richard hammond travel

Richard Hammond

Richard Hammond is the Guardian's eco travel correspondent. He is the editor of Great Escapes (Rough Guides 2010) and the founder of online green travel holiday website greentraveller.co.uk .

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The green traveller – by Richard Hammond

The green traveller is a new book about sustainable travel by Richard Hammond, an author who resembles his former Top Gear namesake in only one way – he is always firing on all cylinders when it comes to promoting, informing and inspiring people to travel sustainably. I use the word ‘inspiring’ carefully in travel, because it’s one of those big editorial no-nos. However, I met Richard when I was doing my Masters in Responsible Tourism and was hoping to pursue a career writing about it and I felt that, after that, he became my mentor and has, most definitely, always inspired me.  Richard’s latest book has just polished that pedestal to an even shinier level.

With so much greenwashing going on at the moment, as well as endless academic musings on what sustainable tourism really means, it is such a relief to read something that is to the point, but also does what is most important – it guides tourists to places and people working in tourism who live and breathe sustainable hospitality, and who are leaders in their own right. As travel journalists, one of the great joys of our jobs is being able to help give these people a platform, a voice and, ultimately – if we do our jobs well – an income, so that they can keep doing the jobs they are doing. 

One of Richard’s many skills as a journalist and author is that he exudes empathy while also demonstrating an in-depth understanding of sustainable tourism. He has been doing this for a long time now, and he has seen the green, good, bad and the ugly. The current ugly is, of course, the climate crisis and, as Richard says himself: “This book is about how to travel in a way that is sensitive to the climate and nature emergencies.” Consequently, the focus is on the UK and Europe, and places that are accessible without flying, although he does also have two short but important sections on volunteering abroad and positive impact holidays such as gorilla trekking and rainforest regeneration. 

Richard is also a fine writer, has a wry sense of humour and doesn’t suffer greenwashers gladly. His green criteria include the usual three Rs of Reduce, Reuse and Recycle, but he also includes Rethinking – transport, Refusing – single use plastic and Repairing – gear. 

From a practical standpoint, the book gives great tips on how to book cheap train tickets, and I know for a fact that Richard knows the booking systems almost as well as Mark Smith, the Man at Seat 61 – Richard won’t mind me saying that because we all know that Smith is unbeatable in this regard. He gives tips on coaches and charging points, sleeper trains and taking bikes on trains, ferries and foraging. 

Then, he does what every person I know asks of a travel writer – he answers ‘What’s your favourite place you have ever been to? He lists them as ‘Ten of the best’ in true travel writer style – we love our top tens. Top ten treehouses, top ten campsites reachable by public transport, top ten hostels near railway stations, ten of the best off-grid sites, ten of the best green places to stay in cities and, one of my favourites, ten of the best community-run enterprises. And, why does it not surprise me that Richard, a big fan of open water swimming, has included a section on ‘paddleboarding by public transport.’ He did, rightly, resist a section on top gear.

If this book doesn’t make you dig out your walking boots, book a train, switch off your phone and go meet people who lead the way in transforming tourism as we know it, nothing will. It is worth noting that Richard also runs a media agency of the same name, Green Traveller, promoting his passion through words, photos and film. Like I said, on all cylinders. 

You can buy the green traveller here and read more about Richard’s media production work at Green Traveller .

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Sustainability Leaders United

Richard hammond on how to communicate responsible tourism and sustainability.

In this interview, we hear from Greentraveller CEO Richard Hammond . He shares how he used his background in travel writing to launch the greentraveller.co.uk website to educate conscientious travelers on sustainable options around the world. He also talks about the consulting side of his business and how it is helping responsible tourism providers and destinations increase their visibility and adequately communicate their brand. Richard also discusses the challenge that transportation presents in regards to the strive towards sustainability in the travel industry.

Learn about:

• What led to the creation of Greentraveller;
• The mission and functions of Greentraveller Media and their consumer site greentraveller.co.uk;
• The challenges faced in communicating sustainability efforts while avoiding greenwashing and how to overcome them;
• How the tourism industry can tackle the challenge of creating and utilizing more sustainable methods of transportation.

Richard, when did you first learn of the concept of sustainable tourism?

In the summer of 1996, during a conservation volunteer expedition to Mauritius and Rodrigues organised by Raleigh International. Part of the 3-month, hands-on trip included three weeks working on an ecotourism scoping project to manage visitors to a bird-breeding area in Rodrigues. Each day, en route to an area of land we were helping to conserve, we’d pass a Tropicbird chick nesting at the foot of a tree.

One morning however, as we passed the nest, all we could see were bits of fluff. It looked as if the chick had been taken by a predator. It made us all feel a bit low, but later that day, we heard a commotion overhead and looked up to see two magnificent White-tailed Tropicbirds flying across the clear blue sky, with a third smaller bird trailing behind, flying somewhat awkwardly. It was the chick on its maiden flight. It was such a simple but evocative experience… it was my “light bulb moment”.

Tell us about the professional journey that led you to create Greentraveller Limited in 2006

After gaining a Masters in Publishing in 1994, I worked for several years in publishing, first as a researcher for Harper Collins Broadcasting and then as an editor in natural history and travel publishing for Dorling Kindersley, New Holland and A&C Black.

In 1999, I helped establish the online news portal TravelMole (including launching a sustainable tourism newswire), which gave me an early and valuable insight into the huge influence of internet publishing and e-newsletters.

In 2003, I was approached by the Guardian newspaper to write a regular feature on ‘green holidays’. It began as a monthly feature, and then became weekly. I was inundated with emails about the column, so in 2006, I set up the website Greentraveller.co.uk , which was initially a blog and online forum for readers to debate the issues.

The site quickly attracted a lot of interest, and the potential for it to become a commercial enterprise soon became obvious. So in 2009, after I’d completed writing a book on green travel ( Clean Breaks – 500 New Ways to See the World , published by Rough Guides, co-written with Jeremy Smith, the editor of Travindy ), I raised capital from investors to launch Greentraveller as a limited company, using the website as a focal point for businesses to promote green places to stay as well as holidays in Europe organised by tour operators to destinations that could be reached overland from the UK, by train, foot, or passenger ferry.

This month (October 2016), we will be celebrating our 10th anniversary by widening the portfolio to include holidays further afield that benefit biodiversity conservation and the economies of local communities. It’s an exciting time in the development of the company, and we are really looking forward to promoting holidays that genuinely make a difference, from community-run ethical walking holidays in India to safari camps in Africa and conservation holidays in South America. This development has come about because of demand from our existing customers.

There’s a lot of confusion in this area, and we feel we are well-placed to provide clarity for holidaymakers to help them find operators that are offering products that are genuinely contributing to biodiversity conservation and the economies of local communities.

Greentraveller consists of two main parts: the sustainable tourism consultancy/media agency and the consumer website www.greentraveller.co.uk. Can you tell us a little about each service and why you chose to combine them both under the Greentraveller umbrella?

Greentraveller Media is our agency and produces marketing campaigns, visitor guides and social media trips for both the public and private sector. Our latest campaign has been for the Swiss Tourist Board to promote the Grand Train Tour of Switzerland.

We also produce high quality online videos (we’ve produced over 100 in the last 4 years) for hoteliers, B&B owners, tour operators, councils, transport companies and tourist boards. We’ve filmed with drones and a variety of specialist kit to gain technically challenging footage – for instance, here’s our latest cycling video:

Video is a brilliant medium to promote sustainable tourism as, when done well – showing rather than merely telling – it can truly inspire more sustainable choices.

If a picture can paint a thousand words, how many can a video?

Our consumer website ( Greentraveller.co.uk ) features green places to stay, single-day activities (such as canoeing, conservation projects, arts and crafts) and longer multi-day trips organised by tour operators that promote low-impact travel contributing to biodiversity and the economies of local communities. The website has been described in the national press as the first place to look for green holidays, yet we were most proud when it was shortlisted as the ‘Best Consumer Website’ in the British Travel Press Awards alongside the travel pages of The Telegraph, Daily Mail, CNN, and Wanderlust Magazine. This demonstrated that our site is no longer considered niche, but is able to compete with the big players. The site also includes our award-winning blog, which we were thrilled to see included in last year’s Expedia’s Top 30 Blogs for its “digital influence”.

In essence, then, they are two sides of the same coin: one aimed specifically at the consumer looking to plan and book a holiday themselves and the other aimed at businesses and organisations looking to promote those kinds of holidays.

Communication and public relations is where many travel companies and destinations struggle, especially when it comes to communicating their sustainability efforts. What challenges have you helped companies overcome over the years and how?

I think one of the greatest challenges is to put aside the worthiness of sustainability and focus instead on communicating the benefits of going green .

In our experience, holidaymakers don’t want to be lectured on how to save the planet, but respond more enthusiastically to messages that convey how a greener holiday can be a better holiday – both for the destination and the traveler.

We’ve helped companies reposition their messages to reflect this through imagery and story-telling. For instance, posturing on about how procuring local food reduces food miles isn’t going to pull in punters, whereas using imagery and video to show holidaymakers harbour-side watching fisherman bring in their catch for the day, cooking the catch on an open fire, sprinkling herbs and spices on it, then eating it fresh… that’s a far more compelling way to promote a sustainable holiday choice.

What criteria do you use when deciding which providers to feature on your consumer website? How do you ensure that the companies live up to your requirements?

We screen accommodation owners on their efforts to deal with 5 main areas:

• Water conservation
• Waste management
• Procurement of local, seasonal food
• How they encourage guests to use more sustainable transport.

For tour operators in Europe, we work with them to fillet out only those trips that can be reached overland by train and/or ferry, and for those trips further afield, we ask them to provide information on how they as a company and/or their trips contribute to biodiversity conservation and the economies of local communities. Most of these trips are also bookable as ground-only trips – many visitors to our website, of course, are not UK-based.

We’re not a certification or grading scheme (we do draw upon the grading of accredited schemes to assess businesses), but we do use our network of travel writers to review featured accommodation and trips. While form-filling is useful, there’s nothing quite like actually visiting a property or going on a trip to see first-hand what it’s like.

Transportation is an issue that plagues the sustainable travel industry. You have written several articles on the topic of sustainable transportation and assisted in the marketing efforts of the Local Sustainable Transport Fund (LSTF). First, can you tell us about the LSTF?

The Local Sustainable Transport Fund is a UK Government initiative that aims to stimulate changes to local transport to cut carbon emissions and create local growth (see the 2011 white paper ‘Creating growth, cutting carbon’). The funding included both capital funding and revenue funding. In total, the Department for Transport awarded funding to 96 sustainable transport packages from 77 local authorities between 2011 and 2015.

In 2013, we held a workshop at the Nottingham Conference Centre (incidentally, one of the best conference venues I’ve ever been to!) on how to use new media and marketing to deliver behavioral change. In his welcome address, the then Parliamentary Under-Secretary of State, Department for Transport, Norman Baker MP spoke of the need for “strong, clear marketing” to increase the benefits of new and improved infrastructure and services provided by LSTF.

In essence, it’s about getting people off their dependence on petrol cars and putting more bums on buses and bikes.

Second, in your opinion, how can the sustainable tourism industry tackle the issue of green transportation and its integration into overall sustainability planning both for individual tourism operators and at a destination level?

Most forms of motorized transport involve some form of carbon emissions, so transport has to be at the heart of destination sustainability simply because it is often the single most influential environmental factor. I’ve been on the judging panels of various awards and have felt encouraged seeing the recent developments made in sustainable transport.

As judge of the Eurostar Ashden Awards for Sustainable Travel in 2014, I was impressed with the work Ecotricity has done to help kick-start the uptake of electric cars in the UK, creating a new ‘Electric Highway’ of extensive charging points across the UK motorway system, which has dramatically extended the geographical reach of electric vehicles.

As one of the judges of the WTTC’s Tourism for Tomorrow Awards , I was delighted to learn about the carbon management tool ‘Carmacal Carbon Calculator’ produced by ANVR, The Netherlands Travel Trade Association, which aims to measure the carbon footprint of all aspects of a tour package. Innovations like these are game changers.

Any other advice you would like to give?

Given the amount of greenwashing out there, I think it’s really important to be armed with factual information. So often I read applications for awards that don’t include statistics which demonstrate measurement and performance over time – it’s all too easy to be a generalist.

A particular bugbear of mine is when people use the word ‘local’… it’s virtually meaningless without context (e.g. is it local to a 3-mile radius, a 20-mile radius, a region, or a country). I much prefer it when I see descriptions of local business names to provide a meaningful context to the notion of ‘local’.

Thank you, Richard.

Connect with Richard Hammond on LinkedIn .

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The Green Traveller: Conscious adventure that doesn't cost the earth Kindle Edition

Travel is an intrinsic part of many of our lives. The places we visit and the experiences we have become part of our identity.

Today, we are increasingly aware of the negative impacts our travel can have, and a cultural shift towards living more consciously and responsibly means many of us are reassessing our travel priorities. The knowledge that air travel is bad for the environment isn’t new, but it has long been considered a ‘necessary evil’.

Fortunately, in this new carbon-conscious era, consumer demand is seeing real change in the industry. New, faster and more comfortable rail and ferry services are making cross-continental travel easy and enjoyable, while many hotels and tour operators are improving their credentials and actively facilitating local conservation and community projects. With so many factors to consider and so much greenwashing to avoid, travellers need a knowledgeable guide to lead them through the issues and inspire them with practical ideas and itineraries.

Includes: Why the future of travel is, and must be, green Planning for a green trip: guide to low carbon transport in the UK and across to Europe and beyond; how to know if a hotel is genuinely green; how to pack, book a green hotel and be a greener guest; Guides for the green traveller: including car-free travel; watersports (in, on and below the water); active winter; wildlife watching; rewilding; heritage holidays; slow travel; long distance journeys; and positive impact adventures Spread breakers: including 10 of the best off-grid places to stay; 10 of the best campsites reachable by public transport, 10- of the best glampsites; 10 of the best hotels with natural swimming pools; 10 of the best railway station restaurants; 10 of the best citizen science projects; 10 of the best foraging courses; 10 of the best community-run enterprises

• Print length 176 pages
• Language English
• Sticky notes On Kindle Scribe
• Publisher Pavilion Books
• Publication date October 3, 2022
• File size 146817 KB
• Page Flip Enabled
• Word Wise Not Enabled
• Enhanced typesetting Enabled
• See all details

Editorial Reviews

About the author.

Richard Hammond is a writer, filmmaker and founder of the award-winning travel website greentraveller.co.uk. He was previously the Guardian’s eco travel correspondent, Editor of Green Hotelier and Travel Editor of National Geographic GREEN and has written about sustainable tourism for a wide range of publications, including BBC Wildlife , National Geographic , The Times , Sunday Times Travel Magazine , and Geographical – the magazine of The Royal Geographical Society (of which he is a fellow) . Richard has written several books about sustainable travel, including Green Places to Stay (Sawdays) and he was co-author of Clean Breaks: 500 New Ways to See the World (Rough Guides). He was the consultant to the Guardian Green Travel Guide and for the Travel Channel’s series ‘How to Holiday Greener’.

Product details

• ASIN ‏ : ‎ B0B9J2DY7C
• Publisher ‏ : ‎ Pavilion Books (October 3, 2022)
• Publication date ‏ : ‎ October 3, 2022
• Language ‏ : ‎ English
• File size ‏ : ‎ 146817 KB
• Text-to-Speech ‏ : ‎ Enabled
• Screen Reader ‏ : ‎ Supported
• Enhanced typesetting ‏ : ‎ Enabled
• X-Ray ‏ : ‎ Not Enabled
• Word Wise ‏ : ‎ Not Enabled
• Sticky notes ‏ : ‎ On Kindle Scribe
• Print length ‏ : ‎ 176 pages
• Page numbers source ISBN ‏ : ‎ 1911682210
• #957 in Ecotourism Travel
• #1,522 in Sustainable Development Economics
• #2,476 in Sustainability & Green Design

About the author

Richard hammond.

Richard Hammond is a writer, filmmaker and founder of the award-winning green travel website greentraveller.co.uk, which he founded in 2006. He was previously the Guardian’s eco travel correspondent, Editor of Green Hotelier and Travel Editor of National Geographic GREEN, and for over 20 years has written about sustainable tourism for a wide range of publications, including BBC Wildlife, National Geographic, The Times, Sunday Times Travel Magazine, and a column in Geographical - the magazine of the Royal Geographical Society. Richard has written and contributed to several books on sustainable travel, including editor of Green Places to Stay (Sawdays) and co-author of Clean Breaks: 500 New Ways to See the World/Great Escapes (Rough Guides). He was also the consultant to the Guardian Green Travel Guide and for the Travel Channel’s series ‘How to Holiday Greener’.

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The Green Traveller: Conscious adventure that doesn't cost the earth

Travel is an intrinsic part of many of our lives. The places we visit and the experiences we have become part of our identity.

Today, we are increasingly aware of the negative impacts our travel can have, and a cultural shift towards living more consciously and responsibly means many of us are reassessing our travel priorities. The knowledge that air travel is bad for the environment isn’t new, but it has long been considered a ‘necessary evil’.

Fortunately, in this new carbon-conscious era, consumer demand is seeing real change in the industry. New, faster and more comfortable rail and ferry services are making cross-continental travel easy and enjoyable, while many hotels and tour operators are improving their credentials and actively facilitating local conservation and community projects. With so many factors to consider and so much greenwashing to avoid, travellers need a knowledgeable guide to lead them through the issues and inspire them with practical ideas and itineraries.

Includes: Why the future of travel is, and must be, green Planning for a green trip: guide to low carbon transport in the UK and across to Europe and beyond; how to know if a hotel is genuinely green; how to pack, book a green hotel and be a greener guest; Guides for the green traveller: including car-free travel; watersports (in, on and below the water); active winter; wildlife watching; rewilding; heritage holidays; slow travel; long distance journeys; and positive impact adventures Spread breakers: including 10 of the best off-grid places to stay; 10 of the best campsites reachable by public transport, 10- of the best glampsites; 10 of the best hotels with natural swimming pools; 10 of the best railway station restaurants; 10 of the best citizen science projects; 10 of the best foraging courses; 10 of the best community-run enterprises

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Richard Hammond The Travel Diaries

• Places & Travel

On today’s episode I’m joined by one of British TV’s most famous faces, Richard Hammond. Stepping into the spotlight over twenty years ago, Richard became one third of the iconic trio to front the BBC's motoring show, Top Gear, alongside James May and Jeremy Clarkson. The show went on to become the world's most watched factual TV programme - as proven by the Guiness book of records - at its peak 350 million viewers around the world were tuning in each week. The show saw the trio travel all over the world to take on epic motoring challenges, which they’ve since continued on The Grand Tour on Amazon Prime, where the three embark on car related challenges across the world. Now when I say these shows have taken Richard all over the world, I’m not exaggerating: the filmography includes Norway, Canada, Botswana, Vietnam, Chile, Argentina, Namibia, Iraq, Syria, Jordan, Israel, India, Madagascar, Mongolia - and that’s only half of them. Richard recounts some of these epic adventures on today’s episode, taking us from Canada to Botswana, to Bolivia, as well as to some much loved spots on British soil. Destination Recap The Forest of Dean, EnglandBiblins Campsite, Ross-on-Wye, EnglandCoast to Coast walk across EnglandButtermere, Lake District, EnglandNorth Magnetic Pole, Northern Canada BotswanaMozambiqueCanadian ForestCambodia + Vietnam road tripMikadikadi Salt Flats, Botswana Kubu Island, BotswanaBolivian rain forestSouth Pole Richard Hammond's Workshop Season 2 will be available to stream exclusively on discovery+ from Monday 17th October With thanks to… Sonnwies, South Tyrol’s mountain family-only wellness hotel with its own organic farm. Head to sonnwies.com to find out more.  If you’d like to hear more from the podcast don’t forget to hit subscribe or if you use apple podcasts to hit follow so that a new episode lands in your podcast app each week, and if you’re really enjoying it I’d be so grateful if you could leave a rating or review.  If you want to be the first to find out who’s joining me on next week’s episode come and follow me on Instagram, I’m @hollyrubenstein and I’d love to hear from you.  If you can’t wait til then remember there’s the first seven seasons to catch up on - that’s over 85 episodes to keep you busy there. And don’t forget that all the destinations mentioned by my guests are always included in the episode show notes and they’re also on my website, TheTravelDiariesPodcast.com  Thanks so much for listening. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

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‘The Grand Tour’ Presenter Richard Hammond Goes ‘Big!’ for Discovery

By Stewart Clarke

Stewart Clarke

International Correspondent

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Richard Hammond will take a break from his “Grand Tour” duties to make a series about the world’s biggest structures and machines for Discovery . The former “Top Gear” presenter fronts Amazon’s “Grand Tour” with Jeremy Clarkson and James May , but is going solo for “Richard Hammond’s Big!”

Hammond’s Chimp Productions will make the show, which will see him travel the globe and explore how engineers go about building, maintaining and using the featured superstructures, such as the world’s longest underground railway tunnel and a huge cargo ship. He will explore the science behind them with a series of experiments.

Discovery has set the series up as global commission. In the U.K. it will be on Discovery Channel and in the U.S. on Science Channel. In Germany, Italy, and Spain it will be on DMAX.

“I love engineering and the science behind it,” Hammond said. “And the bigger the better. It’s going to be fact filled and huge fun. It’s going to be Big! This is a fantastic commission for Chimp and I look forward to showing what we can bring to it.”

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Fulvia Nicoli, EVP, head of product, Discovery International added: “As a world-renowned talent that audiences across the globe love, we’re delighted to welcome Richard and his infectious brand of curiosity to the Discovery family.”

“ The Grand Tour ” presenters all have solo projects outside of the motoring show, which is set for a revamp on Amazon. Clarkson has hosted the “Who Wants to be a Millionaire” reboot for ITV and James May is heading to Japan for a new travel show for Amazon.

Hammond’s other work includes fronting Sky’s “Brainiac: Science Abuse” and physical gameshow “Total Wipeout.”

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Green Traveller's Team   Our team consists of highly experienced in-house and freelance project managers, videographers, video editors, photographer s, travel writers, bloggers, and designers

Richard Hammond Exec Producer & Videographer

Richard has produced over 100 videos in the UK, Europe and Worldwide. He is a qualified drone pilot (he holds the CAA's qualification for aerial work in the UK and the equivalent EASA qualification in Europe) and has worked for a variety of clients, including tour operators, national tourist boards,  NGOs, European Union, World Travel and Tourism Council, and United Nations.

Tina Smith Designer

Tina is an award-winning designer and art director with over 10 years experience in journalism. She has worked on a range of titles, from whizzy digital editions of Empire to hand-stitched headlines of Pretty Nostalgic, via a string of wide-ranging BBC publications and others, including Lost in London.

Ginny Light

Writer/Blogger Ginny started her writing career at Business Traveller magazine, during which she was awarded Young Travel Writer of the Year by Travel Trade Gazette. She then took over editorship of the travel and tourism industry news website TravelMole.com and later joined The Times where she became Online Travel Editor and later Online Features Editor.

Finance Manager

Emma is our finance manager, responsible for our invoicing and accounts for all our clients and freelance contributors. She also has a flair for design and has contributed to the look of our re-launched Green Travel Guides - for travellers looking for local character, food and drink, culture and heritage, low impact and sustainable adventures.

Christopher Willan

Creative Director of Photography

Chris has been a professional photographer for over 25 years working on TV and film, NGO, editorial and corporate assignments in over 50 countries. He has worked for a range of clients, including BBC Worldwide, British Airways, Condé Nast, Thomas Cook, TUI, The Travel Foundation, The Nature Conservancy and the Spanish Tourist Office.

Videographer Nigel has produced over 100 videos for organisations such as Johnson & Johnson, the Holiday Inn and BritMums. Nigel was the lead videographer on our work for NCTA’s England’s Coast Project and for our work for the Travel Foundation on sustainable coastal tourism in Croatia and the Caribbean as well as for our films for the WTTC in Baja California.

Sarah Baxter

Writer Writer, rambler, runner, Sarah is the former deputy editor of Wanderlust magazine, and has written extensively about adventure travel for a range of publications, including The Telegraph, The Independent and Runners World. Whether she's topping tors in Dartmoor or strolling the Cotswolds from her Bath front door, she loves travel.

Diensen Pamben Photographer/Videographer

Diensen is a versatile photographer and videographer who is highly experiencing in capturing striking imagery (particularly portraits) and telling engaging stories with a set of skills developed over many years in broadcast TV and the UK Press as well as working with a range of corporate clients.

Harriet O'Brien

Project Manager/Writer

Harriet is a travel writer and award-winning author. She was on staff at the travel desk of The Independent during the 1990s and subsequently worked as managing editor at Conde Nast Traveller. Harriet has developed a preference to explore places on foot – it’s the only way to get really under the skin of a location, she says.

Paul Bloomfield

Writer Paul has been writing about travel, food, drink, music for over 10 years. He's written for Lonely Planet, Wanderlust and numerous publications, tackling the Zambezi by raft, the Hudson by kayak, and the Swedish Arctic on a husky sled. Mostly, though, he prefers riding Shank's pony and hiking trails from Cornwall to New Zealand's Queen Charlotte Track.

Shining a light on the green and gorgeous

What is  green travel?

Green Traveller's Team

Our team of staff and specialist contributors, including writers, designers, photographers, and videographers. 

Richard Hammond Editor & Videographer

Richard is the Founder and Executive Producer of Green Traveller. He has written, photographed and filmed about green travel for over 20 years.  He was previously the Guardian's eco travel correspondent and is author of: The Green Traveller - conscious adventure that doesn't cost the earth , which was published by Pavillion Books in May 2022.

Sarah Baxter

Writer (freelance) Writer, rambler, runner, Sarah is the former deputy editor of Wanderlust magazine, and has written extensively about adventure travel for a range of publications, including The Telegraph, The Independent, the Guardian, Runners World. Whether she's topping tors in Dartmoor or strolling the Cotswolds from her Bath front door, she loves travel.

Ginny Light

Writer/Blogger (freelance)

Ginny started her writing career at Business Traveller magazine, during which she was awarded Young Travel Writer of the Year by Travel Trade Gazette. She then took over editorship of the travel and tourism industry news website TravelMole and later joined The Times where she became Online Travel Editor and later Online Features Editor.

Harriet O'Brien Project Manager/Writer (freelance) Harriet is an experienced travel writer and award-winning author. She was on staff at the travel desk of The Independen t during the 1990s and subsequently worked as managing editor at Conde Nast Traveller magazine. She has developed a preference to explore places on foot – she says it’s the only way to get really under the skin of a location.

Nicola Forsyth Content writer (freelance)

Nic has more than 12 years experience creating content for some of the world's best known brands. She specialises in sustainability and communications, helping companies make the transition to reduce their carbon emissions. A lover of travel and the great outdoors, Nic is on a mission to explore the UK with her sidekick, Colin the dachshund.

Christopher Willan Creative Director of Photography
 (freelance)

Chris has been a professional photographer for over 25 years working on TV and film, NGO, editorial and corporate assignments in over 50 countries. He has worked for a range of clients, including BBC Worldwide, Condé Nast, The Travel Foundation, The Nature Conservancy, and the Spanish Tourist Office.

Jackie King

Project Manager/Editor (freelance)

Jackie has been involved in the launch of three national magazines and was for 15 years the Managing Editor at Alastair Sawdays, overseeing its Go Slow guides to England & Wales, France, and Italy. Jackie is passionate about promoting travel experiences that help sustain rural economies and give visitors a deeper understanding of their destination.

Catherine Mack

Writer (freelance)

Catherine has  a Masters degree in Responsible Tourism Management and has written articles on the subject for UK newspapers and magazines. Although based in London, UK, Catherine is an Irish national. One of her favourite rail journeys is on the Caledonian Sleeper - waking up in the heart of the Scottish Highlands.

Senior Videographer (freelance) Nigel has produced over 100 videos for organisations such as Johnson & Johnson, the Holiday Inn and BritMums. Nigel was the lead videographer on our work for NCTA’s England’s Coast Project and for our work for the Travel Foundation on sustainable coastal tourism in Croatia and the Caribbean as well as for our films for the WTTC in Baja California.

Designer (freelance)

Tina is an award-winning designer and art director with over a decade of experience in journalism. She has worked on a diverse range of titles, from whizzy digital editions of Empire to hand-stitched headlines of Pretty Nostalgic, via a string of wide-ranging BBC publications and many others. She says nature and the great outdoors are closest to her heart.

Paul Bloomfield

Writer (freelance) Paul has been writing about travel, food, drink, music for over 12 years. He's written for Lonely Planet, Wanderlust and numerous publications, tackling the Zambezi by raft, the Hudson by kayak, and the Swedish Arctic on a husky sled. Paul wrote our Guides to Exmoor & Somerset, North York Moors, Normandy, Catalonia, Las Alpujarras.

Finance Manager

Emma is our finance manager, responsible for our invoicing and accounts for all our members and freelance contributors. She also has a flair for design and has contributed to the look of our Travel Guides - for travellers looking for characterful places to stay, local food and drink, culture and heritage, low impact & sustainable adventures.

[Photo of Richard Hammond credit: Visit Wales]

The Travel Diaries

Richard hammond.

On today’s episode I’m joined by one of British TV’s most famous faces, Richard Hammond. Stepping into the spotlight over twenty years ago, Richard became one third of the iconic trio to front the BBC's motoring show, Top Gear, alongside James May and Jeremy Clarkson.

The show went on to become the world's most watched factual TV programme - as proven by the Guiness book of records - at its peak 350 million viewers around the world were tuning in each week. The show saw the trio travel all over the world to take on epic motoring challenges, which they’ve since continued on The Grand Tour on Amazon Prime, where the three embark on car related challenges across the world.

Now when I say these shows have taken Richard all over the world, I’m not exaggerating: the filmography includes Norway, Canada, Botswana, Vietnam, Chile, Argentina, Namibia, Iraq, Syria, Jordan, Israel, India, Madagascar, Mongolia - and that’s only half of them. Richard recounts some of these epic adventures on today’s episode, taking us from Canada to Botswana, to Bolivia, as well as to some much loved spots on British soil.

Destination Recap

• The Forest of Dean, England
• Biblins Campsite, Ross-on-Wye, England
• Coast to Coast walk across England
• Buttermere, Lake District, England
• North Magnetic Pole, Northern Canada 
• Canadian Forest
• Cambodia + Vietnam road trip
• Mikadikadi Salt Flats, Botswana 
• Kubu Island, Botswana
• Bolivian rain forest

Richard Hammond's Workshop Season 2 will be available to stream exclusively on discovery+ from Monday 17th October

With thanks to…

Sonnwies, South Tyrol’s mountain family-only wellness hotel with its own organic farm. Head to sonnwies.com to find out more. 

If you’d like to hear more from the podcast don’t forget to hit subscribe or if you use apple podcasts to hit follow so that a new episode lands in your podcast app each week, and if you’re really enjoying it I’d be so grateful if you could leave a rating or review. 

If you want to be the first to find out who’s joining me on next week’s episode come and follow me on Instagram, I’m @hollyrubenstein and I’d love to hear from you. 

If you can’t wait til then remember there’s the first seven seasons to catch up on - that’s over 85 episodes to keep you busy there. And don’t forget that all the destinations mentioned by my guests are always included in the episode show notes and they’re also on my website, TheTravelDiariesPodcast.com  

Thanks so much for listening.

More episodes

View all episodes.

Phil Rosenthal

Julia bradbury, jessica gee, the bucket list family - family travel special, anton du beke & giovanni pernice, fantastic florida with jimmy doherty - destination special, sir michael palin - from the archives, monica galetti, sophie morgan, disability advocate & presenter.

WE ARE DRIVETRIBE

DriveTribe started out as a platform for a global community that lives and breathes everything automotive. Founded by the iconic trio of Jeremy Clarkson, Richard Hammond, and James May, DriveTribe became the ultimate destination for individuals who share an insatiable love for cars, motorcycles, and the open road.

Since its inception, DriveTribe has continued to develop and has become one of the largest Automotive Social Channels online. With over 10 Million followers across multiple social platforms and over 10 Million views every month!

In addition to its own success, DriveTribe is now one of the leading Automotive Marketing and Video Productions Agencies in the UK. Offering clients best in class video and marketing solutions, whilst also uniquely being able to offer an extensive, targeted distribution platform.

RICHARD HAMMOND – CREATIVE DIRECTOR

Richard’s passion for all things automotive is, as has been demonstrated on TV for 25 years, unbounded; his abilities and talents rather more difficult to identify.

As a driver, he relies for notoriety more on the several massive accidents that have punctuated his career than on any discernible ability.

His taste is best described as questionable. A description roundly supported by his love of elderly Land Rovers, old British motorcycles and 1960’s American cars. But it is his questionable taste and decidedly dodgy abilities behind the wheel that drive his enthusiasm for bringing together fans of every corner of the subject under one banner to celebrate their diverse passions.

Drivetribe is, he firmly believes, the perfect platform to look at and into a subject undergoing more change than at any time since its inception back when the first onlookers stared in awe at a carriage coming up the drive without a horse in front of it.

DAVE MURDOCH

Managing director.

HEAD OF OPERATIONS

MIKE FERNIE

Head of video / presenter.

HEAD OF CREATIVE

HEAD OF ACCOUNT MANAGEMENT

BUSINESS DEVELOPMENT MANAGER

ALEX WILLIAMS

Video production manager.

EVE RAWLINGS

Marketing executive.

MATT WOODLEY

Senior video producer.

TURNER CROSBY

Video producer.

GEORGE POCOCK

ASH STABBINS

BEN COLLINS

IZZY HAMMOND

MAXWELL DOARDO

Presenter/mechanic, ready to work with us.

With a history in Product Management, as well as videography and automotive, Nick offers an extremely diverse skill set.

This has enabled him to successfully grow a number of businesses, YouTube channels, Instagram accounts, and more recently help launch a new automotive TV show as Series Producer.

Nick has brought these skills together, along with his extensive range of contacts, to help make higher quality content more obtainable to brands, dealerships and SMEs.

Dave has been in the media world for over 10 years and has extensive knowledge of the digital advertising landscape.

Dave was brought in to DriveTribe as the company’s Commercial Director in order to position the business as a preferred option for brands to use in their marketing strategies.

Since that point, Dave has led the commercial strategy and is responsible for partnering with some of the worlds biggest brands from both within the automotive world and further afield.

Lucy has been working at DriveTribe for five years. She’s an accomplished marketing professional who’s played key roles in creating and implementing global marketing campaigns for world-renowned brands such as Amazon, Audi and BMW. Her expansive skill set has enabled her to hone in on many areas in marketing, including forming growth strategies, paid advertising and content production.

Mike is the longest-serving member of the DriveTribe team, starting as a junior motoring journalist and then working his way up to be in charge of the video team. With video becoming the evermore prominent form of content in the media space, Mike makes sure DriveTribe is creating fresh, engaging and educational content for our millions of followers, covering everything from state-of-the-art supercar engines to Richard Hammond’s dogs.

Tom has always had a passion for videography and the creative process, taking an initial idea and seeing it progress into a finished product. With an extensive portfolio for a number of prestigious companies, YouTube channels, and more recently a TV show.

Tom was the Series Director of the automotive TV show, Lovecars: On The Road. Tom really does have an astute attention to detail, coupled with an ability to tell a story with any digital media.

Matt has been working in Automotive Videography for several years now. You will often find him harnessed in to the back of a vehicle for tracking, or climbing up obstacles to get that one off shot!

Matt has an exceptional work ethic and can always be depended on to get the job done. When not on a shoot, he likes to hit biking trails and jumps, he’s a bit of an adrenalin junkie!

Turner has to be one of the quickest learners we have ever worked with. Turner has been in and out of video production for a few years including running his own production company for a period of time.

As is often the case, creatives prefer to create, and we are thrilled to be able to give Turner a place to let his creativity go wild. His background in Audio and Music has been a huge benefit to our production, as well as his eye for colour.

Callum joined us and brought a background in Social Media, as well as Videography. In his previous role, Callum also handled client relationships and looked after a small team of content creators.

He is very organised, and has incredible drive to develop. With his diverse skillset, he supports the wider content team, and keeps our social media up together.

From a slightly different angle of the creative spectrum, Eve brings both graphic design and social media skills to the table.

After growing her own automotive-based social media accounts, and running multiple business accounts, she has hit the ground running taking over our channels along with creating design assets for different areas of the company.

With her varied creative skillset, she also helps behind the camera filming behind-the-scenes videos. Outside of work, you’ll find Eve attending car shows in her BMW E36.

With a background in making automotive films for social media and running his own media company, George has experience in all walks of creation.

He has already proved he will be a valuable multi-skilled team member who can assist in all areas of video production. Outside of work, he enjoys hiking and surfing. His dream car to film would be a Ford GT40.

Ash is our newest team member here at DriveTribe and joins us from a background working as a videographer for automotive brands such as Mercedes-Benz.

Having also worked in the realm of social media, Ash is no stranger to the world of content creation. His history in crafting engaging content across various different industries will be a great asset to the team.

Moving to the creative industry from the role of E-commerce Team Manager; Alex has a track record of managing teams, business operations and KPI’s whilst working closely with senior stakeholders to achieve business objectives.

As Video Production Manager Alex will oversee and plan the production of the content produced by DriveTribe, ensuring that all the necessary tools are in place for the team to achieve the high quality content we’re known for.

If anyone wants to sell him a 997.2 GT3 for cheap then get in touch…

Jess has over 4 years’ of experience in the digital media and marketing industry, with all of that time spent working in industry leading teams in some of the most influential companies in the market.

Though that experience, she has earned a background in leading tier 1 clients to build engaging multi-market campaign strategies, to develop accounts and to find creative solutions for brands to strive for commercial success.

With her in-depth background in account management and varied skillset, she aims to support the commercial team in bringing brands marketing strategies to life and ultimately reaching their goals with superior video content.

With over 4 years’ experience within the partnership marketing space, both advertiser and publisher side, Peter brings a wealth of knowledge from both sides of the advertising table.

By utilising this experience, Peter is able to pitch, strategise and create exciting and engaging campaigns that exceed the needs of the client, whilst staying true to the DriveTribe brand.

Outside of work, Peter is a lover of all things fast and competitive and can commonly be found making terrible financial decisions on AutoTrader.

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Richard Hammond: ‘The majority of cars will still be petrol in 2050’

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It was always going to be difficult to know if and when Richard Hammond was in the throes of a mid-life crisis. After all, he’s been associated with the traditional signifiers – buying sports cars, wearing leather jackets, growing unsettling facial hair – for almost as long as he’s been in the public eye.

So it’s helpful that now, at the age of 54, Hammond has offered the surest indication yet that he’s questioning everything about himself: like so many of his peers, from Gary Lineker to Ed Balls, the former Top Gear presenter has launched a chatty podcast. And not just any podcast – one about men, mental health and ageing, with his 23-year-old daughter, Izzy.

“I want to talk about the midlife crisis because I am having one, I’m not lying. I’ve just bought a convertible Porsche and had a tattoo, my second tattoo. I think that will probably permeate everything we talk about,” he says in the first episode of Who We Are Now .

That tattoo, by the way, was the logo of The Smallest Cog, his car restoration business, on his left forearm. The first, procured on the occasion of his 50th birthday, saw the words ‘micris fidelis’ inked onto his right bicep. In cod Latin it means “faithful to small things” (not, as everybody jokes, “loyal to Nissan hatchbacks”), but is also a letter-perfect anagram of, yes, “midlife crisis”.

If it’s that bad, he seems to be holding up well. I meet Hammond and Izzy at their PR agency’s offices in central London. With his swept-back hair and tortoiseshell glasses, he has the air of a trendy university professor.

A surprisingly tall one, at that: Hammond may be famously diminutive (5ft 5ins), especially alongside his lofty former Top Gear colleagues Jeremy Clarkson and James May, but his eldest daughter is 4ft 11. The other two members of the family, 20 year-old Willow and Mindy, Hammond’s wife of 22 years, are also barely over 5ft. Izzy’s called their sprawling 600-year-old home in the Herefordshire countryside a “Hobbit castle.” When Clarkson comes over he’s like Gandalf, banging his head on the pots and pans.

Today, the difference is starker still as Izzy, bright and chatty in a sleeveless vest and crisp blue shirt, has before her a Stanley Cup water bottle so large it makes her look half the size again, while Hammond drinks from a miniature can of Coke, making him look huge.“I don’t go anywhere without Stanley,” Izzy confirms. “Hydration is key.”

Instantly they decide they must do a podcast episode on generational attitudes to hydration. “My generation’s bodies are made up of bits of wire and gristle and sand and dust, whereas yours is water and cucumber and avocado,” Hammond says. “I’m so old. Full-fat Coke…”

They are like this: her forever calling him out, him grumbling but secretly enjoying it. It’s the basis of Who We Are Now , which intentionally sounds like someone’s simply stuck a microphone in their family kitchen.

In the first series, which has been weekly since the end of February, the pair have been discussing mental health, cancel culture, masculinity, transgenderism, motor-racing, obesity and metrosexuality, interviewing a variety of experts and friends, including James May, in the process.

As much as Hammond likes to joke about his ongoing crisis, deciding to publicly discuss those issues has just as much to do with the life-threatening crash he had while driving a jet-powered car at 320mph for Top Gear in 2006. He spent a fortnight in a coma, before “putting his brain back together” and recovering to resume presenting duties the following year.

“Because I was very publicly brain-injured, people are comfortable with me talking about mental health. I think blokes can shy away from the subject, but because they know me from car shows, it’s kind of permission to engage.”

The original plan was for Izzy, who finished an English degree at the University of Bristol (“with a first”, her proud dad makes sure to add, twice) last year, to only help with production. But after proving a talented on-camera presenter on Hammond’s YouTube motoring channel, DriveTribe, a cross-generational dynamic made more sense.

“Yes, I’m a middle-aged bloke and we’re just a slice of society, like postmenopausal women, young boys, old people – but society needs happy, functioning, balanced middle-aged men who can be vulnerable and talk things through and understand their emotions,” Hammond says.

“Also,” Izzy adds, “so much work is being done with younger people about mental health, but we can’t just leave the older generations out and say they’re past it. And we’re so much more similar than we are different.”

Even cancel culture sees them on common ground. Top Gear ’s flirtations with controversy – usually thanks to Clarkson – took place in a marginally more forgiving time.

“It’s harder to be in trouble now, to stare at your shoes and apologise,” Hammond says. “You can’t say, ‘Oh God, you’re right, I’m sorry.’ You’re described and labelled as whatever, and that’s it, you’re finished. We risk creating a world where you can be hanged for something, when what would be better is discussing it and realise for yourself where the problem is.”

“Yes!” Izzy exclaims. “Educate and understand people.”

Hammond now wants to cover everything, including the menopause. “That affects half of society, therefore it affects all of society. They’re going to have this extremely major thing going on and it’s going to affect you, so you have a role to support and understand.”

He’d also like men to get a little more credit for the bits of self-care they might already do. He goes to his local pub every Thursday night with “a completely mixed group of blokes, most of us met through our kids, and mostly we talk b–----- but it is a very safe space and it’s good for men to spend time with men sometimes. You don’t have to have a massive group hug and cry about it, but acknowledge that it’s therapy.”

For all its petrol-pints-pratfalls reputation, the Clarkson-May-Hammond iteration of Top Gear , which ran for 22 series between 2002 (remarkably, Hammond was only 32 when he first appeared) and 2015, was a family show really, and none of them, Hammond insists, are “particularly blokey blokes”.

“We were quite open, ready to have a chat, quite modern really. The blokiness was projected onto us. I once had someone say, ‘Oh, I know what you lot are like about women drivers…’ And I thought, ‘What?!’ We never said anything about them. If anything, that show showed a different side to blokes. Yes, we took the p--- out of each other, but we were there for each other.”

Clarkson, May and Hammond (as well as their unofficial “fourth musketeer”, producer Andy Wilman) left Top Gear en masse nine years ago after the BBC decided not to renew Clarkson’s contract when he punched a producer – allegedly during an argument about catering . Clarkson later settled a £100,000 racial discrimination and injury claim.

They pootled on to Amazon Prime, which reportedly paid £160 million to secure them for a new show, The Grand Tour . After five series, they’re now bringing that to a close, too, and will go their separate ways – at least for now.

Will he ever do more TV with Clarkson and May? “Oh God, I don’t know. We always said we wanted to end on our terms, but we’re still all mates, we still talk to each other…”

Izzy puts up a hand to interject: “But also, and I don’t want to be rude, but they’re quite old… They’re really getting on. It had to end at some point. You can’t be doing it with walking sticks.” An easy bodyshot, but Hammond still laughs hard. “Yes,” he concedes, “we’ve done it.”

Top Gear may also be done. Last November, the BBC announced the show will not return “for the foreseeable future” after presenter Andrew “Freddie” Flintoff suffered severe injuries in a crash while filming in Mansfield in 2022.

“I didn’t find it triggering at all [hearing about it], just more upsetting for Freddie. I don’t know any more than anybody else, but obviously my heart goes out to the guy and I hope he continues to recover, I really feel for him.” Have they been in touch? “No. But then, I wasn’t before.”

The absence of both The Grand Tour and Top Gear means there’s no high-profile motoring show on television. Some might see this as absolutely fine, given the petrol car’s days might be numbered, to be replaced by self-driving and electric vehicles, but Hammond suggests it makes it even more necessary.

“I think it’ll polarise out into people who [see driving] as this autonomous, anonymous thing on your smartphone when you press a button and that gets you to where you want to go, and people who’ll go ‘Wait a minute, I used to like my old VW Polo, I used to like my independence, and – oh God, I’m a car fan, who knew.”

It is one of the generational battle lines people like to draw, I say: that Gen Z aren’t petrolheads.

“Gen Z in the city,” Hammond corrects. “Out in the country, where we’re from, Izzy did 13,000 miles in her Mini in the first year after she passed her test. Because it’s that or stay at home. There’s no buses, no trains.”

He’s on a roll now. “EVs will be part of the picture, of course they are. But at the current rate of electrification, even if we could keep it up – which we can’t because China is withholding the rare earth minerals we need – by 2050 the majority of cars on the road will still be, and have to be, internal combustion engines. So we have to solve that, and synthetic fuels will be the way.”

This puzzle, combined with the potential variety of engines on the market, is why a primetime motoring show might be useful for consumers.

“The biggest financial decision we make as individuals, with a bearing on the carbon future, is the car. And people might end up buying electric cars that simply don’t work in their application, or not buying one when they’d be perfect. But we’re not properly informed. There is a need now for a show which goes, ‘Look, you need to get about, how you do that is an important decision, so here’s the stuff you need to know.’ Somebody should be doing that.”

Like, say, Top Gear ?

“Well they’ve parked it again. They’ve parked it before, they’d parked it when we took it on. So somebody will do it, under that brand or as something else.”

I turn to Izzy, a Formula One addict who drives a Mercedes A-Class in her personal life but test drives everything from Teslas to pick-up trucks and her dad’s 530bhp Subaru Impreza in DriveTribe videos. (In addition to the Subaru, Hammond also has a Ford Ranger Wildtrak, a Porsche 911, a Land Rover 110, two 1962 Jaguar E-Types, a 1967 Ford Mustang and lots of bikes .) At home, the Hammonds also have a stable of horses – where Richard likes engines, Mindy, Izzy and particularly Willow, who’s studying equestrian welfare and management, like riding. But latterly, Izzy has inherited the cars and TV bug.

“Oh jeez, I’m not a proper petrolhead yet, to take on that sort of a role,” she says. But she’s getting there.

The eldest of three boys, Hammond was born in Solihull, the grandson of a coachbuilder. His own father, Alan, ran a probate business, but an interest in motoring and engineering ran through generations. After the family moved to North Yorkshire, he attended Ripon Grammar School and Harrogate College of Art and Technology, before joining the BBC as a local radio presenter, eventually settling at Radio Lancashire with a mid-morning show at just 22.

Obsessed with cars and motorcycles, he coveted the job of a friend, Zog Ziegler, who contributed motoring reviews to the show. Ziegler later urged Hammond to apply for TV roles, including Men & Motors . Then an audition for Top Gear came along. Luck played a large part, he insists.

“I applied for a job working in the press office at Renault, and the man who interviewed me only gave me a job because I had interesting shoes on. At Renault I met Mindy, and after 18 months I’d made the connections in TV and got onto Men & Motors,” he says.

“And then when I went for the Top Gear job I had a really crap left-hand drive Porsche 911, which they knew I’d only drive if I was really into cars, and when I left I said I ‘need to go back to The ’Nam’, meaning Cheltenham [where he then lived]. And because I’d called it that, I stuck in their mind… So it’s all luck, and then you work hard to make sure the next bit of luck comes along.”

Izzy is a natural on screen, and particularly adept at the tricky art of chatting to camera while driving. Viewers on YouTube adore her, and have instantly picked up on the similarities between father and daughter. It’s nice.

“I bet you don’t think it’s nice…” Hammond says to her.

“I got a hell of a comment the other day, someone went, ‘Oh, I can really see Jeremy…’” Izzy says, eyes widening with horror. She’s decided not to dwell on what they meant.

Naturally, the matter of nepotism has come up. “It’s completely expected. But it’s just one of those things, if you’re given an opportunity it’s what you do with it. So many people’s careers are founded on luck and doors that get opened, but you can’t just sit there by the door frame, you have to work hard at it, which is what I’m trying to do,” she says.

“But you can’t win with the nepo baby thing, whatever you say, people are never going to like it. And the biggest thing I ever learnt from dad is work ethic. I don’t know anybody who works as hard as him.”

Hammond has spoken about working so hard, and being away with Top Gear , that he missed vast periods of Izzy and Willow’s childhoods, and was too tired to be fully present. “There were nights when I drove home from a shoot and parked round the corner until I knew bathtime was finished. I was pretty crappy as a father,” he admitted last year.

“Anybody who travels with work has that, but some jobs take you away,” he says, with a shrug. Izzy, now in the working world, is now discovering the same challenge. “Work often wins. Obviously I understood him going to work, but now I get to see it, and have a much deeper understanding of why he was away for so long, because I would do the same.”

Would Hammond have done it differently? “Er, not really. I don’t know if I could have done. But I’m not one who looks for regrets because what’s the point? Unless you’re learning lessons, and I’m 54, I’m not going to have another career. You just make the best of it.”

It’s an attitude that got him through that horror crash all those years ago. Izzy was six when it happened, “so it was hardest for mum, dealing with that and communicating it to me and Wills, but we visited him in hospital and he was doolally. The nurses were introducing us to him as his daughters.”

Hammond shakes his head. “I don’t remember this.”

“When he got home he was still a bit doolally,” Izzy continues, “and we had to keep seeing him, but mum couldn’t keep us too close to him because he’d say the same thing six times in a row in 20 minutes and we’d know something was wrong. I know it was bad, but I don’t look back on it as a traumatic experience that ruined my childhood. It’s just a thing that happened.”

Though fully recovered now, Hammond said last year that he may be at greater risk of a condition related to memory loss . “It might be because I’m 53, it might be because I’m working a lot and I’m tired, it might be the onset of something else,” he said.

Is he worried? “No, it’s just one of the big experiences of my life, we’ve all got those.” Really, though? He sighs. “A bit, maybe. Maybe it’ll have an effect, I don’t know. But I don’t think we will know, until something goes wrong, whether it’s related to that or something else. My memory has been affected, and it still is.”

Izzy scoffs. “It is rubbish, so it’s genuinely difficult to know.”

As it is, he’s doing less and less TV, bar the car restoration show Richard Hammond’s Workshop , which is made for Discovery Plus by his own production company, and will be letting Izzy take more of the limelight on DriveTribe. Otherwise they have the podcast.

“I’ve also taken up making AirFix models,” he says, brightly. “It’s great for the flow state. Doing something completely pointless, and that’s the point. I’m just shamelessly embracing middle age, and enjoying it.”

Richard Hammond’s growth spurt. Crisis, what crisis? He smiles. “No, I don’t think it’s a crisis.”

Beside him, Izzy screws up her face to correct us.

“Um, in some ways,” she says, “it’s a crisis.”

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Richard Hammond

On today’s episode I’m joined by one of British TV’s most famous faces, Richard Hammond. Stepping into the spotlight over twenty years ago, Richard became one third of the iconic trio to front the BBC’s motoring show, Top Gear, alongside James May and Jeremy Clarkson.

The show went on to become the world’s most watched factual TV programme – as proven by the Guiness book of records – at its peak 350 million viewers around the world were tuning in each week. The show saw the trio travel all over the world to take on epic motoring challenges, which they’ve since continued on The Grand Tour on Amazon Prime, where the three embark on car related challenges across the world.

Now when I say these shows have taken Richard all over the world, I’m not exaggerating: the filmography includes Norway, Canada, Botswana, Vietnam, Chile, Argentina, Namibia, Iraq, Syria, Jordan, Israel, India, Madagascar, Mongolia – and that’s only half of them. Richard recounts some of these epic adventures on today’s episode, taking us from Canada to Botswana, to Bolivia, as well as to some much loved spots on British soil.

Destination Recap

• The Forest of Dean, England
• Biblins Campsite, Ross-on-Wye, England
• Coast to Coast walk across England
• Buttermere, Lake District, England
• North Magnetic Pole, Northern Canada
• Canadian Forest
• Cambodia + Vietnam road trip
• Mikadikadi Salt Flats, Botswana
• Kubu Island, Botswana
• Bolivian rain forest

Richard Hammond’s Workshop Season 2 will be available to stream exclusively on discovery+ from Monday 17th October

With thanks to…

Sonnwies, South Tyrol’s mountain family-only wellness hotel with its own organic farm. Head to sonnwies.com to find out more.

If you’d like to hear more from the podcast don’t forget to hit subscribe or if you use apple podcasts to hit follow so that a new episode lands in your podcast app each week, and if you’re really enjoying it I’d be so grateful if you could leave a rating or review.

If you want to be the first to find out who’s joining me on next week’s episode come and follow me on Instagram, I’m @hollyrubenstein and I’d love to hear from you.

If you can’t wait til then remember there’s the first seven seasons to catch up on – that’s over 85 episodes to keep you busy there. And don’t forget that all the destinations mentioned by my guests are always included in the episode show notes and they’re also on my website, TheTravelDiariesPodcast.com

Thanks so much for listening.

Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Get the free Morning Headlines email for news from our reporters across the world

Sign up to our free morning headlines email, thanks for signing up to the morning headlines email.

Former Top Gear presenter Richard Hammond has warned that the majority of cars will still be petrol in 2050, given the current rate of electrification in vehicles.

Given that there is currently no high-profile motoring show on television, the 54-year-old suggested that there could be a need for a programme that informs viewers on self-driving and electric vehicles.

“EVs will be part of the picture, of course they are,” he told The Telegraph. “But at the current rate of electrification , even if we could keep it up – which we can’t because China is withholding the rare earth minerals we need – by 2050 the majority of cars on the road will still be, and have to be, internal combustion engines.”

Stating that is was more necessary for a prime-time motoring show than ever before, he added: “The biggest financial decision we make as individuals, with a bearing on the carbon future, is the car.

“And people might end up buying electric cars that simply don’t work in their application, or not buying one when they’d be perfect. But we’re not properly informed.

“There is a need now for a show which goes, ‘Look, you need to get about, how you do that is an important decision, so here’s the stuff you need to know.’ Somebody should be doing that.”

Countering the belief that Gen Z drivers aren’t “petrolheads”, he said that his 23-year-old daughter Izzy had racked up 13,000 miles during her first year of driving, given that she was reliant on her car for transport while living in the countryside.

His comments came as he spoke about his new podcast alongside his daughter, which launched in February and focuses on men, mental health, motor-racing and cancel culture.

Hammond is best-known for co-hosting the BBC’s Top Gear from 2002 until 2015 alongside Jeremy Clarkson and James May, before the trio went on to host The Grand Tour until this year.

He made headlines in 2006 afte r suffering a life-threatening crash while driving a jet-powered car at 320mph for the programme, which saw him spend a fortnight in a coma.

The BBC announced in 2022 that Top Gear would not be returning for the forseeable future, after presenter Andrew ‘Freddie’ Flintoff suffered severe injuries while filming.

Speaking of her father’s recovery, Izzy recalled that he was “doolally” once returning from hospital and would often repeat himself. “I know it was bad, but I don’t look back on it as a traumatic experience that ruined my childhood. It’s just a thing that happened,” she said.

During the podcast, Hammond and his daughter openly discuss male mental health, as he added that people are often comfortable discussing their issues with him given that he was “very publicly brain injured”.

“Yes, I’m a middle-aged bloke and we’re just a slice of society, like postmenopausal women, young boys, old people – but society needs happy, functioning, balanced middle-aged men who can be vulnerable and talk things through and understand their emotions,” he said.

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Episode Details

Richard hammond.

On today’s episode I’m joined by one of British TV’s most famous faces, Richard Hammond. Stepping into the spotlight over twenty years ago, Richard became one third of the iconic trio to front the BBC's motoring show, Top Gear, alongside James May and Jeremy Clarkson.

The show went on to become the world's most watched factual TV programme - as proven by the Guiness book of records - at its peak 350 million viewers around the world were tuning in each week. The show saw the trio travel all over the world to take on epic motoring challenges, which they’ve since continued on The Grand Tour on Amazon Prime, where the three embark on car related challenges across the world.

Now when I say these shows have taken Richard all over the world, I’m not exaggerating: the filmography includes Norway, Canada, Botswana, Vietnam, Chile, Argentina, Namibia, Iraq, Syria, Jordan, Israel, India, Madagascar, Mongolia - and that’s only half of them. Richard recounts some of these epic adventures on today’s episode, taking us from Canada to Botswana, to Bolivia, as well as to some much loved spots on British soil.

Destination Recap

• The Forest of Dean, England
• Biblins Campsite, Ross-on-Wye, England
• Coast to Coast walk across England
• Buttermere, Lake District, England
• North Magnetic Pole, Northern Canada 
• Canadian Forest
• Cambodia + Vietnam road trip
• Mikadikadi Salt Flats, Botswana 
• Kubu Island, Botswana
• Bolivian rain forest

Richard Hammond's Workshop Season 2 will be available to stream exclusively on discovery+ from Monday 17th October

With thanks to…

Sonnwies, South Tyrol’s mountain family-only wellness hotel with its own organic farm. Head to sonnwies.com to find out more. 

If you’d like to hear more from the podcast don’t forget to hit subscribe or if you use apple podcasts to hit follow so that a new episode lands in your podcast app each week, and if you’re really enjoying it I’d be so grateful if you could leave a rating or review. 

If you want to be the first to find out who’s joining me on next week’s episode come and follow me on Instagram, I’m @hollyrubenstein and I’d love to hear from you. 

If you can’t wait til then remember there’s the first seven seasons to catch up on - that’s over 85 episodes to keep you busy there. And don’t forget that all the destinations mentioned by my guests are always included in the episode show notes and they’re also on my website, TheTravelDiariesPodcast.com  

Thanks so much for listening.

Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

More from The Travel Diaries

• International

April 11, 2024 - Israel-Hamas war

By Heather Chen , Antoinette Radford, Tori B. Powell , Aditi Sangal and Elise Hammond , CNN

Our live coverage of Israel's war on Hamas in Gaza has moved  here .

UN committee fails to reach consensus on full Palestinian membership, Security Council president says

From CNN’s Richard Roth and Michael Rios

A specialized UN committee failed to reach a consensus Thursday on Palestinian membership in the United Nations, according to the president of the UN Security Council.

Two-thirds of the committee members were in favor of moving on with membership, with many countries arguing that “Palestine fulfills all the criteria that are required” to be granted full state member status, Malta's Ambassador and Security Council President Vanessa Frazier said. 

She added that no one explicitly objected to the membership qualifications.

Frazier also said she would circulate a draft report on the deliberations as soon as Friday. If the committee doesn’t agree on the report, it could hold another meeting to iron out any differences.

Asked whether the process of deliberating Palestinian membership in the committee is now over, Frazier said, “Unless the next step of agreeing (to) the report of the committee warrants another meeting to iron out the differences, it’s not foreseen that there would be any further committee action.”

But she noted that any UN Security Council member can still table a resolution to vote on Palestinian membership at any time, regardless of the committee's report.

The US and Middle East brace for a possible Iran attack that could escalate the conflict. Here's the latest

From CNN staff

Concerns about a possible Iranian attack against Israel has prompted many diplomatic conversations around the globe.

Here are some developments on diplomacy around the threat of an attack:

• Iran's statement: The imperative for Tehran to "punish" Israel for the deadly strike on the Iranian consulate in Damascus last week might have been avoided if the attack had been condemned at the United Nations, Iran’s Mission to the UN said Thursday.
• US and UK diplomacy: US Secretary of State Antony Blinken spoke with the foreign ministers of Turkey, China and Saudi Arabia on Wednesday night and Thursday morning to tell them that countries should be urging Iran not to escalate the conflict in the Middle East after  threats made by Tehran against Israel,  according to a State Department spokesperson. The top US general for the Middle East is also in Israel . Additionally, Britain's foreign secretary warned his Iranian counterpart on Thursday that Tehran “must not draw” the Middle East into a wider conflict .
• Israel receives US support: Israeli Defense Minister Yoav Gallant spoke with Blinken and US Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin. The US officials expressed the country's support for Israel against Iranian threats. Gallant warned that such an attack could lead to a regional escalation.
• Travel restrictions: The US State Department restricted the travel of US government personnel in Israel in the wake of public threats against Israel by Iran. “The security environment remains complex and can change quickly depending on the political situation and recent events,” the alert noted. US officials  are on high alert  for a potential retaliatory strike by Iran or its proxies against Israel.

Meanwhile, here's some other updates:

• Hamas on hostages: A member of Hamas' political bureau said   a prisoner-hostage exchange is being discussed as part of larger ceasefire negotiations. "Part of negotiations is to reach a ceasefire agreement to have enough time and safety to collect final and more precise data" on the hostages held in Gaza, Basem Naim said in a statement on Thursday. "Because they (hostages) are in different palaces, (being held) by different groups, some of them are under the rubble killed with our own people, and we negotiate to get heavy equipment for this purpose."
• Updates on aid to Gaza: It is clear that Israel is working to ramp up humanitarian aid to Gaza, but it has not yet implemented all of the measures it has announced, a top United Nations humanitarian official said. Aid coming in trucks from Israel has to be "segregated from water, from food, from medical items" before it goes into Gaza, said Jamie McGoldrick, the UN’s humanitarian coordinator in Jerusalem. “Getting 400 trucks from Kerem Shalom doesn't mean 400 trucks go into Gaza,” he said, adding that the logistical complications are numerous, and take time to resolve. He also said Israel’s restrictions on movement inside the strip complicate matters.

Anera charity resumes work in Gaza after pausing when Israeli strike killed 7 World Central Kitchen staff

From CNN's Tala Alrajjal and Mohammed Tawfeeq

American Near East Refugee Aid (Anera) has resumed Gaza operations "after a temporary pause" following an airstrike that killed seven World Central Kitchen (WCK) aid workers on April 1.

"As you know, the decision to temporarily pause our operations was not an easy one. We followed the direction of our staff in Gaza, who've faced death, loss, and destruction since the start of the war," Sean Carroll, the president and CEO of Anera, said in a statement on Thursday. "After the killing of Anera staff member Mousa Shawwa , followed by the attack that killed seven aid workers from World Central Kitchen, we made the difficult but necessary decision to pause aid operations on April 2," Carroll added in the statement.

Carroll said Israeli authorities informed him during a meeting Thursday that "certain measures would be taken to protect humanitarian aid workers in Gaza – including Anera's staff."

"With the full support of our Gaza team, we have determined that the circumstances have changed sufficiently to resume our vital humanitarian work in Gaza," Carroll said. 

Anera on Thursday resumed "full operations in Gaza to deliver meals, food parcels, hygiene kits, tents, medical treatments, and more to families in dire need," according to the statement.

Iran says its imperative to punish Israel could have been avoided had UN Security Council condemned attack

From CNN’s Natalie Barr and Adam Pourahmadi

The imperative for Tehran to "punish" Israel for the deadly strike on the Iranian consulate in Damascus last week might have been avoided if the attack had been condemned at the United Nations, Iran’s Mission to the UN said Thursday.

“Had the UN Security Council condemned the Zionist regime’s reprehensible act of aggression on our diplomatic premises in Damascus and subsequently brought to justice its perpetrators, the imperative for Iran to punish this rogue regime might have been obviated," the  mission said on X.

The UN Secretary-General António Guterres condemned the attack on April 1, according to a statement from the UN spokesperson Stephan Dujarric. A Security Council discussion was held on April 2 to discuss the attack, but differences among members prevented any formal action or condemnation from taking place.

The United States is on high alert and actively preparing for a “significant” attack by Iran targeting Israeli or American assets in the region  in response to the strike in Damascus  that killed top Iranian commanders.

UK foreign secretary warns Iran not to draw Middle East into wider conflict

From CNN's Natalie Barr

Britain's foreign secretary warned his Iranian counterpart on Thursday that Tehran “must not draw” the Middle East into a wider conflict following a series of escalating threats made by Iran toward Israel.

British Foreign Secretary David Cameron told Iran's Foreign Minister Hossein Amir-Abdollahian that the United Kingdom was "deeply concerned about the potential for miscalculation leading to further violence. Iran should instead work to de-escalate and prevent further attacks," according to a post on X .

Iran's state-aligned Tasnim news agency on Thursday reported that Amir-Abdollahian had told Cameron that the silence from the UK and the United States following Israel’s attack on the Iranian consulate in Damascus last week only served to encourage Israel to continue waging war in Gaza and expand its conflict in the region.

US and Israeli defense leaders discuss fears of Iranian attack

From CNN’s Michael Conte in Washington, DC, Tamar Michaelis in Jerusalem and Larry Register in Atlanta

US Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin spoke with Israeli Defense Minister Yoav Gallant today to “reaffirm the US ironclad commitment to Israel’s security against threats from Iran and its proxies,” according to a Pentagon spokesperson.

The call comes a day after Iran's Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei said Israel " must be punished and it will be" following a strike on an Iranian embassy compound in Syria that killed seven Iranian officials.

Israel “will not tolerate an Iranian attack on its territory,” the statement read, adding that the two defense leaders also discussed detailed preparations “for an Iranian attack against the State of Israel.”

Gallant said an Iranian attack on Israel could lead to a regional escalation.

It is the second discussion held between Gallant and Austin over the past week, according to the statement. Gallant expressed his appreciation for Austin’s personal commitment to the security of the State of Israel and for the deepening cooperation between the defense establishments of both countries, as well as between the Israel Defense Forces and US CENTCOM.

State Department restricts personnel travel in Israel amid concerns over Iranian threats

From CNN's Jennifer Hansler

The US State Department has restricted the travel of US government personnel in Israel in the wake of public threats against Israel by Iran.

“Out of an abundance of caution, U.S. government employees and their family members are restricted from personal travel outside the greater Tel Aviv (including Herzliya, Netanya, and Even Yehuda), Jerusalem, and Be’er Sheva areas until further notice,” a  security alert  posted by the US Embassy Thursday said. “U.S. government personnel are authorized to transit between these three areas for personal travel.” “The security environment remains complex and can change quickly depending on the political situation and recent events,” the alert noted.

State Department spokesperson Matthew Miller said he would not “speak to the specific assessments that led to us to restrict our employees and family members’ personal travel, but clearly we are monitoring the threat environment in the Middle East and specifically in Israel.”

“We have seen Iran making public threats against Israel in the past few days,” Miller said. “Israel is in a very tough neighborhood and we have been monitoring the security situation. You saw us slightly adjust for travel warnings at the beginning of this conflict and we conduct ongoing assessments all the time about the situation on the ground.”

US officials are on high alert for a potential retaliatory strike by Iran or its proxies against Israel.

Hamas says ceasefire with Israel is essential to collect data on hostages held in Gaza by different groups

From CNN's Abeer Salman and Mohammed Tawfeeq

A member of Hamas' political bureau said   a prisoner-hostage exchange is being discussed as part of larger ceasefire negotiations.

"Part of negotiations is to reach a ceasefire agreement to have enough time and safety to collect final and more precise data" on the hostages held in Gaza Basem Naim said in a statement on Thursday. "Because they (hostages) are in different palaces, (being held) by different groups, some of them are under the rubble killed with our own people, and we negotiate to get heavy equipment for this purpose," he added.

Naim's statement was in response to questions from media outlets about whether Hamas has been rejecting the latest proposal, which was made in Cairo over the weekend, because it can not release 40 hostages in the first phase of a three-stage ceasefire deal.

According to an Israeli official and a source familiar with the discussions, Hamas indicated it is currently unable to identify and track down those 40 Israeli hostages, raising fears that more hostages may be dead than are publicly known. 

CNN's record of the conditions of the hostages also suggests there are fewer than 40 living hostages who meet the proposed criteria.

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