About TravelBud

Grace is an enrollment coordinator at TravelBud signing people up to our many programs and helping them get all the answers to the questions they may have about taking the plunge and going overseas for amazing teach abroad adventures. Hailing from a beautiful little, coastal town in South Africa called Hermanus, she recently returned from adventures abroad and will be based in Cape Town.

Besides travelling, Grace loves cooking, reading Oscar Wilde books, scouring vintage shops for things of another time and going wine tasting at every available opportunity. She taught in South Korea for a year, in a city just outside of Seoul, called Anseong. Living and teaching abroad taught her so many things about herself, the world and life in general making her the wise old soul she is today:

“The most poignant thing I learnt was that you can connect with people, no matter how different your culture, and that the world really is filled with genuinely good people.”

Before Korea Grace had never travelled out of Africa, but since arriving there, she’s gotten the chance to travel to Thailand, Cambodia, Israel and Ireland. She was lucky enough to tick being in Ireland during St Paddy’s day off her bucket list, but finds it a toss up between the Emerald Isle and Israel as her favourite places on Earth.

That might change soon as the list of places she still wants to go is growing daily, with Turkey next on the list!

Brooke grew up just south of New Orleans, Lousiana and after living in Thailand for just over a year, she's returning to Louisiana as a TravelBud Enrollments Coordinator.

During her time in Thailand, she taught conversational English in a small town called Tak to about 500 of the cutest kindergarteners you’ve ever seen. They made her feel like an absolute celebrity and their hugs and laughs brightened every day she spent at her school.

As an Enrollments Coordinator, Brooke helps people get things rolling when they are looking to teach abroad with TravelBud. She answers questions, put fears to rest, and gets them excited about their new experience.

Brooke is also the Content Specialist at TravelBud, managing social media profiles, handling content submissions, and doing writing and alumni relations as well.

Aside from traveling, her passions include lounging in coffee shops with a good book, watching Jeopardy!, and cooking and eating with friends and family.

She's quite lucky to have traveled quite a bit before going over to Thailand. She's been to 18 countries; some highlights of her travels were walking 500 miles on the Camino de Santiago, taking a ski lift up to the Great Wall of China, scuba diving in Thailand, and watching the Springboks win the Rugby World Cup in Cape Town, South Africa.

Her future travel aspirations include visiting the new 7 wonders of the world, and she's already crossed one off the list - The Great Wall of China!

Aubrey is an outgoing, understanding and mindful person who loves to experience new people and places.

Changing her scenery often - even if it’s just visiting a new neighborhood or coffee shop - keeps her feeling grounded and inspired. She loves to be outside in the sunshine, hiking, singing and of course travel. She has lived in NYC, Los Angeles and Australia and completed her TEFL/TESOL certification in Ho Chi Minh City Vietnam in February 2020.

She has spent time substitute teaching in the US and finds it so rewarding to see the profound, positive and emotional impact her students have on each other. In return, she learns so much from them: communication, motivation and fearlessness!

Next up on her travel bucket list are India, Tel Aviv and Japan.

“If I'm an advocate for anything, it's to move. As far as you can, as much as you can. Across the ocean, or simply across the river…”

Saskia, TravelBud’s mother hen is responsible for the post-signup support and guidance for all our participants. Whether it’s your nerves that need calming or an invoice you need re-sent, when you sign up for a TravelBud program, it will be Saskia who’s there to help you on your way to your life-changing adventure!

Hailing from South Africa’s picturesque winelands, Saskia has herself taught English abroad before in Lop Buri and Phang Nga in Thailand and knows just how much this experience can change your life for the better:

“It taught me empathy, patience, respect and rocking social skills (especially because I tend to be quite quiet!) l went over at a very young age, which made everything a bit harder, but I’m glad I went when I did, as it shaped me into a person I wanted to become.”

Saskia has a big passion for beach life and couldn’t imagine living far from water: “I LOVE THE OCEAN, the sea, the sand, the salt, the sun, the seagulls (even though I am quite terrified of them) the thrill of surfing or even just floating in the water is everything to me.” And in her endeavours to find the best beaches, she’s been lucky enough to explore not only South East Asia and her native South Africa, but also countries farther afield like the US, Japan, Australia, India and Italy.

Where to next? South America is next on Saskia’s list, she wants to go anywhere and everywhere from the beaches of Santa Catarina in Brazil to the eerie desert hand sculpture Mano del Desierto in Chile!

Kim has joined the Support team at TravelBud to offer her wealth of knowledge, experience and insights into teaching and travelling abroad.

Kim lived in Joenju, South Korea, working as an English teacher at two public schools and one boarding school in Wanju. Since then, she's been involved various education initiaties, held the position of enrollment coordinator, was a lead instructor for both online and in-class TEFL/TESOL courses and most recently was a Program & Placement Manager for our South Korea program.

“Travelling and teaching abroad has taught me that I’m able to adapt to living outside of my established norm and to be happy doing it. I’ve learnt that it’s okay to travel, eat, go to the movies etc alone and to enjoy doing it alone. Packing up my life in a suitcase has made me realise I can live simpler, without the clutter and that there is more value in collecting experiences and connecting with people as opposed to collecting tangible things.”

Having explored South Africa extensively as well as China, the Philippines, the UK, US, Bahamas and Italy, she definitely counts the latter as her favourite, because, well you guessed it, it’s arguably the food capital of the world! Next up for Kim, it’s a toss up between India, Egypt or Argentina. When you chat to her on the phone, please help her decide!

After going through TravelBud herself and experiencing the teaching and travelling opportunity of a lifetime, Aubrey joined the TravelBud team to share her experience and support teacher travellers worldwide!

Aubrey taught English in an elementary school in southern Thailand. She had the opportunity to teach a variety of ages (ranging from Kindergarten to 6th grade) and classes (including Science, English, Health and Gym(PE)!). When asked about her favorite part of her teaching abroad experience, those kiddos are always at the top of Aubrey's list!

It's hard to keep Aubrey in one place for too long-- before teaching English in Songkhla, Thailand, Aubrey fit travelling into her schedule every chance that she could. Aubrey particularly loved backpacking Europe, hiking a volcano in Guatemala and road-tripping down the Sunshine Coast in Australia. When Aubrey isn't travelling, she loves to spend her time reading thriller and cheesy romance novels, watching Marvel movies or the latest trendy Netflix series, and trying out local restaurants in her neighborhood.

Her travel bucket list is pretty full, but visiting the pyramids in Egypt, hiking Machu Picchu in Peru and taking a road trip around the United States are at the top!

If you’re twenty-two, physically fit, hungry to learn and be better, I urge you to travel — as far and as widely as possible. Sleep on floors if you have to. Find out how other people live and eat and cook. Learn from them — wherever you go.” -A. Bourdain"

Liam is TravelBud’s co-founder and is the visionary driving force behind our team. He’s from Cape Town, South Africa but finds himself exploring the world and living in a variety of places, most recently Hua Hin, Thailand.

Having taught in Thailand himself, he returned with a newfound appreciation for educators and a vision for supplying better prepared and more passionate teachers to Asia to have the same amazing experiences he did.

Liam says living in Asia taught him not to sweat the small things in life and to have more compassion and patience – this is something he’s instilled in every aspect of life at TravelBud.

A keen videographer, Liam is most often found behind the lense of his camera or nose down behind his laptop editing the next epic video he’s shot. Well, that’s when he’s not discovering the next big underground hip hop scene in Myanmar, Korea or back home in SA – this is one guy who’s passionate about his music!

Travel is also something which runs in Liam’s blood, by the age of 19 he’d been to 25 countries and he’s not showing any signs of slowing down! Currently sitting at the 35 country mark, he dreams of buying a character-filled 4×4 and exploring every last corner of Africa.

A natural born leader, Stu is TravelBud’s Business Development Director and one with a difference! He describes his most important focus as “keeping the unique enthusiastic and caring company culture alive as we grow together”. Something which is close to the hearts of every team member.

Stu has been with TravelBud from day one, the moment he finished university two of his closest friends, the Kelly brothers invited him to join them on a new venture: TravelBud! From humble beginnings where he was responsible for everything from accounting to marketing and blogging he’s grown a dream team which is taking the business to new heights.

Travel has touched Stu’s life deeply as he explored Europe independently while living and working in the UK as a sports coach after he finished high school. It’s taught him that truly exciting and life-changing adventures only happen when you step outside your comfort zone; and not a day goes by when he doesn’t challenge the team to do the same!

So where is his favourite destination? None other than our best-seller, Thailand! And, if he can ever find the time to take a sabbatical from steering the TravelBud ship he’d like to spend his time off volunteering and living in Malawi or Kenya for a bit.

Luke is a director at TravelBud and practices as an advocate at the Cape Bar Society of Advocates in Cape Town, South Africa.

Luke brings strategic business advice and guidance to TravelBud, as well as a dose of enthusiasm for the love of travel.