5 Small Towns You Shouldn’t Miss in Costa Rica

I had the small town blues last week. Since Luke’s leg injury, we’ve been shacking up in small towns across Panama and Costa Rica. I was lusting for adventure – and all these small towns were making me feel blue.

I’d had my fill of sweet suburban houses, local farmer’s markets and small sodas – but hang on, what was I complaining about exactly? Life can’t always be big city lights and volcano boarding adventures, and quite frankly I wouldn’t want it to be either. Come to think of it, the small towns in Costa Rica have been some of the best places I’ve visited. Here are five of those awesome little places which you just can’t miss.

4 mins read

How We Went from Rookies to Long-Term Travellers

When we set off on our indefinite travel adventure to Costa Rica, we didn’t know what to expect. Eight months later and we’re long-term travellers. So how did it happen?

When we left the UK in May last year, we didn’t have all that much. We had a little money saved from our year teaching in Taiwan, a one-way plane ticket and our first ever house sit lined up. We knew that, at worst, we had enough money to last us for two months of travel. If we had to come home and rethink our plans after that, then well, we would’ve had a great holiday. Any amount of time we were able to stay travelling after that was a bonus. Right now, we’re into 6 bonus months and still going strong. Here’s how it happened.

5 mins read

Volcan, Panama – Travel Guide

Volcan is a very small but very pretty town in Panama. It’s not exactly a tourist hotspot – and really, that’s what’s so lovely about it.

We never intended to visit Volcan. After we finished house sitting in Boquete we were going to whizz on down to Panama City, except Luke injured his leg and there was no way that he was going to survive that 9 hour bus ride. With only a week before we were returning to Costa Rica, we decided to loop round to a small town on the other side of the volcano so Luke could rest up. For this, Volcan was the perfect choice.

4 mins read

Why Being Vegetarian in Costa Rica is Easier Than You Think

Think eating vegetarian in Costa Rica means endless days of “rice and beans – hold the chicken?” Think again.

Friends of ours who travelled in Costa Rica said that we’d be sick of rice and beans in no time. Though we’ve certainly eaten more rice and beans than is probably healthy while on the road, Costa Rica has proven to be an excellent destination for vegetarian travel. Being able to order vegetarian food in local sodas (cheap eateries) is only the tip of the iceberg when it comes to vegetarian travel in Costa Rica.

5 mins read

5 Films about UK Youth Culture to Watch Before You Travel

Those who haven’t travelled to the UK often has a very romanticised view of our culture and lifestyle from watching Downton Abbey and Hugh Grant romcoms – but in truth the UK and its film industry is a whole lot more diverse than that.

Love Actually and Bridget Jones’ Diary captivated many a romantic dreamer, but that’s not all the UK film industry has to offer. The more popular UK films might leave viewers thinking that we all live in mansions and drink tea in the countryside, but that’s just not the case. The UK has a plethora of directors making great films about youth culture that deal with real issues experienced by people in the UK in recent decades. While my list of five films aren’t the most wanderlust inducing and probably won’t make you swoon over English traditions, all of them taught me a lot about the socio-cultural background of the country where I grew up.

4 mins read

Boquete, Panama – Travel Guide

Green mountain views, world renowned coffee plantations and cafes that just sell strawberries, it’s no wonder that we loved Boquete, Panama.

When we realised we had a spare six weeks to explore Panama over Christmas, we set about looking for a house sit in Boquete so that we’d have a place to call home over the festive season. As it turns out, the sun was shining on us and we found a lovely home to look after. We had wonderful mountain views, local dark roast coffee and three goldens to keep us occupied.

6 mins read

What I Learned From a Coffee Finca in Panama

Ever since I first set foot in Central America, I’ve wanted to go to a coffee finca. In Costa Rica, we never found the right time and in Nicaragua, we were never in the right place.

In Panama, we found ourselves in Boquete, a small town in the green mountain highlands famed for growing the finest coffee in the world. As well as industrial growers, there are many small, independent coffee growers in Boquete and it’s not uncommon to see locals and expats growing coffee in their own back gardens. My travels are powered by coffee and I can never start writing without a black coffee, so it was time to find out exactly how it gets from bean to cup.

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Budget Travel is Eco-Friendly – Here’s Why

If there’s one thing that us travel bloggers hate to admit, it’s that our lifestyle can be very harmful to the earth. But travelling on a budget can help with that problem.

There’s a real catch twenty-two for travellers: while we are travelling to see the world’s natural beauty and immerse ourselves in local culture, travelling so frequently can have a very negative effect on the natural and cultural environment. As fellow travel blogger Shing from the Culture Map pointed out in a thoughtful blog comment to me, taking steps to minimise our footprint and making eco-friendly choices as often as possible, especially for those of us who travel so much, is essential for protecting our beautiful planet.

6 mins read

Will an English Degree Help Me to Become a Writer?

Reader Question: I noticed you went to school for English. I was wondering if you think your degree helped you to become a writer?

I always knew that I wanted to study English at university. I chose it because it’s actually the only subject I ever excelled at in school. Looking back at my tuition debt of £17,000 now and the 6 hours of contact time I had each week, I still struggle to decide whether that was a good enough reason for deciding to study English.

7 mins read