
Jack Dancy – Co-Founder
Jack has more hobbies than fingers and toes. We stopped counting at 20, right after he told us he’d purchased an easel and beret. Good thing he lives in France. For a man so enamoured by cooking with goose fat and garlic it’s odd that he’s so spry. Perhaps it’s the regimen of capoeira, cycling, drumming, dancing, and rock climbing? Or maybe the mental gymnastics of self-taught database development? The only thing we know for sure is that when Jack’s in the room it buzzes with energy.
Read Jack’s Sounder posts here.

Greg Sacks – Co-Founder
Greg likes to go native. It can be a problem. When he packs his bags for Africa, you know he’s hoping to spend 3 months with no shoes on. When he heads out on the road, we have to cut off his credit cards after a while to make him come back. He likes to slip the knot. The way Greg travels is the way he goes about the rest of his life—a persuasive mixture of the serious and the playful. He’s grown up a lot from the side-burned sports-car driving runaway from the circus who started Trufflepig on a wing and a prayer. But he hasn’t grown up too much.
Read Greg’s Sounder posts here.

Dan Achber – Planner
It is said that when Dan visited the Silverback gorillas of Rwanda, they immediately embraced him as one of their troop, then groomed him and fed him some bamboo. That’s just an ancient African legend, but we believe it. This man is our very own in-house Bear Grylls… but more menacing. And much taller. He has charged elephants, stared down lions, and (understandably) shrieked like a little girl when a hippo came after his canoe. When the apocalypse eventually comes, he will be the esteemed and courageous leader we follow to safety. And what kind of person would you rather have planning your safari in a strange land?
Dan is listed on Conde Nast Traveler’s Top Travel Specialists List for Southern Africa.
Read Dan’s Sounder posts here.

Anton Lynch – Planner
Anton has been working in travel since the original formation of the Perito Moreno Glacier. His personal conquests of South America put Magellan to shame, and while it’s Carnival and blue-footed boobies that he knows best, he also has a back pocket (and suitcase) full of other widespread know-how. Traditional Indian flower market? Anton can take you there. Seeking a cliffside break in Big Sur? Just ask Lynch. Volcano walking in Iceland? You should meet Antoniyk Lynchbjornsson. Both humble and sly, our South American specialist is based out of his rainy homeland of London, but he is frequently enticed across the sea by as little as an empanada or two.
Read Anton’s Sounder posts here.

Victoria Marsh – Planner
There’s only one person we know who can effectively lasso together a Trip Piglet with one hand, while booking 643 South American hotel arrangements with the other. Known as The Wrangler, Wrangles, and occasionally Wrangledog (said in the most affectionate way possible), Victoria is a Jill-of-all-trades who knows exactly where to find everything in the office, even when it seems lost among Charlie’s junk priceless antiques. All of this is without even mentioning that she’s the super-organized Robin to Anton’s Batman. Robin never gets as much credit as he really deserves.
Read Victoria’s Sounder posts here.

Sebastian Lapostol – Planner
It stands to reason that the guy who taught James Bond to dance flamenco has a knack for moving. But long before he schooled Pierce Brosnan in ‘Sevillanas’ (good luck trying those steps at home), Sebastian was finding his feet all over the world. Raised between Colorado and Chile where both of his parents come from, he ditched a post-grad career in academia for a year of guitar playing in Spain. Naturally, this evolved into an enthusiasm for mastering Arabic and several years running a beautiful hotel in the medina of Fez. Cut to a few years travelling in Spain & Portugal, collecting an encyclopaedic knowledge of both countries, and a dangerous penchant for sherry along the way. And now he’s finally (finally?) settled and married in Rabat, Morocco, strumming up brilliant itineraries like the multi-linguist virtuoso that he is.
Sebastian is listed on Conde Nast Traveler’s Travel Specialists List for Morocco, Spain & Portugal.
Read Sebastian’s Sounder posts here.

Caitlin Jackson – Finance Controller
Caitlin (aka CJ) keeps the lights on at Trufflepig. We run hundreds of trips worldwide each year, in dozens of different countries and currencies, and with thousands of suppliers, ranging from private islands in the Seychelles to Giorgios the shepherd in the Epirus mountains (guess which one doesn’t take Amex). And through it all, CJ performs the not inconsiderable miracle work of keeping everything tight, clean, legal, and (hardest of all) presented in a format even we can understand. She may not travel quite as much as some of her colleagues, but she sure can go far down the rabbit hole when spreadsheets are involved. CJ is the one truly irreplaceable person at Trufflepig, and we’re not giving you her email address because we’re scared she’ll get head-hunted by the Mob.

Yvonne Whitcomb – Planner
Having grown up on the US rodeo circuit and after spending years travelling to exotic locations all over the world, there was simply no chance Yvonne would content herself with vanilla corporate life. And so, almost inevitably, in the late 90’s she traded her cubicle and casual fridays for Africa, and never looked back. She’s done everything from moving horses across the USA in cargo planes to driving damn near every inch of road south of the Sahara, happy sleeping on the side of the road in Malawi or in the plushest safari camps in Botswana, and anything and everywhere in between. It’s safe to say she knows what she’s on about and can connect the dots with a precision and flair that is a marvel to behold. When it comes to planning the perfect safari (or if you have questions about horses) we can think of few better.
Read Yvonne’s Sounder posts here.

Claudia Schwenger – Planner
Most weekends you’ll find Claudia at the cottage in Ontario, planning trips and sweating it out in the wood-fired sauna, which is a bit farther afield from her hometown of Dresden, where Claudia, grew-up behind the Iron Curtain. She’s ever grateful that “pesky wall” fell before her growing desire for travel could cause problems with the Secret Police. We’re extremely grateful too otherwise she may have missed finding her future husband in that Ecuadorian prison, only to follow him to Canada, which ultimately led our favourite German adventurer/philosopher to Trufflepig HQ. Armed with a simple mantra of “travel is freedom,” paired with her weekly tradition of Sausage Wednesdays, her love of cheese and her natural appreciation of efficiency—we’ve one heck of an intrepid trip-planning maestro that the central and eastern European hinterlands deserve. Turns out it’s also the realm Claudia’s always been drawn to in the first place – so yes we agree, “travel is freedom”.
Claudia is listed on Conde Nast Traveler’s Travel Specialists list for Germany, and on Wendy Perrin’s WOW list for Germany and the Netherlands.
Read Claudia’s Sounder posts here.

Meredith Frye – Planner
Meredith has squeezed a great deal into her three-plus-something decades on the earth. After escaping her native Minneapolis, she’s somehow had time to live in Germany, Italy, France and the Dominican Republic – not forgetting Canada of course – and to travel far, far wider than that. She’s not only learnt French, Spanish and Italian (and I mean really learnt them – she can swear and enthuse and cajole and discuss politics and order coffee like a native), but she’s understood that language is only half the battle, so she’s learnt to dance the salsa, the tarantella and the tango. Oh, and she’s raised 3 kids, too. There is that minor detail. Perhaps that’s why she’s so in touch with her inner-child. In fact, she recently wondered if she was ‘too whacky for Trufflepig’. Please. That’ll be the day. We hired Meredith to plan trips in Italy, where a strong sense of playfulness and childlike enthusiasm is hard-wired into the culture. Serious playfulness? Thoughtfully childlike? It’s a winning oxymoron that Meredith has right under control.
Read Meredith’s Sounder posts here.

Jacoline Vinke – Planner
After spending a childhood in the Netherlands plotting her departure for warmer climes from the back of a rain-soaked bicycle on the way to school (and a couple of university degrees), and via a decade-long diversion in Paris working for the OECD, IEA and UNEP, Jacoline finally landed in Greece in 1998, with a toddler, a one-month old baby, a Greek husband, and a determination never to go back to an office job. So began her adventure discovering the best small hotels of Greece, starting with a handwritten list of 10 characterful little places, and growing to three exemplary books, hundreds of hotels and a superb website which makes clear that there are very few stretches of the country’s 13,000km of coastline she’s not checked out. Yes, Jacoline literally wrote the book on it, and we admired her trip planning nous from afar for many years before timing, serendipity and sheer good Greek luck allowed for Trufflepig to entice her in to the fold, to benefit from her superior understanding of and love for her adopted country in all its whim and wonder.
Jacoline is listed on Conde Nast Traveler’s Travel Specialists list, and on Wendy Perrin’s WOW list for Greece.
Read Jacoline’s Sounder posts here.

Tyler Dillon – Planner
Having a secret crush on your Trufflepig planner is quite normal, especially when your planner is Tyler Dillon. Born & raised in Georgia, engrained with southern charm and charisma to spare, Tyler took to the road like a suckling to the teat. While he has been mostly everywhere, it was Asia that won his heart. Tyler has spent the past decade living, guiding, writing books and planning trips in China, Mongolia, Burma, Bhutan and beyond. Despite his childlike enthusiasm for the world, he is now a celebrated industry veteran, and we are very proud to have him join the Trufflepig team.
Tyler is listed on Conde Nast Traveller’s Top Travel Specialists List for Cambodia, China, Myanmar, Vietnam, Mongolia & Bhutan.
Read Tyler’s Sounder posts here.

Evan LaRocque – Coordinator

Michael Eloy – Planner
To begin to understand Michael you need to know three things about him. One is his curiosity – the guy’s desire to learn is overwhelming, and goes some way to explaining the vast number of pastimes and pursuits he’s tilted at in his time (ask him – I don’t have enough space to do the list justice). Like any truly devoted disciple, he’s also a teacher: a licensed instructor in canyoning… a licensed scuba instructor… a chemistry teacher… a cycling guide…) Second is his enthusiasm, which in Michael is a kind of offshoot of his curiosity. Curious about South America, he quit his job, learned Spanish, packed up his bike, and rode the length of Patagonia over a several month odyssey, sending back photos, making friends, and gathering stories that sound like he rode into a different century. But third, less predictable, is his caution and care. Michael doesn’t go anywhere unprepared. He doesn’t do anything that’s not considered. He doesn’t wing it. That said, the options he may be weighing up are generally not the sort of choices most people face in their day: buy a rickety old 2CV, or clamber up an Alp with a drone in his backpack. Whatever he chooses, Michael puts the adventure in planning and the planning in adventure.
Michael is listed on Conde Nast Traveler’s Travel Specialists list, and on Wendy Perrin’s WOW List for France.
Read Michael’s Sounder articles here.

Alexandre Zglinski – Planner
Trufflepig’s full time France office is in Burgundy, but the only true-blood Burgundian on the farm is our own Alex, born and raised in the vineyards, and who even put ‘Burgundian’ on the (long) list of languages he speaks fluently. A problem-solver by nature, and a people-pleaser if ever there was one, young Alex is a likeable collection of self-contradictions, one of them being that he doesn’t know if he’s coming or going. Is he digging deeper and deeper into Burgundy, where he knows everyone from the age of 8 to 80…. Or is he setting his sights far afield, to travel more, live aboard, broaden his horizons ever more. Happily he has enough energy to do both, and then some, and in any case it’s a contradiction that works just great for us, as he combines his traveller’s open mind with his home-town pride to the planning of our France trips.
Alex is listed on Wendy Perrin’s WOW list for France.
Read Alex’ Sounder articles here.

Nancy Towns – Planner
Read Nancy’s Sounder articles here.

Luisa Grigoletto – Planner
Luisa’s CV was so perfect for her role as Italy planner for Trufflepig that we assumed it was a hoax. Happily for us, it was not, and even more happily for us, it was barely half the picture. She didn’t mention, for example, her past as a singer in a punk band (far more useful for her current role than most university degrees). Nor did she deign to share with us her culinary abilities, although we should have guessed. Luisa as far as we’re concerned is the girl who walks the walk and talks the talk – her book on undiscovered nooks and crannies of Rome is one we love and share with clients (because she won’t). She’s also, which is perhaps even more to our taste, the girl who didn’t write the book on the subject; when the publishers asked her to write the same book on Venice, she declined, preferring to keep her favourite places undiscovered. Luisa embodies that Trufflepig planner OCD oddity: she’ll read the rule book, 4 times, then memorise it, and then do things entirely her way.
Luisa is listed on Conde Nast Traveler’s Travel Specialists list for Italy.
Read Luisa’s Sounder posts here.

Anthony Weersing – Planner
Expats and vagabonds. There is often something unique in the way they see the world, a lifelong cultivation of freedom and curiosity that makes them extraordinary translators of culture, and by extension magnificent trip planners. We tend to collect them here at Trufflepig, and Anthony is no exception. Anthony’s Vietnamese mother moved to the US in the 60’s, where he was then born and raised, moving between California, Oregon and Hawaii. After studying poli-sci and urban planning, Anthony went on to spend 11 years in Japan, 6 years in Hawaii, numerous summers in New Brunswick, numerous winters on the island of Mustique, and now calls Vancouver Island home. During this time he organised and guided walking trips in Japan, edited a travel magazine in New Zealand, managed a rafting company in Kathmandu, and was a regular contributor to the Lonely Planet guides. A lover of maps, hidden stories and forgotten corners, Anthony brings great soul to his work. His trips tend to zoom in on the makers and storytellers who provide connection on a human scale, then zoom out to explore broad global themes. Just how we like it.