The votes are in and it’s time to announce KE’s Leader of the Year for 2024! This year’s shortlist featured incredible guides from walking, cycling and family adventures across India, Cape Verde, Madeira and Patagonia.

A huge thank you to everyone who voted—your feedback has been more enthusiastic than ever!

An unforgettable adventure is shaped by many elements, but at its heart is a truly passionate guide. To all our exceptional leaders who go above and beyond - thank you! Now, a special celebration for our well deserving winner and runners-up...

Ketan was born in a small village in the Indian Himalaya and now lives in the foothills of the Himalaya in Uttarakhand state. He has led for KE since 2013 on a variety of trips in northern India including our Tigers and Temples family holiday, the Cycling Tour of Rajasthan, Best of Northern India and the bestselling Heritage Trails of Rajasthan holiday. He has an obvious passion for his homeland and loves introducing travellers to the stories behind historical monuments, bustling markets and local culture. Ketan also has an interest in yoga and philosophy, recently gaining an MA in these subjects.

In 2024 he received an overwhelming number of nominations for Leader of the Year along with consistently excellent feedback. Well done Ketan - a well deserved winner of this year’s award! As a thank you, we’ll be sending him £250 worth of equipment of his choice from Cotswold Outdoor.

Here’s a small selection of the glowing customer feedback that Ketan received in 2024.

“We could not have asked for a better guide than Ketan. He looked after us impeccably, seemed to have a calm authority wherever we went and was engaging, sociable and knowledgeable. We thoroughly enjoyed talking with him and trusted him completely.”

“Ketan is a true professional, passionate about India, its people and history. He made everything come alive for us to experience to its fullest extent.”

“Ketan was highly professional, always very approachable and helpful. Gave way above what was expected of him. Highly knowledgeable and able to share fascinating information about all aspects of India in an engaging way. Good fun to be with.”

“Ketan was professional, had authority to keep the group on track, kind, caring, very knowledgeable, sorted out any issues straight away and made me feel that I was special.”

Born on the beautiful island of São Vicente, Odair has always been passionate about the nature and culture of Cape Verde. Since he was a child, Odair has been exploring the mountains of the archipelago together with his friends.

In 2015, Odair started working as a tour guide on his island and on the neighbouring island of Santo Antão and in 2018 started leading KE groups. Since 2018 Odair has led around 25 KE groups on our bestselling Captivating Cape Verde walking holiday. He was also a runner up in the 2019 Leader of the Year award.

In addition to his good humour and charismatic personality, Odair loves sharing his knowledge of Cape Verde with KE customers.

Don’t just take our word for it though, here’s what our customers have to say about Odair:

“Odair is an exemplary guide. He is very passionate about his work, his guiding, his country, his history and his heritage. He explained so much of the history of the islands to us, which really helped me to understand how Cape Verde has got to be the country it is today.”

“Odair has a tremendous sense of humour and there was much laughter every day and every evening. He made the days and evenings light-hearted and fun. Odair is a really lovely person, kind, considerate and knows his job extremely well.”

“We've been on many guided group holidays and Odair is probably the best guide we've encountered.”

Based in Funchal, André is a qualified Madeiran mountain guide and has been leading groups in Madeira since 2011. Having only started leading for KE in 2024, André is already a firm favourite with our customers, sharing his extensive knowledge of Madeiran history, geography and the levadas with his groups.

André is also a keen surfer and photographer, with some of his pictures winning awards.

Here’s a snapshot of André’s customer feedback from 2024.

“Cheerful throughout. Always helpful. Good advice and very patient. Went out of his way to explain the local flora and fauna. One of the best guides ever.”

“Andre was excellent. A real credit to KE and made the holiday. Very knowledgeable and had an obvious enthusiasm for Madeira. Also just great company.”

“Andre is absolutely fantastic as a guide. So informative, helpful and engaged with the entire group. His knowledge and love for Madeira shone through in every walk and made the whole trip so special. So glad that Andre was our leader.”

Once again, Natalia ‘Nati’ Grande has made it onto the Leader of the Year runners up list after being a runner up for the 2023 award. She continues to be one of our most popular leaders receiving consistently excellent feedback.

Nati is a qualified mountain leader who specialises in southern Patagonia. She’s based in El Calafate, Argentina and has been leading KE groups in Patagonia since 2022. Nati has worked a variety of jobs in the mountains such as glacier guiding in Iceland, managing a refuge in the Peruvian Andes, managing a mountain hut in the Italian Alps as well as guiding groups and managing a base camp on Aconcagua, Argentina. When not leading KE groups in Patagonia, Nati is a keen climber and skier.

Here’s what some of the KE customers who travelled with Nati in 2024 had to say:

"Nati was one of the best tour leaders I've had on a trek. She was knowledgeable, enthusiastic, attentive, had a brilliant sense of humour and totally looked after people on the trip."

"Nati was outstanding as a tour leader. She always went the extra mile. Superb organisation, knowledge, professionalism and care of the group. Fantastic personality."

“Nati was a fantastic guide. Very knowledgeable and always supportive and completely tuned in to our ability and what we needed. We have done a number of small group tours and she is the best we've had.”

Another KE leader from Patagonia who has made it onto the Leader of the Year runners up list 2 years in a row!

Luis was born in the Argentinian Lake District town of Bariloche and has now settled in El Calafate. As a qualified mountain leader, Luis has been guiding groups in Patagonia for more than 20 years. Luis has guided in most of the national parks of Chile and Argentina, as well as leading expeditions to the northern and southern icefields. Luis has been working with KE groups in Patagonia for 3 years now and has continued to be one of our most popular leaders. We’ll let Luis’s feedback do the talking.

“Luis was an excellent guide, very knowledgeable and taking great care of the group. He went over and above what would normally be expected to provide a great experience for us all.”

“I can't say enough on how wonderful Luis was with our group. He made everyone feel special and went above and beyond to make everyone's trip perfect and all expectations were met. Number 1 guide by far.”

“Luis is an exceptional guide. Patient, attentive, generous, observant. I was very impressed with his adaptive, personalized approach to individuals, his observation of individual and group needs and his obvious love for the environment in which he works. He is a wealth of knowledge that he shares with enthusiasm. Don’t lose him, he is a great asset!”