Laura, De Pijp's Adventurer in Top Form

Laura lives at full speed, yet she knows exactly how to slow right down. One weekend she is carving a black run in fresh powder; the next she is lingering over lunch in an Italian piazza with nowhere at all to be. That contrast is her signature move, and it makes her company surprisingly easy to settle into.

She is 25, with an athletic 169 cm frame, long sun-kissed light brown hair and green eyes that brighten the second travel comes up. Adventurous, warm and bursting with energy, she is the companion who turns a simple drink into a plan, and a plan into a story you will retell for weeks. Her enthusiasm is contagious, and her laugh tends to arrive early in the evening and stay late.

Horse riding is her grounding ritual, and she describes it the way athletes talk about training, with discipline and pure joy in the same breath. Skiing is the winter obsession, the one that has her checking snow reports in October. Italy is the recurring daydream. She can sketch out a road trip from Florence down to the Amalfi coast in the time it takes to order dessert, complete with the trattoria stops and the best hour to catch the light.

Home turf is De Pijp, where lively cafés and the green lawns of Sarphatipark match her appetite for life. Her style is breezy garden-party elegance: light fabrics, soft colours and a look that works as well at a rooftop bar as in a smart hotel restaurant. English is her language for all of it. Rather have sporty sunshine from the same neighbourhood? Cindy plays in a similar league. An hour with Laura is priced from €180, and bigger plans can be arranged on request. Adventure first, then calm: that is her winning formula.