I’m Laura, a 26 year old travel aficionado, food obsessive and avid writer. Keep reading to find out my story, or click here to learn about Wander with Laura.
I grew up on the Wirral, that little sticky out bit of land above Wales and below Liverpool on the map of the UK. With the city and the beach just 20 minutes from my house, it’s little surprise that I’ve grown up with an insatiable urge to explore new places.
I was never a cool kid: growing up, you’d always find me escaping to other worlds through books and writing stories. So really, it’s no surprise that I ended up writing (thankfully private) online journals throughout my late teens. During my second year in university in 2012, I discovered blogging through friends and decided that I would start writing articles that other people could read for the very first time. Filled with a cacophany of hit-and-miss posts, this first incarnation of my blog introduced me to a whole other world and helped me to get started in my career in Digital Marketing.
Then, one week in 2013, it felt like my whole world came tumbling down.
In the very same week, my relationship of five years ended and I was made redundant from my graduate job. Suddenly, this comfortable (although admittedly, not entirely content) life I’d started to build screeched to a halt and instantly, I turned to travel. Quivering with fear in the Bold Street STA Travel, I handed over my bank card and booked a three week European Whirl Contiki with 45 strangers. This turned out to the best thing I’ve ever done.
On this trip, I realised that fear shouldn’t have to hold you back. It completely transformed my confidence and, thanks to the amazing people I met from Australia, New Zealand, the USA, Canada, South Africa and Malaysia, I realised that I wanted to see the world with more time than just four weeks of annual leave per year. So, I spent the next year saving up and purchased a one way ticket to Australia. I also took the plunge and rebranded my ailing website to Wander with Laura, creating the travel blog you all know today!
My solo trip to Australia was far from the carefree time I expected. I ended up working on a $5 bucket cherry tomato farm (that didn’t last long), struggled to adjust to people I met moving on after a couple of days and missed the guy I’d started dating just three months before I was due to leave. But, regardless of the struggles, it’ll always be one of my greatest achievements. For the last six months of the trip, my boyfriend and I travelled together to New Zealand and through some of South East Asia before returning to the UK in the middle of 2017.
This brings us up to the present day and, despite being based back in my hometown, travel is still high on the agenda. I even work as a Marketing Executive in the travel industry! And while my life changes, I’m still as passionate as ever about sharing the most beautiful places to visit and how to do it on a budget.
I’ve started to grow ever more concerned about the impact humans are having on the planet, the environment and the life on earth around us so I’m determined to bring sustainability into my priorities when it comes to booking travel. That means greener accommodation, offetting my carbon footprint on flights and completely cutting out meat, one of the leading cause of carbon emissons worldwide. I’m trying to educate myself about shopping ethically in the fashion industry and how I can reduce my waste output. And, as these values begin to filter into my blog, I’ve never felt prouder to call myself a travel blogger.
Want to chat?
Head over to my contact page or come and say hi on social media! You can find all my links in the sidebar.
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