I’m typing this sitting on a flight to Perth, a five-hour long haul to Western Australia, as we leave the East Coast of Australia. It’s starting to sink in that it’s over, we’ve finished our once in a lifetime trip and I have the overwhelming urge to turn around and start it all over again. …

It’s time for our final Christmas competition. Today’s prize is the gorgeous North Face Thermoball Jacket from Blacks. Check out the ladies jacket here and the mens here. I’ve been wearing this jacket for a couple of weeks now and I love it. With the fitted, nipped-in waist it looks stylish but is still really …

If you’ve been following October’s Destination of the Month, you’ll probably have picked up by now that I’m just a little bit obsessed with the Yukon. It’s an area of the world I knew very little about before I arrived, so I was totally blown away by the beauty, the friendly people, the absolute wilderness all …

“Are you employed?” “Yes, I’m self employed. I’m a…blogger….” I say with uncertainty, knowing my answer would be met with a familiarly blank expression. “I’m a travel blogger,” I add with a bit more conviction. “A….blogger….? That’s your job…?” I know the drill now. Her expression will either turn from confusion to intrigue as she …

Do you want to know the best places in London for a selfie? Or gorgeous locations to get the best photos of the city? London is such a beautiful city but it can be difficult to photograph, especially when you’re at street level. All those tall and historical buildings actually make it really difficult to …

This is the kind of competition prize you’ll only get truly excited about if you’ve ever had the message below. You’ve just taken your phone out to snap the perfect picture. It’s either the perfect lighting or the perfect moment and you just know it’s going to make the best photo ever. And then your …

Today’s Christmas competition prize is something you’re all going to love and is a £100 voucher to spend with Doris & Dicky. If you’ve never heard of Doris & Dicky before, let me introduce you…   Doris & Dicky offer the best in affordable luxury hotels with budget boutiques around the world. Usually, if you add …

  For those wishing to inject a little vivacity into their holidays or weekend breaks, then we’ve got you covered with this list of the UK’s best adventure getaways! Jolly Days Glamping A luxury tents and huts camp site with beds, fires, hot showers, BBQs kitchens – and all in the middle of a wood …

Today’s prize in our Christmas competition is a pair of Fremont winter boots from KEEN. These are cosy, warm and stylish so they’re perfect for winter and great if you’re travelling to any cold destinations. They come in a choice of three colours, whiskey, black or cookie dough and they’re worth £139.99. I have a pair …

Christmas may be the most wonderful time of the year but it can also be the most stressful – especially when you have a lot of gifts to buy for as lot of people who already have EVERYTHING! Add to this a busy schedule, a tight budget, and every high street being so manically busy …

This is the cutest prize for anyone with young kids. It’s from two brands I absolutely adore, Great and Small Clothing and Elf for Christmas. Great and Small Clothing make gorgeous PJs for the whole family. I don’t know if matching family PJs have always been a ‘thing’ or it’s just something I noticed since …

The first prize in our Christmas competition is to win a Camsafe® Z16 anti-theft camera & 13″ laptop backpack in slate green worth £179.90. As someone who regularly travels with a laptop and a DSLR camera I’m always on the lookout for that ‘perfect bag’ and this one comes pretty close. I’ve also been using …

When was the last time you received a postcard? Go on, wrack your brains and think about it. I was about nine years old and it came from my neighbours who were on holiday in Spain. They sent the postcard because I was looking after their cat while they were away and I have a …

  Next Wednesday I’ll be joining gocompare to co-host a Twitter chat all about Christmas travel. We’ll be talking about the places we’d like to go, tips for travelling during the festive season and exciting plans for New Year’s Eve. It’s going to be the perfect chat to get you into the festive spirit – …

Isn’t it funny how by doing something that you don’t think you’ll like you usually end up learning a lot about yourself? And sometimes you even end up loving the thing you thought you’d hate? When No Becomes Yes Take for example, the venture into the rainforest that I did in Cairns, Australia. Pre-trip there …

In my never ending quest to pack light I’m always looking for great quality travel clothing that looks good but is also practical. Not only that but it needs to last and not look crumples or dishevelled after a couple of washes. I want to be able to pack a capsule wardrobe and continue to …

  If you go back to our first post on The Travel Hack, one of our travel hacks when travelling in Australia is volunteering. You get the best experiences with a twist, and we have to practice what we preach, right? So off we went to volunteer with gorgeous Australian animals at Cooberrie Park… About Cooberrie Park Cooberrie park is a …

Do you know what silence sounds like? It might seem like a stupid question, but until I travelled to the Yukon, I’d never experienced true, uninterrupted silence. It was one of the most startling things I noticed while I was there. Life in London is noisy at the best of times, so for me, silence is …

It probably doesn’t sound like an obvious choice for shopping, but the city of Edmonton in the Canadian Province of Alberta is, surprisingly, the perfect destination for a shopaholic. Dangerously good, but perfect. Whether you love huge malls with international brands and gleaming department stores or you’re more fond of independent boutiques and hunting for …

If you saw yesterday’s post about Scandi style bloggers you will have seen I’m slightly obsessed with the laidback Scandinavian fashion. I was more than a little excited about the prospect of a shopping spree in Gothenburg! The style is chic, it’s classy and it’s just so easy for travel. It’s not just the clothes …

Edmonton, a Canadian city relatively unknown to many outside of that great vast country, especially when compared to the mighty beasts of Toronto, Montreal and Vancouver. Yet, Edmonton is one of those hidden gem kind of cities that us travel-folks love to discover! When I was invited on The Travel Hack trip to Edmonton I jumped …

When I arrived in the Yukon, I announced to my guide that I wanted to see two things: a moose, and the northern lights. I knew better than to expect the aurora borealis – also known as the northern lights – on demand. There was a time when I was obsessed with seeing them. I …

You know you’ve been busy when you’re almost a week late announcing it was your birthday on your blog! I have been busy but in the very best ways possible. Last Saturday was a very special day for me for two reasons. Firstly, I watched one of my very best friends get married and it …

It’s been a while since I’ve done a monthly update here on The Travel Hack. I love reading other blogger’s monthly recaps so I’m not sure what happened to my own. I guess things get busy and priorities change and I forgot how important it is to share something more personal and unstructured on the …

Today I’d like to welcome Harriet Johnston to the blog as she debunks the myth that you can’t have a cheap skiing holiday. Harriet is deputy editor of Ski+board magazine and loves travel with a healthy dash of adventure on the side. She has worked with sites like The Debrief, DRESSR and VICE and also …

When people ask me what my favourite destination is (and as a travel blogger I’m asked this a lot!) my automatic response is always Thailand. I spent two months travelling around Thailand while I was backpacking and even after all that time I still didn’t want to leave. It’s an old cliché but Thailand really …

There is no way to gracefully fall from a dog sled. They make it look so easy as they stand on the back of the sled with their army of powerful dogs ploughing through the snow. But they don’t tell you is a dog sled is really difficult to stay on! Well, for someone who …

Deftly straddling the Gardon River, the Pont du Gard is an aqueduct that was built by Romans in the first century. The three-tiered, arched bridge dates back some 2,000 years and was created to carry water from the source in Uzès to the cosmopolitan town of Nîmes, where it was used for decorative fountains, home sanitation …

Wallaby Damned, it’s a Roo! ‘There should be a left somewhere around here,’ I declare as I pick up the basic paper map we have to navigate around this stunningly rural island. It was a guess, I had no idea how far we’d travelled along this road. This city girl was too used to having …

Have you ever experienced the real France? I’m not talking about the sidewalk cafes of Paris, the Eiffel Tower, or candy-coloured pastries stacked prettily in a window. What I’m referring to is the baguette-in-a-handbag-on-the-way-home-from-the-markets kind of France, usually found in tiny towns in the countryside. And one town in particular, tucked into the gorgeous scenery …