Weekend Reads #4: Exploring what’s on my doorstep

Why is it that travelling far away always seems so much more exotic than travelling close to home? What is it that makes us want to spend hours in the car, hours queueing at airports, hours crammed onto tiny planes and hours waiting to get through immigration when we could travel to very similar places, only much closer to home?

I am desperate to travel to New Zealand. Beyond desperate. I’ve wanted to go there for years and it’s just never happened. I have countless books about New Zealand and I already have my New Zealand itinerary all figured out. But I was chatting to a Kiwi friend of mine a few weeks ago and she thinks New Zealand is boring and she’s desperate to do an epic road trip around the UK and visit all the little villages and quaint towns.

The grass is always greener, right?

Last weekend I was working on a project with Premier Inn to encourage more people to travel closer to home. So I had a lovely weekender in Chester and North Wales and had the best time. It was relaxing but exciting, tranquil and peaceful and really felt like a holiday despite being so close to home. One of the nice things about exploring what’s on your doorstep is that you don’t need to do too much research. There isn’t the worry of missing out on things or reading countless reviews to find the best things to do because, chances are, you’re already aware of most of the things to do. It’s a holiday without the hassle and I loved it.

I loved it so much I’m aiming to plan more weekend trips in and around Wales this year. I always thought no one would be interested in reading about my jaunts around Wales but I couldn’t be more wrong!

Disclaimer: I also love travelling to exotic destinations a long way away! I just kind of love any kind of travel, really.

Check out my post from the trip here – A weekend guide to Chester and North Wales.

Here’s what I’ve been reading and watching this week…

Am I done with travel blogging? Emily Luxton

A thoughtful blog post from Emily here that shows the shallow side to travel blogging that many of us don’t like. Emily also talks about how difficult it can be to be away from your friends and family and how pointless it can feel to be talking about fluffy travel experiences when much more serious things are happening in the world. Well said, Emily!

The ultimate road trip across Britain Hand Luggage Only

One day I will buy a campervan and do this road trip across Britain and it will be awesome! Here are 27 epic locations and I want to go to them all.

Let’s talk consumerism What Olivia Did

Consumerism makes me feel uncomfortable. Encouraging people to buy things they don’t need makes me feel especially uncomfortable. You guys know I’m all about saving your money and basically spending as much of it as you can on experiences and travelling (not handbags and shoes) but, like Liv says in her post, I also do like shopping and fashion and pretty things. Liv doesn’t pretend to have the answers in this post but she does raise some important points and I think it’s time to start thinking about it more and acknowledging it more.

Meet the couple who turned a school bus into a tiny home and road tripped around America Travelettes

Oh my gosh, the dream. This is the dream guys!

More thoughts on being relatable as a blogger Whisky Tango Flat White

In last week’s Weekend Reads I shared a post by Lorna, Literally about the loss of the relatable blogger. Maddie has written something in response that and it’s equally as interesting.

What I’m watching

Did you see Escape to the Wild on Channel 4 last night? If not, it’s a definite one to catch up on. It’s a new series with Jimmy Doherty where he’ll be visiting British couples who have moved to incredible remote areas in the world. Last night’s episode was about a young family who bought a beach in Indonesia and now live in a tropical paradise. A-mazing. But also very interesting. I always think to myself that I’d love to sell our house and pack our bags and move to a beautiful, remote beach somewhere exotic. But after watching this I realised that I really wouldn’t like to do that at all and I should be very happy with what I have!