Client Review: From the Cozy Cotswolds to Grand Marnier on the African Plains

Ron & Philly’s African Adventure: 6 countries, 6 weeks,

by Taylor Wells

I get the privilege of working closely with John Spence, and as his marketing specialist, I often get a behind-the-scenes look at the extraordinary journeys he designs. Recently, I had the pleasure of speaking with Ron & Philly to talk through their six-week adventure that spanned from London and the Cotswolds to the heart of Africa. What unfolded in that conversation was not just a recap of destinations or highlights, but a story about trust, intention, and what happens when travel is designed with real depth and care.

There are trips you enjoy, trips you remember, and then there are trips that completely redefine what travel can be. For Ron and Philly, this was firmly the latter. It was not a vacation in the traditional sense, and it certainly was not tourism. It was a deeply personal, seamless, once-in-a-lifetime journey crafted by someone who understands people as well as he understands the world.

Ron put it best when he described John as “a Maestro.” Someone who knows how to read people, understand what they are truly craving, and translate that into an experience that feels tailor-made from start to finish. Ron and Philly had known John socially for years, and he had been encouraging them to visit Africa for a long time, eager to share his love for a place that had shaped much of his life. When they finally decided it was time, they gave John a simple brief: “Show us Africa.”

What made this challenge more interesting was that Ron and Philly do not repeat destinations and actively avoid tourist crowds. They wanted culture, people, and moments that felt real. The pressure was on to create something unforgettable, and the trust they placed in John became the foundation for everything that followed.

“John Spence is very talented at reading people, understanding what they’re looking for in an adventure, and designing an adventure that absolutely suits their personality, who they are, and their sense of adventure.

Whether you’re looking for art, culture, history, or nature, he absolutely piles it in. He has this amazing ability to understand what people are looking for, to make it real for them, and to design a trip that nobody else could have designed besides John.” Philly shares.

A journey of this scale is a carefully choreographed puzzle, with countless moving pieces, from charter flights and border crossings to finding the right rhythm between adventure and rest. For John, luxury isn’t defined by marble bathtubs, but by being in the right place, in the right way. By blending ultra-luxury lodges with classic, more rustic safari camps, each stop served a distinct purpose, offering its own pace, personality, and sense of place.

A Look into the Itinerary

The journey began in England, which proved to be the perfect first half of the trip. Philly had only spent a few days in London years before, and Ron had never been at all. Together with John and his Expert, Tracy Stevens, they landed on London and the Cotswolds as a gentle entry point before heading to Africa.

Philly fell in love with the pace and allure of the countryside, describing it as incredibly charming and absolutely worth a stop. “I never even heard of the word ‘Cotswold’ before,” Ron said. But once they arrived, it quickly became one of his favorite memories, especially their stay in the fairytale village of Broadway. Cozy, calming, and unhurried, it set the tone for the adventure ahead.

What made a six-week, multi-country journey work so seamlessly was pacing. “The way he designed it is that we typically had about four days in any one spot. Enough time to unpack, get comfortable, do some exploring, and see the place we were in,” Ron explained.

After Cape Town, Victoria Falls, the Lower Zambezi, and South Luangwa National Park, John and Tracy added something that made the whole journey even better: a true reset on Likoma Island.

“John and Tracy planned a four-day island reset, nothing on the agenda, sleep in, be in the water, and just relax. It wasn’t just a break—it was a smart design.” This thoughtful pause allowed the second half of the journey to feel just as rich and exciting as the first.

As they moved deeper into Africa, the experiences became more raw, personal, and unforgettable. Ron and Philly were clear that they wanted to see culture and people more than attractions, and that intention shaped everything.

On a remote island in Lake Malawi, Ron believes they were one of very few tourists. They attended a local football match with thousands of people, where they stood out instantly and were welcomed completely. Little kids gathered around them, curious and excited. And the celebration after every goal?

“Everybody would rush out to the field, put the goal scorer on their shoulders, march him around the field… put him back down and go back to the seats,” Ron explains. It was the kind of moment you cannot stage or plan from a checklist. It simply happens when you are in the right place, at the right time, with the right mindset.

“Every place had its own magic, its own charm, its own special moment,” Philly said. Still, certain memories rose to the surface. Ron’s love for elephants led him to ask his guide for one thing: to get him as close as safely possible to elephants. The guide delivered. “He drove me into the middle of a herd of elephants,” Ron said. “There must have been twenty of them. You could reach out and touch them.”

Ron was overwhelmed by the beauty and grace of the elephants. One in particular began to grow agitated. “He started flapping his ears, about to charge us,” Ron explained, but the guide remained completely calm, almost conversational,  as if he were speaking to an old friend.

The elephant charged and stopped just short of the group. “The guide looked at him and said, ‘Calm down,’ talking to him in Swahili,” Ron said, laughing. “They speak elephant.”

For Philly, one of the most emotional moments came in Zambia, watching a baby elephant trapped in deep mud. “It sank in so deeply that it couldn’t pull itself out,” she said. After a day, park rangers intervened, anesthetizing the mother and pulling the calf free. “It hopped right up and walked away,” Philly recalled. “They brought the mom back pretty quickly, and off they went.” It was raw and unforgettable.

One night, Ron stayed behind at camp, seated by the fire with a glass of wine in hand.

“Eight feet from me, a leopard walks right by me,” he said. “I go, ‘Holy shit, that’s a fucking leopard right there.’”

And what did he do next? “I just took another sip of the wine,” Ron chuckles. When you’re truly in the wild, you’re not watching nature from a distance. You’re a part of it.

Grand Marnier. Every Country. Every Nightstand.

If there’s one story that captures John Spence’s level of personalization, it’s this.

Ron has a ritual: a small glass of Grand Marnier before bed, every single night.

“For the last 25 to 30 years, every night before I go to bed, I have a little Grand Marnier. It’s my nightly ritual,” Ron said. “Every camp we went to, John had it flown in. It was on my table, on my bedside, wherever we stayed. Every camp. Every country. What an amazing thing to organize. Talk about a personalized trip.”

In a six-week journey across Africa, it’s a minute detail, but it’s exactly these little moments that make a trip unforgettable.

That’s John Spence. Meticulous, intuitive, and deeply attuned to what matters most to his travelers, even before they ask.

Philly agreed that the magic is in how deeply John listens: “He got very in-depth as to what we wanted to see and what we wanted the experience to be like. Africa is massive. We started in Cape Town, and ended the trip on Mnemba Island—that is about a 4,000-mile distance.

It’s like going from Cabo San Lucas to Anchorage, Alaska. It’s a big, big place. The fact is, it’s a vast place with a lot of open space, a lot of wilderness, a lot of wild—and John knows it better than anybody else,” Philly exclaims.

There is no one who can “do” Africa better than John Spence.

And that’s why they feel confident saying what many travelers want to hear, but rarely can… This wasn’t a standard itinerary. It wasn’t “tourism.” It was personal, seamless, and unforgettable.