MY STORY: HOW I CAME TO LOVE TRAVEL

After a decade of teaching elementary school, and constantly dreaming about my next travel adventure, I decided to step back and follow my explorer’s heart, becoming a travel photographer and writer.

I have loved travel for as long as I can remember. My parents instilled that in me at a very young age. Our summers, and a lot of our weekends, were spent travelling in our RV. We did a lot of local trips here in ALBERTA but also went on some long haul journeys. We drove to ALASKA, across Canada, and to Southern California, just to name a few. I loved seeing new places and learning about the history and culture. Social Studies was always my favourite subject in school.

The travel bug bit me hard in eleventh grade, when I took my first trip to EUROPE. It was a school trip and the first time I had ever been on a plane (I was so nervous!) We started in London and made our way down to Paris. And then I fell in love. Not puppy-dog, high school love. This was true love. The kind of love that consumes you, that pains you to be away from. The kind of love that lasts forever.

Was I in love with Paris? Oh yes! But more so, I was in love with the entire experience of travelling. I could not get enough. I wanted to see as much as I could, learn as much as I could, make the most of every minute. Travelling by bus, I would look around and see people sleeping and think, What is wrong with you people! You are missing out! I even enjoyed simple landscapes as they were fleeting past my window.

Since that first trip, I have had wanderlust. I’ve travelled to many different places in many different ways- independent trips, group tours, package vacations and cruises. While there are pros and cons to each type of travel, I definitely have discovered my travel preferences.

I tend to prefer travelling independently to places that have a mix of beautiful landscapes and historic sites. I love to visit ARCHAEOLOGICAL SITES tbilit and spend time outdoors hiking, biking, and boating. It’s really hard to convince me to go to a beach somewhere and do nothing but lay around for a week. I can handle maybe a day or two, but after that I need to get active and go out exploring! I also crave to see a country in depth. I am not a fan of the 10 countries in 10 days type of tours (I hate feeling rushed and missing out on places). And budget travel isn’t my thing either. I like a little bit of luxury at the end of the day!