Guest Bio
Christopher Hill is the founder and CEO of Hands Up Holidays and Impact Destinations, two pioneering travel brands that blend luxury adventure with purposeful giving. Based in New Zealand, Christopher curates transformative journeys for mostly US-based families, couples, and solo travelers who want to explore the world while making a meaningful impact. His personal story—from a finance career to leading life-changing travel experiences—is rooted in a passion for cultural connection and responsible tourism. At home, he enjoys family life with his wife, two sons, and their dog, Zola.
Show Summary
In this episode of the Big World Made Small Adventure Travel Podcast, host Jason Elkins sits down with Christopher Hill to explore the philosophy behind Hands Up Holidays and Impact Destinations. Christopher shares how his personal journey, including a pivotal trip to South Africa, inspired him to create travel experiences that are not only luxurious and adventurous but also grounded in service and contribution.
The conversation delves into how these curated trips help travelers connect with local communities, foster empathy, and leave a lasting positive legacy. Christopher also offers insight into the New Zealand tradition of taking gap years abroad, the benefits of family volunteer travel, and how authentic engagement can transform both the traveler and the destination. His hands-on approach ensures that each trip is tailored with care, creating journeys that matter.
Key Takeaways
- ✓ Purpose-driven travel can be both luxurious and deeply fulfilling.
- ✓ Hands Up Holidays specializes in family-friendly itineraries that include meaningful service components.
- ✓ Impact Destinations caters to travelers seeking immersive, high-end experiences with a philanthropic focus.
- ✓ Christopher’s transition from finance to travel entrepreneurship was sparked by eye-opening experiences abroad.
- ✓ New Zealand’s culture of overseas exploration shapes his global perspective on travel and education.
- ✓ Volunteering during travel can be a powerful way to instill empathy in children and young adults.
- ✓ Connecting with local communities adds depth and authenticity to the travel experience.
- ✓ Each trip is customized, with Christopher personally involved in the planning process.
- ✓ Responsible tourism means co-creating experiences that benefit both the visitor and the host community.
- ✓ Travel, when done thoughtfully, has the power to inspire change and foster global citizenship.
What You’ll Find on Hands Up Holidays
- Luxury travel combined with hands-on volunteer experiences
- Family-focused itineraries that create deeper connections
- Personalized trip planning with direct founder involvement
- Opportunities to give back while exploring remarkable destinations
- A commitment to ethical, responsible tourism practices
- Unforgettable journeys that inspire purpose and connection
Learn more about Hands Up Holidays and connect with Christopher at:
https://handsupholidays.com
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Podcast Transcript
This transcript is auto-generated on recording, and has not been edited by a human. It may contain lots of mistakes, crazy words, and stuff that makes no sense. The host and the guest are not responsible for the accuracy of the transcript.
Jason Elkins (00:01.174)
Welcome back everybody to another episode of the Big World Made Small podcast for the adventure traveler. I’m super excited today. We’ve got Christopher Hill here with us. He’s got a couple of things going on that we’re gonna dig into, but Christopher is the founder and CEO of two businesses, Hands Up Holidays and Impact Destinations. Christopher, so happy to have you on the show. Thanks for joining us.
Christopher Hill (00:25.482)
It’s my pleasure, Jason. Thank you so much for having me.
Jason Elkins (00:28.66)
One of the fun things about technology now and just the nature of the show is most of my guests are in different places than I am. So we’re sitting here doing this on a computer screen. So some of our listeners aren’t able to see your face, but the question I want to start with is where in the world are you right now?
Christopher Hill (00:47.118)
Auckland, New Zealand.
Jason Elkins (00:49.352)
Auckland, New Zealand, very cool. And I’m here in Tbilisi, Georgia, the country of Georgia for those that don’t know. And isn’t technology amazing that we can meet and have these conversations almost as though we were in person. So thanks for coming in. What time is it there in Auckland?
Christopher Hill (01:07.438)
It is 7pm in the evening.
Jason Elkins (01:10.142)
All right, well, thanks for taking some time out of your evening to join us. Christopher, I’ve got a bunch of questions, a lot of things that I wanna discuss with you. We had a conversation before and you were referred over to me by someone else that thought we should connect and super excited to see where it goes. But let’s start with, I wanna give our listeners an opportunity, kind of get their heads around, what is Hands Up Holidays? And as well, what is Impact Destinations? So maybe we’ll do.
Christopher Hill (01:15.854)
Pressure.
Jason Elkins (01:37.568)
two pitches, kind of that 60 second elevator pitch for, let’s start with hands up holidays and go from there.
Christopher Hill (01:44.526)
Sure, Hands Up Holidays is a luxury travel company that focuses on family trips that combine sightseeing with an aspect of giving back through hands-on service projects such as house building or being a reading partner or wildlife conservation, all mixed together.
Jason Elkins (02:07.554)
Very cool. guess I gotta ask. I mean, I get the hands part, you know, but was there more to it with the hands up? Because if you don’t know any better, you might think it was something totally different.
Christopher Hill (02:16.428)
Yeah. True, true, true. Yeah, there’s various connotations to hands up. Yeah, I took a couple of them from like a hand up and not a handout. And, and then also sort of, you know, hands up who wants to help is the idea.
Jason Elkins (02:24.066)
You
Jason Elkins (02:31.358)
yep.
Jason Elkins (02:36.61)
Okay. Very, very good. Cause as, as I was imagining it before, was like, okay, you know, somebody that’s maybe a little hesitant to travel for safety reasons. You know, we hear conversations, oh, it’s dangerous there. Oh, you’re going to get robbed or whatever. But so I just throwing that out there. That’s not the case. It has nothing to do with the name of your, of your company. And I trust that you’ve never had a instance like incidents like that, or maybe you have, I don’t know. You got a story for us.
Christopher Hill (02:47.854)
You
Christopher Hill (02:53.997)
Yeah.
Christopher Hill (03:02.146)
We have not. No, we have not. Lots of stories, but not one of those.
Jason Elkins (03:05.154)
Okay. Good deal. let’s before I forget, let’s touch on impact destinations as well. What makes it a little bit different and what’s the deal there?
Christopher Hill (03:17.932)
Yeah, with Impact Destinations, the idea is that it’s a traveller’s philanthropic donation, which enables the experts in the destination to do what they do best, and at the same time, unlocks a unique experience for the traveller. And that might sound a little bit esoteric, so to give you an example, say on a safari day in South Africa, guests actually get to witness and participate in a rhino relocation.
from a reserve that’s facing a lot of poaching to a better protected reserve in Botswana. So this is where the guests actually go to the helicopter with the veterinarian while he’s darting the rhino. And then once the rhino is sedated, land and spend some time with that sedated rhino, and then see it get airlifted off to Botswana. It’s about being able to say, know, I saved the life of a rhino whilst on my vacation.
Jason Elkins (04:16.414)
Is it, maybe I’m just creating this story in my head, but one difference I came up with out of the two is hands up being a little bit more hands on, building something, you know, whereas maybe impact destinations was.
kind of more empowering the experts to do what they’re doing anyway, and maybe seeing it, witnessing it, but not necessarily flying the helicopter or shooting the tranquilizer darts. that?
Christopher Hill (04:47.82)
Yeah, yeah, you’ve nailed it really, Jason. Maybe one more example just to give you a bit more flesh to it would be in Australia, we offer the opportunity for guests to fund a scholarship for a promising Aboriginal arts student. And in return for that funding, they then get to spend time with an established Aboriginal artist from whom they can commission their own work of art.
Jason Elkins (05:10.45)
okay. All right. That does help. Yeah, that’s very cool. And I guess you’ve mentioned Africa, you mentioned Australia. Give us kind of an idea of the scope of places that your guests are typically visiting.
Christopher Hill (05:24.514)
Hmm. Yeah, typically they’re through Asia, Africa, Latin America. But there is a bit in Australasia, Pacific as well, and a bit in Europe and a bit in North America. But the majority are that Africa, Asia, Latin America.
Jason Elkins (05:41.322)
Okay. And the majority, we don’t, I’m not going to, we’re not going to dissect your business, but I’m just curious. You know, I don’t even want to use the word demographics, but your typical guests, are they Kiwis or from all around the world? Or what does that mix look like?
Christopher Hill (05:55.854)
Yeah, yeah, great question. Right from the beginning, and we’ve been going for nearly 20 years now, it’s been Americans that have been booking with us. And that’s remained at sort of 90, 95 % of our clients is Americans, followed by Brits, and then followed by Aussies, Kiwis, Germans, French, Canadians after that.
Jason Elkins (06:17.93)
Okay, that’s interesting. So if I were to go onto your website and look around, is it presented kind of as an American? I’m not saying misrepresented, I’m just saying if the majority of your clients are from the States, then it would make sense. I’m just curious.
Christopher Hill (06:34.688)
Yeah, well to the extent that all our pricing is in US dollars, yes.
Jason Elkins (06:38.174)
Okay, that right there’s probably answers my question. So, all right. Very, cool. And Christopher, let’s figure out how the heck did you get from where you were to where you are now? You’re doing some pretty cool things and I suspect there is a little bit of a story. So how far back do we need to go to understand how you got into all this?
Christopher Hill (06:58.348)
Hmm. Need to go back really about just, just over 20 years. And, that’s basically a trip that I took in 2002 to South Africa. And I was working in, finance in London at the time, London, England. And on that trip, in addition to going on safari and
staying in beautiful lodges and exploring the wonders of Cape Town and the garden route and so on. I also helped to build a house for a family in one of the townships. And this enriched my whole travel experience in two main ways. One, it enabled me to actually get to interact with the local people and…
and gain insights into their lives and hear their stories and swap laughs with them. And I’d done quite a bit of travel leading up to that, which is all fantastic, but that element was for the most part missing. And then secondly, it just felt great to actually make a difference in the lives of this family that we were helping alongside to build the house for. So I got thinking, well, I’ve learned some good business skills.
why don’t I put in something I’d find a bit more meaningful and fulfilling and enable others to have similar experiences like I’ve just had. So that was the genesis of what became Hands Up Holidays.
Jason Elkins (08:29.312)
Wonderful. You just gave me so many questions. So I guess the first one, let’s go back a little further if you don’t mind, because I heard you say I was working in finance. I had traveled a bit before and that this one trip is the first trip that it kind of introduced the element of that connecting with the community and, you know, providing support. So let’s go back.
Christopher Hill (08:32.046)
You
Jason Elkins (08:56.534)
when you were a kid, you plan to go into finance all along? How did you end up in finance?
Christopher Hill (08:59.95)
Gosh, yeah, you’re really digging deep there, Jason. No, definitely not as a kid. And even a few months before getting the job in finance, I wasn’t even necessarily planning on doing that. I did a law degree, a law and business. And I was all set to, I accepted a job with a law firm and was
Jason Elkins (09:16.29)
Okay. What did you major in in school?
Jason Elkins (09:22.901)
Okay, all right.
Christopher Hill (09:30.262)
all set to start with them. They had agreed for me to travel for about nine months before starting with them. And my thought process at that time was, well, yeah, I’ll travel and see the world and just travel out of my system and then settle down behind a desk and start my career. So that was my thinking at that point. And then I got that job just at the start of my last year of college.
And during that last year, I ended up winning a scholarship from one of the investment banks, a British investment bank. And it was through that, so this was in New Zealand, and it was through that, that they then said, can we send your resume to London? And I said, sure, why not? And so then I was traveling as per, I’d agreed with my law firm and I,
Jason Elkins (10:19.074)
Mm-hmm.
Christopher Hill (10:27.542)
eventually got to the UK and and got in contact with the with the bank and, and had a bunch of interviews and I got thinking, well, you know, one, I sure wasn’t gonna get a job offer, but I thought if I did, I should accept it because I’d always regret it if I didn’t. I know really.
Jason Elkins (10:47.168)
Why is that?
Christopher Hill (10:50.286)
Well, because when I got to London, I loved London and just the electricity in the air. I thought, this is actually an amazing city. I did visit it when I was 15 and really didn’t enjoy it at all. I thought it was this dirty, crowded, polluted place that I can’t believe people live here. as someone in their early 20s, it was totally different perspective. And so, yeah, so.
Jason Elkins (10:54.335)
Okay.
Jason Elkins (11:12.492)
A lot more fun, huh? I can imagine.
Christopher Hill (11:19.086)
So I thought, yeah, I’d love to some time here and, and, uh, there’s, a lot of energy in, in the, the field and in the city itself. So yeah, that was why I was thinking, yeah, I’d love to give it a shot. and, and, so I, yeah, I did get the job offer and yeah, the rest is history.
Jason Elkins (11:36.61)
Okay, so out of the nine months that you’d planned to travel, how far did you get into that before you got the job offer and decided to move to London?
Christopher Hill (11:46.656)
Yeah, I got about seven months into it. Seven months, yeah.
Jason Elkins (11:51.924)
Okay, all right. Did you feel at the time that you got the travel out of your system?
Christopher Hill (11:57.846)
Wow, could be further from the truth. only just started juicing the, I don’t know the expression, it only just opened my eyes to all that’s possible and so many places to see. that adventure’s definitely still continuing.
Jason Elkins (12:19.19)
You know, and I’ve been traveling full time for four years. I missed the opportunity when I was a little younger. so I’m, I’m running into a lot of the gap year people, right? So it sounds like what you were describing as a gap year. And it seems very common for Kiwis. It’s like a, lot of the Kiwis I’ve spoken with did that. A lot of Europeans, people in the States for some reason tend to not do that as often.
Christopher Hill (12:30.574)
Mm.
Christopher Hill (12:37.038)
Mmm.
Jason Elkins (12:46.326)
And I’m just curious kind of what your thoughts along the way are around that. it like, did everybody that you went to school with in New Zealand go take a nine month trip?
Christopher Hill (12:57.62)
No, not everybody, not everybody. But a large number would either go take some time out, either straight after university, college, or they would work for two to three years here in New Zealand and then go overseas. It’s pretty much a rite of passage. It’s called the OE from…
for what New Zealanders call it, OE, overseas experience. And yeah, as I say, it’s right of passage to do it. No matter if you’re in that sort professional mindset of doing it as a lawyer or a banker or an accountant, or right through to people getting bar jobs as well, it’s very common.
Jason Elkins (13:46.54)
What do you, I don’t want to guess what you’re going to say, so I’m just going to ask you, what do you attribute that to for people that grow up in New Zealand?
Christopher Hill (13:55.182)
Mm. I attribute it to the fact that we are so isolated here that, um, you know, we’re, you know, it’s an amazing country and a beautiful country. Um, but there is still the sense of just being so far from, from everything and far from the action that, uh, it, you know, we’ve got to, got to spread our wings and, you know, a couple of other factors I think would be, you know, we’re, we’re a young country, you know, in terms of
you know, the early settlers, you know, came here in the 1800s. And so there is, you know, it’s, you don’t have to go that far, that many generations back before you get people who’ve, you know, traveled on a boat for months to get here. So it’s that part’s in our DNA.
Jason Elkins (14:42.754)
So getting in an airplane, still getting on an airplane for 17 hours is just part of your DNA. It’s like, this is easy compared to, okay. Yeah. Yeah. I.
Christopher Hill (14:50.516)
Yeah, yeah, yeah, that’s right. And I think as well, certainly in that sort of professional tier, there’s that aspect of upskilling in a bigger, bigger market, such as, you know, London or New York, for example, or, you know, Australia as well is increasingly attractive. But you’re upskilling and then coming back here with those skills.
Jason Elkins (15:16.002)
Okay. And do parents and like, want to dig into kind of your parents, what was their reaction? I’d be sure there’s two things going on. One is like, okay, he’s going to go away for nine months and then come back and work for the law firm or, but Nope, he’s staying in London. So what was going on with the parents and how is that similar to what you think other parents in New Zealand deal with?
Christopher Hill (15:38.702)
Yeah, it’s interesting. You know, now that I now that I have kids of my own, it’s like, yeah, I can’t really full credit to my parents for being so so fine about it, because I at this stage can’t really picture myself being so fine with my kids, you know, just chat, you know, zooping off all over the world. And who knows when they’ll be back if at all.
Jason Elkins (15:45.148)
That was the next question.
Jason Elkins (16:07.755)
Mm-hmm.
Christopher Hill (16:08.449)
I mean, I ended up doing 16 years in London, but my sister, my younger sister did even longer, sort of 20 plus years. So for my parents, was a long time between drinks to get to see them and grandchildren and so on. And yeah, as I say, really full credit to them.
Jason Elkins (16:28.364)
So was just you and your, just you and your sister. only had the two kids.
Christopher Hill (16:32.302)
No, I had two sisters, two sisters who once, so the middle sister did spend some time overseas as well, but not as long as me or my other sister.
Jason Elkins (16:34.773)
Or you I what?
Jason Elkins (16:45.674)
Yeah, either, either way I can imagine. You know, it’s when I visited New Zealand quite a few years ago, I actually was calling my wife at the time and it was the middle of night there. had to call her and wake her up. said, we got to move here. We got to move here. my gosh. It’s so amazing. It’s so beautiful.
And she’s like, that’s a long ways away. That’s, know, I’d be totally isolated from friends, family. So needless to say, we never moved to New Zealand, but it’s kind of like the reverse, the reverse thing. It’s like, I don’t know, it’s the reverse. It’s the same thing. If we had moved there, my parents and her parents would have been dealing with the same thing with grandkids and all that. so I get that. Yeah. So I, so he said, now that I have kids and I mentioned, oh, that was going to be the next question.
was that’s what I wanted to get into is like, do I don’t know how old your kids are, do you, did you, would you encourage them to go have that OE that you mentioned?
Christopher Hill (17:45.016)
Yeah, I would, I would, but it’s kind of, you know, partly through gritted teeth as well. Just, you know, yeah, like, I mean, I have other friends that I moved to London, or moved to London with me around about the same time who have not come back. And that would be really hard for the parents. And if it was my kids, it’d be really hard for me as well. But, you know, I also…
Jason Elkins (17:48.514)
Mm-hmm.
Jason Elkins (18:03.564)
Mm-hmm.
Christopher Hill (18:13.966)
want them to just make their own call and their own judgment on it. And if that’s what they end up deciding to do, then we’ll work around that also.
Jason Elkins (18:23.284)
Right. And I’m not sure, but I suspect because you have a lot of connections overseas. You’re working in this business. You’ve, I suspect that if you needed to, or we’re so inclined, you could help facilitate.
an overseas experience for them that maybe felt a little bit more controlled. Maybe they go work at a lodge in Africa that you’re familiar with and that you’re comfortable with. And, you know, if they don’t write home enough, you can reach out to the lodge owner and say, Hey, next time you see her, could you ever give me a call? as opposed to them just taking off and buying a one way plane ticket somewhere.
Christopher Hill (19:08.664)
Yeah, that’s a, I hadn’t even thought about that, but that’s definitely feasible. Yeah.
Jason Elkins (19:08.738)
I don’t know. What do you think? So, all right, let’s let’s jump back. Your parents, you said that they were very supportive of your desire to do that. Did you have opportunities when you were young, before you went to college to travel with your parents because you’re so far away from everything? Or what did that look like?
Christopher Hill (19:31.95)
We are not, I mean, not that much. Like literally, we, I did one trip overseas, which was to, I mentioned it to England, England and Scotland and Disneyland when I was 15. And that was it. yeah, it’s, you know, my kids have now, you know, they’ve been to, I don’t know, 50 countries in their 12 and 14 sort of thing. So.
Jason Elkins (19:44.522)
Mm-hmm. All right, yep.
Jason Elkins (19:59.134)
Well, that’s what I was, that’s kind of where I was going with that as I suspected that maybe your kids have already had quite a few overseas experiences. Maybe it’s a little different by definition, but I’m also, I’m also curious because you said you didn’t really like UK. You didn’t like London when you went there when you’re 15. I don’t know if you had the opportunity to really discuss with your parents. Why did they choose?
Christopher Hill (20:11.63)
Yes.
Jason Elkins (20:24.842)
London, Scotland, did they have particular interests there and you fought against it the whole time and you got Disneyland or Disney World as a consolation or what was that like?
Christopher Hill (20:28.654)
Christopher Hill (20:33.005)
No, it was even a little weirder than that. My dad was working in sales and, and he won the trip to up to Europe. But actually it was to Greece. And it was but it was just for mom and dad. And as a we as she were sort of bundled off to stay with my cousins in London. So so that was what that was how London came into the picture.
Jason Elkins (20:44.477)
okay.
Jason Elkins (20:57.273)
Okay.
you
Christopher Hill (21:02.124)
And then Scotland was similarly, was, you we’ve got some Scottish, well, I’ve got Scottish relatives. was, when my parents decided, I say decided, facetiously, ended up coming back from Greece. We met up with them and then drove up to Scotland with them.
Jason Elkins (21:19.296)
Did they tell you how wonderful Greece was and show you pictures in Santorini? And you’re like, I’ve been in London the whole time. That was nice of them.
Christopher Hill (21:22.471)
They did, they did, yeah, yeah.
Christopher Hill (21:29.179)
yeah, I wasn’t hating it, but you know, it just wouldn’t, it just didn’t appeal to me as a place to live. That’s for sure.
Jason Elkins (21:34.55)
Yeah, yeah, I get that. Do you remember at that time, if they’d come to you when you were 15 and said, dad, want to trip anywhere in the world for two weeks and, we can take the kids and we’re all going together. Where would you have wanted to go? Do you remember thinking about that? I know I don’t remember anything when I was fifth. Well, I remember a few things, but.
Christopher Hill (21:58.958)
That’s a really interesting question.
Christopher Hill (22:06.336)
It would have been somewhere probably like Hawaii, I’m guessing.
Jason Elkins (22:09.834)
Okay. Yeah. Yeah. That’s a, that’s a, that’s a common one. Absolutely. So, all right. Very, cool. So jump back to your kids real quick. It sounds like they’ve done a lot. said 50 countries and they’re teenagers.
Christopher Hill (22:24.238)
Yeah, yeah.
Well, one’s not quite 12 and 14.
Jason Elkins (22:31.682)
Wow. Do you think they fully appreciate it? Because they’re at that age. I’ve got some kids as well. up to a certain point, they were pretty excited about some of this stuff. And then there was an age where they didn’t want to go because they wanted to spend their summers with their friends and all that stuff. So where are your kids?
Christopher Hill (22:52.28)
Yeah, they’re not quite at that point yet. But you know, it’s not too far off. Yeah, so they’re they’re definitely happy to travel with us. And we were increasingly, you know, doing collaborative travel, getting their input on what they’d like to do. But yeah, they’re happy to do it, obviously happy whilst we’re paying for it. And but yeah, I think, you know, particularly that the 14 year old, you know, he’s not
Jason Elkins (23:14.901)
you
Christopher Hill (23:20.598)
maybe in the next year or two, it’ll be rather hang out with his friends. And then like last year, we did a trip to Vietnam and with some friends of his as well, family friends. So that worked out really nicely.
Jason Elkins (23:32.342)
Hmm. Okay. Do you, suspect that there’s a lot of projects that they participate in when they travel with you. I suspect there’s moments when they’re digging holes or stacking bags of sand or bricks or whatever. And so what I want to ask you about that is I remember when I was younger and I had an opportunity to travel with my dad quite a bit, mostly around the U.S. and then
Christopher Hill (23:47.18)
Yeah.
Christopher Hill (23:51.747)
Yeah.
Jason Elkins (24:01.986)
I just have a lot of memories of him having, putting me to work. I’m just going to say it that way. A lot of times I felt like, oh, this is a fun, cool place to be, but I was busy working. He’s like, no, I need you to go do this instead of do what you want to do. It never really felt like vacation. So I’m wondering how your kids manage when you say, oh, we’re going to Vietnam. And then there may be, I don’t know.
digging holes, doing the hands on stuff. Do they appreciate that? Do they enjoy that? Do they gripe and complain? Maybe you don’t want them to listen to this episode. I don’t know. What are you willing to share?
Christopher Hill (24:36.983)
Yeah, well, initially, we’ve done a few trips like that now. And initially, there was some hesitation for sure. But once they got involved with it, they embraced it, which I was delighted to see. As you’ve said, drawing water from the well and then carrying it over to where the cement’s being mixed and then getting involved with mixing the cement and then spading it into the wheelbarrow, then wheeling it over to the…
to the experts are doing, you know, the tricky parts or getting on the end of a paintbrush. Or, no, it’s not or, and really importantly, actually playing with local kids as well. You know, soccer or just, you know, just play. It’s really rewarding and so now they’re definitely embracing it. Yeah.
Jason Elkins (25:16.886)
Mm-hmm.
Jason Elkins (25:31.83)
I think this is super relevant both to just start conversation, but what you do now with hands up holidays, you facilitate families to go do this. So this part of why I wanted to get here in the conversation is like,
Christopher Hill (25:39.661)
Totally. Yeah, yeah.
Jason Elkins (25:48.928)
The person that in their head thinks, okay, I’m going to take my kid to Tanzania, whatever, and ask them to mix concrete. And in their head, they’re hearing their child say, this is my vacation. I shouldn’t have to do this. I am on vacation. I worked hard in school all year. I’m on vacation. Cause that’s the fear that’s going through some people’s heads if they’ve never done it.
Christopher Hill (26:16.301)
Sure.
Jason Elkins (26:18.614)
but you’ve done it and based just the nature of your business, you have more experience with this particular scenario than the vast majority of people. So what do you say to that person that thinks, yeah, I wish I could get my kids to go help and build a house.
Christopher Hill (26:34.253)
Well, I’d say, silly, from our, how we position things is really that, yeah, let’s take Tanzania, we do have projects there, which is building houses for teachers, so that they can live near to a school. And, and how we position it really is to say that, yeah, you might spend a couple of days doing that. But
out of your, you know, eight, 10 day trip to Tanzania, that’s two days and the rest of the time is going on safari and going out to Zanzibar Island and, and go and go to Crater and so on. So, you know, it’s, it’s really emphasizing that it is still a vacation really, but with this sort of taste of, of hands on giving back as well.
Jason Elkins (27:27.458)
Okay, and how do you, you know, cause the way we write an itinerary or plan an itinerary, there’s a lot of kind of nuances to that. We kind of want to build the experience typically. And so do you do the hands-on stuff typically at the beginning of the experience, especially if you’ve got kids or do you build up to that or how does that fit into the end of the mix?
Christopher Hill (27:50.318)
Yeah, well, I mean, it’s important to say that every every trip is is unique, you know, it’s individually tailored for each client. And so it depends. The bottom line is, it depends what the client wants to do. But the the flow that I would start with, you know, lead with would be to put it in the middle so that you you’re doing some sort of, you know,
Jason Elkins (27:58.816)
Mm-hmm.
Christopher Hill (28:18.325)
activity type things. Yeah, let’s say it’s a trip to Costa Rica, and you’re doing some zip lining and whitewater rafting and bean to bar chocolate making and nature trails and so on. And then then in the middle, you can be doing some wildlife conservation at an animal rescue center, or you could be helping
Jason Elkins (28:20.407)
Mm-mm.
Christopher Hill (28:44.875)
renovate a school, whatever it is, that’s in the middle. And then some time at the end, typically sort of beach time. So you go to a new location and have some more sort of classic flip and flop, just chill out time. Maybe snorkeling or surf lessons if you want as well, but that’s the typical flow. you do activities, then you do the service project and then relax.
Jason Elkins (29:11.458)
Okay, so that being said, I kind of framed the question as a, when do you put the work part compared to when do you put the fun part? But I suspect that a lot of the feedback you get after trips, I suspect a lot of the reviews you get highlight the quote unquote work part as being the highlight of their trip. I mean, look at you, you started a business because of it. Right?
Christopher Hill (29:35.191)
Totally. That’s right. Yeah, Yep.
Jason Elkins (29:39.828)
So it’s very, cool. What do you, and I also suspect that you’ve either personally been along on trips with clients and watched them that moment when the light bulb went on or maybe when their kids light bulb went on or you heard about it afterwards.
And I don’t want to put you on the spot, but if you’ve got any stories or any, any people that you remember over the years that changed their lives the way you did. mean, went from working in finance in London to doing these types of holidays for families. mean, that’s pretty profound yourself. And I suspect you’ve seen some other profound shifts.
Christopher Hill (30:15.564)
Yeah.
Christopher Hill (30:21.643)
Yeah, we have, we have. A few that spring to mind would be, one I love was a family that traveled with us to Morocco and they were helping to build a library at a school. And so got a lot of interaction with the children at the school and Christmas time came around for them and they decided that they said that they didn’t want to
have their Christmas presents. They want to give their Christmas presents to the children that they were interacting with at the school. And so yeah, that was one really lovely story. And then others that are kind of even more transformational, this is in quite early days. So going back to about 2007, there was a woman who just retired, and she was wanted to travel with us.
Jason Elkins (30:57.204)
cool.
Christopher Hill (31:20.141)
Um, just retires in her like sixties, but she’d never really traveled before either. Um, and, and I can’t remember how, but we identified Kenya as where to go, but, required a lot of, um, handholding to get her over the line with this. And even when she was over the line, you know, to, to get off the plane and so on, she was, you know, yeah, a bit of an anxious traveler, shall we say. And, and so, uh, yeah.
Jason Elkins (31:26.198)
Hmm.
Jason Elkins (31:36.652)
Mm-hmm.
Jason Elkins (31:43.424)
Mm-hmm.
Christopher Hill (31:48.109)
we did the trip, she was helping at a community in Kenya and loved it so much that pretty much straight after she got back home, she’d booked the next flight out. independent of us, she had rented her own apartment and bought a car there and just driving all around. And so that was just an incredible thing to see. So she spent another three months in Kenya, just
Jason Elkins (32:12.13)
Wow!
Christopher Hill (32:18.478)
of her own back from one of our trips. And then we had a family that traveled to India with us who were so impacted by it that they literally the whole family moved to India for a year. So those are definitely extreme by far and away. Most of our clients, the vast majority of our clients do not do that, but it’s happened.
Jason Elkins (32:22.05)
I love that.
Jason Elkins (32:32.47)
Wow.
Jason Elkins (32:42.53)
Well, it’s pretty cool because there mean, realistically, there are a lot of people that haven’t had the opportunities to go do things outside the country. And it might feel very overwhelming, but then they, find a trusted partner to, handle some of those logistics and set things up for them. And then all of a sudden, once they’ve done it, they’re like, my gosh, that was fine.
I didn’t speak the language and I still survived. didn’t go hungry. I had a place to stay. I had cell service. My maps worked on my phone. Maybe all these stories I had in my head about how intimidating all these places were weren’t quite the reality. And especially if you’re doing a trip like yours, where you’re actually spending time with the locals doing stuff because I mean, frankly, if you
Christopher Hill (33:09.411)
Yeah.
Jason Elkins (33:38.194)
Be careful how say this, but if you go on a typical safari and you, they pick you up at the airport and you’ve got a guide who deals with tourists all day or, you know, transfer driver, you go to a lodge where you’ve got a small staff that deals with tourists all day and you don’t really leave that environment.
You’re not really going to feel like you met Africa. You know, you’ve met some Africans that are working at a, at a lodge or safari guides. But when you go there and you know, they put you in a van and they drive you, know, an hour and a half over to some small village and you’re sitting there with the ladies doing this or with the guys doing that and playing with the kids. You’re like, these people are just people.
Christopher Hill (34:03.406)
True True Sure, sure,
Jason Elkins (34:29.09)
Wow, isn’t that weird? Who would have thunk it? And I think that’s really cool that probably you’ve had more people convert into, I don’t know if you want to call it solo travel, not solo travels, but maybe independent travelers, I guess. I don’t know that’s the right word. You’ve probably had more people convert to independent travelers than the vast majority of the guests I’ve had on this podcast. I don’t know, just a thought. So, and not that there’s wrong with.
Christopher Hill (34:29.592)
Mm, mm, mm, yeah.
Christopher Hill (34:53.122)
Yeah, maybe, yeah.
Jason Elkins (34:57.704)
Either way, you know, don’t have to become an independent traveler to be a traveler. So, and I just, it’s an interesting concept to me. What do you, probably what’s the thing, I mean, I guess maybe I’ve touched on this, but what’s the thing that you think…
Christopher Hill (34:59.01)
So so
Jason Elkins (35:16.978)
surprises the most people about your trips. What’s the I mean, maybe we just discussed it, but what’s the thing that you, you know, and I know you’ve got a wide variety of trips, but like, I’m sure there’s some consistent like, I didn’t think this or I thought that that you, you feel like you’d just like to share right now if there’s anything.
Christopher Hill (35:36.045)
Yeah, well, pre trip that, you the number of times I’ve spoken to people who say I had no idea that you could travel in luxury and make a difference. Yeah, it’s, yeah, it’s, mean, that’s our mission really is to make people aware that it is actually possible.
Jason Elkins (35:48.898)
That’s a good one.
Jason Elkins (36:03.202)
That’s very cool. And if some reason when you said the word pre trip, something else just popped into my head. because as you know, as we both know, there’s different types of travelers and some people want to have every single detail spelled out for them. So there are, so they feel like there won’t be any surprises to, and then there’s other people that don’t care. Like,
You got the flights booked, right? Someone’s going to pick me up at the airport. Okay, great. And then you’ve got the type that wants to know all the details, but doesn’t read anything. So I know you’re like the person that sends you a message every other day. Hey, who’s going to meet us at the airport? Hey, our, our drinks included that night or whatever. And you’re just, and you want to just say, did you read your materials? Did you read the stuff we sent you?
Christopher Hill (36:56.11)
you
Jason Elkins (36:59.016)
anything you want to say on that or should we just move right on past that? I never brought it up.
Christopher Hill (37:05.102)
Yeah, mean, not too much to add just to say that, obviously you get all sorts and you just adapt to what the client temperament is.
Jason Elkins (37:07.618)
You
Jason Elkins (37:16.672)
Yep. That’s a, that’s a perfect response. I’m not even sure why I brought that up. Just something when you said planning it, maybe it triggered me back to it, back to the day that I was dealing with more, more, but you just love them to death. You know, it’s like, but of course it’s the, you know, when they send you the message and WhatsApp on, you know, Saturday evening when you’re not with your family, you’re like, it’s in the planner. I sent you, but anyway, boy. We haven’t, mean,
Christopher Hill (37:25.656)
can be triggering. Yes.
Christopher Hill (37:31.222)
Jason Elkins (37:45.74)
Would the entire conversation we’ve had pretty much apply to impact destinations as well? Anything different about that that you want to make sure that we add in there?
Christopher Hill (37:55.872)
Yeah, great question, Jason.
Well.
Impact destinations isn’t as focused on families as Hands Up Holidays is. So it’s, in theory, got a broader appeal. think we have fewer, Impact Destination is quite a bit newer. And so there’s fewer destinations there. Sorry. And
I think, however, the experience you can have is still really profound. And you can still, obviously, particularly with our community projects that we have, get interaction with the local people. And for me, that’s where the magic happens.
Jason Elkins (38:55.806)
Yeah, I absolutely agree. You know, guess that brought up one thing. I’m happy that you mentioned the family connection again. Should our listeners go away with this idea that Hands Up Holidays is only for families? Like should they have tuned out when they heard us say families? Or can you do you mentioned the 60 year old that you sent to Kenya? I don’t know if that was a part of a family or what, but I feel like we should touch on that. Okay. All right.
Christopher Hill (39:19.232)
Yeah, yeah, exactly. Exactly. No, no, she was shopping on her own. Yeah. Yeah. No, certainly not. when I’m to answer what I mean by certainly not, certainly not don’t tune out. We, we get all sorts of clients. And the majority are families, but we get, I’m just mentioning, you know, solo travelers, we get couples, we get honeymooners. And we get
Jason Elkins (39:34.646)
Yeah.
Christopher Hill (39:48.911)
Also, like, for lack of a better word, girlfriend getaways as well. So, you know, groups of friends traveling together. Yeah.
Jason Elkins (39:56.971)
Mm-hmm. Okay.
Do you do specific departure group trips as well or is this all kind of individual customized itineraries?
Christopher Hill (40:07.598)
Mm.
We essentially all are individual customized itineraries. Occasionally, we do do some set date group departures, but they’re very rare and we don’t have any currently.
Jason Elkins (40:27.274)
If you do, I suspect if you do a set day group departure, it’s around a particular type of event or something that it doesn’t happen year round. It’s just something that, there’s this special thing happening. We think that our clients would be interested in participating type of thing. assume.
Christopher Hill (40:47.586)
Yeah, great, great assumption. Like for example, we did some trips back in the day with Homeless World Cup, which is a soccer world cup for homeless people. And so that’s obviously date specific. So yeah.
Jason Elkins (40:54.816)
Okay, all right.
Jason Elkins (41:01.738)
All right. All right. That makes sense. I would like to touch on another thing that I’ve had a few people that I’ve spoken with around the subject of. Volunteerism can it was just kind of what we’re talking about. in my mind, volunteerism is it combines volunteering with tourism. I spoke with someone not too long ago that.
Christopher Hill (41:19.395)
So.
Jason Elkins (41:28.862)
said that one of the challenges is sometimes these organizations and I’m not saying your organization, I’m not implying that and I want to be real clear, but I suspect that it’s something that you get to consider when you’re working with these organizations. Sometimes an organization will say, okay, we’re going to put a well here. This is the example she gave me. I’m not the expert. Is you correct me if I’m misinterpreting this, but she said some of these organizations will come in and say, okay, well, we need a well.
here, this village needs a well right here in the center of the village. And so that’s what we’re going to do. And we’re going to take the money you gave us and that’s what we’re going to do. And then she was describing that she’s like, well, some of the, a lot of the women in the village didn’t want to use the well. They actually wanted to walk to the river every day. Cause that was their opportunity to bond with the other women in the village. And they kind of resented having the well placed, the well placed there.
Christopher Hill (42:19.662)
Ahem.
Jason Elkins (42:24.71)
So that kind of brought up the subject is how do you as a responsible tour operator, you know, work with these organizations, work with these communities and work with your clients so that your clients don’t go build a school that nobody actually is going to use or want. Or I’m envisioning somebody might have this story in their head. they probably go shoot the same rhino every week for it with a different group of clients.
And they, shoot it and they tag it and they put it in the helicopter and they move it a few kilometers over. And then the next week they’ve got new guests, they go do it and they move it back. I could see where somebody might cynically think that’s case. Maybe they do it somewhere. I don’t know. So I just wanted to bring that up with you real quick so you can help ease concerns or address the anything that you heard what I said.
Christopher Hill (43:13.184)
Yeah, I mean, that’s a great example of the one of the well. And it’s sort of it typifies the the reason our approach is different really, in that our approach has been right from the get go to never go in with an agenda or preconceived notions of what we think should be done in a community. It’s always been
one of questions. so firstly, asking, would you like assistance? And if the answer to that is yes, then ask them, what would that assistance look like? And then it’s up to us to market it and see if there’s interest from our clients to participate in that particular way. So yeah, so that’s how we avoid that issue.
Jason Elkins (43:47.618)
Mm-hmm.
Jason Elkins (44:09.74)
Very cool.
Jason Elkins (44:13.878)
Yeah, and that seems like the obvious choice. And that’s why I wanted to bring it up, because I kind of already had a suspicion that this was something that’s on your radar for sure much more than it would be on mine. And yeah, so I appreciate that.
Christopher Hill (44:28.876)
Yeah, and I mean, another another aspect I think that’s worth mentioning is that
are in volunteerism operators, a good number can be justifiably criticized for taking away jobs from the local, from the local job force, local workforce. And, and again, this is where, well, for instance, you know, if you if you’re getting a load of foreign volunteers to come in, then
Jason Elkins (44:55.102)
In what way? Help me understand that, Christopher.
Jason Elkins (45:05.364)
okay. All right. I’m a little slow on the update. get it now. Yeah.
Christopher Hill (45:10.316)
Yeah. But our model just on that really quickly is that it’s, what I call it is a philanthropy volunteering model in that the benefit that our clients bring is the funds actually to employ local people to do most of the work and buy all the materials. so then,
Jason Elkins (45:26.721)
Mm-hmm.
Jason Elkins (45:32.534)
That’s, yeah, that’s, that’s the big difference, isn’t it? It’s you’re bringing in clients that are paying a significant amount of money to participate in these programs as opposed to maybe an organization. I’m sure they’re out there where it’s like, Hey, if you just volunteer and come over here for a week and stack bricks, we’ll feed you and.
Christopher Hill (45:37.1)
It’s a huge difference, yeah.
Mm.
Jason Elkins (45:59.266)
And it’s pretty cheap. And, and then, yeah, if you’re a brick layer in that village and you see a bunch of people that look like me over there, you know, stacking bricks and X and exchange for, you know, food, you’re going to be pretty annoyed. I would think that’s what you’re saying. Right? Yeah.
Christopher Hill (46:15.33)
Yeah, in essence, yes. Yeah. But in contrast, we’re, yeah, yeah. In contrast, we are actually, you know, providing, we’re employing people, local people. So it’s, it’s a win-win. And then, and then just reflect to run that out. The benefits that the clients get is that interaction and, and insights and world changing perspectives.
Jason Elkins (46:18.656)
Okay, probably a very simplified version.
Jason Elkins (46:28.204)
Yeah. Yeah.
Jason Elkins (46:41.15)
with, including with the people that have been hired to come in and actually, actually make sure that things are getting done right, as opposed to a bunch of tourists that are super excited to be there and happy to mix concrete. But I’m not going to say, I, I just going to leave it at that. Cause I, I’ve, I’ve, I’ve been involved in some projects where I’m like, I’m not really sure what I’m doing. It’s really helping.
Christopher Hill (46:45.656)
Totally. Yeah, yeah, yeah.
Yeah, exactly, exactly.
Jason Elkins (47:10.902)
But just as far as the actual labor I’m doing is really necessary. Yeah. But by me being there and interacting with the locals and the other people, that’s where the value can be. It’s like, so for example, if you’ve got maybe someone, their job today is to wash sandbags.
Christopher Hill (47:15.406)
which is valid.
Jason Elkins (47:35.594)
I just remember this because it’s something I did in the army. spent a whole weekend washing sandbags thinking this is ridiculous because they’re sandbags. I don’t think sandbags need to be washed. I still to this day, I’m convinced that there’s no need to wash a sandbag if you’re only going to turn around and dump sand in it. But anyway, so I use that as an example. But if and I felt like I was wasting my time. But if I was sitting there washing sandbags,
Christopher Hill (47:38.871)
Okay.
Jason Elkins (48:05.708)
chatting with a local person that’s doing it with me and having a conversation and there’s something about washing those sandbags to instill pride in the community because maybe the clean sandbags stacked around the building instill pride and stuff like that then that’s a totally different deal. Right? So, all right. This is, it’s really cool stuff. I wish we had, wish we had some more time probably need to come back and do this again. But Christopher, before we wrap it up.
Christopher Hill (48:16.398)
Ugh.
Christopher Hill (48:23.278)
True. Yeah.
Jason Elkins (48:33.44)
I’m sure there’s something I forgot to ask you, should have asked you. What else do you want to make sure our listeners know about you, your organizations, the world in general, life in general, or anything like that before we say goodbye?
Christopher Hill (48:48.686)
Well, it’s been a really freewheeling conversation, Jason. We covered a lot of ground. But I guess one thing to say would be that we’re a small organization to the extent that I actually personally handle any inquiry that comes through. if your listeners, viewers do feel inspired to find out more, when they send through an inquiry, though, it’ll come to me and be working directly with me.
Jason Elkins (49:04.802)
Okay.
Jason Elkins (49:17.868)
That’s a, that’s very, cool. I’m happy you mentioned that because I believe that this whole thing that we’re discussing this just kind of the space that we’re in is all about connections. And that’s always been my goal is with the podcast is to create connections with people. So if you’re listening to this and you feel a connection with Christopher and what, what he’s talking about sounds cool for you, your family. there will be a link in the show notes to, both of the organizations. So Christopher,
I trust you’re going to take great care of anybody that reaches out to you as you always have. And I appreciate you taking some time out of your evening to come in and chat with us and share some stories. Thank you so much. So let’s do it again sometime.
Christopher Hill (50:01.72)
I would love that Jason and thanks for asking such perceptive questions.
Jason Elkins (50:05.186)
I just ask whatever pops into my head. So thanks for, thanks for going along with me. Thanks, Christopher. Talk to you soon. Bye.
Christopher Hill (50:12.28)
Fin of blast. Yeah.
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