Marieke is European by heritage, Australian by birth, an art historian by training, a cook and chef by passion, a global traveller by choice and a yoga student and teacher by inspiration. She left home to travel in Europe at a young age, embarked on an academic career in Fine Arts, then started her first business, aged twenty-four in rural Victoria – a pioneering gourmet retreat where she donned her chef and teaching hat for the next three decades. That retreat, her ensuing cooking school and her first foray into the travel business, all quickly garnered a respected reputation and tremendous following in Australia and abroad. Gourmet cycling tours of the Australian wine regions and the Flinders Ranges inspired her first ventures into the travel industry and that quickly expanded into cultural and culinary escorted programs overseas. Marieke oversees every aspect of Art of Living from attentive customer service to the stylish in-depth design and creation of every new tour. “Marieke is at home in the world as much as the world is at home in her, and at ease across countries, cultures and age groups.” When not at home or leading a tour, Marieke might be sleeping in 6* star beds or on an Indian desert charpoy, dining with royalty or supping with rural folk, walking the laneways of ancient forts at dawn or riding camels into the sunset, scaling a new mountain or discovering a secluded beach.