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Until she was 18 Kate Woodley’s idea of going abroad was an annual family summer holiday, carefully planned and always in the same European destination. Her life plan was to build a corporate career, maybe buy a home, and one day settle down. But a brief taste of the wilder side of travelling made an indelible mark on Woodley, who gave up a good job with prospects to explore the world, relinquishing predictability and security in return for adventure and freedom. “I feel that I am living my life to the fullest,” says Woodley. Woodley, 25, was born and raised in Orpington, Kent. After leaving school she won a place on an apprenticeship scheme, training to be a management consultant with a “big four” financial services company in London. In many ways the future looked bright but Woodley, still just a teenager, found the long hours and corporate culture hard to stomach. She had done a little travelling between finishing school and starting work and the trip had opened her eyes to all that the world had to offer. “Before that I had literally gone to Menorca with my family every single year,” she says. After her two year apprenticeship was complete Woodley, who had been living at home, was given the option of taking a career break for a couple of years before resuming work. She jumped at the chance. In January 2021 she packed her rucksack and headed off to Mexico, and then Central America. She started her Instagram account (@kateacrossborders) at around that time her travellers’ tales have now attracted more than 68,000 followers. More travels followed, in Europe, north Africa, and South America, and Kate began to build up a sideline as a travel writer too. But when her sabbatical time was up and Woodley returned to the UK ready to resume work in October 2023 she struggled to readjust. “I was good at my job and I enjoyed it to an extent but I really struggled going back to the monotony of working five days a week and living for the weekend,” she says. Many of her friends were still at university and she envied the freedom and fun they were enjoying, and resented working all hours to make money for companies which already had plenty of it. Then her mum sat her down and asked if she really wanted to carry on working in London or if she might actually be happier exploring the world for a bit longer. Woodley realised she was right, and she quit her job in January 2023. Since then, alongside her content creation, she has set up her own tour company, Stay Wild Travel (staywildtravel.com/) which organises small group tours for women everywhere from Egypt to Kyrgyzstan. “I am incredibly grateful for my life,” says Woodley, who will spend this autumn travelling from Lisbon to Tunisia, to Egypt before meeting up with her boyfriend — who lives between the USA and Pakistan — for Christmas. “I am pursuing a career I really believe in and the freedom that I have is incredible — I can choose what I work on, where, and when.” Her favourite places, to date, include the coastal town of Dahab, Egypt, where she was able to indulge her passion for diving, and Pakistan, an “incredibly misrepresented country” which she loves for its food, the friendliness of its people, and the wonderful landscape for hiking in. There are, of course, frustrations to life on the road: shaky Wi-Fi connections can make deadlines a struggle, and keeping up with friends from home as well as those made on the road requires hard work and nurturing. Having felt burned out at first Woodley now thinks the secret of successful long term travelling is to avoid trying to do too much. Instead of rushing from place to place, trying to see everything, everywhere, she now spends more time in fewer places. “I travel a lot slower, and not by a tick list, and it is so much better,” she says.
