What to see in Trapani: we arrived in Trapani at night. Our enjoyable 6-hour scenic bus ride across Sicily ended in a dark, deserted parking lot outside of town. With phone GPS in hand, we followed the little blue dot along an industrial waterfront and then into the winding, narrow streets of Trapani Old Town. We stopped once to pick up breakfast foods at a grocery store, then found our sweet apartment off a courtyard filled with hanging laundry. We had no clue until the next morning, just how charming this small city was.

Visiting Pompeii is an awe-inspiring experience. The site is massive - it’s a CITY, so it's helpful to plan ahead to make it as stress-free as humanly possible. There is no ONE right way to travelling well but allow me to share my experience of Pompeii. Learn from my mistakes, try out my recommendations, or do your own thing and strike out on your own path. However your day at Pompeii looks - we can marvel together at the incredible window into the past.

Create a hyper- personalized itinerary for travel in a thoughtful 4-step method. In this article, I use my own solo trip to Seattle to demonstrate how to set your intentions, plan your journey, customize your itinerary, and push past your comfort zone for an unforgettable adventure. Great information for solo travel in Seattle!

Discover the numerous reasons why people choose to walk solo in this blog post. From physical health benefits to mental well-being advantages such as reduced stress levels and enhanced creativity, there are countless compelling reasons to embark on a solo long-distance walk. Step outside and experience the wonders of walking alone.

Have you ever experienced that nature smells sweeter, food tastes better, buildings seem more photo-worthy, and people-watching is far more engaging when you are travelling?

It’s not that these simple experiences are never “as good” at home, but rather foreign or different settings can heighten or deepen the way we process these as a travel experience. It’s largely psychological: our minds are primed by unfamiliar surroundings, stimulated by new challenges, and highlighted by emotions. Travel (and solo travel especially) puts us into a state where we notice more and feel more.

When we get distracted by other people’s actions and marketing messages, our “Bucket List” of travel wishes simply grows without consideration of personal alignment... I advocate transforming it from a long ‘check off’ list to one that is firmly rooted in self-knowledge and designed with intention. This will help to avoid the pitfalls of a shallow, narrow and disconnected list. The next level, though, is a travel vision board.

The weeks leading up to Christmas are magical all around Lisbon in December. From the extravagant decorations and 2.1 million LED bulbs being hung to the cozy and fun Christmas markets. Lisbon, Portugal will satisfy your holiday spirit!

I am passionate about travel and well-being as important, healthy, and meaningful and my messages are often about personal development, growth, and stepping out of your comfort zone. “Fun” sounded less important. But then it dawned on me…oh yeah, of course! Travel is also fun! And fun is really good for us too.

Travel with intention - a thoughtful and deliberate approach to exploration. It goes beyond merely hopping on a plane and ticking off a checklist of tourist attractions. Instead, it involves aligning your travel plans with WHY you are travelling. Intentional travel boosts our happiness and well-being!

You are in very, very good company if you feel pre-trip jitters and the frightening discomfort of travel anxiety before you embark on any kind of trip or vacation. It's normal to worry before you leave home. Travel is a change that distances us from our comfort zone.

A travel story not far from home. There is a tributary of the Campbell River on Vancouver Island called the Quinsam. It is small and quiet, with a maze of beautiful riverside paths that wind through the forest leading to a fish hatchery. My husband and I often camp in the Campbell River area and love to explore this beautiful place not too far from where we live. I’m a nemophilist, a term I learned recently that describes someone who loves the forest for its beauty and solitude. Canada (and especially Vancouver Island) attracts fellow nemophilist visitors from around the world.

I know I’m in my challenged state when my vision narrows and my brain turns my outside world into a fuzzy blurriness. My body slowly moves like I’m going through heavy water, and butterflies emerge from their slumber and slip into my belly, tickling my insides and lathering up my stomach acid. This state of challenge can be uncomfortable and scary, especially in a foreign or unfamiliar place.

I have no memory of my grandmother. She is described as a formidable woman, who expressed emotions not through words or hugs, but through hard work and baking. Growing up, my grandmother and her six siblings were often written about in the Chilliwack newspaper’s society column.

I remember nature walks as a child with my mother. Sometimes down a forest trail but more often along a beach, she would always point out little things like a colour, a plant, a rock, or a seashell that I would have blindly passed by. Our pockets would become heavy with heart-shaped stones, sea glass or twisted driftwood. Sometimes my load would become so unwieldy that I’d have to flip up the front of my t-shirt like a kangaroo pocket. Her ability to notice unexpected things made walks feel like treasure hunts.

I have a childhood memory of playing in a local, abandoned graveyard near my friend’s house. I was living in London, England at the time and the tombstones were from the 1800s. The moss growing in the cracks of the stone and the ivy re-claiming the space made our “play space” private, wild and welcoming of our imaginations. My friend and I would make up stories about the people and imagine life “way back then.” My much beloved Anne of Green Gables stories were also set in the 1870s, so 11-year-old me developed an association that cemeteries were like libraries, holding the stories of interesting people.

One of the many amazing outcomes of travel is the stories! Sometimes they are travel stories of adventure and misadventure, sometimes they are the stories behind the adventure - the extraordinary little things you learn about the place and about yourself because of being in that place.

For some people, trip planning is a thrill and a joy. For others it's a nightmare. If you've gotten to know me through my articles you'll know that I fall firmly in the joy category!

I have two friends visiting southern Spain as I write this and I am so thrilled and excited that their trips look very different from mine. Not because they are doing it better or that my month in Spain was anything less than amazing, but because they created highly personalized travel plans. THEY are the heart of their itinerary - not any instagram influencer, not a guidebook, not a tour company, and not me.