Two years ago, Berridge was working for a Melbourne betting company when a colleague who had been on a European tour heard that Contiki were hiring guides.
“I thought, ‘I really want to travel and none of my friends want to go overseas. Wouldn’t it be cool to travel and get paid for it?’”
Katie Berridge, in the yellow helmet, on a white-water rafting tour in Voss, Norway in September 2025.
After a recruitment process involving online quizzes and video and in-person interviews, Berridge was hired.
Her training in early 2024 included a 62-day tour through 17 countries.
In June 2024, Berridge hosted her first trip, and has now led 12, with three coming up this winter.
While there were romances and one marriage proposal between clients, Berridge also fell in love last winter — with Joao from Portugal, who is a Contiki coach driver and now her boyfriend.
Katie Berridge takes a dip in the Blue Lagoon geothermal spa near Grindavik in Iceland, August 2025.
Berridge says traits advisable to have in her job include patience and the ability to get along with a range of people.
She plans special outings for clients to make trips memorable, like trying to spot billionaire Jeff Bezos and his bride Lauren Sanchez at bars during their Venice wedding.
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“In Riga, in Latvia, I found an ice hockey match for €5 [$8.80] each so we all bought tickets and went,” Berridge said.
While Berridge was once keener to party into the early hours after, say, seeing a show at the Moulin Rouge in Paris, she now makes sure she turns in to get the rest needed to be fresh for clients the next day.
Berridge keeps in mind that while she can have fun, she is at work.
“The way I see it, it’s their holiday, not mine,” Berridge says. “So I know when to put their holiday first and not to make it about my fun over their fun, if that makes sense.”