Moved to a new place and it's not quite paradise? I know the feeling. I've lived in a lot of different places, and even though I've always had a positive approach to make the most of my time in each, there's certainly been challenges. Some places just take a little more effort to love while others are effortless. Today I'm sharing my tips and strategies to help you find that love (or at least like) a little faster. Here's my guide on how to make the most of where you live even if you're struggling to like it.

Time for a little travel throwback today. I know 90% of the time my blog posts are detailed guides or resource type content. But sometimes you just want to be a person and not only a resource, you know. So today, I wanted to connect in a different way and share my favorite travel photos and the stories behind them. I promise not all of them are selfies! 😀

You hear all sorts of things when you tell people about your plans to travel alone, especially as a woman. Today I've asked a bunch of travel bloggers to share some of the craziest solo travel reactions they've heard. These women have heard all these things and still been able to enjoy some awesome adventures around the world. So, if anything, I hope it's a good reminder to not let the opinions of others get into your head because, sure, maybe solo travel wouldn't be a good idea for them. But you're not them.

Can we just have a chat woman to woman for a minute? Today I want to share a little real talk on my first solo trip after a whole year off. Woah, it seems crazy to say it was that long. I want to share why I took the break in case you missed my updates, the identity crisis and fears I had during the break, and what it was like to get back onto the solo travel horse. If you don't solo travel, I'd love for you to read through to the end because I think there are lessons we can all relate to.

I'm someone who has talked a lot about the importance of living life on your terms, achieving your goals, and following your own path. I firmly believe this is the way to lead a fulfilling life and I hope that through my content I've been able to inspire at least a couple of people to work towards this. However, it's not all sunshine and rainbows. As with anything, there is a dark side. I felt that I couldn't just share all the good and not the bad because I want to help prepare you as much as inspire you. Here's a look at what nobody tells you about living your truth.

If you follow just about anyone on social media, especially anyone who works for a 'health' based pyramid scheme, you've probably heard that there's a new year and a new decade approaching. I thought now would be a good time to make a list of some of the tacky travel trends we can go ahead and leave in this decade. These are just some of the things I notice in the travel world that unfortunately seem to be common.

A play by play is a great start when it comes to recording your travels in a journal. But if you want to dig a little deeper and take your reflections to the next level, here are 21 travel diary ideas to prompt you. These thoughtful prompts will serve as a diving board for you to jump off to explore more than just what you did. You'll be able to delve into meaningful journaling about how you feel, how the experience changed you, record the moments you never want to forget, and build the habit of mindfully observing the places you visit.

UPDATED FEB 2020. Is there a point to this post? Who knows. But today I wanted to talk about what traveling solo while married is like, what to expect, and answer the big question - is it OK to do?

UPDATED FEB 2020. There is no shortage of travel advice out there so I thought I could go through some of the bad travel advice that you should probably just ignore. I wish I could add the frog and tea emojis (if you know your memes, then you get that). For now, though, a pic of me holding tea as the featured image will have to do. These are the worst tips I usually hear, but I'm wondering what is the worst travel advice you have received? Feel free to share it in the comments. (If you don't see your comment show at first, it's probably just gone to spam and I will move it across).

UPDATED MAR 2020. This post has nothing to do with Google-ability. It's not a tutorial. I didn't research any keywords. Or follow the usual process that comes with writing a blog post. It's just a bit of a love letter really. I just wanted to share my favorite place in the world with you and my Christmas wish for your travel adventures.

UPDATED MAR 2020. Whoever created the idea that getting old is something to dread or fear was living wrong in my opinion. For me, each year gets better. The more I learn and grow, the more I enjoy life. As I'm writing this, I'm about to enter a new decade and I'm not scared or dreading it at all. I'm not embarrassed about my age. I'm excited about the next chapter, I'm excited to keep developing as a woman, and I'm excited to see where life takes me. I wanted to celebrate my big birthday here on the blog and I decided to do it with this post on 30 trips to take before you turn 30. But with my own twist.

UPDATED FEB 2020. Hands up if you've told someone about your solo travel dreams and been met with comments about how you shouldn't do it because if you do, you'll be killed/kidnapped/beheaded/mugged/raped and/or any other super scary thing. Does that sound familiar? I know I've heard these things a million times. I've heard it all, even 'don't go there you'll get gang-raped by immigrants'. Sometimes those voices can get in your head and make something that you dream of doing seem scary. Sometimes these voices can stop you from doing the thing you want to do. Today I am here to empower you. We are going to be talking about how to get the courage to travel alone when these doomsday voices are all around you.

UPDATED MAR 2020. If there’s one thing that traveling has taught me, it’s that no matter where we come from in the world, we are much more alike than different. The body image issues that you have most likely experienced, whether it is struggling to meet societies ideal beauty standard or experiencing some self-consciousness for parts of your body being too big, too small, the wrong color, a little jiggly here or a little saggy there - you get the idea, are also being experienced by women on the other side of the world. Since we all have this in common, what can travel teach us about body positivity?

UPDATED MAR 2020. We’ve all seen it. The influencers on social media or those friends that claim to be wiser and more cultured than everyone else because they travel. You know the ones. With each subject that you talk about they find a way to slip in something about their trip abroad, even if it has nothing to do with the topic. They spend a lot of time Googling ‘motivational quotes’ for their uber woke social media posts and the best connection they make while traveling is usually to a Wi-Fi hotspot. You'll probably hear them using phrases like ‘you’re not a real traveler if you do...’ and when you talk to them they’ll be quick to share a self-righteous tirade about how they ‘catch flights, not feelings.' To them, travel adventures are the best (and only) way to live and learn. But is traveling really as life-changing as they make it seem? Here are my thoughts on why traveling won't change you.

UPDATED MAR 2020. I recently was in a conversation about how traveling has affected people's relationships with friends and family. One person shared their story of feeling isolated when it came to talking to people back home. When your family and friends don't support your travels it can be a lonely experience and she asked if anyone else had experienced the same. Unfortunately, her experience was all too common. It was sad to see the comments from so many travel lovers. Many had friends and family who either ignored their messages, changed the subject when they sent updates, made no effort to keep in contact, sent snarky comments, didn't engage on any social media updates, or a combination of all of these. How sad is it that when achieving something that excites and fulfills you, such as your travels, can sometimes come at the expense of your close relationships. Here are my thoughts on what to do if this happens to you.

UPDATED MAR 2020. Solo travel can seem really daunting and scary. I think it's only until you do it though because then it's fun and addictive. When people message me to let me know they would love to travel solo but are a little hesitant, I'm the biggest cheerleader. They always mention that I am brave or whatever, but I really don't see myself that way. So today, I want to show you that we all have things we think are scary. I'm posting a collection of things I think are way more scary than solo travel. In reality, there's really no need to be scared of these things and they are a little irrational. Just like for most situations there is no need to be scared of solo travel.

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UPDATED MAR 2020. Is anyone else super reflective this time of year? I certainly am. So, before we say farewell to 2017, let's do some extraordinary travel reflections and recap where we went. I'm writing this as a recap post so that in case you missed any of the travel guides during the year, they're all in one place. I've included links to the posts on each place for more information to help you plan your own trips.

UPDATED MAR 2020. Sure, the world is scary. But is it too scary to travel? Should we keep traveling with all sorts of scary attacks on the rise and the world seemingly becoming more and more unsafe? Today my news feeds are filled with stories to remind people of how scary the world is. I'm speaking of Las Vegas of course, but it seems redundant to mention the city because it feels like a case of another day, another terrorist attack and another pray for the city hashtag. In some ways, I think that the frequency of these attacks makes us numb to them which, to me, is almost scarier.

UPDATED MAR 2020. Living the expat life is pretty bloody awesome. There's a great adventure to be had when you jump outside the 'comfy known' to experience new cultures, lifestyles, foods and languages firsthand. I was so excited when I first left Australia - I knew the good old land down under would always be there to go back to but ahead of me was a lot of shiny, new adventures to be had. Now I am a resident of 3 countries and I've never looked back. It's not all beer and skittles though and sometimes the expat struggles are real. If you're an expat let's take a moment to relate to these things that you've no doubt heard once, twice or a million times over!

UPDATED MAR 2020. Hours of travel can be a great time for reflection. Without fail, every time I go on a plane, I look out the window and think about how incredible it is to be able to travel. I mean, we live in a time where you can book a ticket online, get on a flight and travel all the way across the world if you want - how amazing is that? Sometimes it's the traveler who gets all the credit for putting it all together but to be honest in my case all I do is book the tickets and write about my experience which is all pretty easy. For each step of the travel journey, there are so many people who work in the travel industry that make these experiences possible. Today, I am writing to them.

UPDATED MAR 2020. I'm about as flexible as a frozen corpse. As embarrassing as it is, I can't touch my toes. Still, decided to go on a yoga retreat. I was scared though. I don't do classes, I don't wear Lululemon, and I certainly didn't know my happy baby from a half lotus. What the hell was I thinking? Is that a bit crazy? Maybe. But it turned out to be a great idea and also one of those times where I end up grateful that I have these crazy ideas. I'm sharing my experience today with this guide to a yoga retreat for beginners.

UPDATED MAR 2020. Did you hear the new term 'alternative fact' in the news recently? It's the new word for 'lie' apparently. The new term got me thinking, we are probably all guilty of saying a 'little white alternative fact' every now and then, right? ‘Thanks for the gift, I really love photos of you’, ‘that’s the cutest baby I’ve ever seen’ or ‘sorry I didn’t reply earlier. I’ve been swamped’.  Here's a fun post with 10 alternative facts that travelers can relate to.

UPDATED MAR 2020. It seems like 2016 was not quite the best, right? Many people I talk to had a rough year. If what doesn't kill you makes you stronger, then I imagine being surrounded by superheroes in 2017. Before we jump into this superhero world, I wanted to close out the year with a post on some real-life superheroes. I follow these badass travel women on social media and I've included their links so you can too. For this post, I wrote 'what travel taught me' and asked them to share their stories. Let's get inspired.

UPDATED DEC 2019. Facing challenges is an important part of life and personal growth. Today I want to share some of my thoughts about it because it has been on my mind lately. Challenges have a powerful ability to shape us. Well, I suppose it's our response to the challenges that have a powerful effect on our minds. Hopefully, this post can remind you of the importance of facing challenges, or fears, and inspire you to continue to step outside the scary place known as the comfort zone. If you already do this in your daily life, join in and offer some stories or tips in the comments.

UPDATED MAR 2020. Good friends can make such a huge difference in life. They can encourage you, teach you, support you and provide great company on the ride of life. When I left Australia, I was faced with the challenge of making new friends and to be honest it took a long time to find a group of people that I clicked with. As I found these positive people and developed friendships with them over time, it taught me a lot about the types of friends you need in your life which is what I am sharing here today. 

UPDATED MAR 2020. I have a little bit of Katie trivia for you today. My husband and I have been together for almost 4 years and you know what, we have only been able to spend a little over 1 year of that time actually together. Between an international relationship, deployment and training exercises, most of our relationship has occurred over a long distance. We are well-practiced at this and I guess it's kind of our 'normal'. I'm not writing this for you to feel sorry for me. Quite the contrary. I think I have learned a lot during this time and have the secret to thriving in a long distance relationship to share with you. 

UPDATED MAR 2020. Brace yourselves. The Valentines Day promotion has begun. All around me I see pretty pink hearts, cute catchphrases, and images of couples candidly showing their love for one another. It got me thinking of what it is like to celebrate occasions like these when you are apart from your loved one. Whether it is Valentine's Day or other (more important) special occasions like an anniversary or birthday, it can be a very lonely experience for those separated by distance. Today I'm sharing some long distance birthday ideas and strategies that you can use for any special occasion as well. It's more of a brainstorming prompt post than a gift guide, but I hope it can help you.

UPDATED FEB 2020. It's not travel-related, but I recently opened up about having Endometriosis here on the blog. If you saw the post on adventuring with Endometriosis, you know why I think it so important to not let Endometriosis stop me living a full life. Sure it slows me down a little, but I refuse to let it stop me doing things I love. In today's post, I wanted to talk about Endo again. This time to share everyday tips for living with Endometriosis. These are just some tips that have helped me so hopefully, they can help some of you too. 

UPDATED FEB 2020. Today I'm posting something a little different. I have Endometriosis. Now, I know sharing something like this is a stray from the usual posts but I felt a strong urge to share. Mostly for the simple reason that when I was going through the diagnosis and researching how to manage the illness, I found stories from others incredibly helpful. More helpful than doctors to be quite honest. Knowing I wasn't alone and learning from others about how they manage the illness was both comforting and useful. In today's post, I just want to talk about it and about adventuring with Endometriosis. I strongly believe it doesn't have to stop you from living a full life.

UPDATED MAR 2020. Confession. When I moved to Hawaii, I didn't have a TV. By choice. Not because I am anti TV or anything, I just don't really watch it so never got around to buying one. It really wasn't a big deal in my head. But you would think I was living without oxygen from some of the comments that my flabbergasted friends made. It seemed that people could not grasp how one could survive in life without one. Here's a list of 10 things you can do instead of watching TV in case you were wondering, or wanted to reduce your screen time.

UPDATED MAR 2020. We all have that dream list right? Things we always want to do but they end up on the 'one-day' list. I've been thinking a lot about living out dreams lately. Specifically, how some people seem to be living their dreams, ticking these items off their list with zeal. Whereas others simply have a list and are waiting for this elusive 'one-day.' What if that day is now and you could live your dreams today? Here are 4 tips to help you start creating your dream life today.

UPDATED MAR 2020. Before last week I didn't know I needed a glass straw. Then, the video of the scientists who removed a plastic straw from a turtles nose went viral. In case you missed it, click the photo below to be taken to the video. Did it make you sad? It definitely made me sad. Watching the turtle suffer for such a senseless reason was extremely heartbreaking and frustrating. It made me want to do something.

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UPDATED MAR 2020. It is pretty safe to say that having to part with your loved one is not fun. Not one bit. Those who have experienced this will know all about that heavy, achy feeling of longing for someone and just how harsh it can be. In today's post, I'm sharing a guide full of tips for surviving the long distance relationship. We are going to explore a few bigger picture tips I have learned for coping with distance and we will finish off with some tips that were submitted by friends on my Instagram page.

UPDATED FEB 2020. Leaving my toxic workplace had been something I had thought of for a long time. I am proud of myself today because I finally moved on from what had been controlling my life.

I am taking a turn from the usual adventure/travel blogs today to write about an Instagram challenge – that’s right, an Instagram challenge known as the #20beautifulwomen challenge. It's quite a distinct turn from the usual though I felt this one was worth writing about. Now, I am sure there are probably rules in blog land to stay on the one theme but whatever – it’s my blog and I’ll write what I feel right? Why stick to rules when you can express yourself.