Behind The Scenes

Be Your Best Tours is a very very very small operation. Just two people. Just four tours.

Ewen Bell and Shellie Froidevaux started “Be Your Best” so they could share their very best experiences with you. The itineraries are their absolute favourite adventures in the world. Nothing less than the very very best.

Ewen & Shellie have worked in travel for decades and during that time made friends all over the globe. Those same friends are our local guides on the Be Your Best experiences. These local connections are the very heart of each trip. Each itinerary is crafted by hand and the result of endless discussions, personal experiences and two decades running tours. Every trip offers something absolutely unique and is only be run once a year. 

No itinerary is ever the same twice. They evolve and change with each passing year, and changing local conditions. They are always slow travel experiences – with time to make the most of each destination and support to help you reach locations you might have thought to be out of reach. Ewen & Shellie make the Himalayas achievable and enjoyable.

Hello From Australia. The heart of Be Your Best are Ewen Bell and Shellie Froidevaux, in Melbourne

Ewen is a writer and travel photographer of international standing with over a decade of experience guiding photography tours, mentoring workshops and publishing in the travel media. His wife is Shellie Froidevaux; professional food photographer, stylist and cookbook author, who also escorts the gourmet adventures. Together they have been exploring the world for culinary delights, from Arctic Scandinavia to the rivers of South-East Asia to the snow-capped peaks of the high Himalayas. They live in Melbourne Australia and are busy on the local photography and lifestyle scene.

See more of Ewen’s travel and photography experience, and Shellie’s gourmet and creative talent…

ironchefshellie.com

ewenbell.com

Hello From Nepal. You don’t have to go trekking to enjoy mile high views.

Tsering is our youngest guide on these trips and one of our favourites. Her father likes leading climbing treks to Everest, but Tshering prefers the gentle pace of our tours and the lower altitudes of the Annapurnas. She’s great company and loves having our group visit Nepal every year. Her assistant for our Annapurnas journey is Ram, who has joined us on *every* tour since 2011. His English is not great, but his smile is generous. Ram earns enough from these trips to help put his kids through university. Tsering and Ram make a great team and we look forward to seeing them every year.

We have some regular helpers back in Kathmandu also, who drive all over town at the beginning and end of the tours. The most frequent journey they make is from the hotel to the airport, because everyone gets an airport transfer regardless of their flight schedule. It’s a small thing perhaps, but we like to ensure everyone is cared for from the very first step of this journey.

Hello From Bhutan. The luxury end of the Himalayas, where happiness is a way of life.

Rinzi has been working with our team for a decade now and epitomises the Bhutanese way of life. He is thoughtful, helpful, well studied and articulate. He also knows where the best momos are in Paro. His language skills cross many continents and even has enough Nepali to get by in Kathmandu. Rinzi is part of a wonderful team in Bhutan who work very very closely with Be Your Best Tours to develop new itineraries, and enjoys delving deep into the local cuisine to make every trip a delicious one.

One reason we love working with RInzi is that he enjoys his work immensely, and is generous with a smile. He does a lot of the “heavy lifting” for our Bhutan tours, and embraces each challenge with thoughtfulness and kindness. He is our big brother in Bhutan 🙂