Volcanologist and RGS grants officer Sarah Henton De Angelis talks to Bryony Cottam about travelling with purpose
Sarah’s travel tips
– Personal connections make journeys more meaningful
– Think about more sustainable options
– Unconventional destinations can often be more rewarding
There’s a lot of talk these days about slow travel – how important it is and how it’s something we should all be doing. I often find myself thinking: “Yes, that’s what I want to be doing!” And then I remember that my husband and I have full-time jobs and a kid, and suddenly slow travel feels completely out of reach.
That doesn’t stop Sarah Henton De Angelis, grants officer at the Royal Geographical Society, from trying – even, she says with a laugh, when all her family wants is a relaxing holiday on the beach. ‘Not always,’ she adds. ‘It’s not a hard rule I stand by, but I do try.’
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When it comes to making more meaningful and more sustainable travel choices, Henton De Angelis acknowledges that we can’t always be perfect. She and her husband are both volcanologists who’ve spent many years undertaking challenging fieldwork expeditions or trekking up and down volcanic slopes in remote parts of Alaska, Russia and Montserrat. Sometimes, she says, all you want is a week in the sun. But many of the steps she takes to make her trips more sustainable are small, easily manageable changes: travelling in the low or shoulder season to help destinations that are struggling with overtourism; taking trains instead of short-haul flights and using public transport; supporting local businesses by choosing independent hotels over chains and eating in family-owned restaurants. ‘I mean, obviously there are the odd McDonald’s pit stops – we’re just human.’
What makes the most difference to Henton De Angelis, however, is her reason for choosing a destination. ‘For me, the thing that makes a trip jump off the page is a personal connection; I want an emotional response to the place. We might pick a country or a town because friends live there or because, somewhere in our family history, there’s a family link – a grandfather stationed there during the war, for example. And we build the trip around that.’
Even during an extraordinary three-week journey with her parents, during which she travelled overland from Bangkok to Liverpool via the Trans-Siberian Railway – and spent New Year’s Eve in a Mongolian snowstorm inside a ger – Henton De Angelis notes that one of her favourite moments was a stop in an unremarkable Russian town far from the main train line. It was a chance to visit the mother of her brother’s then-girlfriend, but it also gave the family a rare look at everyday Russian life that none of the other tourists travelling on the train got to see.
Henton De Angelis says that her inclination towards these unconventional destinations, rather than the usual tourist spots, was sparked by one of her early travel experiences: a year spent studying abroad, during which she lived with a family in a very run-of-the-mill town in France. It was an eye-opening introduction to a different way of experiencing the world. But the personal connections she looks for when travelling today aren’t limited to friends and family – a journey could simply be inspired by a personal interest or hobby.
Following one of her passions – curling – has taken Henton De Angelis and her family rinkside at championships around the world, and the sport has provided a fascinating introduction to a variety of lesser-visited locations. ‘Curling competitions are always held in really random places. Most people, when they go to Sweden for the first time, go to Stockholm. We went to a random town in central Sweden, which is a bit like going on holiday to Redditch. But it was a completely different experience from what we’d have had if we’d chosen to travel to a typical tourist destination. We saw a place we’d otherwise never have visited, and I really liked that.’
