Meet Lewis
Lewis Ogden
Founder & CEO
Lewis Ogden is a UK-based entrepreneur, travel enthusiast, dad, husband and the founder and owner of WayToStay. Lewis started WayToStay.com to share his own travel experiences and provide epic free travel guides. He caught the travel bug back in 2009 on a trip to Italy with his wife, and has visited many different countries each year since. In 2018 he took an island hopping trip to Greece (who doesn’t love Greek food!) and loved the experience which made him eager to explore what else was on his door step…the rest of Europe!
Local To:
Cheshire, United Kingdom
Currently:
Exploring the UK & Europe
Favorite Destinations:
Greece, Mexico, Thailand
Fun Facts:
Has a son (Fynn), a Cocker Spaniel (Otis) and a Cat (Thea = Greek for Princess). His favorite trip so far has been island-hopping around the Greek Cyclades in 2018 with his wife Suzanne.
What is your favourite travel experience or story?
It has to be the complete and utter carnage of the ferries in Greece. During an island hopping trip (and having not quite found my sea legs yet) we literally fought our way onto the ferry from Paros to Santorini – battling cars, people, dogs and all manner of weird and wonderful obstacles that lay between us and the rest-bite of the air-con onboard the boat.
The SeaJet ferry took just 1.5 hours to reach out destination…which meant I spent the entire hour and a half sweating, turning a funny shade of green and doing everything in my power to keep it together. I don’t think I did a good job as a crew member made his way over to me and handed me a paper bag, he was clearly experience in spotting the signs of travel sickness!
All ended well and I stepped back onto solid ground without visiting the bathroom or using the paper bag. I swear it was the speed at which the captain hit the waves that did it!
What's your travel style?
I use my home as base from which to travel to various destinations multiple times per year, preferring to take many shorter trips to experience as many different places as possible.
We like to mix up shorter City breaks with the extended beach/resort stay to get some downtime and let someone else do the cooking and cleaning for a change.
How do you decide which places to visit?
My wife and I have an apple note which we add too and visit when deciding on our next trip. Inspirations usually comes from documentaries we watch together (mostly David Attenborough, Simon Reeves and Stephen Fry being that we live in the UK).
What is your #1 travel tip?
Pack light, you can always buy, beg, borrow or steal what you don’t have when you get there!
What are the top 3 things on your bucket list?
Climb Mt. Kilimanjaro, Road trip across Canada, Stay in a glass igloo in the Arctic Circle to see the Northern Lights.
Window seat or aisle?
Aisle – I don’t like disturbing the other passengers when I need the toilet!
