the journal

If I had to choose my ideal way to spend a Friday night, I can tell you one thing. It wouldn’t be heading to the airport two hours before an international flight, half the plane boarding, boarding being paused for two hours, the boarded passengers disembarking, and then spending an extra two hours to wait […]

How much can you do with a long weekend?

While it’s no secret I love Tassie – there are many special spots to visit, and even more places to stay – Whale Song is one of those special places that you just want to go back to again and again.

There are decidedly less places in the world these days that allow you to completely unwind – Savista Retreat is the best kind of anomaly.

There are some places that just have a good vibe. Kyoto is one of those.

My first ever trip overseas as an adult was to Japan. If you’ve read any of my other journals and are familiar at all with my haphazard style of ‘planning’ (and I use that term loosely), it will come as a shock to hear that on that trip, I made… an excel spreadsheet. I know. […]

This story starts with an international licence. Or more accurately, a lack of one.  There are some experiences when travelling that make you sit back and say “Yep. Absolutely. This is what it’s alll about”. I’m talking… riding a rusty old pushbike to the beach in a sundress, being the sole customers in a shell-adorned […]

Despite my penchant for a holiday, there’s something I had never done. I don’t know how to put this without shocking anyone with it, so I will just come right out and confess: before this year, I had never experienced a quintessential Euro summer.   Not a Contiki at 18? Not a romantic sojourn through […]

Living somewhere affects the recommendations you give to visitors. Instead of one traveller passing on their “top tips” to another that feature big attractions and unique lodgings, you tend to build up habits and preferences that make for a less show-stopping kind of list. However, after a particularly full-on period of work and travel, I’m […]

Generalisations about India are plentiful, particularly from people that haven’t experienced the indescribable world of contradictions that the subcontinent serves up (usually, adorned with marigolds).  For those that haven’t visited, their preconceived ideas about India – and ones that were repeated to us often prior to our trip – can include danger, dirtiness and overwhelm. […]