Hollie Stebbings - Sales

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Hollie Stebbings - Sales

Sales Consultant

Hollie joined the Imaginative family in 2016 after a wealth of experience travelling the world, joining our busy Sales team as a consultant.

A little bit about Hollie

I got the travel bug early, after culture-packed family holidays to destinations around Europe and North Africa. Whilst working full-time and studying literature part-time at university, I've spent all of my spare money and holiday time on seeing the world. I've travelled around Syria and Turkey; many places in Europe including Romania, Hungary, Slovenia, Italy and Spain; Morocco and Tunisia in the North of Africa and the Gambia in the West. I've travelled most extensively in India though - this has been mainly backpacking, but I was lucky enough to live and work in New Delhi in 2015, interning in a publishing house. There I was able to get under the skin of my favourite country as well as indulging my passion for literature. After working in the health food industry for fourteen years and managing a thriving independent health food/Asian grocery business in my local town, I decided I was more than ready for a change. On the day I made that decision, a job came up at Dragoman and now here I am!

- What's your favourite destination? 

India is undoubtedly my favourite destination and somewhere I will keep on returning to as long as I live. It ticks all of my boxes, including food, music, art, architecture, wildlife, history and colour. The people of India are like no other I've ever met. Welcoming, funny and delightful, yet infuriating and indecisive, and all things in between - they make the destination for me.

- What has been the most surprising destination that you've been to?

I would say Varanasi in India. I felt quite apprehensive about visiting the holy city after foolishly listening to bad stories from friends and other travellers who had already been. When I arrived in the chaotic tangle of people, animals and rickshaws (and got over the initial shock of it all!), I found it to be the most fascinating, beautiful and strangely peaceful place I've ever visited and fully regretted not allowing more time for it in my itinerary. 

- What has been your favourite or most memorable occasion whilst travelling?

There are too many to mention, but to narrow it down to a few - travelling on one of the highest motorable passes in the world in Ladakh; celebrating New Year's Eve in Istanbul; and an encounter with the secret police in Syria involving a choc-ice!

- Where is the next destination on your list? 

There are several destinations I'm keen to visit, and Jordan and Iran are neck-and-neck at the top of the list right now, closely followed by Georgia and a lot of Central Asia.

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