Penny has been a travel addict since her parents first took her on her first overseas trip to New Zealand when she was 9 years old. Since then she’s lived in the UK, Viet Nam, China and Estonia and travelled to over 40 countries. Penny’s other passion is language learning, and she’s spent years learning and studying languages such as Vietnamese, Japanese, Chinese and French. 

Asia is her happy place and where she loves to spend time exploring. Her first experience of Asia was with her family in Singapore aged 14, before travelling to Japan on a Girl Guide camp (aged 15) and then trekking in Nepal when she was 16. Penny’s love  affair with travel and Asia had begun!

When Penny was 18, she spent 12 months living in Saigon and it was a life changing experience. Her time was spent learning Vietnam, teaching English and travelling throughout the country.  She returned to live in Saigon again after her university degree, spending 6 months there studying Vietnamese and working part-time

In her early 30s, Penny was lucky enough to receive a scholarship to study Chinese in Nanjing. It was another amazing experience, connecting through language, and travel.

Pip & Co Travel has evolved out of both her personal love of travelling (and having meaningful cultural experiences while away) and her professional experience of working in the tourism industry for 20 years. 

Penny has owned a tourism accommodation business called Tall Trees Camping, and Lingo Mama an online business advocating for language learning.

Penny co-founded the community Language Lovers AU in 2018, and has been co-hosting the podcast Language Chats since 2019.

Food is an incredibly important part of Penny’s travels, and on Pip & Co Travel trips. Expect your meals, restaurants and cafe stops to be extremely well thought out, showcasing the best of the destination’s cuisine.

Asia is her favourite place to be, and if she had to choose she would find it tough to name her favourite country, but Viet Nam, Japan, Taiwan, France, the Netherlands and China would be on her list!

Melbourne is her hometown, and now lives nearby in Geelong with her husband and two daughters.