Travel Advice

36 posts

I’ve been travelling for a while and in that time I’ve amassed tips on budgets, packing, travel survival and trip planning – all focussed around busy part time travellers.

Want to narrow down to full itineraries or lots of foodie tips instead? Or perhaps you’re looking for straight up destination inspiration – I’ve got that too!

London Recommendations
Plan Your Next City Break!
  • This slightly awkward action shot from crazy golf today represents a weekend spent in the best possible way. We headed down to Southend where our beautiful bezzas @burneyballs @leewood1302 and @jelvesie had planned a special weekend of fun for our 10th Wedding Anniversary. . . . There was cocktails and curry and craft beer pubs and a specially written quiz, terrible karaoke (we murdered Don’t Let The Sun Go Down On Me but nailed Gangsters Paradise), bacon sarnies, crazy golf, seafront walks and afternoon tea with a big brass band. All served with the usual dose of in jokes and hysterical laughter that an easy friendship like ours is full of. . . . And really, as we make our way home, we feel so loved and full of love and so lucky that we have such brilliantly thoughtful and downright awesome friends. In the words of the great Alan Partridge, lovely stuff. 💕
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  • Sometimes I wake up in the morning and feel every second of my 36 years. And other mornings it feels like the last 10 years has flashed before me like a lightening bolt, and I’ve suddenly woken up the day after we got married. They say time flies when you are having fun, but I’m sure it rockets past when you’ve had as much love, and laughter and light in your life as we have. 🚀 . . . So here is to 10 incredibly blessed years of being Mr + Mrs Sparrow. You light up my world and you don’t even know you are doing it. And now, in our 10th year of marriage, we start a new adventure, and in ten years time we’ll have a nine year old Sparrow to share our journey with too. 🎈 . . . Love you, Mr S 💜
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  • Early Christmas present for us Sparrows this year. December 2019 is going to be one hell of an end to a very unexpected year 😍. . . . Reality check though - this was a long time in the making. I’ve struggled and at times never believed it would happen. I know how hard it can be and how low you can feel when it seems everyone around you is conceiving and you’re not. So please mute me, unfriend me or do what you need to get through if this news makes you sad - because I feel you, totally 💛
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  • It was a glorious summer. Hot, and filled with such promise and opportunity. Every cloudless day brought with it new reasons to smile and opportunity arrived in limitless quantities. The summer jumped under my skin and I felt the warmth of it hold me in its arms. ⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀ But amongst the raw blue skies and the long sticky nights something was dimming. It was hardly a thing, a trifle. A tickle of a feeling. And as the unrelenting summer wore on, its sultry appeal gave way to something harder, overwhelming, suffocating. ⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀ The sunlight went out for a bit. I turned my face from the sun. ⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀ And as the green gives way to orange and the blue gives way to grey, I too give way to that tickle of a feeling. We’ve tussled and fought and I grew weary with the weight of it. But in these dying days of Autumn now I once again feel the warmth on my face. The sunlight may have dimmed a little inside of me but I know I can capture it again in the corner of my eye. #mentalhealthmatters
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  • Nine years. NINE WHOLE YEARS. Of us against the world, working on our marriage and growing up together. This year has had its share of glorious ups and difficult downs but our team is ever stronger. Happy Anniversary Mr S - you’re the mountain to my sea, the tonic to my gin and the best friend I could have ever wished to build a life with 💜
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  • I adore cities. Old architecture butts up against modern living to create a rich tapestry that’s always changing. This picture from Munich sums it up for me - I wonder what it will be like in a few years time? . I’m also interrupting this moody cityscape to let you know that voting for the Post Office #TravelBloggerAwards closes tomorrow and I’d love your vote. It means the world to me to be even shortlisted - but to win would be the cherry on top of an awesome summer. The link is in my bio if you have time to vote today! 💛
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