Meet the team

Silver Travel Advisor is a friendly website run by a team of mature travel industry professionals with more years of experience than we care to number! Our backgrounds are diverse, but we are all united by our passion for travel, and our aim is to gather and offer impartial advice, information and recommendations which can be trusted.

The team includes ...

Debbie Marshall
Managing Director

Debbie has 30 years travel experience including Crystal Holidays and Jetsave (where she was Managing Director until 2001), and from 2004 until 2010 at the helm of the award-winning villa specialist CV Villas (formerly CV Travel), and its sister company Ski Verbier. A keen skier, walker and adventurer, her favourite destinations, in no particular order, are Switzerland, France, Corfu, the Amalfi Coast, the Caribbean, the Dolomites and Alderney. She climbed Mount Kilimanjaro in early 2014 (read her Blog), and is learning how to master the art of ski touring (that's uphill skiing and it's as hard as it sounds!). She is also a non-executive director of The Thinking Traveller  and Bailey Robinson, and has been inaugurated into the '60 for 60' influential women list at the Association of Women Travel Executives.

Taki Sirianos
IT Director

Taki, is of Greek origin and has spent many years working in the travel industry developing reservations systems and websites. He looks after everything to do with the website and has endless patience! His favourite destinations are those with architectural and historical significance such as Istanbul, Epidaurus and Granada (besides London, Paris and Rome of course). He also enjoys visiting the Greek Islands and his native Princes Islands in Istanbul, as well as touring & trekking in national parks & nature reserves including Jasper in Canada and the Grand Canyon.

Jennie Carr
Creative and Communication Director

Jennie, a member of BGTW, presents The Silver Travel Show on The Wireless interviewing destination experts and Silver Travellers. A keen traveller herself, with experiences in the Caribbean, Europe and Africa, her notable overseas moments include hill climbing in Gocek & Kalkan in Turkey and two treks in the Namibian desert. Jennie has worked with people from many countries and has a good knowledge of cultural differences, and what to expect when travelling to Japan, Russia and Kazakhstan! She loves islands and her challenge is to equal Ben Fogle, 'The Teatime Islands'. Her favourite quote: "The world is a book and those who do not travel read only one page", St Augustine.

Gill Haynes
Partnerships

Gill has over 30 years experience in the cruise industry, resulting in her being a dab hand at Trivial Pursuit blue questions so long as they are about coastal geography.  After learning the ropes with Princess Cruises and P&O Cruises, Gill led the marketing team which launched the Ocean Village brand (‘the cruise for people who don’t do cruises’) and as head of global PR, masterminded Cunard’s 175 anniversary celebrations when the fleet performed a ‘riverdance’ on the Mersey in 2015. After the Mediterranean, Gill’s favourite cruise destination is Myanmar (Burma) where the highlight was riding an electric bike around Bagan’s gazillion pagodas. A keen skier, mountain biker and windsurfer, Gill loves the great outdoors. Still on the wishlist are walking in Costa Rica’s cloudforests and swimming with Manta rays in the Maldives.

Roger Bray
News Editor

Roger is one of the UK's longest serving travel journalists and former Chair of the British Guild of Travel Writers. A veteran skier and hiker, he writes for Scotland on Sunday, and welove2ski.com, has contributed to major newspapers including the Financial Times, the Guardian and Mail on Sunday and has his own blog. Travel editor of London's Evening Standard, Roger has covered major news events in travel and aviation over three decades, winning recognition for his special contribution at the Travel Press Awards and as Best Travel Writer on France.

John Carter

Our patron

Veteran TV presenter John Carter has been our patron since the very early days of Silver Travel. A familiar face from the days of Wish You Were Here and The Holiday Programme, John is a much-loved and respected member of our team. These days he still be found globetrotting, although at a slightly slower pace, ambling rather than rambling. His popular 'Now and Then' compilation of  amusing articles about his latest travels can be found in our Features section. Read more about John.

Jane Silk
Research and Training

Jane (MA Marketing) is a CIM Chartered Marketer and senior marketing professional, who has worked in marketing, branding and publishing for over 23 years. She is an acknowledged expert on how to engage with the older generations – for many years she was director of Mature Times newspaper. She is frequently called on by national and local media as a key representative of her audience.

Jane is a specialist in communications, research, marketing and sales for the 50+, and we’re delighted to welcome her to the Silver Travel family where her huge wealth of knowledge is invaluable for our research projects. Jane also runs a range of tailor-made training courses for our partners to ensure that they better understand the needs of silver travellers.

Social Media - meet Steve & Carole!

Steve Newman
Social Media Manager (Cruise)

Steve is our Social Media expert who looks after our Facebook and Twitter pages when it’s all about cruising. Steve is a former teacher who gave it all up at the tender age of 30 to become a writer and photographer specialising in adventure travel. Be it jumping out of zodiacs to walk with penguins, swim with sea lion pups or walk across the deserts and mountain ranges of the world. A keen birdwatcher and walker he is passionate about the history, food and culture of his beloved Northumberland.


Carole Tidball
Social Media Manager (non Cruise)

Carole worked as a Senior Manager and Consultant in Education before taking early retirement to become a writer and award-winning photographer, and to indulge her passion for global travel. She loves exploring new destinations on foot and finds the best adventures and photographic opportunities are often away from the beaten track. She is a keen runner, hiker and bird/wildlife watcher, regularly seen trekking, splashing and skidding along the hilly footpaths around her home on the edge of the Peak District. Carole looks after social media for Silver Travel Advisor in all areas except cruise, working closely with Steve.

Some of our Silver Travel Advisors

Our Advisors are a very special team of vastly experienced  and wise travellers, who between them have visited an impressive list of countries and enjoyed a whole range of different experiences, from cruising to elephant riding. They have contributed some fascinating reviews to our site, and are happy to share their experiences with you and to answer any questions that you may have to assist with planning your next trip.

Alan Fairfax

Alan is a passionate ‘cruise ship’ expert and travel writer, with over 100 cruises completed on nearly 60 ships of 18 cruise lines. He has travelled all over the world from the Arctic to Australia, USA to the Balkans and Russia, Black, Baltic and Red Sea, Asia, Middle East, South America and most Mediterranean ports. Alan, a Member of the British Guild of Travel Writers and The International Travel Writers Alliance says "There is something magical about stepping aboard a beautiful cruise ship, visiting multiple countries and ports but only unpacking once". He enjoys answering questions from Silver Travellers, particularly when he can use his research skills, and he is also a moderator on our Forum.

Chrissy Nason

Chrissy spent several years in the late 70s living and working in Greece, then returned to London where she worked for a wide range of tour operators before becoming a specialist consultant in all aspects of the quality of the product. A great lover of travel and adventure, each summer Chrissy would set off with her family to drive a different route through Europe to the Greek island of Lefkas, via Istanbul, Spain, Holland, and Berlin - why go straight there when there are so many wonderful places to see en route! Adventure is still high on the list, but now she likes it to be ‘stylish and comfortable’ and writes about some exceptional hotels in beautiful locations.

Dinah Holland

Dinah spent the first few years of her working life in France and Italy. Her first job was with Thomas Cook and then followed several years in Italy, France, Austria, Greece and Switzerland, returning to the UK in 1974 where became Product Director for Italy. Now retired, Dinah has more time for travel, and has visited both polar regions, dog sledged in Norway and Sweden (sleeping in a tent in -5C), been horse riding in Mongolia, in the Sahara in Tunisia, Wadi Rum in Jordan, Mexico, Costa Rica,the Thar desert in Rajasthan, India and across the Andes. She also enjoys small ship cruising in the Indian Ocean, Indonesia, French Polynesia and the South Pacific islands.

David Powell

David started his career after obtaining a degree in Environmental Health, and spent many years working for Local Government in a senior managerial position. With a combined love for travel and writing, David took up travel journalism over 15 years ago and now writes and edits regular travel sections for papers in south east England. He covers a wide range of destinations that he considers will appeal to a wide and varied readership. David comments: "There are so many wonderful places to visit and experience, both in the UK and abroad. I love Snowdonia in North Wales, and short breaks in the U.K. I love being at sea on one of the latest amazing cruise ships”.

Peter Lynch

Peter is our specialist Rail Advisor. He is an author, travel writer & hotel reviewer and has written internet travel guides to England, Albania, Macedonia, Luxembourg and the cities of, Darwin, Dubrovnik Oxford and Reykjavik. He spent four years working as a freelance travel correspondent for an American newspaper and now writes regularly for the West Australian. He is also a contributing author for Great Train Journeys of the World (Time Out, 2010). He has travelled widely throughout America, Australia,
New Zealand, Europe and the Far East. His areas of special expertise are rail travel and wildlife conservation volunteering.

David Graham

David has been a professional journalist all his working life, starting as a provincial reporter, then moving to national newspapers (18 years with the Daily Mail in Manchester), national Sunday newspapers and the Manchester Evening News for 20 years and has been fortunate enough to travel widely. A keen skier, his favourite spots are in Switzerland and Austria. He and his wife Dorothy - she ran their home in the Pennines as a thriving guest house for many years - have two daughters, one who specialised in travel and worked in Majorca and the other lived in Greece, both providing a perfect excuse to spend as many weeks a year as possible in the Med.

Sally Dowling

Sally has worked in travel industry since the age of just 16 in her local travel agent, followed by some happy years working for Pan Am & Continental, and then ten years at Tropical Places, travelling throughout the Caribbean, Far East and Kenya. Away from work she developed a love of walking holidays in the Pyrenees and Mallorca and European city breaks. The USA also became a firm favourite; especially the quiet side of Florida that often gets overlooked.  In 2003 came the chance to source holiday prizes for Take A Break magazine. This led to writing and researching travel features and in 2006 she won the Visit USA award for best consumer magazine feature.

Steve Aldridge

Steve retired from his job as an IT Programme Manager some years ago and decided it was time to indulge his love of travel with his wife Linda: cruising (big and small ships), trekking, camping (mobile home), city visits, finding things off the beaten track. They have been to the Maldives, Bahamas, Thailand, Malaysia (including Borneo), USA, Mexico, Nicaragua, Guatemala, Greece, Turkey, France, Germany and many other countries. Steve has written about many of his travels and his series about Malaysia achieved recognition when he won the award for the Best On-Line Media at the Sabah Tourism Awards 2013.  He is also a moderator on our Forum.

Petra Shepherd

Petra Shepherd is a freelance travel writer with 30 years experience in television, 19 of which were were with Travel Channel International, the leading global travel broadcaster, where she was responsible for award winning documentary style travel programmes. Prior to this Petra was a celebrity booker and has met everybody from Dame Edna Everage to Donald Trump! She's visited over 100 countries, has lived in Hong Kong and Italy and is a great advocate of solo travel, in 2013 she spent  six months travelling alone around South America. Petra is a member of The British Guild of Travel Writers and when not getting of the beaten track and being as adventurous as possible divides her time between London and visiting her 12 god-children around the UK.

Ship Visits Coordinator

Peter Godliman

Peter caught the travel bug relatively late in life, only flying for the first time  after achieving silver traveller age in order to spend one week cruising the River Nile. He first discovered cruising in 2007 to celebrate his silver wedding anniversary, and became hooked. He now has 49 ocean and 4 river cruises to reminisce over. When not cruising, Peter’s main hobby is ship visits –arranging them, as a volunteer, for members of Ocean Liner Society (OLS), for whom he has organised 100+ visits over seven years. Peter brings this experience to Silver Travel Advisor where, in partnership with OLS, he has taken on the role of Coordinator for our Silver Traveller Advisor ship visits programme.

PR and promotions

Mary Stuart-Miller


Mary, is one of the travel industry’s most energetic and hard-working figures. She has successfully helped Slovenia, Slovakia and Estonia’s tourist offices put their countries on the tourist map in the UK over the past decade; she also advises a number of cruise lines, tour operators and winter sports companies. Mary’s favourite destinations are Estonia, Slovenia and Corfu, and anywhere accessible by tall ship. She loves to be in the mountains and her ambition is to go on a wildlife holiday or eat her way through India, ideally travelling by train. Any press or media enquiries, please contact Mary at news@silvertravel.co.uk.


Other regular and valued contributors to Silver Travel Advisor include Eleanor Wasley, Andrew Morris, Glynis Sullivan, Paul Brown, Maria Meredith, Pamela Walker, Gillian Thornton, Jacqueline Jeynes and Kay Wiseman.  Put their names into the Search box and you can enjoy reading their wide-ranging and varied articles.

Our UK offices are based near Euston in central London. Postal address:
Silver Travel Advisor, c/o Age UK, Tavis House, 1-6 Tavistock Square, London WC1H 9NA.