Your Next Vacation Could Rewrite Your Identity

What if your next luxury holiday could change someone’s life… including your own?

In this episode of The Tarryn Reeves Show, I sit down with Christopher Hill, founder of Hands Up Holidays and Impact Destinations, to unpack a completely different way of travelling; one that blends luxury, purpose, and real human connection.

This isn’t about ticking destinations off a bucket list.

It’s about stepping into communities, hearing stories, and leaving a legacy.

Chris shares how a single moment, helping build a home in South Africa, completely shifted his path from investment banking to building a global travel business rooted in impact.

And what unfolded next?

• Families giving up Christmas presents to support communities they met abroad.
• Travellers overcoming fear and completely rewriting their identity.
• Even people moving their entire lives across the world after one trip.

Yeah… it’s that powerful.

In this episode, we dive into:

• What philanthropic travel actually is (and why most people get it wrong)
• How to experience luxury travel while giving back… without “roughing it”
• The difference between volunteering trips vs impact-led travel experiences
• Why families are choosing travel as their greatest teacher for their kids
• The behind-the-scenes reality of building a purpose-driven business
• How travel has shifted post-COVID, and why meaning now matters more than ever
• Simple ways to start (even if you’re hesitant) with just one day of impact

The truth no one talks about…

Travel can either be an escape…
Or it can be a catalyst.

A mirror.
A wake-up call.
A moment that changes how you see the world, and yourself.

And this conversation?
It’s a reminder that you don’t need to choose between living well and doing good.

You can do both.

If you’ve ever felt this…

“I want more from my life… more meaning, more connection, more impact…”

This episode will hit you in all the right places.

🎧 Tune in now and discover how to turn your next holiday into something unforgettable, for you and for the people you meet along the way.

Resources & Links:

Christopher Hill is offering listeners an exclusive 10% discount when you book within 30 days of this episode airing.
Use code: TARRYN25
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Connect with Chris:

• Instagram: Hands Up Holidays
• Instagram: Impact Destinations
• Facebook

Connect with Tarryn

Transcript

0:39

Today I'm joined by Christopher Hill, who is the founder of luxury philanthropic travel brands, hands up holidays and impact destinations and serves his majority US based clients from New Zealand where he lives with his wife, two boys and Labradoodle dog Zola. Chris, Welcome to the show. Thanks, Tarryn, and it's great to be here. It's great to have you. Like I said, before we hopped on, there's nothing I like more than chatting about travel and beautiful destinations. So I'm looking forward to diving in. But let's start at the beginning where every good story starts. Tell me what inspired you to create Hands Up Holidays and then I believe later on Impact Destinations. What was the journey? The journey was really starting in a trip I took to South Africa. At that point, that was in 2002. And I've been working in London in investment banking for about six years at that point. And on that trip, in addition to going on safari and exploring the wonders of Cape Town and the Garden Route and the wine lands, I also helped to build a house for a family in one of the slum townships just outside of Cape Town. And this enriched the travel experience for me in sort of two main ways, added two extra dimensions to travel for me. The first dimension was that it enabled me to actually engage with local people and hear their stories and share some laughs with them. And then secondly, it just felt great to make a difference in the life. of the family that we were helping alongside to build the house for. And so I got thinking, well, I've learned some good business skills. Why don't I put into something I find a bit more meaningful and fulfilling and make it easy for others to have similar experiences like I just had. And yeah, so that was the genesis for what became Hands Up Holidays. So it sounds like building that house must have been that defining moment for you, where you realize that travel can be more than leisure, you can leave an impact. Yeah, exactly, exactly. and also just a of a a slight sort of nuance on that, that the service component can be the medium or the vehicle to enable travelers to go on a deeper level and engage with the hidden treasure of many countries, which is the people, which all too often, certainly for me, uh leading up to that trip, uh just, you know, was kind of a tick box exercise of seeing amazing sites and wonderful things, but still not getting there that deeper interaction. That's so interesting. I'm actually from Zimbabwe uh originally. Yeah, I was born there, lived there for 15 years. And so I do find that people from first world countries, when they do travel, they tend to do that more surface level, very touristy stuff. But the magic is found in diving into, you know, those really creepy, unhygienic looking Yeah stores under a tarp on the side of the road or venturing to the less tourist driven spots or engaging with the local people in a more charitable, if you like, way exactly Tarryn. And that's another aspect to our trip is that we always use local guides so they can provide that insider knowledge as well that you spoke about. If you're traveling on your own, might not be sure about, oh, could I eat there or not? But with that insider knowledge, you can. Yeah, that's exactly right. And you don't want to end up with food poisoning or Bali belly or something like that. There's nothing worse. But I think we've all been there. um So investment banking and travel are two kind of completely different worlds in the way that you're doing. I mean, investment bankers travel all the time, but not in the way that you have obviously shaped things. I'm interested to hear the journey for you personally, like the challenges that you faced, like jumping from investment banking in obviously corporate, a corporate role for six years into running your own business, travel, that sort of a thing. Yeah, well, I must say that, oh yeah, there were definitely challenges, but it was more an exciting ride than anything. At that point, I wasn't married, I didn't have a mortgage to worry about. And so it was, uh you could call it a calculated risk to take um with, for me, fairly limited downsides. If it all, you didn't work out, then I definitely figured I could just get back into finance. uh And things like some of my colleagues were investors into the business I was setting up. So there was that sort of support. And then also, think quite crucially, I was really helped in setting up a travel business by one of my best friends. was the CFO of a travel company here in New Zealand. And he introduced me to their product manager, who very graciously shared the details of the suppliers that they use. And so that helped a lot with my due diligence and saved a lot of time in identifying reliable partners at different destinations. And so then it just uh was left up to the main remaining thing was to find suitable service projects. And as I say, that was just a bunch of fun. Basically, I spent two years traveling the world building relationships with different travel communities ahead of launching in 2006. And... Yeah, mean, yes, there were some setbacks. For example, once I got the idea in 2002, I took a year out and did some more study in Vancouver. And during that year, this idea really took root. And I had decided at that point that I was going to launch with just offering South Africa. And then I got some advice. from a family friend who was working in travel. And his advice was, in order to appear more credible to a wider range of customers, we should actually delay the launch and delay it until we have a good number of destinations to offer. And so that was why I actually ended up. Well, I took that advice and delayed the launch by a couple of years and traveled, like I said, and built those relationships. So we ended up launching with, I think, 22 destinations in 2006. Yeah, amazing. And what was the first trip you ever sold? Where to? I think it was to Morocco, if I recall correctly. Yeah, that's very high on my bucket list. I'm dying to go to Morocco. It looks amazing. It sure is. I mean it's this fantastic combination of uh fascinating cities such as Marrakesh and Fez. And then you've got the Atlas Mountains for incredible hiking and beautiful scenery. And then you've got uh the Sahara Desert as well, plus the coast. there's so much packed into not a crazy big destination. Yeah, beautiful. Definitely up there. Now, starting a luxury philanthropic travel brand is obviously quite unique. What challenges did you face in convincing people that this model would work? Whether investors or your clients or banks, anything like that. Yeah, well, our biggest challenge is not I wouldn't say it's around convincing. It's more around awareness and making people aware that it is actually possible to travel in luxury and give back. And I guess I get that because it's not necessarily intuitively obvious. But and so, yeah, there's often time spent with people just unpacking it a little bit and explaining that It's really the luxury component is the kind of the in a sense, a Trojan horse, maybe that's not even the right word, but it's the way to enable people who want to make a difference, but don't want to have to rough it to be able to do so. So, you there are a raft of opportunities to serve and stay in. modest accommodation. And that's completely great. um But particularly in the demographics that we're targeting, like families, um but also our model, is even with Hands Up Holidays, it's what I describe as a philanthropy volunteering model. And what I mean by that is that it is actually the funds that our clients bring, which is the main benefit to the project, because it's the funds that enable the materials to be bought and local experts to be employed and who will actually do most of the work and certainly all the tricky parts and certainly the supervising of our clients when they are helping on the project. for instance, building a house. uh our clients fund the cost of those materials and, as I say, employing local people to do most of that work, leaving enough work so that if the client has three days, then there's sort of three days worth of work still to be done. So the finishing touches really. And so that the benefit that our clients get is like we've just spoken about, it's the magic of that interaction with the the locals, with the builders, with the family. and also just other people in the community that, for instance, the children can play soccer with or just get to know and just run around um and get a taste of what local life is like. And so that luxury with the philanthropy um I think when it's unpacked like that and explained like that, makes sense. And people still can say, uh I didn't know you could travel like this, but they love that idea. And so there hasn't been necessarily, I wouldn't say much in the way of convincing once they understand what the concept is. Yeah. And I know that you said that you pushed back the launch for two years because of your advice from the friends that you had more places to offer, more travel destinations, but has your vision evolved since you actually first launched the company? And if so, how? Yeah, I mean, fundamentally, there hasn't been any major changes. But certainly when I first launched it, I had young professionals in mind as our main target audience. So people aged sort of 25 to 35 who were cash rich, time poor, who wanted to have a vacation, but also wanted to make a difference. And however, really from the from the outset, were getting bookings from families. And at that point, families weren't on my radar at all. It just didn't occur to me that they want to be booking with us. And so I just asked them, you know, basically, why are you booking with us? And they'd say things like, our kids come from pretty privileged backgrounds and we would want them to appreciate how fortunate they are. Or they'd say, we're looking for a great family bonding experience and this really nails it for us. And so with comments like that, that definitely resonated with me and it certainly even more so now that I do have children of my own. And so over a bit of time, we started to shift our emphasis to families in terms of our messaging. And that's certainly not to exclude any other segments. it's great that we do still get inquiries from you know, couples or, or, you know, solo travelers or, or just, you know, groups of friends. But certainly the most of our messaging on our website is, is focused on families. So that's the biggest change I think I can, I can think of combined with, well, actually, well, one other thing would be right when we launched we started with group trips, so fixed departures. And that changed to a fully tailor-made model fairly quickly, actually, as well. So now every trip is individually crafted for each inquiry that we get. And then I would say in terms of an evolution, that's probably where impact destinations comes in, that evolution might not be the right word. uh but it's a sort of a variant of philanthropic travel. And what I mean by that is with regards, in contrast to Hands Up Holidays, on an Impact Destinations trip, it's the travelers' philanthropic donation, which enables the experts to do what they do best. And so it doesn't involve actually physically rolling up your sleeves and helping to build a house or... being a reading partner or. whatever the case may be. But yeah, it's the experts in that destination who do the work, but also it unlocks a unique experience for the traveler. So for example, on a trip to South Africa, on a safari day, guests can witness a rhino relocation from a reserve that's facing a lot of rhino loss due to poaching. and relocating it to a better protected reserve in Botswana. So this is where the clients actually go into the helicopter with the veterinarian while he's darting the rhino. And then once the rhino has been darted, land the helicopter and spend some time with a sedated rhino before seeing it get loaded into the container and airlifted off to Botswana. So this really about being able to say that you saved the life of a rhino whilst on safari or whatever the case may be in other destinations. So it's really around sort leaving a legacy. About 80 % of those trips that we offer are wildlife conservation focused. Yeah, that's amazing. So hands up holiday, you're kind of rolling up your sleeves, you're actually building houses, that sort of thing. Impact destinations is more the funds go towards the community as such, and then you get an exclusive experience. Is that correct? That's kind of like the surface difference between the two. Yeah, amazing. That's really, really cool. And can you share? Let's get into like a real life story. Can you share a story of a client whose life was kind of like deeply impacted or changed by a trip with one of your companies? Yeah, yeah, absolutely. A few quick ones spring to mind. One would be actually coming back to Morocco with a family that traveled with us. This was in our early days. I don't think it was our first, but it was certainly in our early days. And we were doing a staged construction, like a phased construction of a library and a school in about 45 minutes outside of Marrakesh. So there was a lot of interaction with the local children and this particular family when they got home and it came around to Christmas time, the kids said, actually, we want to forego our gifts and we want them to be sent to the children that we were playing with in Morocco. And so, yeah, that really touched me. yeah, a couple of other ones. uh had a, again, this is going back in the early days as well. It was a retiree, a woman in her 60s who had not traveled very much at all, not to Africa. This is her first time in Africa. And so she was a bit of an anxious traveler, we could say. Required a lot of handholding, leading up to the trip and during the trip. And however, uh pretty much when she completed it, she got on pretty much the next flight back to Kenya. and had booked her own apartment for three months and had leased a car and she was just buzzing around on her own and uh ended up serving in that community for another three months. yeah, so there was that. And then the most extreme was a family that traveled with us to India and they were so impacted that they moved their whole family to India for a year. after traveling with us. That's amazing. Very, very cool. And what has been your favourite destination and why? Yeah, that's a great question. I mean, there are a lot, but I think for me it's Bali. And that's because our project there is a unique one in that the benefit... that a cruise is really focused on one person, and that is a paraplegic. because our main project in Bali is building disabled accessible bathrooms for paraplegics. And a bit of the context there, in Bali being a Hindu island, if you're born with a disability, it's considered bad karma. And so really sadly, people can be isolated away, sort of hidden away from the rest of society and so lead very lonely isolated lives. And so to be able to bring a measure of dignity and independence in an area that's so personal to someone, i.e. going to the bathroom is really profound and impactful. that's my favorite one. And I was really... delighted to be able to do that with my family as well recently. So I've got two boys and so they were able to get involved with drawing water from the well and then carry that water over to where the cement was being mixed and then get on a spade and mix the cement. It was all done by hand. ah And then spade the finished cement, the wet cement into a wheelbarrow and then wheel it over to where the experts were doing the tricky parts. and then getting on the end of a paintbrush as well. And, like I mentioned, playing soccer with the local kids was especially impactful for me to be able to do that with my own kids recently. Amazing. And they would have learned so much from that. As, you know, as a kid who traveled young, I've noticed a huge difference in my approach to life and other people and cultures and food and tolerance. Those sorts of things is very, very different to people who perhaps haven't traveled young. It's such an interesting thing. And I think all kids should be able to travel because it I think the world would be a happier, more tolerant place if people did. 100 % Tarryn. Yeah. Now I know that this is a lot about giving back and I want to know, do you have like things in place to ensure that the experiences are very authentic, ethical and mutually beneficial? Cause I know some listeners will be like, well, how do we know that this is going? There's a lot of skepticism sometimes with aid and that sort of thing. Yeah. and justifiably so. I well, I tell you what we do. And that's really. I've touched on it already in that I spent those two years when we were setting things up, personally going and visiting and evaluating each potential opportunity to serve. And right from back then, and this continues through to today, the approach has been to never... go there with any sort of agenda or preconceptions of what I think should be done. It's always been a case of asking questions of the community. Firstly, to ask them what, sorry, if they would actually like help. And then secondly, if so, what that help would look like from them. And so that's helped enormously with ensuring that there's a fit and a match for the particular projects. And as I say, every trip that we offer, I go out personally and vet them in that way. I mean, still with our clients, there's trust involved that I am genuinely doing this. And so from there, I think, you know, people have to look to our reviews. But also we can and do from time to time put potential clients in touch with past clients so they can speak to them directly to see, to check things out if things are actually legit. And once a project is completed, do you ever follow up with that project? Does the story continue? Absolutely! I mean, there's a variety of ways that that is done. uh like for instance, with that phased project that I mentioned uh in Morocco, building that library that was done over a number of people going out there. um And then more sort of, I guess fundamentally, we absolutely actively encourage our clients to to build the relationships with the community. And so either they independently will get email addresses and so on, but also we do keep them updated uh with news from those communities as well. Yeah, that's, I mean, it's really important part. Yeah, that's right. Now I know you serve primarily the US and you're in New Zealand. I'm wondering how has the global perspective really shaped your approach to business and travel? It's well, I would say that, you know, what we do probably wouldn't be possible uh without modern day technology such as what we're using right now, uh but also just the internet in general and being able to reach a global audience from here in New Zealand. m not that it's that important, but I did launch and spent a further 10 years in London uh after launching the business and then moved back to New Zealand. And to be able to oh seamlessly uh completely move our offices from one end of the world to the other, uh as I say, could only really have been done with a uh primarily online operation. And that is fantastic. So yes, primarily, we have US clients. But we have clients from Australia, Canada, New Zealand, Germany, France, Singapore, Hong Kong, and it's a smattering of others. even that, it's pretty amazing reach that we're able to do. Hmm, yeah amazing and Building a brand that combines profit with purpose is Quite a feat and what lessons as the founder have you learned about about doing that profit with purpose? Well, for me it's... it just... mentioned this when I was talking about the my inspiration moment in South Africa that it felt great to to make a difference. And so for me, combining that the profit with purpose just makes the whole experience meaningful. And and so to to be able to get the feedback from our clients or when I'm doing it firsthand is what helps me to jump out of bed in the morning. And so it's my dream job to be able to, it's not making millions, but it's making a living and being able to provide for the family um in a way that I'm really proud of. also is making the world a better place. to be able to combine a career with purpose is just incredibly fulfilling. Hmm, I can imagine it's the dream, isn't it? Everyone says, you know, you never work a day in your life if you have a job that you love. Not many people go out and create it. So congratulations on doing that and making such an impact in the world. Now, we had something happen globally that would have really impacted your business models, which was the COVID pandemic, where everything kind of shut down, travel shut down. I actually quite enjoyed the solitude, I must say, but I did miss traveling. So I'm wondering, have people's travel and approach to seeing different places changed post-COVID? Yeah, yeah, I think it has. I think in my experience, in the immediate aftermath of COVID, was what I would describe or has been described as sort of revenge travel. kind of really sort of pure heat in this, well, in this strong, too extreme, but just. travel for travel sake kind of, um the pure sort of flip and flop without the sort of the purpose and meaning that we've been talking about. And so our style of travel has lagged a bit behind that big uptick in travel that there was immediately post-COVID. And so now it's oh back into a... uh a more steady rhythm. And I also do think though that things have picked up for us um in that COVID or due to COVID in terms of, you know, there has been, I'm attributing our growth post COVID to this, that during COVID there was an aspect of yes isolation, but also uh introspection and so a development of compassion and empathy, which has, I'm generalizing here, but to an extent, built people's character and that's then translated over into their travel dynamics as well. Yeah, amazing. It's so refreshing to see, I must say. Now, there would obviously still be a lot of people that are a little bit hesitant about this type of experience, but who are curious. What would you say to the person listening who's like, that sounds really good, but I don't know. I would say that because every trip that we run is tailor-made, could, you could even do it as short as, well, one day. You could give one day of your trip to a project. I mean, that's not necessarily applicable everywhere, but there are destinations where it could be done, like, um Well, one thing that springs to mind is at our turtle conservation projects where you could be a beach patroller for a day. And that involves, as I say, patrolling the nests on a beach and pretty much essentially every half hour you go out on patrol and see if any new turtles have hatched from under the sand. And if they have, collect them, put them in a repository, keep them hydrated, awaiting the evening when they are released into the ocean and their chances of survival are greater if they are released at night time. And you can do that in one day and just get a taste for it and see if it's for you. So yeah, give up one day of your... of your trip and I'm very confident that you'll get the bug and want to spend longer on your next one. Yeah, absolutely. Now Chris, if you had to describe the heart of your work in one sentence, what would it be? a meaningful oh luxury travel that is filled with meaning and purpose. Beautiful. Now let's have a bit of fun with this last one. I want to know what is the wildest thing you have seen on one of your destinations, one of your travels. The wildest thing. um Well, yeah, I guess this qualifies. We were in Baja California earlier this year and with my family, we'd actually just done what I'd spoken about with the turtle conservation there. And then we were down in Cabo and we were out on a whale watching trip and seeing the whales breaching uh just 20 meters away from our boat and the... the joy that they were exhibiting as though these incredibly huge creatures emerging from the water, for me was absolutely wild. Yeah, I do love a good whale watching. There's nothing like seeing such huge animals up close like that. What a special experience for your kids. Now, before we wrap things up, Chris, because I could talk about travel forever and we'd be here until tonight. What book has impacted you either personally or professionally? Oh, there are So many. I'm gonna say a book called Leaving Microsoft to Change the World by John Wood. Yeah. I haven't read that one. Why do you love it so much? well, it's uh kind of the clues in the title. um So John was a senior executive at Microsoft and devoting his time to philanthropy and community upliftment uh in the lesser developed countries. yeah, as you can imagine, that resonated with me. Absolutely brilliant. So for those of you listening who want to have a luxury holiday that actually makes an impact, I will put all of Chris's contact details in the show notes. And he is so generously offering you a 10 % discount to book within 30 days of this podcast airing. You can use the quote, Tarryn, T-A-R-R-Y-N, 2 5 all capitals to get that booking. Chris, thank you so much for sharing your beautiful stories and for making such an impact in the world. It's an honor. Thanks, Tarryn.