Travellers of the Month: Alex & Vicky from Clock Out Check In
Welcome to Traveller of the Month! Each month I’m interviewing a fellow travel blogger to help build connections in our blogging community and share more travel stories on my blog. And this month, I’m very excited to feature my first duo!
Without further ado, meet September’s Travellers of the Month: Alex and Vicky from Clock Out Check In!
And if you missed last month’s, check it out here!
Who are you, where are you from and where are you now?
Hey! I’m Alex and I am one half of the Clock Out Check In team. I’m from the UK and I’m writing this in the middle of the coronavirus lockdown in London. We are based in London full-time and we love it.
What’s your travel story? How did you get into travel and what kind of travel are you doing now?
Vicky and I have always loved to travel. We have both lived abroad and love the sense of adventure you get when exploring somewhere new. Having said that, we are both home birds and have never travelled long-term. Nowadays we focus on getting the most out of our time off from our full-time jobs by travelling to some amazing destinations.
When did you start your blog and what sort of stories do you share there?
We started the blog in February 2019. Our blog is aimed at working people like us. There’s no backpacker trips or outrageously expensive hotels. Travel is for everyone and we hope that the holidays we talk about are achievable.
[NOTE: A quick heads up that the blog is currently under construction but will be back, better than ever, later this month!]
What do you do when you’re not travelling or writing about travel?
We both work full-time. I’m a lawyer and Vicky is a senior digital designer for a fashion brand. We live in London and we’re trying to incorporate more content about our home city in the blog. There is so much to see and do in London even if you live there.
What’s your most recent travel memory?
We were lucky enough to get away just before coronavirus hit Europe properly. We had a long weekend in Porto, Portugal. It was incredible. Porto is a beautiful city and parts of it are a UNESCO world heritage site. The food scene there is fantastic and you have to try the port wine.
What is your unpopular travelling opinion?
Long-term travel isn’t for everyone. Sure when I was a student I thought that I would love to just get away and travel for years, backpacking my way through South-East Asia and South America. But right now, I am happy in my career, I love living in London and get really excited for our holidays. It’s a happy balance.
What’s one thing people don’t understand about travel blogging?
How much time it takes to get beautiful photos and how many photos you see on travel websites have been heavily edited. I must say I was a bit ignorant about all of this until I met Vicky. Vicky studied photography at university and really knows her stuff. Our photos are good but when we set up Clock Out Check In, we made a conscious decision to make our photography achievable. We do not use a particularly fancy camera and we do not take any extra equipment with us. They are ‘polished holiday snaps’ and that is just fine by us. When I see bloggers with a photo of an empty Charles Bridge in Prague or who never seem to have a cloudy day on any of their holidays, I get a little bit suspicious.
What destination would you go back to over and over again?
Antibes in the South of France. This little town is absolutely magical. The old-town is exactly what you think of when you picture France. It is idyllic. It has a daily market, lots of narrow streets with cute cafés and bars and a lovely little public beach. We have always said we would love to go back and could even see ourselves buying a little holiday home there if we won the lottery.
What destination is calling your name in 2021?
Thailand! Hopefully this pandemic will have passed and we can all get back to normal. We have been planning a trip to Thailand for years but its fallen through the past couple of years for various reasons. We are determined that 2021 will be our year though. Fingers crossed.
What is the best accommodation you’ve ever stayed in? What’s the worst?
We’ve been very lucky and stayed in some stunning hotels. My personal favourite though is probably the Azul Beach Resort Riviera Cancun in Mexico. This resort is run by TUI and operates on a Gourmet All-Inclusive basis. It’s right on the seafront with a private beach and also has six swimming pools. It was heaven. The worst? Personally, it was a hostel I stayed at in Brussels. I can’t remember the name of it and the hostel itself wasn’t too bad. But I had two of the worst nights’ sleep there though mostly because of the other travellers.
What was one of your biggest travel mistakes?
Not booking any restaurants in advance when we went to Paris last year. It was an absolute disaster. We were really excited for some outstanding food in Paris as we are both major foodies. We hadn’t made any reservations though and when we arrived everything was booked up. I mean everything. We spent a couple of hours each night looking for any restaurant with space. We had some very strange meals and it was such a culinary disappointment. We won’t make that mistake again!
How do you keep your wanderlust up when you’re stuck at home?
This is even more important at the moment while we’re all stuck inside during the coronavirus lockdown. We are gutted because it means that we have already cancelled two trips away this year. To keep our spirits up, we are looking back at our photos from previous trips and planning our big trip to Thailand next year. Instagram is a great tool for keeping up your wanderlust. We’re trying to post new content every couple of days, albeit from the safety of our flat!
What is your process of writing a blog post?
We have most of our content planned out for the year already. When we started up, I came up with a couple of hundred ideas for blog posts and I am still working my way through those. I do most of the writing for the blog. My process is quite unusual in that I tend to write down everything that comes to mind in a very rough first draft before editing the post down over time. Vicky does all of the design and photography. I am very lucky to be engaged to a digital designer who knows her way around all of the creative stuff!
What is the best weekend trip you’ve been on?
Very tough question. We love a city break and Europe is great for a long weekend away. Paris, Berlin, Prague, Rome – there’s so many to choose from. For us though, we would have to say Budapest. We love Budapest. There is so much to do and everything is incredibly cheap. It was also our first holiday together, so it holds special memories.
Thank you for joining my Traveller of the Month series, Alex and Vicky! Head on over to their blog to keep up with their holidays and stay tuned for October’s Traveller of the Month!
