Have you ever read a book that’s made you want to go out and travel straight away? For me, that book is ‘The Amazing Story of the Man who Cycled from India to Europe for Love’ by Per J Andersson who writes about PK and Lotta and their love story. Having lived in Nepal over a couple of years, I have seen the dangers of the caste system in action and have been on the receiving end of it when a child mockingly shouted after me that ‘you have no caste’ which is entirely true as a

Last year I updated my travel challenge in August although my year ends 22nd April just ahead of my birthday on the 23rd. That post stayed with me and as I approached my birthday this year, I almost believed I hadn’t been to any new countries during this year which of course isn’t true as the count was still high. I’ve included the 45-46 part below.  45 – 46: So, I started my birthday in Dubrovnik (Croatia) and was fortunate enough to continue my travels after the end of Apri

When lockdown was finally announced in the UK, I felt very lucky as my travel plans were already bringing me home that day and it therefore felt a bit more like choice than push. Yes, my travel was being cut short, however I was already due home for a dentist appointment (which was subsequently cancelled) and how amazing that when I booked those dates, I didn’t know how it would help me in many more ways than simply having some dental work done. I’ve written more on the trave

It wasn’t long before Soureya found me on my first day in her village and although I have long since left that village, Soureya has never left me or I her. I say Soureya found me because that is exactly what happened. She appeared at the back door to my lodgings as if she lived there, in fact I assumed she was one of the many children I had been quickly introduced to as belonging to my landlord and his 2 wives. In these situations, a camera is a great tool for bridging the ne

I’m back on the alphabet and now we have reached the letter ‘L’ which I’ve decided to use for the idea of leaving time in many senses. This for me is key in terms of travelling, our lives and the things we choose to do. Why don’t we leave ourselves enough time to do things properly? At the end of last year, I allocated myself 2 weeks to finish off writing my travel book! Yes, it sounds madness now that I write it, just 2 weeks to write or finish writing a book, really? Even o

It’s never too late to do many things however travel is especially something which can be done at any age. There are so many holiday options around these days that whatever your interests you can be catered for. If you don’t wish to travel on your own but find yourself without a travel partner, there are many ways of travelling with other people. On my travels, I’ve met many people along the way of and above a certain age who are either starting their travels or have travelle

Alison Laycock Over the past few years, I have travelled quite a lot, both to different countries and within them and I can honestly say that I love and have loved those journeys. When I was asked to do this post for letter ‘J’, there were many journeys which came straight to mind as being memorable for many reasons. I include a few here but I also want to share with you what it is I love about journeys. We all get the chance to take an amazing journey as we travel through ou

Recently, I shared 45 of my life learnings so far when I turned 45 in April. A lot of the things which came to mind were also linked to travel so I decided to do a special travel one. Travel has been a big part of my 45 years even when I wasn’t able to travel, I was learning languages, reading books set abroad and also learning capitals when I was younger and getting others to test me. Here are 45 of my learnings, what would yours be? If travel is your dream then go for it, d

Having listened to podcasts and read articles, where the benefits of taking a 30 day social media detox were extolled, I decided to do my own. I’m not that visible on social media to be honest as I only have accounts on Twitter, however I do often find myself getting lost on You Tube as I go from one clip to the next ad can find myself 1 hour or so later still hunched over my phone. As I’m travelling, my concern was that instead of talking to people and spending as much time

Since we started our sister travel blog, we have been lucky to have a lot of posts covered by Alison Laycock, one of our bloggers who also writes for this blog. She has shared her Camino experience as well as her recent travels around Netherlands, Scandinavia, Luxembourg and Belgium. Over the past few months, we have received many questions for Alison about her travels and she finally agreed to do an interview during her recent travels. The questions have come from readers of

Wow, we made it! It is now time for us to review our travel alphabet this year. When we set out on this journey, our main idea was to be able to offer advice and travel encouragement as well as sharing stories and tips with and from those amongst us who love travelling. We are lucky to have had contributions from many other travel writers who have provided one or more ideas or contributions and we have travelled through a number of countries. Let’s review our journey! So, did

May Vane and James Brok Volunteering is a great way to share your skills around the world. Some choose this option in the best sense of wanting to pass their skills on to others and then leave them to it. Whilst others use it more as Voluntourism, where they choose a project for so many weeks or months where they can do some work but can also see the country. There is nothing wrong with either of these when you approach it with a positive mindset. However, it can fall apart w

Alison Laycock As I was making my way through the De Ploeg exhibition in Groningen museum, Muriël approached me asking if I wanted to discuss a painting with her. This sounded like a great idea to me so we discussed one of the paintings and then moved on as we weren’t quiet enough for a group talk taking place next to us. It was at this point that an opportunity for an interview for our travel blog arose. Luckily, Muriël agreed and here you go please read on to get to know Mu

Leah Almond There is lots to read on Mindfulness and living a mindful life in general. This also applies to travel and how we spend our holidays. For many, holidays and travel used to provide people with a good opportunity to be more mindful. However now more and more people seem to be losing that relaxation time as holidays become packed with activities and social media offers opportunities for the phone to be continually used to document experiences and interactions. People