It’s one thing to blog about or post visuals of your travels on the Internet. It’s another thing entirely to redefine the very concept of traveling. Turkish travel agent Ozzy Yerlikaya belongs to the latter, rare category.
Since founding Cape Town-based Travel Designer in 2009, Yerlikaya has developed a novel approach to travel agency. His business tailors trips to the particular interests and hobbies of individual customers. Yerlikaya takes the time to get to know his clients, before curating the experience that best fits their taste.
This approach has recently earned Yerlikaya a notable accolade. Condé Nast’s lifestyle and luxury magazine Traveler has named Yerlikaya one of 14 Globetrotters Redefining the Way We Travel.
Ozzy Yerlikaya: A Fresh Take on Travel
In August, Conde Nast’s Traveler magazine spotlighted 14 travelers with a “fresh take on wandering the world to share with the next generation.” These are the “New Nomads,” in the words of the magazine, 21st Century pioneers of experiential traveling. Rather than “ticking off the usual sights,” Yerlikaya offers experiences that connect his guests with local artisans and figures they otherwise would not have met.
Yerlikaya stresses how he thrives on Cape Town’s energy, which comes “from the combination of the mountain, ocean and forest.” The city’s unique vibe fuels his passion to meet people and connect with them. “I’ve realized that my favorite thing in life is meeting people, listening to their story and sharing my own life story with them,” observes Yerlikaya. “I also love making coffee – I have a mobile set up in my Land Rover – This is another way for me to connect with people.”
“In Cape Town, the ocean and mountains are our playground. I love nothing more than finding the perfect vantage point, laying down a Turkish carpet…My guests can relax into the scenery and I go to work making them coffee,” says Yerlikaya.
Enhancing Travel with Local Contacts
For Yerlikaya, a luxury travel experience does not necessarily mean 5-star hotels or expensive meals. Instead, he focuses on setting tourists up with interesting characters and local figures. These figures range from an origami master, classic car collector, chef, marine biologist, street artist, even a barista champion.
He happily tailors his trips to the tastes and preferences of his individual clients. Trips might include an aerial experience of Cape Town, exploring local street art and eateries, scuba diving, hiking, and even driving Porsches.
Whatever the adventure, one constant is that Yerlikaya offers every guest freshly ground and brewed coffee. He offers it straight from the back of his Land Rover. “I grind the selected (always) African beans with my pre-charged electric drill attached to my hand-grinder,” says Yerlikaya, who adds that this always gets a good laugh.
Coffee and Scuba Diving Spur Ozzy Yerlikaya’s Travels
Yerlikaya was born in Istanbul, where Europe meets Asia, and raised in eastern Turkey, near the Iranian border. Later, he went on to study economics in Izmir, by the mesmerizing waters of the Aegean Sea.
He acknowledges how travelling extensively with his family during his childhood fueled a strong desire to explore the world. He soon realized that economics would was not for him. Instead, Yerlikaya became a travel photographer. During that time, he developed a love for scuba diving. He became an instructor and did thousands of dives in Thailand, Malaysia, Indonesia, and the Philippines.
“In all my years I never imagined that I would make coffee in the company of 15 elephants in the middle of the African bush, but that is exactly what happened when I travelled to Zimbabwe and Zambia,” he recalls.
“You may be in the middle of nowhere, but that does not mean a compromise in the quality of your coffee when you stop for a break.”
