Livin’ the Dream Travel

My Personal Travel Experience

I have always been passionate about travel, “the seed” was planted at age 10 when my parents took my brother and I to America. They had always dreamed of taking us to Disneyland and their dream was fulfilled after a lot of hard work on all of our behalf. My brother and I worked hard for this trip, delivering catalogues as well  cleaning offices and factories along side our parents, because we had to earn our own spending money to take with us.

On that trip we we visited Anaheim- Disneyland, Knotts Berry Farm, Universal Studios, San Francisco, Las Vegas, Mexico, Hawaii and many other places in the US.

That trip inspired a love and passion for travel in me that continues to this day.

Following on from that trip, I nagged my parents consistently to be allowed to apply to become a Rotary Youth Exchange Student. After many years of nagging, and an incredibly intensive interview process, I was fortunate to be chosen as an as Exchange student at age 16. I was able to experience life in Canada living on the east coast in Halifax, Nova Scotia, an experience that very few young people are fortunate enough to have.

During my year in Canada, I was able to travel across the country by train with the other exchange students in my district, taking in Nova Scotia, New Brunswick, Quebec, Ontario, Manitoba, Saskatchewan Alberta and British Columbia. One of my host families took me to Maine and New Hampshire and as a group of Exchange students we took part in the Rotary Conference in Prince Edward Island.

My year in Canada also gave me experiences that I had never even considered. I was able to ride a ski-doo in the beautiful white snow among some beautiful open ranges and in the woods, we went snow shoeing and made snow angels so much fun.

After a few years gap my next overseas experience was on the P&O Fairstar, visiting some stunning locations including Fiji, Vanuatu, Isle of Pines and Noumea. I was able to go canoeing with the locals, swimming and snorkelling on some beautiful coral reefs and enjoying the pristine white beaches of those magnificent islands.

I have since travelled back to Canada and spent 2 months living in Quebec and and also headed to New York for a little weekend to see a Joseph and his Technicolour Dreamcoat on Broadway and the Statue of Liberty, to name only a couple of highlights.

I then took a break from overseas travel to get married and raise my amazing kids. During this time, we did a lot of local holidays in and around Victoria, NSW, Queensland and Tasmania mainly. The urge to travel was always there and once my boys were old enough my partner and I decided that it was time to start exploring the world again.

We spent a month in India on a bespoke private journey travelling with Total Holiday Options, this was probably hands down the most incredible holiday I have to date.  We took in the incredible sights, sounds and smells of India, starting in Delhi, where one of my highlights, being a bit of a “foodie” was a walking food tour of Chandni Chowk.

Although there were so many highlights, too many to list, I can say that some of the standouts of our trip were the narrow gauge railway journey on the Himalayan Queen which took us up into the foothills of the Himalayas  where we stayed in Shimla. Another standout was arriving in Agra and to be told by our guide that he had organised a surprise for us. He had organised us a room upgrade with an uninterrupted view of the Taj Mahal, just WOW no words can express the stunning beauty of such a magnificent shrine.

Another spectacular experience was seeing Tigers in the wild, (I also travel for wildlife and photography), I never truly appreciated how incredibly majestic and big these animals are.

Varanasi, Jaipur, elephants, mongoose, tea plantations, monkeys, the Western Ghats, bargaining in markets, eating local food, learning local customs and seeing tigers. All highlights of my life that I will never forget.

Covid stopped our overseas travel plans, but it did give us a chance to explore our own backyard a little more. Two trips to WA, a trip to Canberra, Northern Territory and several trips to NSW certainly kept us occupied on home ground.

2024 saw us dip our toes back into international travel visiting Borneo and Bali, having never visited Bali it gave me an incredible opportunity to witness for myself this iconic “must visit” tourist destination for Australian travellers.   Bali was a place that I had always been hesitant of visiting, my only regret now was that I had not done it sooner.

We are currently planning our next big adventure to Canada via Delhi. A trip I am so excited for. My partner has never been to Canada, so I can’t wait to show him this stunning country and to top it off we get to do a little detour to get our India fix again.

This trip, still in the early planning stages, will take in the breathtaking Canadian Rockies with a trip on the Rocky Mountaineer and an epic road trip from Calgary to Toronto.

I will keep you updated.