Whenever she’s travelling, Liz Ryan, Business Development Manager for Unique Vacations UK Ltd, representing Sandals Resorts and Beaches Resorts, loves shopping for shoes, handbags and – her favourite accessory – sunglasses. Liz reveals more in our quick Q&A, including telling Travel Gossip how she got into the industry and why working overseas turned her off a particular tipple…
I never travel without… sunglasses. I love them and have lots of pairs.
The famous person (dead or alive) I’d most like to sit next to on a plane is… Gordon “Butch” Stewart, the founder, and original Chairman of Sandals Resorts International, the parent company of Sandals Resorts and Beaches Resorts. I hear so many stories about him and sadly, he died before I joined the company. He was a real character, so I would love to have met him and chatted to him about the brand.
My weakness is… accessories like shoes and handbags. Especially when travelling, I love to buy unusual styles that you can’t get here in the UK.
The next place I’ll visit is… Barbados in September, to see the two fabulous Sandals Resorts there, and then I’m off on a Golden Triangle tour of India with the hubby.
The last place I visited was… Spain. We have a house there so we go as often as we can.
The worst thing I ate or drank abroad was… tequila and too much of it, hosting bar crawls in a past life. It was the shot of choice at the time. I can’t even smell it now without feeling green round the gills.
My bucket-list destination is… Canada. I want to see the Canadian Rockies and do an Alaskan cruise. I was going to do this for my 50th birthday but it was right after the pandemic, so I had a big party instead, I will get there one day.
Born and brought up in… Liverpool, and I still live just outside the city centre. It’s a fabulous city. It’s so much fun, and Scousers are the friendliest people.
The emoji I use most often is… sunglasses. I love them and I have a tattoo of a pair on my arm.
The best piece of advice I’ve been given is… to always be yourself. This was advice given to me from my mum at a very young age. Honesty is the best policy for me, and I have lived by this my whole life.
If I could eat one thing for the rest of my life it would be… chicken. I love it, especially roast chicken.
The thing I miss most while travelling is… my wardrobe. I miss the choice of accessories, as obviously you can’t pack everything (although I give it a pretty good go).
When I left school, I wanted to be… famous. I trained as a dancer and actress and went to London to find my fortune at 19. I worked in a front of house role in Drury Lane, so that I could go to auditions during the day. I got a bit fed up of rejection, so I moved abroad to be an entertainer and animator and ended up staying there for 16 years.
The thing I’m most proud of is… my career. When I was overseas, I worked across three Greek islands (Skiathos, Skopelos and Alonissos) and managed a huge team. I have been in the travel industry for 36 years and I have been extremely lucky to have visited some amazing places.
The best thing about my job is… educating our travel agent partners on Sandals and Beaches Resorts. They are the most iconic brands, with an amazing portfolio.
The first thing I notice about a person when I meet them is… their smile.
If I won the Lottery tomorrow, I would… charter a yacht and go to Boracay for a month, then I’d book a cruise around the world and keep extending it until I ran out of money.
