How to pack lightly for a long trip

The Travel Bug! You know the one I’m talking about. The one where you go on a holiday and you come back, never to be the same. The one that makes you dream of new destinations and makes your heart ache for the next trip. Everyone loves our little travel bug until a global pandemic like covid-19 hits and we can’t travel. We save up every penny we can, working overtime and saying no to going out with friends. Then we spend hours, days and months planning all the details. Where to stay, what to eat, what to pack, and all of a sudden this is taken away from us. So, what now? The world is shut down, our trips have been cancelled and we are locked in our houses. Here are 7 ways to feed that travel bug and keep you inspired while in isolation. Travel During Covid-19 1. Read There’s nothing better than letting your mind and imagination wander. Whether your go-to read is a travel magazine, a travel guide, a true story or fiction novel. You’ll be inspired and feeling be...

I never thought I’d be the kind of person to host a virtual trivia night. Lockdown, it seems, got the better of me. After two weeks in lockdown here in South Africa, we’ve been really missing our friends here in Cape Town. So we decided to bit the bullet and host a Tuesday Trivia Night for them. So far it was the best thing we’ve done during lockdown to feel connected with our friends we normally see on a weekly basis. So, are you wondering how to host a trivia night on zoom? We’ve got a complete guide for you and better yet, I’ve poured my heart and soul into creating a downloadable quiz for you so you don’t have to do all the hard work! Fitting for my blog, it is a travel themed quiz night to host with your travel-loving friends! How to Host a Trivia Night on Zoom Download zoom . It is a really small file/quick download. This took me about 2 minutes to complete. Oh yeah, and its free! Schedule the event . As the host, you can s...

Infographic reveals 40 shakedowns to avoid on holidays this summer Most travellers end up learning how to avoid scams on their gap year the hard way, but you can give yourself a head start by checking out this infographic by justtheflight.co.uk which shows 40 of the most common rip-offs to affect unsuspecting tourisits. Many of the scams involve pickpockets accessing your belongings with varying degrees of ingenuity, and others exploit basic human conscience and social convention. Some have been around for years while others are brand new, but all have the same thing in common: to relieve you of your hard earned cash!

I went skydiving in Taupo, New Zealand, and it was my first parachute jump. Skydiving has never been an experience I was desperate to do, or had even given a passing thought to, but you know, as they say, when in New Zealand… And so I found myself with a bunch of strangers about to jump 15,000ft into thin air above the stunning Lake Taupo, which from that distance looked like a mere pond on the horizon of tiny looking things. Although, as we were told in our safety briefing with Skydive Taupo, the brain stops processing your distance at 2,000ft. Meaning that 15,000ft looks just the same, apparently. On the question of whether skydiving is safe, the instructors assured us we’d be fine. All I knew was that we were a long old way from the ground and there was apparently only one way down. The skydive plane It took 20 minutes to get up to 15,000ft, and in the end just a few minutes to fall and parachute to the ground. But I’m getting ahead of myself. Up in the plane I slid on ba...

From a coastline drenched in stars, to a fiery pit of doom, the world we live in has some amazing sights to see and for those who are planning a trip or two, these locations are ones they need to consider. Not all of the vistas in the world are catalogued and easy to find, so below some of the less travelled roads are featured. For those who are looking for some travel destinations that are a little bit different from the classic tourist stops, these epic scenes maybe the ones you’ve been looking to immerse yourself in. The Danzia landform, China The rocks where rainbows sleep. This collision of colours is the result of over 24 million years of mineral deposits settling down over the red sandstone of the mountain range. The seamless stripes that coat the terrain give the impression that the land itself has been graffitied over with chalk. This vibrant landscape gives backpackers a unique hiking experience to add to their travelling memoirs, including sights of naturally formed rock ...

My house renovation: Living Room Reveal! It has been a few weeks since my last blog post (oops!) but it has been such a busy time on the tools – managing my time between the end of a paint brush, a hiking trip to South Australia and managing the businesses back in Tasmania all at once. If you’re new here, I’ve recently put down roots in my hometown Launceston (Tasmania) after seven years living out of a suitcase. Aside from travel blogging I manage my time between a couple of different ventures – namely my dessert cafe/bakery Charlie’s Dessert House and bridal store Little White Boutique . When I’m not travelling the world taking photos and sharing my experiences on Instagram and Youtube , you’ll find me here in Tasmania juggling staff rosters, menu rotations, new concepts and chasing new bridal designers from one fashion week to the next! My new townhouse Last month I shared the exci...

How to Annoy Your Friends on Facebook on Your Gap Year If you want your friends to stay tuned and actually ‘Like’ and interact with your Facebook updates while you’re on your gap year, you’re going to need to keep them sweet. It’s quite easy to click on that unfollow button you know, and then where will you be? No friends land, that’s where. There’ll be no one to like your lying-down-hip-photo-by-the-sea, or your look-at-all-my-new-friends-pic or your awesome look-where-I-am pics. Fact is you need to keep them entertained rather than annoyed to keep them away from that unfollow button. Here’s how not to do it. 1. Post every single meal you eat Food photography is hard. However delicious the food may smell at the time, however tasty it looks in real life, you will never be able to get that across using your smart phone on Facebook. In the olden days of printed photos it was very rare you’d share a pic of your poached eggs on toast...