'm originally from the New Forest, it's always a joy to go back there and rediscover the places away from the crowds.

Your funniest (or most harrowing) travel story is …

On my travels I've been tear gassed, poisoned, mugged at gunpoint, and confined to cabin on a small ship in 12 metre waves, but getting to Heathrow 10 minutes before an important flight – due to mixing up when I should be arriving at the airport with when I should be boarding – was the most harrowing (I made it, just, thanks to a wonderful Virgin Atlantic employee).

What advice would you give your younger professional self?

Start writing, no matter for who, because there are some excellent opportunities for younger writers out there and perhaps a degree isn't necessary after all.

What nugget would you like to add that we haven't touched on?

I'm hugely grateful to those managers, editors, fellow writers and PR folk who helped me get where I am by giving me a chance. I'm doing what I can to pass that forwards.

How best should people contact you?

Freelance: travellingolly@gmail.com (I'm open to commissions, relevant press releases and trips). Mountains Magazine: editor@mountains-magazine.com (pitch guidelines here).