Give in to Wanderlust.

Wanderlust: an irresistably strong desire to travel or wander the world.

With that feeling of wanderlust embedded deep into you, why aren’t you acting upon it? Now is the time to go, the time to see those places that you once thought could only be reached in dreams.

Pack a bag.

Grab your passport.

Leave all your worries behind for just a few weeks, if not longer.
Travel.

Travel for travels sake. Think of all the things travelling brings to your life and give me one genuinely honest answer as to why you shouldn’t travel? You can’t. Of course you can’t. 

“To travel is to live.” – Hans Christian Anderson. 

There are a ridiculous amount of reasons as to why you should jump on the next plane out of your hometown or get behind the wheel of your car and drive until the surroundings become that of somewhere your eyes have never seen. New sights, new people, new foods, so many things to discover and all you have to do is have the sense of adventure to discover it all.

Why should you give in to Wanderlust and travel?

– Travelling opens your eyes. If you dare to voyage out into the unknown you’ll discover so many wonderful things. You’ll see things from a new perspective. Once you have travelled, returning home will never be the same. You’ll have experienced a new way of living, seen things you’d never have imagined and returning home to the norm will be sorely disappointing.

– Ah the adventure! Do you remember when you were a child? You used to dream up a life of adventure. You’d make up games and pretend to be in a far away land discovering things for the first time. Well, just because you’re a bit older now doesn’t mean you have to give up on the adventurer you once sought to be. 

“I address you all tonight for who you truly are: wizards, mermaids, travellers, adventurers, and magicians. You are the true dreamers.” – Brian Selznick, The Invention of Hugo Cabret.

– You are 100% guaranteed to meet many new people and make many many friends along the way. And you’ll meet them everywhere. Travelling America we made so many new friends! 

From making friends in the workers at Taco bell in Ennis, Texas (as pictured above). To befriending a newly wed couple in the Honky Tonk bar in Nashville, Tennessee. To meeting a few not so far from home, a group of guys from Edinburgh on a similar trip at the 4 Corners monument. Making friends with a bunch of hens on a hen party in Cats Meow in New Orleans. (FYI the bride to be is now married and the wedding looked amazing!)

Sure, you could venture not so far from home and make new friends but why do that when you can have friends from all over the world?

– Think of all the incredible memories you’ll have and stories to tell. Not everyone will have experienced the things that you do when you travel, but I can guarantee everyone will love to hear the stories of your adventures. Not everything goes to plan, trust me I know, but sometimes that’s the best part. Who wants to look back on their life in 50 years time and say, “I wish I’d done that.”? I’d rather look back and say, “I’m glad I done that.” 

So go on. Stop putting it off. Get out there and see what the world has to offer, I promise you won’t regret it!

Leave a comment below telling me why you think people should travel! Maybe your words will inspire someone to do so. Thanks for reading!

Surviving a road trip

How do you survive a road trip?

After travelling 5044 miles across America on my road trip with my best friends, I think I have a few answers as to how to survive the long, sometime’s seemingly endless journey. At least, these are what helped with my journey; hopefully they help you too.

 

Firstly, you need some good music in your life. When you’re driving long journeys especially, you can’t rely on the radio to keep you going because you’re constantly losing signal and having to jump between stations, believe me I know. Our music was all on my phone, so whenever it crashed or when I’d lost/left behind my wire’s to charge it the radio was all we had. We had to make do at these times. When my phone was working though, oh we were in for some good times. I’ve already given you a glimpse of our playlist in my previous post but we listened to such a variation and loved every minute of it.

Now good music is great, but great company is better. If you happen to be heading on this journey make sure it’s with people you get along with, people who can hold a conversation and give you some laughs along the way. There’s nothing worse than being bored, especailly when you’re confined into a tin can with people who aren’t making things any better.

Tying into the company, having someone else that can drive is a massive bonus. Depending on the length of your trip you don’t want to be the one constantly stuck behind the wheel. On our trip, we had 3 drivers in total and we all took our turns behind the wheel, with a month long journey and some drives being upwards of 7 hours you want to be able to relax and let someone else deal with the driving part.

Make sure to stock up on snacks and water before you hit the road. You don’t want to be on a long drive having to stop more regularly than needed/wanted all because someone feels peckish and wants a packet of crisps. Bulk buying water is a must, not only will it last you a good while, it will also save you money rather than continuously buying single bottles.

Fill up yout tank. It’s just common sense, make sure you have a full tank before you hit the road and have a limit for how low you’ll let the gas go before you stop to refuel. For us, we wouldn’t let our tank get below a quarter full, just to be on the safe side we also checked where gas stations were along our route so we knew where to top up if the next one wasn’t for a good while.

Music and conversation are good but sometimes you’re not in the mood for either. Bring some books, make sure to have some good apps on your phone/ipad or whatever to keep you entertained, car games. Just things to keep you sane really.

Stop whenever you want to. Don’t just stop because you need gas, the toilet, stock up on some snacks or stretch your legs. Some of the best places you’ll find will be the places you don’t intend to stop. I know we stopped at a random wee gas station in Texas and found they had some maps on the wall (both a map of america and rest of the world) along beside the maps were pins and they asked you to put a pin where you’re from. It was amazing to see where everyone had come from to this random gas station, more amazing that we were the first Scots.

The best thing you could do, take pictures. I don’t mean just to post on some social media site either (instagram, facebook, twitter, tumblr, wherever), I mean yeah it’s great to share your pictures with everyone but sometimes it’s best to take some random snaps just for yourself. Make a scrapbook, pin them on a wall, take pictures of the memories.

 

 

Do you have any good road trip ideas? Leave a comment of them below to share with us all.

They say when you road trip

They say when you road trip that there are certain things you should or should not do. 90% of the time we have listened maybe just the first one we haven’t, that’s what happens when you’re friend is slightly obsessed with knowing every detail of everything though.

Do plan, but don’t over plan.

Well.. I’m not particularly one to over plan I’m more of a ‘I’ll see what happens when I get there’ type of person. One of my best friends however, weeeellllllllll she’s very much a plan every small detail type of person. She’s in her final year at uni and had finished her dissertation for the first week in January. She’s very much a think ahead kind of person. Needless to say every small detail of our trip has been pretty much planned out but that’s who she is. We’re all used to it and for us it will work.

Don’t choose driving partners on a whim.

Even choosing on a whim to go with these 3 gals on a road trip it definitely wouldn’t be a poor choice. For the past 18 years we’ve been friends and I couldn’t ask for a better bunch of lads. The longest we’ve been around each other before is 2 weeks and now we’re doubling that time which shouldn’t be a problem. Although every holiday we usually seem to lose a friend and not in the they’ll find they’re way back more of a, “they done my head in why was I friends with them?” kind of thing.

Don’t wait until the last minute to do research.

Well if you’ve paid any attention you’ll have realised my friend would not let that happen. This road trip has been in the planning for 2+ years, we have well and truly researched the shit out of it.

Do decide beforehand how you will divide costs.

This has well and truly been discussed and we have already divided some costs. All motels have been split 4 ways and we will be doing the same with gas etc.

Do consider alternatives to pricey hotels.

Well we’re definitely not staying in pricey hotels (apart from in Las Vegas), it will be all motels along the way apart from that so we’ve definitely saved a whole bunch of money doing that.

Do take a cooler.

Top of the list of what to buy when we get to America. I’m part of the walmart family (asda) so as sad as it is I’m really excited to use my discount card in America.

Do relax and have fun.

This, I believe we can follow this one.

Our road trip is fast approaching and we are all more than excited. I just keep reading posts from people’s experiences and get so excited when they are about somewhere we are going check my previous post on where we plan or road tripping and leave me a comment and link me to your road trip posts.

Yasmin x

Coast to Coast: USA road trip

It’s official. My friends and I have finalised our plans for our American road trip and I am ecstatic of our plans!
Basically this is a basic itinerary of how we’ll be spending our time.

• Day 1. Boston: we arrive, sort out our rental car and then head to the motel. Head out for some dinner and drinks and then get an early night for the next day.
• Day 2. Boston: our full day in Boston, we’re looking at doing some walking tours and taking in some of the history and maybe seeing some of the nightlife that night.
• Day 3. Salem/NYC: up early for some breakfast then drive up to Salem and get a feel for its witchcraft history, we’ll spend some time here before heading to NYC. We’re actually planning on staying in North Bergen, NJ. So it will be easier as we’ll just use public transport to get into New York City itself.
• Days 4-6. New York City: we plan on doing quite a few things here, a helicopter tour, matinee Broadway show, in addition to many of the other typical tourist things to do. We aren’t big shoppers so we won’t be spending much of our time in and out of shops. We’ll definitely be looking to party it up in NYC so suggestions of bars/clubs to go to would be fab.
• Day 7. NYC/Philadelphia/Washington DC: we will most likely be leaving NYC relatively early as we’re planning on stopping at Philadelphia on our way to DC as one of us has family there so we will pop in and say ‘Hi’. I believe we’re actually staying in Virginia but just a short subway ride from the capital. We’ll most likely just get some dinner and have a walk about at some of the tourist spots.
• Day 8. Washington DC: for us this will mostly be about seeing the sights. War memorials and the Lincoln statue etc. maybe visit a wee museum. If anyone has any ones they think we definitely shouldn’t miss out on??
• Day 9. Washington DC/Abingdon: we’ve just added Abingdon in as originally we had a 10 hour drive from Washington DC to Nashville but thought we would split it in half. Any ideas of what to do/see in Abingdon would be appreciated?
• Day 10. Abingdon/Nashville: we’ll most likely just have some dinner and get an early night here so we can see what Nashville has to offer the following day.
• Day 11. Nashville: here all we have is The Grande Ole Oprey. My friend is a guitar player and we all love music so if there’s any great recommendations of venues to see some live music that would be great.
• Day 12. Nashville/New Orleans: we plan on heading out early again here stopping for something to eat in Alabama and again in Mississippi. Then as soon as we arrive, we’ll most likely drop our things and head straight to the French Quarter!
• Day 13-14. New Orleans: here we’re interested in soaking up the architecture and sights. And drinking.. We’ll probably do a fair bit of drinking here, we are 4 Glaswegians after all.
• Day 15. New Orleans/Ennis: again Ennis has just recently been added. So we’ll probably just leave New Orleans and have a chilled drive to Ennis and a chilled night here.
• Day 16. Ennis/Amarillo: once we arrive in Amarillo we’ll be heading to Cadillac Ranch to get our spray paint on. Then we’ll definitely be checking out Palo Duro Canyon. We’ll be planning on getting stuck right into the Big Texan Steak Ranch for dinner. We reckon we could smash the challenge!
• Day 17. Amarillo/Farmington: we’ll probably head out early and grab breakfast at the Midpoint Cafe, as we’ve been recommended to. It will be another chilled night here for us.
• Day 18. Famington/Four Corners/Monument Valley/Grand Canyon: we will be up super early to head to the Four Corners Monument, probably explore a bit before it opens at 8am, then off to Monument Valley. From there we’ll be heading to Yavapai Lodges. We’ll be eating/sleeping when we arrive so we are up early for the next full day.
• Day 19. Grand Canyon/Las Vegas: our morning will be spent visiting the Grand Canyon. We’ll probably spend quite a lot of time here as our night in Vegas will just be eating/drinking/maybe visit a casino.
• Day 20-21. Las Vegas: our time will be spent, drinking, gambling and hopefully catch a show. This is the only place we’ll be staying anywhere fancy (The Bellagio) as it’s a birthday gift. We were planning on going to a shooting range here but have been advised to go to one in Texas instead?
• Day 22. Las Vegas/Los Angeles: we’ll be up early and heading to LA, get to our motel, grab some food and probably enjoy the nightlife.
• Day 23-25. Los Angeles: in LA we’re looking forward to the beaches, the nightlife and universal studios. We’re not massive theme park fans but Universal has something we’re all interested in.
• Day 26. Los Angeles/San Simeon: we were told we had to add in a day between LA and San Fran somewhere so we’ve chosen San Simeon.
• Day 27. San Simeon/San Francisco: like most of our travelling days it will probably just be rather chilled especially as it’s coming towards the end of our trip.
• Day 28-30. San Francisco: the only thing we have planned for San Fran is Alcatraz. Maybe rent some bikes and cycle about, go on a tram etc.
• Day 31. San Francisco/Glasgow: well this will be the day we either all dread or can’t wait for, the day we head home.

As you can all see, this is the outline of our trip and it’s one I cannot wait for.

Money isn’t an issue for us, so advice on must do/see things in each place is welcome. All our places are set in stone, along with the time scale. But please guys, we welcome any feedback or suggestions. They would be much appreciated.

Bring on 2016!!!!

East to West – Road trip planning.

Just over a year to go and our American road trip planning is well under way.

We’re planning on spending just under 4 weeks in America, with 4 of us going there will be 3 of us taking turns driving from Boston to San Francisco, with many stops along the way such as:

• Boston
• Salem
• NYC
• Washington D.C
• Nashville
• New Orleans
• Jacksonville
• Amarillo
• Farmington
• Las Vegas (via 4 corners and Grand Canyon)
• Los Angeles
• San Francisco

We’re looking for something interesting/out of the ordinary/just different in general to do in each place. We have a couple of things that so far are musts, such as a helicopter ride in NYC, Nashville escape games, Cadillac Ranch in Amarillo, shooting range in Vegas etc. But does anyone have any other ideas of interesting/unusual things to do/see in any of these places?

Help a brother out, I’ll be forever grateful.

London, you’ve stolen my heart.. Again.

There’s just something about London that makes me fall in love with the city every time I go down, this weekend just gone wasn’t any different. I headed down on a sleeper bus on Saturday night to arrive the Sunday morning, which I did. Bright and early, I was in London on Sunday.. 6:45am to be precise to make it even better I couldn’t check into my hotel until 3pm and I forgot England has the Sunday trading law so shops don’t open until 12, definitely not what I needed.

Let’s just say, I went to Buckingham palace twice that day, just to waste some time. Also spent an hour in Primark on Oxford Street not even able to buy anything because from 11am you can only browse until 12. This was definitely the only downside. If I’m honest though, I love just wandering about London, I do it pretty much every time I go down. 

The whole reason I was down though, the main reason I always go to London, for a gig of course. I went to see The Midnight Beast in Dingwalls, Camden. First time in Camden and what a nightmare it was trying to find the venue, I headed in the wrong direction at first then luckily realised this, headed in the right direction then walked past the venue in the wrong direction again. It was definitely not my night! I did finally find it though and I had a good night, spent it beside the bar for a change, as usually I’m front row at gigs. It was a different atmosphere obviously but it was good, I really enjoyed it.

Unfortunately my London adventures didn’t go any further, I went back to the hotel that night and got the coach home the next day. If I’m honest though, I don’t care how long I’m down there for, I just love going down at all. Whether it be for an hour, a day or a week. I love every minute.

Currently contemplating going down this Saturday for the day as I’m now off work.. Oh temptation.

Not very spontaneous of me.

I still haven’t applied for this spontaneity champion.. People keep asking me if I’ve applied as well, and I’m just like, “No, not yet.” I will apply, eventually. The thing is, it is a once in a lifetime chance, something I’d absolutely love to do so I don’t know why I haven’t applied already. I need to move and make my YouTube video and just go for it and be spontaneous! I will apply and I will wish so hard that I’ll get through because would honestly be a dream come true for me. Travelling is my passion and having the opportunity that they are giving you, it’s incredible. I couldn’t even imagine the possibilities that would await me, just talking about it is so exciting. I will do it, I will apply.. And soon! I have 18 days left after all but I can’t leave it to the last minute.

I am excited to apply but I think I still don’t know what to say, people say I am spontaneous but I don’t understand how? I’ll maybe need to ask them before I apply, give myself some spontaneous adventures.

Spontaneity champion..

So I’ve pretty much found the perfect job for me and I’m so so so tempted to apply but I know I’d never get even close to winning the job or opportunity.. Basically my friend found this job and suggested it to me. It’s a spontaneity champion with lastminute.com and basically they’ll fund up to £50,000 for you to travel. Obviously there’s a little more to it than that but that’s the jist of it. I really want to go for it and apply, I mean imagine everything you could do for a whole year with £50,000 the opportunities would be pretty much endless not to mention incredible. I want to go for it but I don’t know. Not very spontaneous of me, I know but I just need a little push in the right direction first I think.

Related articles

• Dream prize! Lastminute.com seeks Spontaneity Champion for £50k of free travel (dailymail.co.uk)
• Best job in the world? Lastminute.com seeks £50,000-a-year ‘spontaneity champion’ (metro.co.uk)