Katie Wood, The Sunday Post's Travel Editor

KATIE WOOD is a well-established travel writer and broadcaster with a vast knowledge of the travel industry spanning over 30 years.

A former travel editor of three national UK newspapers, she has been The Sunday Post’s travel editor for the past five years, during which time her articles have won national awards. She has written for almost every UK national newspaper, from The Times and The Guardian to The Sun and Daily Mail.

She has also written and worked abroad, producing travel articles for the likes of the Wall Street Journal and Sydney Morning Herald.

With 128 countries under her belt, she writes our weekly column on foreign destinations, and also collates the travel news, ensuring our readers know the best deals and latest news in travel.

Following a Masters degree in English at Edinburgh University, and coming ‘Top Student of the Year’ in a subsequent ‘Communication Studies’ diploma, Katie identified a market in travel writing back in the early 1980’s and set off round Europe with a backpack for 18 months, travelling to 26 countries in Europe and North Africa.

Three months after returning she had a contract from Penguin Books and was writing her first book, the award-winning best-seller ‘Europe by Train’.

Within a year, it was in the Top Ten Best Selling non-fiction books in the UK, and was then translated into five languages. She continued to research and write guidebooks for the next 25 years, going on to publish a further 38 titles.

As a resident travel expert on numerous travel shows for BBC and ITV, she worked as a presenter on travel classics such as ITV’s ‘Wish You Were Here’ and then went on to devise, write scripts for, and lead-present on Scottish Television’s BAFTA-nominated travel series ‘Scottish Passport’.

In the 1990s Katie undertook marketing consultancy work for bodies such as British Airways, the British Tourism Authority, Visit Scotland and the European Union DGXXIII Dept of Tourism. This ranged in content from market identification and analysis for new products, to environmental tourism assessments, writing and designing brochures, and tourism literature, and advising on P.R. and promotional campaigns.

Travelling abroad around 30 times a year, travel is Katie’s life and she has worked in every sector, from budget travel to five star de luxe experiences; from island-hopping in Scotland to travelling round the Outback of Australia. What she majors in however, are practical articles that tell the readers the good and bad of any destination. No purple prose; no hype; just the facts, generally tinged with a good deal of Scottish humour!

Puerto Rico is an exciting Caribbean oasis!