Dave Rowley
SENIOR CONSULTANT
I have been with Newell’s Travel Falmouth branch since May 2016 and all I can say is that it has been a fantastic six years (and counting) working with my colleagues who have over 50 years of experience combined.
Our team has a brilliant working relationship between the three of us, supporting each other with anything we can. Working in travel during the COVID-19 pandemic has been a huge learning experience within our branch (as well as within the travel industry in general), but luckily we have managed to come out of it stronger and wiser!
Before Newell’s Travel, I had worked for Cosmos Holidays for nearly ten years and within that company, I worked in head office for almost five years. Interestingly, I had also worked as a Holiday Representative and Resort Controller and had the chance to work on three continents. This gave me the chance to visit and work in some amazing locations and meet some great people, including my now wife.
Countries visited:
Mainland Spain (Barcelona several times), Tenerife, Gran Canaria, Fuerteventura, Lanzarote, Bodrum, Crete, Gambia, Lapland, Corfu, Kos, Rhodes, Zante, Egypt, France, Florence, India, Kenya, Mexico, Florida, California, and Las Vegas, Cayman Islands, Dominican Republic, and I have also been on a central European river cruise.
Last holiday:
I took my family to Ylläs in Lapland, Finland in December 2021 and we stayed in an incredible log cabin there. My two boys (aged four and nine) loved the snow and of course, they loved meeting the ‘real’ Santa.
We also took the chance to enjoy snowmobiling, riding on huskies and reindeers, and doing lots of sledding. One memory that stands out to me the most though is constantly being attacked with snowballs by the boys!
Where next?
After being delayed to go for a long amount of time, I am finally going to visit Florida with my family this year and take a fun trip to the theme parks and water parks. It will be our first family trip there and I have not stepped foot in Florida since 2005, so we are very much hoping that the weather will be kind to us.
Favourite destination:
A very tricky question as this changes depending on my mood! I especially loved the countries that I worked in, so picking out my favourite from the bunch of countries that I have visited in general is hard.
The nightlife and activities in Tenerife were great. Restaurants in Lanzarote were fantastic, the atmosphere in The Gambia was so relaxing, and Bodrum (in Turkey) had a mixture of everything.
But if I had to come down to it, I would probably class India as my most interesting holiday. We took a lot of photographs during the visit, and I would personally consider it to be the best-value holiday for money too.
Travel Tip:
Explore off-the-beaten restaurants, bars and cafes frequented by locals to experience the true nature of your holiday destination.