Equinox Explore’s senior director talks upcoming trips and industry trends.
At eighteen years old, Leah Howe was working in Rome and reveling in la dolce vita while wondering what was next. One morning, her British roommate, who worked for a travel company, asked her a favor: Could she be in Venice the following day to organize a British youth choir's trip? “I had never been to Venice and I just had to figure it out,” Howe, a native of Ithaca, New York, recalls. She loved it and the following year, she was hired by the same tour company to lead concert and ski trips.
Ultimately, she was in Italy for fourteen years. "For twelve of those years I worked with Butterfield and Robinson planning and guiding luxury biking and walking trips. I started off primarily designing active trips in Italy, north to south and everywhere in between. But I also planned trips in Slovenia, Chile, Spain, and Scotland. I was in charge of regions in Southeast Asia too."
In 2011, she moved to New York City. In addition to continuing her work with Butterfield & Robinson, she began planning "over-the-top" destination events for Van Wyck & Van Wyck. Fast forward to today and Howe is the senior director of Equinox Explore. Her passion for travel is only rivaled by her love of athleticism, running and Pilates in particular. “We have this amazing world. It's incredibly vast and varied, but it's just the right size too. If we spend our lives exploring, we might just manage to experience most of it.” Here, Howe talked to Furthermore about her industry experience, the biggest travel trends right now, and what’s next for Equinox Explore.
