“I will go to actual extremes to get the story”

Since seeing a book as a child called Words Were Originally Magic Phoebe has been obsessed with writing. Not knowing what she wanted to do with her life, after a heady mix of signing on, then working in a pub, she finally got a job in the USA. On arrival everything went wrong - and she thrived. It was then that she knew she wanted a life that included travel and adventure.

She returned to the UK to study Journalism and Cultural Studies in university, winning the department prize for Best Dissertation and gaining a first class honours degree, followed by an MA in English for which she received with Distinction. Later she completed her NCTJ qualification in Journalism while working on a regional newspaper in Wales and made headlines on Hold the Front Page when she passed her 100wpm shorthand test after learning it from scratch in just five months.

For nearly 7 years she was editor, then Editor-at-Large at Wanderlust Travel Magazine until she left to go freelance in 2017. Under her tenure there the magazine won PPA Independent Publisher of the Year - Best Magazine, and she was honoured as Editor of the Year by the PPA New Talent Awards.

She holds multiple awards for her writing, photography and broadcasting and frequently appears in a range of magazines and newspapers in the UK and overseas including Conde Nast Traveller, The Guardian, Telegraph, Financial Times, The Times and Metro, BBC Travel and Adventure.com. And she regularly appears on BBC Radio 4’s From Our Own Correspondent with reports from around the globe.

Her focus is firmly on Sustainable and Responsible Travel, with her specialisms including adventure, outdoors, family travel, solo travel and wildlife conservation. She loves finding the stories that no one else can and thrives on going to great lengths to uncover the perfect tale.

She writes for Calm – where she is also Sleep Storyteller-in-Residence, penning bedtime stories for grown-ups, and has written pilot scripts for HBO.

She launched her self-devised magazine-style Wander Woman Travel Podcast in 2019, which she writes, edits and hosts, to worldwide acclaim and it had gone on to win awards beating off competition from ITV and BBC.

Awards

Phoebe has won several awards for her work (including writing, editing and photography), and been shortlisted for many more including:

Sustainable Travel Article of the Year 2023 - Travel Media Awards - Guardian - Beyond The Beach

Travel Blogger of the Year 2023 - Bronze Award - for Guardian.com - The valley that waited 400 years for the cows to come home

Travel Blogger of the Year 2022 - Bronze Award - for BBC Travel - The Muslim Divers Breaking All the Rules

Sustainability Writer of the Year 2021 - TravMedia Awards for Orkney by e-campervan and Rewilding Alladale

Broadcast Programme of the Year 2021 - Travel Media Awards for Wander Woman Podcast ‘Quirk and Circumstance’

Travel Blogger of the Year 2020 - AITO Travel Writer of the Year Award for Beyond Lapland

Best Broadcast 2020 - Visit USA Media Awards - Wander Woman Podcast ‘Wild Waters Run Deep’

Travel Blogger of the Year 2019 - AITO Travel Writer of the Year Awards for Sex on the Reef

Best Broadcast 2018 – Visit USA Media Awards – ‘From Our Own Correspondent’

Best US Travel Destination Article 2016 - IPW Travel Writer Awards USA – ‘A Walk in the Woods’

Article with Best Photography – CLIA UK Cruise Journalism Awards 2016 – ‘Southern Exposure’

Best Canada Media Coverage 2014 - British Annual Canada Travel Awards – ‘Beyond the End of the Road’

Editor of the Year 2015 - PPA New Talent Awards

Magazine of the Year 2013 – Wanderlust – IPN PPA Awards

– Phoebe Smith