Elizabeth Taylor’s Assistant Recalls His Final Trip with Her (Exclusive)

Traveling with Elizabeth Taylor was an experience to remember.

Tim Mendelson, cotrustee of Taylor’s estate and executive assistant for her last two decades of life, recalls the actress continuing to travel despite struggles with her health that came later in life.

The last trip Mendelson accompanied the actress on was a trip to London in spring of 2010.

“There was an event at Buckingham Palace. Then-Prince Charles was involved with the Royal Welsh Academy of Music and Drama and they were building a theater and naming it the Richard Burton Theatre,” he recalls to PEOPLE.

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The trip to London was scheduled to be about a month long but featured a snag at the beginning because of travel interruptions that resulted from the eruption of Eyjafjallajökull volcano in Iceland.

“We couldn’t take off. She begged the pilot to take off a day earlier than he was comfortable with. She said, ‘We need to get there a couple days before,’ and she convinced him to leave,” Mendelson says.

Aside from their scheduled events in London, “at least every other day she planned some kind of a special thing. We went on the London Eye. We went down Thames on a boat, such a beautiful ride,” he recalls.

“We went to this Michelin-star restaurant and drove all the way to the English countryside. She planned a traditional Christmas dinner. We were in a suite at The Dorchester, which had a dining room and a chef. She asked him to prepare a traditional English Christmas dinner, as we hadn’t had one before. And it was so good,” he continues.

Taylor was never interested in letting her health hold her back from traveling.

“The very last thing we were going to do, which was so unrealistic, was go to New York for an AIDS event. And she called me and said, ‘I can’t go.’ She was really dedicated to AIDS. She had a great imagination, she loved life so much, and she was never going to let anything hold her back from doing the things that she wanted to do and having things to look forward to,” Mendelson shares.

Her travel adventures, and those who got to share them with her, are part of what make up the legend of Elizabeth Taylor that continues to mesmerize fans to this day.

“She was a very giving person. She was a diva. She loved the best — it was all luxury with her. But she experienced things in a way money can’t buy,” Mendelson says.