Luxury, Safety, and Moments That Matter: Duncan Greenfield-Turk Unleashed
Here's a question nobody in luxury travel wants to answer honestly:
Does spending more money make you safer as a queer traveler?
Duncan Greenfield-Turk has been sitting with that question for years. And his answer is more complicated — and more useful — than you'd expect.
As one of the leading voices in LGBTQ+ luxury travel, Duncan lives at the intersection of high-end experiences and the very real safety math that queer travelers run every single time they book a trip.
You know the math. The one you do silently. Can I hold my partner's hand here? What happens if someone clocks us at dinner? Is this resort actually welcoming, or did they just update their website for Pride Month?
In this episode, Duncan gets into what luxury travel actually buys you when you're queer. (Hint: it's not thread count. It's control over your environment.)
He talks about how to tell the difference between a destination that's genuinely welcoming versus one that's performatively rainbow-flagged…
The emotional labor of traveling while queer — a real cost that nobody's pricing into the trip…
The destinations that are actually leading on inclusion… and the ones that are all marketing and no substance…
And what happens when some of the most beautiful places on earth are also some of the most dangerous for people like us.
Duncan doesn't sugarcoat it. Some expensive resorts will still make you invisible. Some cheap guesthouses will make you feel like family.
He knows which is which.
We also talk about the moment he knew he wanted to specialize in LGBTQ+ luxury travel… what clients ask him that they won't ask anyone else… and what one perfect trip changed for him personally.
This is for anyone who's ever looked at a gorgeous photo on Instagram and suspected it wasn't telling the whole story.
You were right. Duncan tells the rest.
Watch the Episode here
Listen to the Podcast here
Luxury, Safety, and Moments That Matter: Duncan Greenfield-Turk Unleashed
Meet Duncan Greenfield-Turk, the South African-born luxury travel alchemist who turns the wish into, "Holy shit, we actually did that?" For nearly three decades, he has been crafting the travel experiences that make billionaires' bucket lists look basic. Say that three times fast. We're talking private viewings of the crown jewels, dinner under the Saharan stars, and the impossible-to-book moments that make mere mortals weep. Here is the plot twist.
Duncan took all that ultra-lux expertise and said, "Let us make this fabulous for everyone." As the founder of Global Travel Moments, he has created a sanctuary where luxury meets authenticity, where being unapologetically yourself is not just accepted, it's celebrated. This is not just your typical pride package travel. This is next-level, hands-on-hips, darling, watch this, travel craftsmanship.
Whether you're seeking urban excitement or secluded serenity, Duncan transformed Rwanda into a carefully curated reality. This is Pride Nomad Unleashed with Duncan Greenfield-Turk, where South African roots meet global sophistication and every journey is a masterpiece of inclusivity, luxury, and unfiltered joy. Welcome, Duncan.
Thank you very much. What an introduction.
We paid a lot for great AI, baby.
I do not know it.
It is amazing what stuff we get to write these days.
That is so true. It is so useful because it really helps you to hone in on your message sometimes. It can be the hardest part to get across in a way that anybody understands it.
Especially when you're talking about yourself, because I find that we always understate who we are and what we're about. We want to brag certainly about our businesses, but we do not want to sound like we're full of ourselves either. Doing your own thing is really hard. I tell people all the time, you cannot read the label when you're inside the bottle. We made it.
There is an interesting thing there because when you talk about travel, you cannot VIP yourself.
You want to dive into that a little bit? I think there's a story there somewhere.
The Hidden Math of Queer Safety
It's always interesting. When you look at what clients want, they always want the very best. They want the best elements, the best hotel room, the best location, the best service, the best overall experience. Sometimes when you work with some clients who are so used to doing everything themselves, they forget the one thing that they're never able to do is to actually just reach out and say, "I'm a VIP." We can do that for our clients because of the relationships we have got. As you rightly mentioned, I have been in the industry for nearly 30 years now.
We have got relationships all over the world and direct access not just to a reservations person, but to general managers, to regional VPs of sales, to regional directors of various properties. We're preferred with the luxury brands that operate globally, which give enhanced benefits, amenities, and special treatment that our clients really enjoy. We can do that for our clients because of those relationships, and they know us. It is not for us. It's for the client that really deserves something unique. We're bending that to ensure that it's always inclusive.
That is important. As we run our lives and our audience is primarily digital nomads for those who want to be, as we move around the world and make it our playground, having that ability to both play the VIP luxury side of things, but additionally be in places where we are desired rather than tolerated is a biggie.
The world is challenging at the moment. It is not easy. One of the key things when I set up the company seven years ago, I founded it on the ethos that everybody, irrespective of gender expression or gender identity, deserves the same equal opportunity to experience and discover the world. My key thing was, I just wanted it to be something that was what we had worked in always, which was luxury. In the space where we could create and craft and curate moments that lived up to this expectation for the community, rather than just be a cookie-cutter. Here is another tour package. Here is another. Get on a cruise and just be surrounded by a hundred other gay men, as an example.
There is a benefit to that sometimes.
It is to discredit that market travel. A lot of people in our community have reached a point where they are like, "I have got a family, I am raising kids,” or “Actually we enjoy a quieter experience that is more immersive, more connected, more locally orientated." The mass market aspects that are out there are great. They're great for fun times, but they are there for certain times, not for every time. The other challenge that you have got and which we're really working on to try and see what we can do to support is, of course, our transgender community. How do you support them?
Luxury travel isn't just about high thread counts. It's about taking complete control of your environment.
Navigating Safe Transit Hubs
How do you ensure that they can travel with dignity, with pride, with safety and security? You touched on it. Everybody in the community just automatically assumes that just because you've booked something, it could potentially be safe. The reality is there is a lot of work that goes into the background to identify where you should be going. If, for example, you have a transgender airport you can transit through if you're taking a flight, people do not automatically think of those aspects for the community when you travel. You just normally will go, "Great, it's going to Bangkok."
If the airline is through Dubai, Qatar, Saudi Arabia, as an example, you suddenly have a nuance to it that you have got to think about that may not have been talked about at the time of purchase. We're trying to factor that into our planning process with clients. We're trying to do the dirty work first. I say the dirty work because, as we put it, when we do have clients from the trans community working with us, we always outline that we're going to be the ones that give you the difficult questions so that you do not have to worry about it from anyone else. It's from someone you know, like, and trust.
That's so important. I have to confess, not being transgender, I'm not as sensitive to that. I do not think about it because I do not know to think about it. I have not had that journey. Having conversations with those who are transgender and experiencing their fear and concern, like, "Holy shit." There really is a lot to consider. The fact that you do consider that is super important because, with ignorance such as mine, we are not as ignorant anymore. I have to learn that piece, and it can be quite uncomfortable, I am sure.
It goes beyond that, because you also look at, for example, non-binary, lesbian couples, interracial couples, and suddenly you have got nuances in Italy, you have got nuance in France, you have got established countries that are considered safe, you may still need to give guidance on to say, "You know what, you're going there, just to be aware this is some of the stuff you could run into even though it is considered safe." You look at the EU as an example. To be a member of the EU, you're supposed to have equality at the heart of the charter.
You have issues in places like Hungary, in places like Austria, in places like Poland, where LGBT people and community members are not as welcome. You want to balance it and find the right balance with the destination that the traveler wants to go to. There is a safety aspect. There is an insurance aspect. There are a lot of things that you have got to think about for the client to give them the right advice so that they can make the best informed decision.
Just for example, I think it was Conde Nast, I do not remember, wrote about this in one of our newsletters a few weeks ago, where St. Lucia was chosen the best place for digital nomads. Maybe if you're heterosexual, but if you're gay, you could go to jail. They are not enforcing it, but that is lovely if someone wants to enforce it because they do not like the way you look or because you piss them off or whatever.
I find that the most fascinating thing at the moment when you look at luxury travel is how much the Middle East is pushing. Is it Saudi Arabia, is it Qatar, Dubai? What is really interesting is they actually all have the same laws in the background. Dubai, which a lot of LGBT people go to, especially a lot of gay men go to because of the weather, the party scene that is there in the hotels. There's an underground scene. People go there without realizing that all it takes is you upsetting one person, and it could go the wrong way. It has become more liberal in some respects, but the reality is that the laws are not there to support the liberalism yet.
No, and I will tell you, I will confess, Duncan, I have never been to Dubai. It is always some place I wanted to go, but not enough because I just do not trust it. That's the way, and we're talking about the political side of things. It's just that I am a gay Jew man. No, I got all those other issues, and I got all those issues, let alone flying like an arrow. For years, I have never flown an airline like Emirates, even though I knew they are like the best airlines. Just because, being a gay Jew, I do not think so. You're a great airline. I have flown them since. Boy, just that whole piece is a dynamic there. We people, the allure of travel is so aspirational.
I love that piece. The reality of travel for us is remarkably different, especially people need to recognize that especially when you are outside of your home country, because in your home country, and frankly, as an American, I left the US in 2009. Seeing this in 2025, I am seeing this country not being anywhere near as safe as it used to be. I see it going downhill rather than uphill, where you have Thailand, where they just celebrated their first weddings, and Taiwan with having Nymphia Wind, a drag queen, performing in the presidential palace, for goodness' sake.
Thailand actually went one step further and is providing HRT for, I think, over 200,000 transgender citizens. If I have got the numbers correct, it was in the news recently. That is a really interesting one. I absolutely agree. I think the challenge we have got with Western society is that some societies are stepping back. The UK, where I live, unfortunately slid down in the scale as well. As people fixate on certain things, they fixate on the wrong things to distract from other things. I am of the personal opinion that the US has focused so heavily on transgender people and gender communities to distract from everything else that is going on. It is a repeat of what happened within the homosexual community back in the ‘60s.
It is reminding me of Duncan, whom I was on the phone with. I have got to learn how to describe a transgender person. Is it a trans woman because now she's a woman? I do not know how to describe that. I need guidance on that. This person wants to be identified as a transgender woman or a woman, if you want to call it that, who is terrified, and what came to me was the old quote.
I believe it was from a Catholic priest. "First they came for the tradespeople, then I was not one, and then they came for the homosexuals, then I was not one, and then they came for me, and there was no one there to support me." I see that with the trans people. The trans are the first to go, then they are going to come for the rest of us, then the next one because they do not like the way we look. Fuck you.
Don't rely on performative marketing. Use a clear framework to evaluate genuine safety abroad.
The most important thing that I have learned about the argument that people try to make is that the reality is that it is not a fear of trans women in women's spaces. It is a fear of men in women's spaces. The underlying issue is that there is a fear against men, not trans women. That in itself needs to be addressed. To focus so heavily on transgender children means, I look at that. It shocks me. It is a passion for us as an agency to really support the community, to really help where we can ensure people get away and experience new destinations.
We had an incredible trip for a client last year, which was a mother and her son. That was all about reconnecting to each other because they had not really seen each other in a long time. There was a disconnect. They went to Thailand. We had them in Thailand for about, I think it was about fourteen days, various locations, mix of wellness, mix of activities that were what you would call let us do something together, but something that you take a memory away from. Cookery classes to washing elephants in Chiang Mai or outside of Chiang Mai.
I used to live in Thailand for 8 out of 10 years, so there is a lot of that for me. What you're doing is so important. I want to jump out of the political side of things for a minute because I have been writing a lot of copy over the past few hours, so I am charged about, "If you are going to take my rights, fuck you. I want to make a million dollars and run my life and goodbye.” The other thing I do want to mention before we dive in is I was wanting to get some of the dirt on some of the cool stuff you have been doing.
My feeling is, and Rick Steves codified it a few months back on one of his podcasts that my mother and I listen to, he talks about travel as being the road to peace because as we travel the world, we take away experiences that let us know that the people that we are seeing, the children that we are seeing in Cambodia, for example, or Myanmar, are delightful. They have not been tainted by the elders. They are the future of the world. I have always believed that.
At the same time, when we see them, and we're waving, we're smiling, and I was in Indonesia a few years back, and we gave tennis balls to school children. We were having tennis ball fights. The most fun I have ever had. It was amazing. It was really fun and innocent. There was no alternative motive other than just loving each other. I wanted to take these kids home. They were so cute.
That, to me, is critically important. People recognize that we are all just the same and we are not going to hurt you. The more that we do travel, the better. That said, the people who may be a little bit political, like me, but the more in the middle pragmatic person, I tend to see both sides. I want to boycott places like, pick a place. At the same time, by being there, we help overcome the stigma that is causing us to boycott in the first place. It is a hard place to play.
The Destination Traffic Light System
It is a difficult one. We run a little traffic light system. We do that for exactly this reason. We will look at what we would call our green list, which are laws that are really ahead of everything else. It is completely safe. Things like Canada, South Africa, the UK, most of the EU, for example, would fit into that. The US would at one point have fit. At the moment, it is like hit and miss, depending on the state, for example.
Where in the state?
We have what we call yellow. In yellow is where the laws are not necessarily correct in the sense that they are not favorable towards the community, or they are not favorable to all of the community or they are making significant progress. That destination where we are like, “On the ground, you are going to be fine. If you go here, you will be okay.” Here you need to be a little bit more cautious. We use places like the Maldives as an example. The Maldives is a Muslim country. It is under Sharia law.
The reality is you are on an island which is operated by one hotel where the general manager or the managing director of that property is the highest authority on that property, and they are incredibly welcoming. The more you are there, the more you educate. Tourists do not go to the local islands where religion is quite strong. Indonesia is another example of that. Indonesia's laws center around one specific island. Bali and the other islands are very welcoming, very relaxed. It is about using that knowledge to really help people understand. Is this the right destination for you?
How comfortable do you feel? How do you present? How do you connect things like that? We also have what we call our blacklist or our red list. That is a destination that we will never actively try to promote. We will very cautiously advise on it. For example, we will typically only advise on it if you have a non-community traveler in front of us. At the same time, we will be trying to switch-sell them to a destination that's more favorable so that we can educate at the same time. We use it as an educational example. One of those examples is Uganda, obviously with the death penalty.
We would sell it to Rwanda, where, while the laws are not as favorable, they're not quite right on the ground. It's a very simple story. They're very welcoming. You are not going to have the issue. However, you still have to be cautious and mindful. That is what we would always look at. Florida is an interesting one. When Ron DeSantis went on his tirade, we as an agency said, "Stop selling Florida." Because for us, we looked at him and said, "You're aggressively going after the community to the detriment of their mental health and well-being." We cannot in good conscience say you're a safe state. You are not.
That said, I happen to be in Miami right now, and my mom's and used to live in Fort Lauderdale. This is home for me. Broward County, where Wilton Manors is, which is the gay city, it is like you can walk down the street holding hands, but if you head up a few hundred miles up the road, you can be shot. That is why when I made that comment, it depends upon where you are. It is 100% true. Florida is one of those states where the South is the North, and the North is the South. It is a scary place for that. You do not want to boycott Broward County, for example, but it's still Florida.
That is why there is still, even though it is a red list or a black list, there is still a little bit of gray in there for us to have that conversation with a client where they might say, "I really need to go there." This is why I am like, “You have got to be cautious.” That is what you have got to be aware of. I use an example of, for example, it was a transgender person that was working with us on a trip. We look at how you currently present.
What is in your passport? How comfortable are you if you, for example, are transitioning from female to male, but very much still present as female? How comfortable do you feel traveling as you present for your own safety? It's out of your comfort zone because it's not who you are, and we know this, but that's the difficult aspect of what we do to make sure that they're as safe as possible when they travel.
You've got to be pragmatic. It is like, it's read the room. To me, it's just common sense. You can walk down the street in Provincetown holding hands, hugging, kissing. You can probably have sex in the street, and no one is going to look. Actually, everyone is going to look because that is the deal. That's P-town. You do that somewhere by yourselves, and you do that where? In Laramie, Wyoming, you're going to be dragged behind in a truck and killed.
You have to be really mindful of that. It is just like, just do not be an idiot and recognize that. Same thing with two people talking in a room. Do not go interrupt them if it looks like they're having a conversation that's intense. Get the hell away. It's the same common sense that you take. I want to get out of this mode a little bit. I want to hear one of the strange, surprising, holy shit stories that have happened to you on a trip and how you have dealt with that.
In terms of challenges or difficulties?
I am going to look at both. I am going to look at, like, what it looked like. Everything was turning to shit, and you got through it, but I also want to take the corollary of like you created something and then it became like the most incredible experience you've like, it changed everything.
Probably one of the most difficult situations we found ourselves in is we have a client who we've known for many years, and her daughter had just moved to New Zealand. The difficulty of that particular situation, COVID hit. The daughter was umming and ah-ing about staying in New Zealand for the duration of lockdown. Literally 48 hours before made the decision that no, we need to come out and come home. The realization had set in that New Zealand was going to be aggressive on its lockdown.
We had gotten them a ticket, everything, and unfortunately, because of how fluid the situation was at that particular point in time, the flight that we could get connected to an airport in Australia, and they arrived to board the flight. They were told at the gate, as they had gone through and everything, that the airport that they were transitioning through had just closed completely. They were not allowing transiting passengers. We had to act very quickly, and we managed to get them on a flight literally twelve hours later. One of the fact I think it was the last flight out. If they had not taken that flight, they would not have got back.
Would they have been stuck in Australia or New Zealand?
New Zealand. They have been stuck in New Zealand the whole of lockdown. We managed to get them on that flight. That flight actually connected in Dubai because Emirates is one of the last airlines flying. We were very much, we're going to fly. We leveraged the fact that they were flying. It was not, unfortunately, a cheap endeavor, because they were just charging full rate. What we did in that situation, based on what had happened, was we checked in with the daughter at every stop because she had three stops on that flight. Literally, we sent a message through to her and said, "You should be arriving now."
It is like, send us a message to say that you've arrived safely. You've made your next flight. We just kept checking the whole way until she landed back in the UK, where she was coming back to. Her mother has been a client for some time, and for us, she was over the moon because her daughter was safe. For us, we were just glad that we had another client home safely. We had clients who were in the US, and when the US closed down, they were halfway through a two-week trip. They were in. They were supposed to be heading towards New Orleans. Literally, we got the notification that the US was closing its borders.
Treat your travel goals like wealth management. Map out your next decade of global experiences today.
The impact of that meant that insurance would become invalid because they were in a destination that was no longer recommended by the FCO here in the UK, or it would have been the CDC if it was a country outside of the US. I just picked up the phone and said, "Really bad news. I'm so sorry. We are going to have to bring you home early. Do not worry, you get to enjoy tonight and tomorrow. Tomorrow, just drive to New Orleans Airport, drop your car off, and your tickets. We have rebooked you are in your inbox. Just print them out or download the digital ticket.
You do not need to go to the desk. Check your luggage. You can drop your luggage easily. You do not need to go and deal with those tickets or anything like that. It's all done in your inbox.” We work with several partners, and they have been an enormous help for us in ensuring that. I got a call from the client at the airport, a video call, and she was like, "This is the queue. Thank you. We do not have to go through it." They literally bypassed this entire queue of people who were there trying to get new tickets issued.
Is there ever a question? I am going to say this to our audience now. Is there ever a question about should you be working with a travel professional? The answer is not just yes, but hell yes. It's those times I have got someone I've worked with for a number of years, and he looks after me. He is like, "You should have already been landed. Are you okay?" or, "This seat just opened, I'm moving you."
The Importance of Travel Advocacy
It makes a difference completely. I found that it does not cost any more to have someone looking after you that way, based on the way things are priced out. I want a professional to make a ton of money because they deserve it, and they have been screwed along the way in this industry. Having someone as your advocate, especially when shit hits the fan, is so important.
I am glad you use the word advocate because that is a lot of what ends up happening when, as you say, the shit hits the fan, and you need someone who can step in and have those hard conversations with particular suppliers or providers on your behalf because otherwise you just get brushed off. Because of the relationships that we have, it just makes it sometimes that little bit easier. On the plus side, when it works really well, it can work really well. I had a client in New York who booked one up from entry level for a stay. He was there for five nights. They had worked with us. Breakfast was included, but because I knew the GM.
I just wrote ahead and said, "This is a new client. This is the second trip they're on with us. We really want to still keep wowing them." The next thing I know, I get a message, "I'm in a one-bedroom suite." When you look at it from that perspective, the value of that type of an upgrade is more than $1,000 a night. There are those types of things that we can do, not always, but most of the time we can also ensure that the experience is more than you expected it to be.
The other part of it is because I am so control-freak oriented that I look at everything I'm doing. I drive my travel agent crazy sometimes because we're looking at fares, looking at seats, we're looking at the type of aircraft. I am really a nutcase with that. When you can let your hands go, and you know it takes time to do all this to do it the way you want, when someone knows what you do want and knows the type of property you're looking at, where you want to be, where on an airplane you want to sit, that's so important.
What aircraft you want to be on, whether you're going to want to be in a 777 or whether you want to be on a 787, whether you want to be on Japan Airlines, sucky seats in business class. I think they may have changed them since I have been there, but I hated those seats. I hated those seats. There are all the different nuances. It's important. If you're a frequent traveler, as I am, knowing the nuances of where you get the proper mileage credit to get the status is a whole other conversation.
The more you can offload to a pro that can manage that and who knows, as you said, the hotel GM or whatever, makes an enormous difference because if they do not know you, they're less likely to give a shit, especially when there are low issues. Who are they going to mess with, the person who is not that? I was flying in LA, not flying, flying out of LA actually years ago, and I was flying Delta because at that time I was living in Atlanta. You are going to fly Delta.
I had status, of course, and I was checking in very late. The question was, "What is your status?" It was not what the class was. It was what your status was. I was whatever medallion, medallion. I was whatever the top one was, like, “We got you covered. We will do it for you.” Which told me that if I did not have that status, it was going to be like, good luck, God bless, and see you on the next flight. It really makes a difference, those connections.
Long-Term Horizon Travel Planning
Having someone who can give you advice and recommendations at the right time and look at what you are trying to do. We view travel as not just coming to us now to plan next month. We look at it as you need to have a 5-year and a 10-year plan. You need to think about it because you may want to do New Zealand and Australia as a trip, you may want to go to Japan and Southeast Asia, you may want to do Africa and do the best possible African safari.
All of those need to be planned properly, curated properly, thought about so that you know what it is ultimately going to cost you and the best times to go and to fit it into your life's goal. Travel is like wealth management. You do not just go and put your money in the bank. You want your money to work for you, and your travel is probably your second most, or should be, in my opinion, the most important thing that you really think about when it comes to getting fulfillment and enjoyment out of life as you discover new things. It really does take consideration.
Don't let fear close you off. Saying yes to authentic local connections creates lifelong memories.
It is a really important distinction. I will give you two pieces, then I am going to ask you another quick question. It's like, do not go to Chiang Mai in January. That's like, no, assuming you want to breathe fresh air, because that is not going to happen. I learned talking to someone who has booked some Antarctica trips. I did not know that during their season, there are different parts, different things that you will see. You will see the babies hatching versus the older people. Who knew? That is important. My mother taught me this one.
If you are to do an Alaska cruise, never do a round trip like Seattle to Seattle or Vancouver to Vancouver because you are only going to see half of the coast. You do not want to go this. Start in Anchorage and go down to Vancouver or something. If someone does not guide you through that, you are going to lose such an experience. What has been the most oh my God surprising experience that would be what that was your life-changing experience in travel?
For me personally, I had the privilege to work on board QE2. Way back in the day. For me, I was bitten by the travel bug early in life. Growing up in South Africa, it was not something that I ever thought would really be as feasible and as possible as it has become. I am very fortunate in the sense that I was born to parents of two heritages. My mother was born in Zambia, and my father was born in the UK. I hold dual citizenship between South Africa and the UK. That passport, because South Africa's passport has never been the one to allow you to travel as easily.
My British passport allowed me to really get out and discover. My biggest goal in life when I was young was that I wanted to go to New York. That was my biggest dream. It was around the 21st of April in 2001. That was the very first time I made it to New York. Wow. I am pleased to say I have been back many times, and I proposed on the Brooklyn Bridge on Christmas Day in 2012. My husband and I are still together. This year is fifteen years. I like to joke. I am a lifer. That was incredible. My biggest thing is I love to discover new things. I love immersing myself in a local culture. I am a big foodie.
I am a bit of a nerd and a geek when it comes to ancient history. When you look at museums, look at the pyramids in Asia, you look at that whole Edo era in Japan. All of that I find fascinating. I am a nerd when it comes to comic books. My friends will tell you, I have random information that is just saved in my head. We will be out, and something would just pop out, or I will look at someone and go, "We met 10, 15, 20 years ago." I will tell them where we met. I even am like, I did not realize I knew that. That is my most enjoyed thing.
I am actually off to Japan again on the 8th of February. I will be there for three weeks. Japan and Southeast Asia, after Southern Africa, are my absolute. That is where my heart is. I love the culture. I love the cuisine. I love the experience. It is unique and different. It is going to be exciting to really dive deeper with partners to see some new and fascinating things. To your point earlier, some things that I have really found to have been life-changing have been moments like going to Antarctica. Where you arrive, and you are looking at land that has a one-mile ice sheet on top of it, behind which is a mountain that is bigger than it, on top of which another one-mile ice sheet lies.
Humility in the Wild
The scale and breadth of that. I was very privileged enough to go to Antarctica in 2022 with Quark Expeditions, and they run an incredible program for clients. That is life-changing. You leave something like that, the same as once you have done your very first African safari and you have been in the bush, you leave changed. You suddenly realize that actually the world is a very big place, made very small by a very few people.
It is so true. It's funny, I have done two safaris, and I remember years ago I had gotten some surgery done in Costa Rica. I used to live in Costa Rica. I read it was Denis Waitley who had written a book, and I forget exactly what the book was called, but it was about his journey to Africa and the safari that he did. The big takeaway that I got from the book was that is that you're in their territory, the lions and the tigers and all of you're like this, and they're in survival of the fittest, and they can eat you, and you are nothing. It is so humbling to recognize that we are a species as they are.
We think that we're, as humans, act like we're the shit. We're just another animal on the planet. It's just fascinating. Of course, doing the safari and when I did it, it was just the most incredible experience. You're right. It's humbling, it's life-changing, it's awe-inspiring. Seeing Northern Lights. I had a friend who just saw the Southern Lights on a cruise. She was in Australia.
I have never seen the Southern Lights yet, but I will because she is just the woman off the wall. It's just so exciting. There is so much to see, so much to do. I'm thrilled to have you with us. We could go on for hours, you and I, because we have this passion. Unfortunately, we've got to close this baby out. People want to get in touch with you. We'll put what you call it. If people are booking with you and they mentioned that they saw the podcast or whatever, you've got a few special things up your sleeve.
We always do, yeah. The key thing is if you're watching this now and you want to reach out, just mention that you saw us on this. We are going to do something a little bit unique for you when you book with us. I am not telling you what it is exactly, but needless to say, we will make sure that the experience lingers long after you get home.
We love secrets. We love and it's funny that the term surprise and delight is something that I got from Branson. Having been to Branson's gyms, they added Virgin Active, they expanded Thailand years ago, and I was there opening, and they would have surprise and delight things, and you know whether they were cutting hair or they were doing drinks in the lobby, whatever it was, I love that concept. You guys mentioned Pride Nomad and the Pride Nomad letter or the podcast, whatever. You will have surprise and delight.
We call them moments that matter.
I like that. Duncan, what's one thing that people should know right now before we say goodnight?
The one thing you should know is book the trip. Do not linger. Do n ot stop. Just do it because life is too short for you not to get out there and see what else is going on in the world. There are so many experiences just waiting for you, and the more adventurous you can be, I think the richer you are going to have in terms of your emotional connection to the world. You are going to leave places with stories, incredible insights, incredible experiences, loads of new friends. It's the one thing I say to a client if they're traveling on their own, for example, or if they're traveling just as a small group of friends or couples. Do not be afraid to talk to strangers. In certain societies and cultures around the world, you have this opportunity, and they want to talk to you.
They do.
That's probably what I would say. Do not be afraid to book the trip.
I appreciate it. I've got to give you this little story because you'll appreciate that since you mentioned this. People learn from this. My mother and I travel together a lot, not because I am a momma's boy, but because we are great travel partners. We were in Nepal a number of years ago, and we were walking through Kathmandu before we were going to get on the tour that we were supposed to be on, and walking down the street, this handsome young man starts talking to us, and we're thinking, "We're about to get ripped off."
Saying Yes to Local Magic
It's a scam, but he was interesting and cute, not gay, but just cute. We followed him, started working with him, and it turned out it was the most amazing day we really ever had. We still remember it. He took us to his school. He walked us through. It was the Festival of Women that day, which is a big deal there, and he took us to that, took us to his family, and we danced on their roof. All because we said yes. Yes, you want to be smart, for sure, but saying yes really matters, and it was a day we will never forget. It’s magical. That's the beauty of this thing because you learn so much about other communities, and we will never forget Kathmandu.
Those memories last a lifetime.
For real, absolutely, so you wanted some fun memories were there. Get with Duncan, check out the notes, and the contact information is shown. I cannot even speak. I'm so excited now. I'm also on two hours of sleep. Duncan, thank you so much. I would love to have you back.
Thank you very much for having me. I would love to be back next time as well.
Have a great one. Goodnight, everybody.
Important Links
Duncan Greenfield-Turk on LinkedIn
About Duncan Greenfield-Turk
Nearly thirty years designing luxury travel teaches you to ask better questions than most people expect. Not just where you want to go, but why now, why there, and what you want to feel when you arrive. That is the conversation I have with every client. It is also why they tend to come back. I am the Chief Travel Designer at Global Travel Moments, a proudly LGBTQIA+-owned practice with offices in London, New York, and Beverly Hills.
I work personally with each client from the first conversation through to the moment they return home, designing journeys that are specific to them, not adapted from a template. My experience spans every category of luxury travel: honeymoons and celebration journeys, multigenerational family trips, private expeditions, and considered solo travel that requires a great deal of trust to design well.
What I bring to every brief is thirty years of earned relationships with the world's finest hotels and operators, and an understanding of how to translate who you are into a journey that feels as though it could only have been made for you.
