Saltee was born from a shared passion for cultural exchange and life-changing holiday experiences. We call these experiences transformative travel, for their ability to make us see the world – and ourselves – in a different light.
This journal marks the first in a new series, exploring the Saltee team’s own life-defining holiday experiences. These stories shaped who we are as people, and Saltee’s identity today.
We believe transformative travel stories are meant to be shared. With your partner over dinner and your children at bedtime, with your dearest friends around a campfire, and with the person sitting beside you on your morning commute.
Telling travel stories opens windows to unexplored landscapes and undiscovered cultures, through which others can glimpse something fleeting, and beautiful – an experience, never to be repeated – of somewhere entirely different, in place and time.
Adrift on the Adriatic Sea with Anna
Anna – Saltee’s Brand Director – experienced a defining travel moment during a family trip to Croatia and its surrounding islands, during the aftermath of the Balkan War.
It was on a mild August morning, blissfully adrift in a sailboat on the Adriatic Sea, that Anna found herself reflecting on her journey. Gazing across tranquil waters to the craggy coastline beyond, she realised that being in the midst of such unimaginable serenity – a lifetime away from her fast-paced London life – was a transformative experience in itself.
Croatia – with its sensational coastline, unspoiled nature, and incredible history – is a country that attracts culture-seeking tourists in their many thousands every year. It’s also, as Anna observed, a country with an evocative old-world feel – especially among its coastal communities and island settlements.
With a long, tragic, history of internal conflict, Croatia is a country held fast in time, and in many ways suppressed by a near constant cycle of destruction and rebirth. Despite, and perhaps because of this, Anna found the country to be astoundingly beautiful.
“It was evident that the small islands and villages were still piecing themselves back together, in the aftermath of war.”
In the eastern towns and cities, stunningly restored Romanesque and Renaissance architecture stood just metres away from bullet-battered ruins. Unblemished, creamy-white rendering was harshly juxtaposed against peeled paint and broken brickwork – a crumbling tapestry of decay.
Touring some of the country’s many islands, Anna explored picturesque fishing villages, lush vineyards, and historic monuments. These thriving, peaceful communities were still peppered with the remnants of traditional stone cottages, which were yet to be rebuilt. Haunting, threadbare structures had been gradually reclaimed by nature, and made beautiful by mossy, tumbling growths spilling from their windowless frames.
Anna’s journey in Croatia was one of stepping into a different time and place, embracing a simpler way of life, and immersing herself in a history so remarkably different to her own that it forever broadened her view of the world.
Beneath the Surface of Buenos Aires with Patrick
Saltee’s Co-Founder Patrick and his partner set off for Buenos Aires, hoping from the outset to subvert the traditional tourist experience. They were hungry for a true taste of the city, eager to explore Argentinian culture, and to discover something new.
Patrick remembers Buenos Aires as a culturally-colourful melting pot, quite unlike any other place he’s visited. The city was alive, with its own alluring but somewhat duplicitous personality. Laid back, yet bristling with energy, different hour by hour, and from one street corner to the next.
Buenos Aires – the eighth most densely populated city in the world – is a vibrant and ever-changing metropolis, home to approximately one third of the country’s total population. The inner city is a seductive sprawl of neoclassical, art deco and art nouveau architecture stretching beyond the horizon. It’s Argentina’s beating heart, through which the fiery blood of Latin America flows.
Keen to dive beneath the surface of the city and discover the real Buenos Aires, Patrick and his partner enrolled in a two-week intensive Spanish programme. During this course, they had the privilege of being warmly welcomed and hosted by an Argentinian family – an experience Patrick vividly remembers and holds dear to this day.
“Becoming fully immersed in Argentinian home life was the best way to learn. It was also a great way to connect with our hosts, and with each other. We often found ourselves competing as we learned the language – it was a fantastic shared experience.”
Having this gateway into Argentinian life made the trip to Buenos Aires so much more than a sightseeing experience. The journey sparked within Patrick a passion for cultural exchange and a love of adventure that endures to this day. He now nurtures this same passion in his children, and relishes seeing transformative travel experiences through their eyes.
