{"id":385233,"date":"2026-01-01T18:42:12","date_gmt":"2026-01-01T18:42:12","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/385233\/"},"modified":"2026-01-01T18:42:12","modified_gmt":"2026-01-01T18:42:12","slug":"katie-tours-europes-treasures-and-is-paid-for-the-pleasure","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/385233\/","title":{"rendered":"Katie tours Europe\u2019s treasures and is paid for the pleasure"},"content":{"rendered":"

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.<\/p>\n

\u201cI thought, \u2018I really want to travel and none of my friends want to go overseas. Wouldn\u2019t it be cool to travel and get paid for it?\u2019\u201d<\/p>\n

\"Katie<\/p>\n

Katie Berridge, in the yellow helmet, on a white-water rafting tour in Voss, Norway in September 2025.<\/p>\n

After a recruitment process involving online quizzes and video and in-person interviews, Berridge was hired.<\/p>\n

Her training in early 2024 included a 62-day tour through 17 countries.<\/p>\n

In June 2024, Berridge hosted her first trip, and has now led 12, with three coming up this winter.<\/p>\n

While there were romances and one marriage proposal between clients, Berridge also fell in love last winter \u2014 with Joao from Portugal, who is a Contiki coach driver and now her boyfriend.<\/p>\n

\"Katie<\/p>\n

Katie Berridge takes a dip in the Blue Lagoon geothermal spa near Grindavik in Iceland, August 2025.<\/p>\n

Berridge says traits advisable to have in her job include patience and the ability to get along with a range of people.<\/p>\n

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<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Loading<\/p>\n

\u201cIn Riga, in Latvia, I found an ice hockey match for \u20ac5 [$8.80] each so we all bought tickets and went,\u201d Berridge said.<\/p>\n

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.<\/p>\n

Berridge keeps in mind that while she can have fun, she is at work.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe way I see it, it\u2019s their holiday, not mine,\u201d Berridge says. \u201cSo I know when to put their holiday first and not to make it about my fun over their fun, if that makes sense.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Two years ago, Berridge was working for a Melbourne betting company when a colleague who had been on…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":385234,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[43,44,41,39,42,40],"class_list":{"0":"post-385233","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-headlines","8":"tag-headlines","9":"tag-news","10":"tag-top-news","11":"tag-top-stories","12":"tag-topnews","13":"tag-topstories"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/385233","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=385233"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/385233\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/385234"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=385233"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=385233"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=385233"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}