Tommie is an avid traveller from Hertfordshire, in 2018 alone he travelled and worked in over 25 countries and is now in the process of starting up his own Eco Brand with his partner Rebecca. We have been a big fan of his travels for a while now and I am sure you will be too!

1. For those that haven’t stumbled across your Instagram or blog before can you tell us a little bit about yourself

Hi everyone, I am Tommie.Travels and have been lucky enough to have been travelling for the last 5 years, working with a number of global organisations and companies through social media and marketing. I never planned anything of this really, after finishing university and going into teaching, I decided to take a 3 month backpacking trip, which I guess hasn’t stopped. From that I slowly got more and more involved in social media. That 3 month backpacker trip has turned in to 5 year's on travelling full time and working in over 35+ different countries across the world.

2018 has been a pretty hectic year working in over 25 countries with a range of different travel entities, organisations and companies. In the last 6 months, my partner (@Doitlikeduds) and I have been working hard on our new Eco Company, @BambuuBrush.

2. Tell us about @BambuuBrush? What gave you the idea to start this great initiative?

So @BambuuBrush is an Eco company with one simple product, to show people that they can make one simple change from an every day plastic item, a plastic toothbrush, to a high quality, eco-friendly substitute, a bamboo toothbrush. We are going to use use the power of social media to create a worldwide movement for people to make the swap.

@BambuuBrush has been slowly brewing in my mind throughout my travels over the last 2 years. Over that time many occurrences and instances were coming together, fitting into place and were being highlighted in my life and travels, that we needed to make a change to ourselves and also I felt it was our role to make a change and to set up @BambuuBrush.

Throughout my travels I have been lucky enough to see some incredibly beautiful places around the world, I have also seen the dramatically increasing impact plastic is having on our beaches, oceans and planet. Our visit to the Philippines at the beginning of 2018 provided us with a heartbreaking image while sat on the sands of Panagsama Beach, Moalboal. This iconic beach is world famous for “The Sardine Run”, and for swarms of jellyfish. With an abundance of jellies in the shallow waters, turtles often flock to the area. I sent up the drone in an attempt to catch a glimpse of these majestic creatures from above, and within a minute we spotted two turtles swimming - I was super stoked! Unfortunately the excitement was quickly tarnished, as amongst the coral was an array of plastic bags, cups, straws, and other man-made items floating around. The image of one of the turtles mistaking a plastic bag for a jellyfish and trying to eat it really resonated with me, and we have remembered it ever since.

From then I needed to create a product that will change the world but to allow people to make simple changes.

3. Have you always been passionate about travelling?

Yes, I have always been passionate about travelling, my inspirations are my grandparents, they were brought up in Hackney, London and did not have much money but stepped away from the norm and moved out of London and travelled as much as they could, “on a shoestring”.

4.  If you could go back what is the one piece of advice you would give yourself before you started travelling?

Say yes to everything and don’t worry as much. I worried about spending too much money etc but looking back its always the memories and not the money that we can remember.

5. Do you have any travel must haves?

We have recently returned from Sri Lanka and without doubt it is the best country I have ever travelled. The country has everything that any holiday maker or traveller could want. The ruggedness of how you expect India to be with the organisation of Europe. Everyone spoke English, there's elephants walking down the side of a road. The place was just incredible and not too touristy at all.

Make sure you tick off bungee jumping and skydiving, its just a must and you probably wont do it anywhere in the world than when you go travelling.

6. What has been your most memorable experience travelling so far?

Wow there are so many, and I am very lucky to have those memories. Possibly climbing Mount Batur volcano in Bali at sunrise or swimming with a whale shark. There's so many different experiences in which I cant compare.

I was lucky enough to scuba dive in the Great Barrier Reef before the bleaching of the coral reefs were exposed in the amount they are now.

7. What have your adventures taught you?

JUST BE YOU!!!
Try not to compare yourself with anyone else out there, as hard as it is. Your personal clock is the only one that you should worry about, everything happens at the right moment for you and only you.

8. Have you got a favourite destination?

• Nelson Bays, Australia - Zenith Beach
• Southern Beaches in Sri Lanka
• Anjuna Beach, Goa
• Koh Rong island, Cambodia
• Lake Bled, Slovenia
• Chengdu, China

9. Beach or city?

BEACH

10. Where are you off to next?

We can't say where we are off to next as we are working with a large Australian based travel company and it is a secret trip to organise their new tour. But it is super exciting and different to anywhere we have been before.

Our main focus in 2019 will be @BambuuBrush and we have already got a lot of plans with a number of world charities and travel companies to spread the word for making small changes to reduce your plastic footprint.

#1MILLIONBY2020

You can find Tommie on Instagram, Facebook, Youtube or his Blog. To find out more about @BambuuBrush and the launch of their website you can follow them on Instagram .