Welcome to my Travels

Hi, my name is Maria and I am a solo traveller. My travels, well adventures (as I like to call them) only started around early 2000. I had always gone on package holidays with a partner or friends but it wasn’t until a trip to New York to visit a friend that I realised that, not only was I able but I could go anywhere at anytime and, on my own. The travel bug had been awakened in me. Most of my trips are booked through a company called Explore, they specialise in small group adventure holidays (with single room options) and are graded depending on the activity for example cycling holidays can be easy, moderate etc. I do not want to give the impression that budgets do not factor into my choices because they do – I’m too long in the tooth to backpack (to be fair, even when I was younger I wouldn’t have gone that route…), with my ‘adventure’ choices, I guess my budget is middling (i.e. not extravagant, well until we get to my last Thailand holiday). Explore trips do not come cheap but that’s because they cover a lot, places to visit, internal transportation and local guides. Where I can, I will give approximate costs at the time of my travels to give you a better insight to the expense.

OK so, just a little bit more about me – I work full-time as a business analyst and am going through a bit of a transitional period with my career however, my ‘five year plan’ is to work towards getting myself ready to spend a year travelling around South America. Realistically, I need at least two to three years to put a plan in place but, the dream will be realised, trust me…

My travel experiences so far, have generally been quite lucky. When I travel, I am often asked if I come from that particular place, because of my colouring and more so, the name Maria (Hispanic), I blend in quite well which means being hassled is minimal (of course the blending in doesn’t quite cut it in Scandinavia, Eastern Europe or East Asia LOL!). Hey, but blending in isn’t always the best either it can be a double-edged sword, really (India!).

Anyway, me aside, the purpose of this site is to share with you my travel experiences, tips, what I found interesting and entertaining, places that I think should be visited and what I liked and disliked. Mostly, things that you don’t often get to hear about or won’t generally read in a Lonely Planet guide. This site is for ALL travellers but I am hoping that it will be a helpful guide for a group of those that are not often catered for… those that now find themselves in a situation where they have raised a family that are now grown so no longer reliant and find themselves alone or just at a cross-roads in life where they are not sure of what they want to do, but want more. Discover a wanderlust for travel and want new experiences and adventures but are unsure of how to go about it…

This blog may come across as little too honest or brutal as I will talk about the not so pleasant elements of my experiences, I want to be open. I am very grateful and fortunate to have had all these travel experiences and do not take them for granted. It is not my intention to put you off, I want you better prepared and want to awaken a desire in you for travelling that you may never thought was possible. My blog is expressing MY opinions and encounters, I don’t ever mean to offend (which may happen) but at the very least, this is a written depiction of my experiences that cannot be just portrayed in Facebook photo albums. More honestly though, I want this to be useful to you, know you have options, show you that you can be brave but most importantly, knowing that you can go wherever you want, whenever you want, the possibilities are limitless. I hope you also find my ramblings entertaining so much so that you want to come back and read new posts when published, if so please subscribe below 🙂

Useful tip: If you haven’t already, download a currency converter app and your Airline (i.e. BA) app for reassigning your seat and or check-in.

Please note: When booking with Explore (or any similar tour company), you can generally book with or without flights. I will have an initial search for direct flights and weigh up the cost but more often than not, I book the trip with flights included (being lazy). Though I would always check with the tour operator first to see how long the journey is and with how many stop offs (if any)… These holidays often include for optional excursions. They are listed out and costed in the tour notes so when I am pricing up a trip, I include all the excursions costs too – this doesn’t mean I will want to go on all of them but just in case I do. Also, if you are travelling on your own you have an option (most of the time) to book a single room. If you don’t mind sharing a room with another solo traveller (of the same gender) then you don’t need to go for this option. Personally, I always opt for the single room.

M x