About Kat Dougal…

I caught the travel bug from my older sister and set off on my first backpacking adventure to Ecuador, Peru and Bolivia 15 years ago.

What began as an intrepid trekking, camping and volunteering trip to Ecuador quickly turned into an obsession with South America – I’d fallen in love.

Many places followed over the years, but it was South America that “stuck”.

I spent many months living and working in Ecuador, in the Amazon basin at Liana Lodge. During this time I travelled the whole country and grew to know and love it.

In the past few years two little people have entered my life, and while the dynamics of travel have changed since then I am keen to share my wanderlust with them, on adventures around Scotland as well as abroad.

I still feel the same excitement every time I travel and I love the sense of exploring the new as well as revisiting now familiar places. I haven’t stopped loving it since that first trip.

My passion for South America…

The feeling of leaving your daily routine and travelling to new places is exhilarating.

I love meeting people along the way, and take joys in the little things such as having lunch at a market or sitting on a bench watching the locals. There is nothing like travel to give you a perspective on life and to fill your senses.

South American cultures are colourful and the people warm hearted. And personally I just can’t get enough of the amazing Altiplano and Andes regions with their incredible landscapes.

All roads lead to Quito and I’ve spent enough time there to develop a sense of familiarity. In Peru the area around Cusco is most familiar, and in Bolivia I have travelled from the rainforest to the Condoriri and south the Salt Flats.

My favourite memory is volunteering at an animal rescue centre in Ecuador, releasing monkeys into the wild and getting up close to these wonderful animals.

Talk to me about…

Ecuador, Galapagos, Peru, Bolivia, Family Holidays

Where would I’ve love to go back to…

Bolivia and Ecuador.

Bolivia because I have some unfinished business to do in the stunning Condoriri range, my last trek was cut short due to being pregnant at the time and I am dying to return.

And Ecuador because I want to take my toddlers on our first family holiday to South America.

What my customers say about me…

“I started looking into a tailor made Honeymoon with the help of Kat. She has not only successfully engaged in the sales process with me, she has helped me put together our itinerary, helped my decisions, given me exactly what I was after and always responded accurately, quickly and effectively. We must have exchanged 30 or so emails and a few phone calls. I felt at times like an awkward customer thinking of changing every last detail, which might have annoyed some sales staff; not Kat – she couldn’t do enough. It is highly likely that she is the reason we have now booked with your company and I would like to commend her for that.”

Dom Child, honeymoon, Peru 

My top tip…

Visit La Paz on a Sunday and you will find a large part of the city centre closed to traffic and full of stalls, street food and live music and locals out for a Sunday stroll.