Traveller of the Month: Hannah from Get Lost
Welcome to Traveller of the Month! Each month I’m featuring a friend from the travel blogging world to share their story, inspire your wanderlust and share some love for a fellow blogger.
Without further ado, meet February’s Traveller of the Month: Hannah!
And if you missed last month’s, check it out here!
Who are you, where are you from and where are you now?
Hello! I’m Hannah! I’m from Yorkshire in the UK and I’ve lived here my whole life. For a travel-lover, I’m quite the home-bird! I love to travel but I love my home to come back to.
What’s your travel story? How did you get into travel and what kind of travel are you doing now (or were you doing pre-pandemic)?
I was lucky to experience travel from a young age. Every year we took family vacations and I fell in love with experiencing new places. As I grew older, I continued to travel and roped my partner into the journeys! I was lucky enough to move into a career in the tech industry which gave me the opportunity to travel as part of my job, and it was this frequent travel that inspired me to start my blog.
I love exploring the charm of European cities and enjoy jam-packed itineraries on my city breaks! I also love experiencing the diverse destinations across North America. Coming from such a small country, I find the variety of places across the US and Canada fascinating! I’m a bit of a country girl too though and I love getting outdoors in my own “backyard” of the Yorkshire Dales. Of all of the places in the world, to me, the Yorkshire countryside is the most beautiful.
When did you start your blog and what sort of stories do you share there?
I launched my blog in December 2019 – right before the pandemic hit! I share travel tips and itineraries. 2020 also gave me an opportunity to get to know the destinations around my home a little better and my Hidden Yorkshire series was born. In this series, I seek out beautiful but forgotten Yorkshire attractions to bring them to the attention of my audience and to encourage them to explore them too.
What do you do when you’re not travelling or writing about travel?
I work 4 days a week doing marketing for a tech company, so juggling my 9-5 and my blog takes up the majority of my time! When I do take a break, I enjoy getting out in nature for a hike to clear my head. I’m also an avid reader and love crafts!
What’s your best travel memory of the last five years?
In 2018 we visited Berlin just before Christmas. Experiencing the German Christmas markets was phenomenal! They were so lively and cheerful and were a great way to get into the Christmas spirit. We strategically timed our visit for the last week in November so most of the markets had just opened, but most of the tourists didn’t arrive until December, so many of the attractions were empty during the day and we had them to ourselves!
What do you want to inspire other travellers to do?
I really want to inspire those travel-lovers who work full-time. I want those career-driven women to see that you can make travel a priority in your life without compromising your career. I think travel is often seen as two extremes – you’re either working every hour under the sun and never take a vacation, or people are adopting the digital nomad lifestyle to travel constantly. I want to show those working women that you can still live that dream while adopting a healthy work/life balance!
How have you been coping as a travel blogger during the COVID-19 pandemic?
Having launched my travel blog in December 2019, I spent my entire first year as a travel blogger being unable to travel! It was difficult and disheartening on days, and I definitely considered packing it all in on a few occasions! But there were a lot of benefits to the pandemic that I didn’t expect. It gave me an opportunity to write about destinations much closer to home. I got to experience places I regularly visited through the eyes of a tourist and share them with my readers. As a result, it has made me appreciate my home even more and I’ve discovered a real love for blogging about Yorkshire.
What advice do you have for newbie travellers?
I think the best advice I can give to a newbie traveller is just to throw yourself into the experience and enjoy it. There are parts of travel that are always stressful or scary, but the excitement comes from leaving your comfort zone. The best travel memories I have are the ones where things never quite went to plan and we ended up somewhere that wasn’t on our itinerary. The bumps in the road always make the best stories so just go with the flow!
What destination would you go back to over and over again? What destination would you never go back to?
I absolutely adore both Paris and Barcelona and have visited both cities multiple times. There is something really enchanting about both of these cities that keeps me coming back! One that I wouldn’t return to is Las Vegas. I’ve visited a handful of times with work but it’s so loud and in your face – it’s just not my kind of destination at all!
What destination is calling your name in 2022?
I’ll be in Iceland in 2022! I was supposed to get married in 2020 and Iceland was our honeymoon destination. Unfortunately the wedding got postponed…twice! But 2022 is going to be our year and we WILL get that honeymoon! I’ve visited Iceland before and absolutely fell in love with the incredible landscape. I’m looking forward to sharing it with my other half on what will be his first visit!
How do you keep your wanderlust up when you’re stuck at home?
I’m really guilty for constantly planning new trips! So even when I’m stuck at home, you’ll find me busy planning a trip for as soon as we can travel! I love researching destinations and finding out everything I can about them. Lockdown during 2020 meant a lot of new trips got planned and a lot of new destinations got added to my bucket list! Because I like to craft, I often purchase craft kits on my travels, so I also use being stuck at home as an opportunity to work on these and to reflect on my travels. During lockdown I wrote a post about my 11 favourite ways to keep the wanderlust alive while not travelling.
What is the best weekend trip you’ve been on?
I took a weekend break to Dublin which was amazing! Dublin was a city that I’d never been particularly bothered about visiting but it was incredible! There were so many fascinating sights and attractions like Dublin Castle and Kilmainham Gaol. Before visiting, I’d always thought Dublin was just full of bars but I was so wrong!
If you had to plan a family trip, where are you going and what are you doing?
No matter how old I get, whenever I hear “family trip” I think of Orlando! It was always the destination where we would go once every few years for a two week vacation. We’d spend the whole two weeks visiting the theme parks and it is a destination that I just loved more and more with each trip! No matter how old you get, you’re never too old for a bit of Disney magic and it’s still my number one choice today if I was planning a family vacation!
Lastly, where can we find you online?
I blog at getlost.blog and you can find me on Instagram, Twitter and Facebook.
Thank you so much for joining my Traveller of the Month series, Hannah! I resonated with so much of what you were saying and I really hope 2022 is a better travel year for all of us – let’s get those honeymoons! Head on over to Hannah’s blog to learn more about travelling while working full time and stay tuned for March’s Traveller of the Month!
