So, who am I?
My name is Carly and I have been exploring the world as a solo female traveler for almost twenty years. About five years ago, I realized that people were coming to me every day asking for travel advice, so I decided to start a blog where I could record my travel tips, stories and advice.
My Earliest Travel Experiences
I grew up in Canada. When I was a child, our family often took small road trips around Canada and the USA. Sometimes these trips took us to famous destinations like Disneyland or the Kennedy Space Center, and other times we just spent a long weekend camping in a tent a few hours away from home.
When I was a teenager, our family organized a house exchange with a family living in London, England (back then these types of things were all organized via paper catalogues and phone calls!). We swapped houses for three weeks, which was enough time to get settled into the local lifestyle and hop across the Channel for a few days to visit Paris, France. I was hooked.
As soon as we got back to Canada I started bugging my parents about researching our European ancestry, and with the help of some distant relatives and exasperated church officials my father was able to obtain German citizenship, which he could then pass on to me. For my 18th birthday he handed me a filled-in German passport application, and suddenly the entire European Union opened up to me.
My Experiences Living Abroad
I had to finish high school and university before I could put my new German passport to good use, but I didn’t waste any time! Literally the day after I graduated from university I got on an airplane to Barcelona, Spain to make a new life for myself.
I ended up staying in Barcelona for several months, but the promise of a more lucrative and secure job eventually called me to Turin, Italy. I stayed in Turin for several years but eventually returned to Canada to pursue further studies at university, and to look for a job that offered more comprehensive benefits such as health care and a pension plan.
Barcelona and Turin both feel like second homes to me, and I visit both cities as often as possible. In fact, I returned home from a trip to Barcelona yesterday, and I have another trip to Turin scheduled for this summer.
I mentioned that I returned to Canada to pursue further education, and as part of my next degree program I took advantage of the opportunity to study abroad in Guadalajara, Mexico. My program was actually more like an internship, where I kept up with coursework online while gaining practical work experience in Guadalajara. Living in a city with few tourists gave me the opportunity to experience authentic Mexican culture, and now I return to different parts of Mexico almost every year.
My time in Mexico also piqued my interest in international education, and I’ve leveraged that interest and experience (plus the language skills I’ve made along the way) into a career that gives me at least ten weeks off work each year. People often wonder how I can travel so often, and the main reason is that my job follows the typical Canadian school calendar.
The other question people often ask me is why I travel solo, and the answer is mostly the same. There aren’t many people who get ten weeks off work each year… and there are fewer people who get ten weeks off work each year and don’t have children or pets who need their attention back home! I’m always happy to travel with other people, but I have a lot more flexibility in terms of budget and scheduling than most of my friends and family.
Other Places That I’ve Visited
Besides living abroad, I have also traveled solo to about 70 countries. This map should give you an idea of the regions that I’ve focused my travels on. A few of my noteworthy trips include:
- Taking eight months off work to travel around the world. You can read my monthly summaries, starting with Month #1, here.
- Scuba diving in Southeast Asia, the Caribbean and the Mediterranean. To me, being a fearless female traveler doesn’t mean never being afraid – it means working through your fears and discomfort. I was really nervous during my scuba diving course, but I persevered and now it’s one of my favorite hobbies!
- Completing the Trans-Siberian Express solo. I detoured off the main route and traveled even further north into Siberia on the Baikal-Amur Mainline, and even more remote train journey. I don’t recommend traveling to Russia anymore, but I do recommend planning to visit Ukraine when Russia ends their invasion. Did you know I slept overnight in Chernobyl?
About Fearless Female Travels (The Blog)
I started Fearless Female Travels a few years ago, as a hobby and a way to share stories about my travels and advice for other travelers. All of the content on the site is written by me, and it’s based on my actual travels to the destinations that I’m talking about.
Although the name of my blog is Fearless Female Travels, the advice that I share isn’t just for girls and women. However, when I’m planning a trip, traveling or writing about a place that I visited, I am always coming at it from the perspective of a solo female traveler. That means I am highly aware of things like safety, gender dynamics and women’s health, and I incorporate that information into my articles where relevant.
There are several other principals that guide my travel planning and writing, and you’re likely to notice an emphasis on these things as you read my blog:
- Slow travel – Because I get so much time off work each year, I prefer a slower travel style where I stay in one destination longer. Even if I write a guide to visiting a certain place in one or two days, it’s likely that I stayed there for a week or longer.
- Sustainable travel – Again, as a frequent traveler I am mindful of my carbon footprint. Typically, I avoid renting cars when I travel (I’ve actually only rented a car three times in my life!) and prefer to travel around using public transportation, like buses and trains.
- Vegetarian travel – I became a vegetarian almost immediately after moving abroad to Barcelona (nearly twenty years ago). Nearly all of the food and drink featured on this blog is vegetarian or vegan, but most of the restaurants that I recommend also serve meat for those who prefer it.
- Authentic travel – I’m the type of traveler who will jump into something and figure it out as I go. If something doesn’t work out, or is a disappointment, or if I could have done it a better way, I always tell the truth (and try to recommend how you could do it better!).
Thanks for reading this far, and if you have any questions or comments about my journey from wanderlust-stricken teenager to international educator and travel blogger, please feel free to reach out!
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