Many people occasionally travel for work.
But for some, travel is at the heart of their work.
CNBC Travel spoke to people across four industries about careers where working from home — or an office — isn’t an option.
A year of travel
Name: Sebastian Modak
Job: Former New York Times 52 Places Traveler
Modak was one of 13,000 people who applied for a job in 2018 that sent one person to each destination on The New York Times’ Places to Go list — the first year the newspaper was hired for the position .
He didn’t get the job.
“A year later I figured why not try again,” he said. “This time it worked!”
As “52 Places Traveler” for 2019, Modak traveled to a new destination each week – from Bulgaria to Qatar and from Uzbekistan to Vietnam – in a year he described as both exciting and grueling.
“I often say it was one of the greatest experiences of my life…but also the hardest,” he said. “I didn’t have a day off for a whole year and the constant pressure of deadlines was almost impossible to cope with.”
Modak, who is now editor-in-chief of travel publisher Lonely Planet, said his advice to aspiring travel writers is to admit you don’t know. “The first step to finding and telling compelling travel stories is to ask questions and admit that you still have a lot to learn.”
Source: Sebastian Modak
Modak said the job requires someone who “can do everything,” from writing articles and posting on social media to taking photos and videos, he said.
“It was a lot!” he said. “In addition to storytelling skills, they were looking for someone with the stamina to see them through the year.”
He attributes the job mostly to luck, but he believes his upbringing and enthusiasm for travel helped. Modak’s father is from India and his mother is Colombian, he said, “as a cultural compromise, they essentially chose to move around all the time.” As a result, he grew up in places like Hong Kong, Australia, India and Indonesia, he said.
Modak said the job – which has been hailed as the quintessential “dream job” – is exhausting, stressful and even scary at times, but nonetheless a constant growth and adventure.
“I wouldn’t take it back for the world,” he said. “It blew me away, introduced me to people on six continents… and cemented my love for going to a place and looking for a story.”
“Humanitarian Hero”
Name: Sandra Black
Job: Communications Specialist for the United Nations
Black’s job doesn’t take her to typical travel locations, and her work trips are anything but overnight stays.
Since 2008 she has lived and worked in Senegal, East Timor, Central African Republic, Iraq and more recently Mozambique, in roles lasting from several months to years.
“Every [place] has its cultural highlights and its warmth,” she said, while noting that living “where freedom of movement is restricted due to security concerns” is the hardest part.
As of October 2021, Black has been handling external communications for the Mozambique office of the United Nations Population Fund, a United Nations agency focused on reproductive health and rights that, according to its website, is funded entirely by donations.
“Personally, I feel compelled to support those most in need,” she said.
Sandra Black (left) with women taking part in a carpet making project in a resettlement area after Cyclone Idai hit Mozambique in 2019.
Source: IOM/ Alfoso Pequeno
Black wrote about people displaced by Cyclone Idai – one of the worst hurricanes to hit Africa – in 2019 while working for the United Nations International Organization for Migration. She recalled meeting a woman named Sarah who had climbed a tree with her baby after her house collapsed from flooding. The woman said she was rescued seven days later.
Originally from New York, Black speaks French, Spanish, Portuguese and a basic level of Wolof, the national language of Senegal, and Tetum, a language spoken in East Timor. She said her language skills are partly why she was urgently deployed to cover humanitarian crises.
“At night I type until I can’t keep my eyes open and then I start again at 6 a.m. the next day,” she said in a 2014 interview for the UN Humanitarian Hero campaign.
“The most important part of humanitarian communication is giving people affected by conflict and natural disasters a platform to tell their stories,” she said. “Many sincerely want the world to know what has happened to them and their communities.”
From chef to captain
Name: Tony Stewart
Job: yacht captain
Stewart said he expects to sail at the helm of the 130-foot tri-deck motor yacht All Inn for nine months in 2022. He has already moved from the Caribbean to Central America and Mexico. From the west coast of the United States, he will fly to British Columbia’s Inside Passage and on to southeast Alaska, then fly to Florida and end the year in the Bahamas, he said.
That’s a little longer than a “typical year,” he said, partly due to an increase in charter business this year, he said.
Stewart said he started in the yachting industry as a chef in 1998 and “fell in love with the lifestyle, work and travel immediately”. After a year and a half as a chef, Stewart made a career change.
Tony Stewart has captained three motor yachts since 2006, he said, including Westport’s 130-foot, three-deck yacht called All Inn.
Source: Fraser Yachts
“I decided I wanted to work towards my license and become a captain and then took a job as a [a] sailor and began my voyage,” he said.
The job requires strong problem-solving skills, organization and a high tolerance for stress, Stewart said. Captains do “a little bit of everything,” he said, from voyage planning and bookkeeping to “personnel tasks” for crew and golf bookings for guests.
Whether it’s a dream job — “it absolutely is,” Stewart said.
“We endure long days and sometimes weeks without days off,” he said, but “I couldn’t see myself doing that … and not loving it.”
Expert in Italian villas
Name: Amy Roppner
Job: Head of Villas at UK-based luxury travel and villas company Red Savannah
Of the 300 villas Red Savannah is working with, about 120 are in Italy, Ropner said. She estimates she has attended about 80% to 90% of them.
She travels to Italy from London to assess the company’s collection of “exceptionally high quality” villas and to evaluate new homes to add to the company’s list, she said. During a recent trip, she traveled from Milan to Lake Como, down into Tuscany and then further south to the towns of Amalfi and Positano, she said. Her next trip is to Puglia, she said, “because it’s beautiful and raw and very popular at the moment.”
Red Savannah’s Amy Ropner said her work focuses primarily on Italian villas, but also includes rentals in Greece, Spain and the Caribbean. “I’m ready to go anytime…we’re always on the move.”
Source: Red Savannah
About 90 percent of the houses are privately owned, said Ropner. She meets owners and analyzes everything from the size of the pool decks to the beds (“there’s a difference between a British king and an American king”).
Most bookings are for children, so she checks that stairways and balconies are safe for all ages. If not, the company notes so on the website, she said.
“We must [know] whether there are cats on the property, whether it’s going down a dirt track… which obviously takes a little longer to get there… where the sun rises, where the sun sets,” she said.
Ropner often stays in the villas, which rent for $5,000 to $200,000 a week, she said. She’s also scouting the area to offer advice on restaurants, boat rentals and new services like e-bike tours and ice-making classes, she said.
“I think people find it all glamorous [but] it’s a lot of work,” she said, noting that she once saw 50 villas in one trip.
“It’s glamorous,” she said, “but it can also be exhausting.”