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Meet Francesca: i-to-i representative

"I'm willing to try anything once and am a very outgoing person - which are both great character traits to have when travelling. Not only do you make a lot of friends overseas, but when doing things like white-water rafting, skydiving and water skiing you can easily re-assure yourself that if you didn't like it you have at least tried it once and have some good stories to tell.

I'm also loud (so people tell me) - though I don't mean to be! And when things get too serious, I tend to lighten it up by cracking jokes. That really helped on crazy, sometimes stressful bus trips in Central America... and the Philippines... and Egypt... well, everywhere really."

Where have you travelled?
Up to the age of 19, I spent nearly every summer going to an island called Formentera, south of Ibiza, because my Dad runs a travel agency specialising in holidays there. I guess that's where I was infected with the travel bug.

I've also been to Switzerland, Germany, France, Holland, Prague, Roatan Island (off the coast of Honduras), Honduras, Guatemala, Australia, Thailand, Malaysia, Singapore, Hong Kong, The Philippines, Egypt, America, Mexico, Scotland and Wales.

What were your most unusual travel experiences?
I have a sneaky feeling extreme weather follows me...

1. I was caught in Hurricane Mitch in Honduras in 1998 and had to sleep in an aisle in a warehouse for five days.

2. I was also stranded by a cyclone in Thailand.

3. And then another in the Philippines!

What are your top five tips for other travellers?
1. Pack a sarong - they can be used as a sheet, to wrap smelly pillows, as a skirt, a towel, to lie on the beach with and I'm sure there are many more uses (as a head band? to mop your brow? strain your tea?). Indispensable.

2. Drink bottled water and lots of it! It was my mantra, and it really annoyed everyone I travelled with but it is SO important.

3. To save space take travel-sized bottles and remove all packaging from things like paracetamol. I even cut around the foil on my anti-malarial tablets so i could fit them into camera film canisters.

4. If you use a Lonely Planet or Rough Guide don't rely on them totally. They are useful for the maps and other guidelines, but often it can prove more valuable to go to a local travel agent or tourist info place and find out what there is to do in the place.

5. Take some British stamps along so that if you meet Brits going home you can give them a letter to take back for you. Post can be unreliable overseas - to say the least!

Can you recount one memorable tale from travelling?
I was once waiting for a train to leave Thailand and a Thai monk smiled at me. Not only that, but he rummaged round in his bright orange 'wrap' - the only clothing they wear - and pulled out a multi coloured wrist band which is meant to give you luck. This was amazing for many reasons. I spent the whole trip in Thailand willing a monk to smile at me, and here he was, the only one, just before I was set to leave. It is unusual for a monk to have contact with women at all but he didn't touch me just placed the band quickly in my lap, smiled and walked away. I still have it, and its over four years old and in one piece.




Name: i-to-i
Address: Woodside House, 261 Low Lane, Horsforth, LS18 5NY
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Tel: 0845 344 7592