Travel Bio

Born To Explore

Born Rachel Louise Grant de Longueuil on the island of Luzon in the Philippines, and raised in legendary city of Nottingham in the United Kingdom, Rachel Grant has logged expeditions to six continents and 70 countries. She was an originator of a daring subterranean river exploration and one of the team leaders that revealed and publicized the uncharted Angel Cave in the Philippines.

Rachel at Hundred Islands, Philippines

"Travel inspires us to enjoy life in a variety of ways, to live it to the fullest and to allow our senses to be excited and tantalised. Life becomes richer, more beautiful and I am always looking beyond."

Rachel has trekked the edge of the deadly Mayon volcano; communed with the Hourani tribe in Ecuador; witnessed lions mating in Kenya’s Maasai Mara National Reserve; sojourned in secluded groves in the Amazon rainforest; and swam with hammerhead sharks in the Galapagos. She scuba-dived through warships in the South China Sea; experienced Japanese “naked communion:” in the volcanic hot springs of Mount Fuji; journeyed deep underground; to visit ancient Mayan sacrificial caves in Guatemala, and flamenco-danced through the "Feria de Abril" in Seville, Spain.

Rachel Grant exploring a cave in Mabini

It is not surprising that roving far-flung regions of the planet has fostered an appetite for unusual delicacies in Grant. The imaginative gastronome has supped on Royal Rat, fried tarantula, crispy locust bars and "balut" duck embryo.
Grant's wanderlust can be viewed as an expression of an ancestral family trait; her full name is The Honorable Rachel Louise Grant de Longueuil, a barony title granted by King Louis XIV of France to Charles le Moyne de Longueuil for his travels and explorations throughout North America. The first Baron de Longueuil and his sons secured large wilderness areas for France, which were acquired by the United States in the Louisiana Purchase. Grant’s great-grandmother, Ernestine Bowes-Lyon, was first cousin to the British Queen Mother; and as a direct descendant of the baron, Grant is cousin to the British royal family, including Princes William and Harry.
To learn more about Rachel's family and the Baron de Longueuil title and legacy, visit: