My World Map

I just thought I would share with you this really cool thing that I found on the web. Below is my travel map and highlighted are all the countries I've visited. It's really great for people like you and me who love to travel and show all the places they've been to. It's especially good for people like me whose ambition it is to travel to every country in the world. This map shows me how well, or not so well I'm doing.

 I thought I had visited a lot of places and to be honest it does look like I've conquered a lot of the globe, but according the the travel map I have only visited 17 per cent of the world. This does not sound like much at all, although it does not count Scotland and Wales as separate countries and I do. It also obviously hasn't got the new country of South Sudan on the map yet, which just became a new nation on Friday. So it looks like I have one more country to add to my list.

Don't get me wrong though, for me it's not just a list and something to tick off. I want to experience, feel, taste and meet people in every country.

So for those of you who want to see your own map of the world. Visit www.world66.com and click on my world, then map of the world.



create your own visited country map

Travel makes us smarter and sexier

According to a new Lonely Planet article travel makes us smarter and sexier. I always knew that there were more reasons to travel than just to see new places and have fun and now it has been proven by scientific research.

I have always learnt so much on my travels, from the terrible history of the Khmer Rouge in Cambodia to the life of Picasso in Barcelona and all about whales in Argentina. I truly believe that travel is one of the best educations you can get.

The article claims that travel also makes you younger, well this may not be entirely true, but life does slow down the more you travel. Everyone always says how fast life goes and it does when you are doing the same things day in and day out, but have you noticed that a two week holiday seems to last a lot longer because you are experiencing new things everyday.  Two years ago I travelled around South America for five months, when I look back on all the places I went to and all the things I did during those five months, it seems like I was there more than a year. In comparison these last two years back in London have flown by.

The third thing that this article claims, is that travel makes you more productive. Now this I do agree with. When I come back from travelling I always have new ideas for articles, new art ideas I want to try out and new dishes to cook. Travel definitely inspires me to do more things that I would never have even thought of before.

Lastly, the article claims that travel makes us more sexy, I'm not entirely convinced by this one. It might make us more intelligent and therefore the opposite sex might find us more interesting - making us appear sexier, however other than getting a tan, I not sure it makes us physically sexier. Sorry guys. But, let me know if you have found this one to be true too. Suffice to say, we definitely make conversations more interesting and if that makes us attractive then great!

Any way you look at though travel is good for us. Click here to read the article and the scientific research for yourself.

New Travel Writing Job

Well, as some of you know already, but a lot of you probably don't, I will be starting a new job writing for Wexas. I will be writing travel itineraries and articles for their website. Don't worry though, I will still keep up with the travel blogging here and keep you up to date with my travel related musings.

London and The Royal Wedding

So yesterday was the Royal Wedding as you all know, and while many people decided to take the extra bank holiday to go travelling, my travelling was a bit closer to home this time - to the centre of London!

The day started by hopping on the tube, and as soon as I got on I could feel electricity in the air. People starting piling on wearing crowns, Union Jack wigs and wacky costumes, and as I got out at Hyde Park station the atmosphere was positively buzzing. As I walked towards the 3 giant screens showing live coverage of the wedding, I was handed a free William and Kate flag and proceeded set up my picnic blanket alongside 120,000 others. We all watched as Prince William appeared first in his military red uniform and a big roar rose up from the crowd as 120,000 flags were waved ceremoniously in the air. Then there was the gasp as we all spotted Kate's dress for the first time and the cheers and flag waving happened all over again.

I looked around me and saw a strange mix of people all here to celebrate, those with wedding dresses on, those that had come dressed for a wedding, the hundreds of other Wills' and Kates' or those strange few that had come in any old fancy dress, even if it was a bright purple spandex super hero suit or a multi coloured jester outfit. Bands were playing and Pimms was being handed out, it felt more like a festival than a wedding. I looked down at my jeans and royal blue top and wondered if I could have made a bit more of an effort.


Suddenly, I realised that  I had reached the height of Royal Wedding fever, I wanted to be in the action, I wanted to actually see William and Kate for real. I was only a short walk away from Buckingham Palace, and was sure I would be able to make it in time for the all-important kiss on the balcony scene. I skipped the procession on the big screen and started at a fast pace towards the Palace. As soon as  I got within a mile of the Palace though I knew I had made a big mistake, I couldn't even see the road for the thousands and thousands of people standing in front of me. I felt myself being crushed in all sides, a huge backpack pushing me from behind into a bicycle in front. Somehow I had managed to get one side of a small fence and I was stuck. Policemen were shouting and us and wouldn't let us past even though there seemed to be lots of space and people walking on the other side. A surge began and people started to push and shout and I felt like I couldn't breathe, I longed to be back in the park and watching the big screen again.

Finally, somehow (I'll never really know exactly),  I managed to get back to the park just in time to see Kate and William appear on the balcony on the big screen. A World War II bomber plane flew past the balcony on t.v. and then in appeared right in the sky above us. We all waved and cheered at the plane and as Kate and William leaned in for the royal kiss, the crowd went crazy and not one single inch of the sky was to be seen as 120,000 arms, flags, cork bottle tops and who knows what else was thrown up into the air.  Now, I usually don't get caught up in things like this and I am not patriotic at all - in fact most of the time I wouldn't even consider myself to be British, but just at that moment with everyone cheering as hard as they could and all waving their flags I felt proud to be British and wouldn't have wanted to travel anywhere else in the world at that moment - England was perfect.

Get Your Easter Chocolate Fix in Barcelona

It's Easter tomorrow, and while we all know the true meaning of Easter, most of us will associate it with chocolate. Forget about going to Belgium or Switzerland for your chocolate fix though, Barcelona has now emerged onto the scene as the new place to go for chocolate and the city is re-staking its claim as Europe's chocolate capital.

Barcelona was actually the first European city to get chocolate after it was brought over by Spanish explorers from South America and it was here that the first chocolate factory was built. For the past few years chocolate boutiques have been springing up around the city that present chocolate more like pieces of art than pieces of food. Visitors to the city will find many of these artisan chocolate shops, selling everything chocolate they could ever want,  from chocolate beer to chocolate CDs.

Not only is Barcelona the perfect place to buy and eat chocolate, but it is also the place to educate yourself about this delicious treat as it is home to a chocolate museum.  El Museu de la Xocolata, details the history of this addictive treat and its journey from a spicy drink in Mexico to the sweet it is today. Every year around Easter the museum also holds the Annual International Chocolate Figure Competition, where chocolate artists from all over the world go to  to compete. Feast your eyes on a giant chocolate model of Gaudi’s Sagrada Familia or a life size model of literary famed, Don Quixote.

Enjoy chocolate tours around the city or go for a meal in a restaurant composing of three courses all made from chocolate. Whatever you decide, you will find that Barcelona will surprise you as one of the top chocolate places in the world.

Coffee Around the World

Since last week was the first ever UK Coffee Week, raising money for African coffee producing countries, I have decided to dedicate this blog to this much loved (and sometimes much needed) drink. Coffee is grown on many different continents of the world and the production of coffee now brings in income to many people who rely mainly on the West’s consumption of it. Coffee has become not only a drink, but also a social interaction between people, and like everything else in the world, coffee comes in many different types. Let’s take a look at coffees around the world.

The Largest Producer of Coffee in the World – The coffee giant of this world is also one of the world’s largest countries and is home to the most important eco-system in the world. It is of course Brazil. Brazil produces about 35% of the world’s coffee and its main export is a type of coffee called Santos.

Best Coffee in the World – There has been much debate about this topic and just like wine tasting, coffee tasting and coffee critics are just as serious. A new list is produced every year, but one coffee that quite often tops the list and appears in the lots of web searches for the best type of coffee is the Esmeralda Special grown in Panama. It hails from one farm in Western Panama and it is also one of the most expensive, fetching up to £76 per pound. This is not the most expensive coffee in the world though.

Most Expensive Coffee in the World – The most expensive coffee is also one of the most disgusting sounding coffees in the world, as it is also known as poo coffee. It is called Kopi Luwak and comes from Indonesia and the coffee is so expensive because each individual coffee berry has to pass through the body of a weasel like animal first called a civit. The civit digests part of the berry and what is left it excretes and this is turned into coffee! No really – I’m joking.

Most Unexpected Coffee Growing Country – Until researching for this blog, I wasn’t aware that America actually grows its own coffee – well not America specifically, but the island of Hawaii.  It may not produce a lot of coffee but has consistently won awards for the standard and taste of its unique coffee beans.

Most Significant Coffee Growing Countries in the World – Apart from the countries I have mentioned, other significant coffee growing countries include: Ethiopia, Colombia, Costa Rica and Kenya.

So tomorrow morning when you are taking your first sip of coffee just think about where it might have come from.

Travelling with your Kindle

I recently got a Kindle and I have heard a lot of good and bad press and comments about whether a Kindle is a good device to go travelling with (as a guidebook substitute) or not. On a recent trip to Malta, I decided to use my Kindle, rather than buy a paperback to see for myself. I bought Malta chapters from Lonely Planet and downloaded them to my Kindle for use on the trip. 

On the plus side –

•  I found it great being able to store my reading books and guidebooks on one small device instead of lugging around 3 or 4 books with me.
• I also felt safe carrying my kindle around, it doesn’t look big or too expensive so I was not worried about it being stolen. 

On the negative side - 

•  The writing and maps were extremely small so I had to squint to be able to see anything. The maps were so small that they were basically unusable, not great since I use maps all the time when I’m travelling.
• The maps took 5 minutes or more to load and I found myself thinking that it would have been much quicker to just look on a paper map.
• There is no index with the kindle guides so finding the page you want quickly can be a bit of challenge.
• Don’t try and use your kindle to access the Internet while away, it will be much quicker to find an Internet cafe. The kindle can’t click on certain buttons and won’t let you click send when writing e-mails. 

Overall, I think that Kindles are good travelling devices for reading books. They may be OK for certain guidebooks, as long as you had separate maps. I think though, that I will stick to paperbacks for my guidebooks until I can get an iPad or another device that works even better. 

Great Places to go in Florida, while avoiding Disney World!

So, in the blog before last I promised you all that I would find great places to visit in Florida, without following the Mickey Mouse going crowds travelling to Orlando, and I certainly did.
The best way to travel around Florida is to hire a car as there is little or no public transport in some places and a lot of places in the towns and cities are far away from each other. You will often also find that there are no sidewalks/pavements. Distances are surprisingly not that bad, so a few hours driving a day will suffice if your heading down state.

The local Floridians told me that the weather is generally better on the west side of the state, as it is cooler and there is more of a breeze, so we'll start our tour there. If you want to avoid Orlando all together, there are direct flights from many places straight to Tampa.

St Petersburg - Just south of Tampa, is the beautifully located city of St Petersburg, which sits looking out over the bay. Head down to The Pier where you can take part in a whole range of activities, such as boat trips around the bay, fishing trips and dolphin sight seeing tours. There are also Segway tours around the city and quad bicycles that you can hire from the pier. Don't forget to check out the 'pelican feeding station' where people of all ages will have a great time throwing fish for the pelicans to catch. At the end of the pier there is a large building full of great restaurants, the best being Cha Cha Coconuts, where you can enjoy great Mexican and tropical Caribbean inspired food while taking in the gorgeous views over the water. Up until a few years ago, there wasn't much in the way of culture in the city, but this has all changed thanks to a new Dali museum that has opened up. The museum is housed in a beautiful yet quirky building designed especially and is home to the largest collection of Dali's work outside Spain - this is a definite must see for all Dali fans.

Bradenton and Sarasota - Heading south again are the cities of Bradenton and Sarasota. While there is not much to do in Bradenton itself, taking a trip to Bradenton Beach is well worthwhile. The beach area is like a separate town in itself, with loads to do including visiting the old historical town. The road along the beach is lined with Southern style multi-coloured buildings serving as home made ice cream parlours, shell shops and beach apparel shops. There are wooded picnic areas lining the beach where you can even cook your own barbecue and don't forget to visit the beach itself, with it's pure white sand and clear turquoise sea. Sarasota has a great harbour and marina to visit which is perfect for ambling along looking at the pelicans and admiring the view. You can hire out boats here or simply sit outside with cold ice tea and one of the tiki-hut style beach bars.

San Marco Island - For a bit of luxury, why not visit San Marco island, located at bottom west side of the state. It is home to beautiful houses, beautiful beaches and beautiful people, albeit most of them old and retired. This is the place to just sit back and relax.

Everglades City - A 30 minute drive from San Marco island and you'll find yourself in a different world of the everglades. Here you will feel like you are miles from anywhere and is not too unlike the Australian outback. Strange bird calls sound out through the forest and thick mist hovers just above the ground giving the area a magical yet spooky feel. Mangrove swamps are in abundance here, as are the sly-eyed alligators who watch you from there muddy pools. The Everglades are also a grate place for bird watchers, being home to many exotic species. There are a few place that hire out kayaks and canoes and a myriad of places that will take you on airboat rides across the marshes.

Second Trip of the Year

Well, I'm going on my second trip of the year next week .... and I didn't think I'd be able to go anywhere this year! So next time you hear from me, I'll be blogging from sunny Florida! Stay tuned to find out what's hot in Florida this spring and where to go to avoid the Mickey Mouse going crowds and see the real Florida.

How much should you plan for a long haul backpacking trip?

To plan or not to plan, that is the question. Personally, when I decide to go on a long backpacking trip, I love to plan and research. I buy guidebooks, look at photos on the Internet and look up potential guesthouses/hostels to stay in. For me, planning is the thing that gets me excited about my trip. I like to print out little maps and draw imaginary routes of where I think I might go, but despite all this, I am not an obsessive planner. I think that when embarking on long backpacking trips you need to sometime let the trip take its course, you can’t possibly know exactly when you will arrive at each destination (public transport in a lot of countries doesn’t allow for this), or know how long you will want to stay in each, so leave some things for when you get there.

Here are the things that you should and shouldn’t plan in advance:

• Book your first few night of accommodation, but don’t book too far ahead as inevitably your plans will change and you can’t guarantee exactly when you will arrive in each place.
• Sort out visas for the initial countries you are going to visit, if you don’t know exactly when you will be entering countries further on into your trip, don’t worry, these can be sorted out on the road. You can always visit embassies to help you sort these out, or most popular backpacking destinations have travel agent offices that can sort these out for you. In some places they only take a few days to process.
• Make sure you get the correct vaccinations at least a month or two before you travel, to ensure that they have enough time to work.
• Make sure you have some type of guidebook with you and maps of the cities you are you going to visit. Safety advice and knowing where you are going can be life saving when backpacking.
• Map out roughly where you think you want to go and countries you want to visit (but be prepared for this to change).
• Don’t bother booking buses or trains in your destination country before you leave, wait until you arrive, as booking transport there will be a lot easier. These can either be booked a few days in advance or on the day of travel.
• Insurance – insurance should always be booked before you travel, so that you are covered from the day you leave home. Backpacking trips are often unpredictable so make sure you have this. 
• Check on the safety and political situation and stability of the country you are going to, by visiting the governments website Know Before You Go -  http://www.fco.gov.uk/en/travel-and-living-abroad/travel-advice-by-country/

Travel with Social Responsibility

My last blog post made me think about the way that we interact with local people on our travels; I believe that we all have a social responsibility to the people and countries we visit. It’s not good enough to only go on tours set up by companies in our own countries or to only stay in government hotels. It’s the every day people that need to benefit from out tourism. Here are my top tips for responsible travel:

• ·      Try to stay at hotels or guesthouses run by local families, instead of ones that are run by large companies or the government (even if you can only do this for part of your trip).

• ·      Volunteer, even if it’s only for one day. Why not go and visit an orphanage, school or local hospital? In developing countries this is easier than you think. In Phnom Penh, Cambodia, I asked the owner of the family run guesthouse I was staying at if he knew of an orphanage that I could visit for the day. He was more than happy to tell me where one was and I spend a rewarding day playing with the kids and watching them enjoying using the coloring books I had bought at the local market. 

• ·      Use local guides, this way your money goes directly to the people who need it most, instead of the owner of a big company, they will probably have better inside information too.

• ·      Be aware of your carbon footprint and offset your air-miles, there are many websites where you can do this, here is the UK government one http://actonco2.direct.gov.uk

• ·      Don’t give up long haul travel completely though, locals need us to be there. In the Amazon, some loggers have now become tour guides as they make more money this way, however if tourists stay away completely they will have no choice but to go back to logging.

Images Copyright of Dan Convey

Travel and Career - can we really have both?

I recently read an article on the Lonely Planet newsletter entitled Travel vs. career: does it have to be all or nothing? This is a topic, which I have been thinking about a lot over the past few years and one that resonates strongly in my life.  I naively hadn’t thought that other people might be facing the same dilemma as me until I read this article. It just seemed that everyone else had it figured out, which now I find out is not true. Up until this point, I have always put travel first in my life. Sure, I have gone abroad to work, the typical English teaching and temping in countries where I could, but this never really leads to long-term job prospects.

Now I find though that I am being left behind, all my peers and friends have jobs, and careers at least 2 or 3 steps up the ladder. Some are now managers, have their own businesses, are earning lots of money and are able to buy their own houses. I, on the other hand having decided that I should probably become more qualified to get a job, have just finished my Masters and am now unemployed.

Of course people will say, “Just get a job that involves travel.” These I found out a very few and far between and in order to get these jobs in the first place you need lots of years experience. But, what about those of us that are still relatively young, can we ever really begin our careers in the first place if we keep on travelling? Job agencies won’t even look at you if you have gaps in your career history, “… and what were you doing these few months here or this half a year here?” You can’t very well tell them that all those times were holidays.  Or those jobs that do look at you wonder why you have changed jobs so often and haven’t been in one job more than 3 months.

Don’t get me wrong, I have loved every single second of my travels and wouldn’t change those years for sitting behind the desk of any company in the world, but I do feel that this has been in detriment to my career, or lack of it I should say.  What I have done though and what has stayed constant with me throughout is my writing. Everywhere I have been I have written travel articles, after hard work and persistence I have now had quite a few of them published in magazines, online and in newspapers. I even wrote a few chapters for a Time Out guidebook while I was travelling around Argentina. I guess I would have to conclude that travel and writing about it is my career, even though I am not sitting behind a desk and I do not know where my next pay cheque is coming from.

So, can we really have a career and travel? Does it have to be all or nothing? I think in a way, that at some point we all have to choose.