Laura Martin

Laura grew up in London but in 2009 headed north to Scotland and now lives by the sea in Orkney.   Her love for travelling started at a young age and before studying for a BSc in Geography at the University of St Andrews, she worked as a Ski Instructor in Canada.  The travel bug has led her to also work in Hong Kong, Switzerland, South Africa, Norway, Scotland, Antarctica and South Georgia. 

She spent many years working as an Outdoor Instructor in the mountains and on the sea, and one of her favourite ways to explore is by sea kayak as you get a very different perspective of the world from the water. She has kayaked with people from all over the world in Antarctica, Norway and along Scotland’s beautiful and rugged West and Northwest Coast and can’t wait to share her knowledge and enthusiasm with you. 

A pivotal point in her career was in 2015 when she spent four months down in Antarctica on an island the size of a football pitch with three colleagues and over a thousand gentoo penguins. Working for the United Kingdom Antarctic Heritage Trust she helped maintain and conserve the buildings, run the museum, shop and Post Office and survey the penguin colony. It was an incredible experience to be surrounded by such awe inspiring landscapes that she soon returned to remote and simple living by spending six months working for the South Georgia Heritage Trust in the abandoned whaling station Grytviken in South Georgia. Expedition ships would visit throughout the season which led her to a new adventure and career as an Expedition Guide which she began in 2023. Prior to starting as a guide on the ships, she completed a diploma in primary teaching and enthusiastically shared her Antarctic and sub-Antarctic adventures with her class of 9-year-olds, hoping to inspire the next generation of explorers!