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Celebrating A Year of Glampacking in 2011

December 22, 2011 By glampacker Leave a Comment

For me, 2011 was a full year of travelling in style on a budget. I went glampacking in the UK and Europe and combined volunteering and travel for the very first time! Looking back on my year of glampacking adventures I’ve certainly done a lot in London and abroad…

January

I celebrated New Year’s Eve in New York City, partying in style in a top nightclub in Chelsea. New York City was recovering from a Boxing Day blizzard that forced me to retreat from shopping into the safety of my Midtown hotel.

January can be a gloomy month in London, when it’s cold and dreary the only thing to bring cheer is to escape the city. I visited the university city of Oxford. I was charmed by its gargoyles, history and picturesque campuses.

March

There comes a time in every Aussie Londoner’s lifetime that you miss being behind the wheel of a car and driving every day. On my very first UK roadtrip I drove from London to Wales and back again in 48 hours. On a girly road trip we drove to Stonehenge to peer at the pagan rock formation by the side of the road and visited my favourite English town of Bath. On a rainy drive to Wales we passed through Cardiff and onto Swansea where we partied with the locals who have a very TOWIE dress sense! For a more traditional Welsh experience, we finished the road trip by visiting a medieval castle in Caerphilly.

April

Buona pasqua! I experienced a very Italian Easter and went on a whirlwind day trip to Milan and the great Lake Como. I searched for George Clooney in Lake Como on a cruise to Bellagio and felt at peace in the small town of Lecco.

I also celebrated the Royal Wedding of the year by braving the crowds in Hyde Park and felt almost British during a very joyous occasion.

May

On a very jam-packed weekender, I visited Dublin on the eve of the Queen’s visit. Being a glampacker, I don’t often drink beer and had never finished a pint of Guinness in my life! All that changed when I visited the Guinness storehouse and was blown away by the panoramic views of Dublin in the Gravity Bar.

June

One of the highlights of living in London is being able to escape to Paris for the weekend. I went on my very first Eurostar weekend trip to be reunited with my best friend who had flown all the way from Australia. We celebrated her birthday at a Michelin starred restaurant and strolled through Luxemborg Gardens on a rainy summer day in Paris. I also took a day trip to the Palace of Versailles, skipping the queues and listening to the musical fountains.

July

Summer in London means picnics in parks like the lusciously green Hampstead Heath. Being Australian I require three things in summer – sun, surf and sand! Since it’s hard to get all three in London I went glampacking in Spain. In Spain I spent a lot of time eating paella in Valencia, pretending to be a billionare in Palma, driving on the right side of the road on the island of Menorca and sampling pintxos in San Sebastian.

I reached an amazing milestone of being away from home for one whole year! I’ve learnt a lot in 12 months on a UK working holiday and feeling more like a ‘worldly glampacker’ and less afraid of the unknown!

September

Back in March I won a trip at the Travel Blogger’s Unite conference in Manchester. I jetted off to Romania where I spent a week volunteering with Oyster Worldwide at a bear sanctuary. I came face to face with brown bears and was incredibly moved by their stories of rescue and survival. During this time I lived like a local in the town of Brasov, searched for Dracula at Bran Castle and experienced a late autumn festival by eating barbecued meat and polenta.

October

Travelling with my mother is a very different type of glampacking! Mother-daughter travel has a slower pace and lets you see things from another perspective. We shopped in Paris, perused local artisan markets and had afternoon tea with the locals. In Italy, we posed in front of the Leaning Tower of Pisa and saw the unmissable sights of Florence.

November-December

When the cold sets in London, homesickness can often follow so the best thing to do is embrace winter! I went to Madrid for a weekender, eating churros for breakfast and visited the great Spanish food market – Mercado de San Miguel.

For my 26th birthday I dined at Heston Blumenthal’s restaurant and drank mulled wine at the Christmas Markets in Lille and ate a lot of chocolate in Bruges.

Soon I’ll be celebrating Christmas in Italy…Buon natale to all my fellow glampackers! Safe travels and happy holidays!

What will I go in 2012?

Turkey – Gallipoli
Portugal
Eastern Europe – Poland, Hungary, Montenegro?
Back home to Perth, Western Australia
Who knows where else?!

Filed Under: europe, travel, UK Tagged With: budget travel, glampacking, life, Reflection, things to do

The 2011 TBU Conference in Manchester – where I won a volunteer trip to Romania!

March 31, 2011 By glampacker 3 Comments

Last weekend I made a rather hasty decision to travel to the TBU Conference in Manchester. It was the best, last minute trip on a budget I’ve ever been on for a few major reasons.

Prior to the conference, the only people I’d met in person were Oliver, host and creator of Travel Bloggers Unite, and Traveling Editor – who always calls me Glampacker which makes me feel like a brand, in a good way.

Over the two day conference, I learnt a lot about how to enhance my blog using WordPress and SEO, got tips on how to improve my writing style, made lots of new friends and experienced some major revelations such as…

Travel bloggers are a friendly bunch

I must admit that sometimes it’s intimidating meeting professional travel bloggers. You expect them to have cameras in one hand, be tweeting in the other hand and recording a podcast all at the same time. I was touched by everyone’s friendliness, willingness to share information and dish out personal advice to a newbie blogger like myself. Check out the delegate list and follow some seriously hard-working bloggers.

Blogging is a business

Blogging is surely but slowly becoming recognized as a ‘real’ business. Bloggers are entrepreneurs as much as they are writers and photographers. Building out a business plan for a blog is just as important as the content, style and design. Branding is incredibly important particularly when creating an online reputation from scratch across various social media channels.

Also, PRs are finally taking bloggers seriously and looking to develop long-term relationships with us. We’re almost viewed as being on par with travel journalists – there’s still some way to go but I believe we’re headed there!

Always enter competitions, you never know what you might win!

I won a free trip to volunteer at a bear sanctuary in Romania! Yes, it sounds completely unreal but my name did actually get drawn out of a hat.

This summer I will be volunteering with gap adventure specialists Oyster Worldwide at a brown bear sanctuary near Brasov, Romania. For someone used to glampacking, this will be a challenging, hands on experience as I embrace the great outdoors. I will be making a small but meaningful difference to the lives of brown bears being rehabilitated after suffering as ‘circus performers’ or other forms of abuse. Whilst there I’m also hoping to see some bear cubs, learn some Romanian words, and explore Brasov, Dracula’s Castle and eat lots of hearty local food. A big thanks to Oyster Worldwide for this opportunity.

Filed Under: travel Tagged With: conferences, manchester, Romania, uk, volunteering

Wanderlust Wednesday – New York City

May 19, 2010 By glampacker 2 Comments

Central Park, New York City, December 2006

New York. Concrete jungle where dreams are made of…

New York City holds a special place in my heart. It’s where I spent my 21st birthday. I celebrated by visiting the MET, seeing the NYC Ballet perform the Nutcracker and having a Japanese dinner.

I’ve blogged about NYC at Christmas before. And this year I may, just may, be spending Christmas there again. Only this time it will be Christmas Day and all the way to New Year’s Day.

There’s so much I didn’t do on my first trip that I’m already daydreaming about, such as:

iceskating at Rockefeller Centre
going to a basketball game
exploring all of Central Park
watching the ball drop in Times Square on NYE
eating a pretzel
gazing into the window of Tiffany & Co
going all the way to the top of the Empire State Building
shopping…ala SATC style

Filed Under: christmas, NYC, travel, wanderlust wednesday

How to Survive a Group Holiday When You’re An Independent Traveller

May 7, 2010 By glampacker 3 Comments

About to board the plane to Boracay, that’s me holding the red bag with Travel + Leisure mag in it.

When my best friend Julie first invited me on a group holiday to the Philippines I was rather apprehensive. I’m an independent traveler. If I’m not traveling alone I’m usually only with one other person.

Group travel requires patience. The problem is that I’m incredibly impatient. I’m not used to waiting for people to get ready in the morning and trying to make democratic decisions on where to go/what to eat with others. My daily travel philosophy is – you’re here, make the most of it and get up and go!

So before my flight to Manila I adopted the three word mantra: Let it go!

Years of working in PR and event management has turned me into a bit of a control freak. I enjoy pre-trip planning and organising. I like having a list of places to visit and an itinerary which is flexible.

So agreeing to go on a group trip where everything was organised was both a relief and a shock to the system for me. There were 10 of us traveling to Boracay via Manila and it started to feel like school camp, Filipino style.

Positives:

Less worrying and organising, more time to have fun
Language barrier – not speaking Tagalog – wasn’t a big deal
Constant companionship – always someone to chat to, borrow clothes off and party with
Flexible itinerary meant that each day was an unknown adventure
More likely to try new things and eat local food
Filo friends were street smart and always looking out for us

Negatives:

My non-Filo friends and I were a bit complacent – in other words we didn’t really do much organising/bartering/researching
Waiting, waiting, waiting for others
I was less likely to make an effort to speak Tagalog – I usually adopt at least a few local phrases
Fitting into the group schedule – you can’t always just do whatever you want
Peer pressure – yes this still exists outside of school and you can always be coerced by the group to go on a dune buggy/drink out of a bucket/eat raw egg
My friends learnt the hard way that I may be “slightly irritable” if I don’t start the day with a cup of tea or breakfast. Sorry guys!

In the end through I survived an action-packed one week in the Philippines with the best memories of spending one week with friends that knew the ins and outs of Manila, the best traditional foods to eat (chicken adobo…) and drinks to try (green mango shakes and four seasons juice) and local customs. Their generous hospitality and go-with-the-flow attitude was greatly appreciated – thanks a million Julie and Will!

How to survive a group holiday?

Expand your patience as much as possible
Relax into the flow of the group dynamic
Have time for yourself – even if it’s just a quick morning walk
Do you own research before you go – if you have mandatory places you’d like to visit make them a priority
Enjoy living in the moment with your friends – it’s always short-lived
Accept that it’s all part of the adventure – not knowing what the day will bring is exciting!

Cheers at Chill Out Bar in Boracay

Filed Under: philippines, travel Tagged With: group travel, solo travel, style, tips

Top Things to See and Do in San Francisco

April 7, 2010 By glampacker Leave a Comment

I’m going back into the archives for Wednesday Wanderlust.

I was 20 years old when I first visited San Francisco on my 2006-07 Round-the-World trip. I was a bright eyed fresh university graduate eager to see the world.

Colourful terrace houses

Lombardi Street

On a first-timers itinerary, we visited the usual tourist attractions – Fisherman’s Wharf, Pier 39, Union Square, Lombardi Street and the Full House terrace houses.

What amazed me about the city was the littlest details. In my travel journal I noted that:

Change comes out of a machine in supermarket check outs
Nob Hill signs are in English and Chinese
Cars park with their wheels turned into the curb on steep streets
Males will hit on females even if in line for a cable car

My ultimate must do list for ‘Frisco:
Must see:

SF Museum of Modern Art. Free guided tours are held daily with museum tickets. The talks are lively and engaging. I loved that the guide was eager to hear everyone’s opinion and encouraged debate over individual artworks.

Must eat:

Lunch at Bedoin Bakery near Fisherman’s Wharf. Bread comes in the shape of a dungeness crab at this bakery. I had the clam chowder and it was creamy and divine.

Fast food at Gott’s Roadside in the Ferry Building. Styled like a traditional American diner, Gott’s Roadside serves comfort food at its best – burgers, fish and chips and a sweet milkshake to wash it all down. Produce is sourced from the Ferry Plaza Farmer’s Market.

Must do:

1. Walk the streets. Yes, they’re steep. But it’s great to work out your calf muscles and cover heaps of ground. Pack good walking shoes and water and just explore. We had so much fun walking down suburban streets, gazing at houses, stumbling upon inner city parks and passing by beautiful murals. And, if you get tired, just hop on a bus back to the city.

2. Ride a cable car. Hang onto the outside, feel the whoosh as you go downhill and hold on tight!

Ferry Building

View from the window of the Hotel Carlton

Filed Under: san francisco, travel Tagged With: things to do, tips, USA

Glampacker – New Name for Le Blog

April 4, 2010 By glampacker 3 Comments

Welcome to glampacker.com! I’ve decided to change the name of my blog to reflect my travel style and upcoming overseas adventures.

The term glampacker refers to a traveller who is likely to

a) be traveling on a budget
b) be female
c) have packed a GHD straightener in her backpack

Glampacking travel defines a generation of female travelers who like to travel without compromising their sense of style and comfort. This doesn’t mean that they’re necessarily high maintenance, must wear tonnes of foundation on their faces before leaving a hostel/hotel or that all they want to do is shop and party whilst abroad.

Glampacking is about budget travel for girls that would prefer to look and feel their best when traveling. This could mean always having clean knickers whilst out on safari or just having the right pair of sunnies on to greet the sunshine whilst on a European summer adventure.

As Coco Chanel said, “A girl should be two things: classy and fabulous.“ This applies at home, at work, at play – wherever your journey takes you…

Filed Under: travel

Finding Peace in Hiroshima, Japan

November 9, 2008 By glampacker Leave a Comment

Still continuing on the Japan trip theme, in chrono order of course, we went on some amazing day trips from Osaka.

The first was to Hiroshima. We got atrociously lost in Hiroshima but we eventually found the Peace Park, the Memorial Museum and the Atomic Dome. This is something that you have to see for yourself in Japan. I think as a traveller its easy to get lost in your itinerary and forget about why we travel in the first place. To push ourselves out of our comfort zones.
To learn about history. To understand how events like the bombing of Hiroshima changed the world.

This week was of course a historic week with President-elect Obama taking centre stage. Change is something that everyone wants to believe in. Peace is another.