Travel
What’s so great about travel?
Travelling, it’s what we love to do most with our time. For us, taking time to explore different parts of the world, meeting people and learning what makes a place tick, is travel. In our opinion, travelling is the most valuable use of our time. Seeing things from an alternative perspective, discovering something new, and being out of our comfort zone is an important part of our travel experience.
No snoozing or sun loungers…
We have always viewed travel in this way and much of our travelling would be considered by some, as hardly a holiday… Whilst an hour or two to relax is great, sun loungers, snoozing and sunbathing have never been our priority. Although we wouldn’t say no to the Carribean. We are doers, wanting to utilise our time to see the best of a city. Taking a local walking tour, making time to visit an exhibition and planning day trips is more our thing. We love road trips, from hiring a car to see Utah’s National Parks to discovering the hidden gems of Andalucia. The freedom of the open road has always appealed, being able to dance to our own tune and take it all in. Although, when in Vietnam the prospect of negotiating a bike was just too scary!
Cruising and theme parks…
Our fitbits go into overdrive when we’re away, often walking up to 10 miles a day… That said, we have taken quite a few cruises… to Europe, The Baltics and Alaska and we love Florida! (Especially the theme parks…) These sorts of trips I would consider a “holiday,” whilst appreciating the wonders of India and South America for example, are definitely more “Travel!” In fact, our most recent cruise, a transatlantic from Barcelona to Florida, was definitely a “holiday” did I enjoy it? Kind of… it was just short of a few more places to get off and explore.
Our world map, with a tiny bit of cheating…
Fortunately, having previously worked in education, we had 13 weeks holiday a year in which to begin ticking countries off our long list. Travelling for over 20 years, we have currently visited 53 of the world’s countries. Our world map looks pretty impressive and I’d love to be able to say it presents an accurate picture… It does and it doesn’t. Yes, we have indeed visited all the “coloured” countries, but our trip to St Petersburg gave us Russia! That said, without stating the obvious, the world is a pretty big place so to have traversed just a fraction, in the grand scheme of things is for us, fulfilling our ambition. Which is to have pretty much coloured in the globe. In our quest for a new “time rich” lifestyle, this is what we hope to achieve. Read our story to find out more!
See below our current map of the world… there’s still a fair bit of grey to colour in!
The purpose of creating our nomadplans travel & lifestyle blog is to offer information and share our experiences. We know people are very different when it comes to their preference of how information is presented, so we have devised a variety of blog post types, to appeal to our varied audience. From SNAPSHOT a quick grab and go city guide, to ZOOM IN a more detailed post. For a selection of photographs, check out our CAPTURED series or IN THE FRAME for a don’t miss guide. With 8 different types of posts, we aim to appeal to everyone. TAKE A LOOK AROUND our site to find out about the types of posts we write. Also, in the future, we hope to incorporate video too, so watch this space.
So, travel is definitely our thing… We have had many wonderful experiences.
My top 5 are probably…it’s so difficult to choose!
- Seeing the condors rise up on the thermals, from the depths of the Colca Canyon, Peru
- Kayaking through the sea caves into a ‘hong’ (a hidden lagoon) and feeling as though we were the only people on earth to have entered this stunningly beautiful lagoon, Thailand
- Scuba Diving on the Great Barrier Reef, Australia
- Witnessing the power of Iguassu Falls, Brazil & Argentina
- Teaching a song to some local school children in Northern India
For Kerry,
- Witnessing a lioness stalk and kill an Impala, on New Years Eve in South Africa
- Getting to know the local people, joining in with their customs and traditions whilst living in a tiny Altiplano Village in Bolivia
- Walking down Diagon Alley, in “The Wizarding World of Harry Potter” in Universal Studios, Florida
- Learning how to cook with the locals, in Luang Prabang, Laos.
- Watching the sunrise, and boiling an egg in a geyser in the Atacama Desert, Chile.
Seeing the Taj Mahal in India, Macha Picchu in Peru, The Blue Mosque, Istanbul and the Alhambra, Spain are also definite highlights, as was Bungee jumping and sky diving in New Zealand and traversing the Rockies in Canada….
Use the drop-down menu for more details on the Countries that we have visited, we will be adding new destinations every week.
Thanks for dropping in,
Kerry and Claire
