On this summer Monday, I flopped out of my mother. Because of the date and time of birth, 24 years later the Luo tribes in Kenya also called me: Charles Odiambo!
Fantastic trip with the family to the northern safari parks and Zanzibar. Eleven years later, the insight would come that we had not REALLY seen anything of Africa this trip other than animals and beach….
Good to get the paper, but it soon became clear that I was not passionate about Law
During my student days, I ran small businesses which further fueled the lust for entrepreneurship.
On this summer Monday, I flopped out of my mother. Because of the date and time of birth, 24 years later the Luo tribes in Kenya also called me: Charles Odiambo!
Looking for more work experience and a great adventure! Africa it is! As an intern, I joined a financial services company in the mobile banking corner in Kisumu, a cosy African town on Lake Victoria…
I fell in love with Kenya and wanted to stay, but the maps made me curious. I wanted to explore the country and the continent further. On the side, I organised safaris for expats and volunteers. The first friends and family came to visit and I showed them my Kenya: not the tourist attractions, but the real Kenya! Everyone was wildly enthusiastic. I didn’t get wild about financial services, but I did get wild about travelling: quit the financial services company and started focusing on Charlie’s Travels full-time!
On a moped, I travelled around East Africa for two years: Kenya, Uganda, Rwanda, Tanzania and Ethiopia. I got to know the countries well, made friends, entered into collaborations and set out new off-the-beaten-track routes that showed people the real Africa. On the road, from my laptop!
My travellers were raving about this new way of travelling and recommended me to their friends. My inbox overflowed with requests and I couldn’t keep up on my own. The Jungle Villa was born: a compound in the forests of Kenya from where we could live and work with a large team and continue to develop new trips from there.
The continent is big & diverse: to keep charting new, unique routes, you need to be on the ground. With this, the ambition was born to create a work lifestyle community with all Angels, where we can live and work in different regions on the continent. This way there is always a “home” and warm welcome. This year, our team was joined by Angels living in Ethiopia, Tanzania and Madagascar.
As a company, you have a social function. We see honest business with each other as the way forward! With off the beaten track travel, we try to make a positive economic impact with local partners & communities. Also, don’t lose sight of the cultural impact when exposing people to tourism for the first time: travel is a cultural exchange that works both ways. We offset all Co2 emissions from flights and transport by supporting local afforestation projects. How to do business in a good, sustainable way is an ongoing process for which people within the team have been put in charge of developing it!
In two years, the company grew from a one-man operation to a team of 35 Africa enthusiasts, all passionate about how we show and experience the real Africa with our stories and self-developed itineraries!
We don’t want to keep off-the-beaten-track Africa just for the inhabitants of our little country. In the coming years, we want to introduce more Western European countries to our way of travelling! A logical consequence of more travellers: keep discovering new routes and experiences!
Charles, known to many as Charlie, was the father of our company Charlie’s Travels. Many know him as the adventurer who crossed Africa on his motorbike to discover new places for all his future clients. Looking for the off the beaten track adventure, really connecting with the locals, so that they, the clients, could once see the real Africa. Sadly, we had to say goodbye to Charles on 29 December this year. But his legacy will live on, his purpose and his mission we continue as Charlie’s Travels. To realise his dream, his mission.
The African continent has 54 countries and is hugely diverse. Five years after the birth of the Jungle Villa in Nairobi, we aim to have Charlie’s Travels’ work and travel hubs all over the continent: North, East, South, West and Central. To make people familiar with the splendour of these different cultures and countries, Charlie’s Travels keeps evolving and we will always come up with new itineraries! We want to be on the ground, to be the #1 specialist when it comes to off the beaten track travel through Africa!
The team lives and works all over Africa and therefore has a lot of first-hand knowledge and experience.
Wherever Charlie and his team travel, they develop new routes and experiences together with local entrepreneurs.
We tailor each trip based on your wishes and our African knowledge. Everything is possible and nothing is too crazy! Give us a try?
Charlie’s Travels works together with local partners and contributes to CO2 projects to offset environmental pollution.
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