Explore with Amie

Hello! Welcome to the first ever blog post on Explore with Amie. I’m going to keep the introductions brief and dive right into the post but, I did just want to say a massive thank you for being here and reading this right now. It means so much – whether you came from my book blog, Read with Amie or are a new reader, it really does mean the world.

When I was deciding what to do as my first post on this blog, I thought it would be a good idea to give you a glimpse of who I am when I travel and what is to come on this blog. I have so many content ideas about places that I’ve been and advice that I want to give but, I also want to share with you my goals and aspirations. Today’s post is going to be just that. I am going to share with you the current top of the bucket list travel plans. That is not to say that these are going to happen anytime soon and that they don’t change monthly (weekly even) but, it will be fun nonetheless.

Scotland

First up, we have a country that I will most definitely be exploring in more depth soon as I am moving to Scotland in a few months. However, as well as exploring the country whilst I live there, I am desperate to go on a long camping trip to explore the region. It also helps that my friend and I have a competition on who can visit John O’Groats first after we had a photo at the start line at Land’s End. We’re not doing the race or anything like that, you just have to visit the photo spot!

Scotland is known for its immense scenery and I would love to see how it compares to Ireland as that was pretty immense too. Areas of particular interest to me are the Cairngorms, Skye and Loch Ness. Those are the classic places that most people say but, I haven’t had the chance to visit Scotland much other than to Edinburgh. If you have been to Scotland do let me know on some top places to visit!

Canada

Quite potentially the country I would like to visit the most in my life: Canada. Did you watch the most recent BBC series of Race Across the World? If you haven’t, it is a tv show where couples compete for the chance to win £20,000 but, they must first travel across a particular region of the earth to various checkpoints with a limited budget. In the most recent season, they travelled across Canada. If I didn’t already want to go….the show doubled my desire. There is something about the landscape in Canada that is just mind-blowing to me. There are so many different regions to explore. I actually don’t know too much about the specific places here that are worth a visit but, the variation between the provinces is really interesting, especially with the French influences in Quebec.

I am well aware however, that Canada is a huge country and would really take a long time to fully appreciate all that it has to offer. It would probably be a case of long backpacking trip here. Weirdly enough, it’s something I can see myself doing as a year away for a honeymoon. That tells you the kind of person I am. I want my honeymoon to be a whirlwind adventure and not two weeks on a beach.

New Zealand

I recently went to Australia and I am absolutely kicking myself that we didn’t extend the trip and go to New Zealand too. This was a money problem really and, we decided we wanted to do the East Coast of Australia properly rather than do both halfway. However, I really would have loved to visit New Zealand whilst we were in that part of the world.

New Zealand is another country with some incredible landscapes (can you see a running theme here?) and I would also love to see the places where Lord of the Rings was filmed. I’m not a massive fan or anything but, it would still be a very cool thing to see. A lot of the people I met in Australia then went onto New Zealand and, seeing their photos on Instagram really made me jealous. I think the best way to travel New Zealand would be by road trip. I’m going to have a toss a coin when it comes to this honeymoon trip aren’t I?

Greece

I’m fairly new to the bug of loving international travel and therefore, I feel like there is some staple European countries that a lot of my friends have been to that I haven’t. Greece is one of them. Whilst they prefer to go on the more usual ‘girl’s holidays’ however, I would love to do an island hopping tour of Greece. There’s nothing wrong with a girls holiday, if that’s what you enjoy but, for me personally, I want to see more of Greece than that. I would love to visit Athens and see what all the fuss is about when it comes to this destination. Again, this is a country that I actually don’t know all that much about but, from what I’ve seen on social media, it looks beautiful. It’s definitely high on the list of European countries that I want to visit.

Iceland

Iceland is another European country that, for some reason, I can’t get out of my head. I just have the feeling that I’d really love it. It sounds so trivial but, I distinctly remember watching an England vs Iceland football match when I was younger. England probably lost but, that’s beside the point. I was so intrigued by Iceland’s culture, especially when it came to their naming system. From then on, it’s been a country that has really interested me. Then, a YouTuber that I enjoy watching travelled to Reykjavik and, the rest was history, as they say. The main drawback of Iceland is that it is quite an expensive country to visit and difficult to do on a budget. With some research and good forward planning, I’m sure we’ll make it work.

Austria

Fun fact: my boyfriend and I actually booked to go to Austria in March 2021. I’m not going to lie, we knew it was going to be a bit of long shot that it was going to happen but….a refundable holiday seemed worth the risk, just in case it did happen. Obviously, we didn’t end up going…

I would love to visit Vienna especially as it seems like a beautiful city. I also loved the Sound of Music growing up so, seeing those influences would be pretty cool too. Unlike a lot of destinations, I think a winter time trip to Austria would just be magical. There is such an undeniable pull for me to go here and I can’t quite put my finger on why. The plan was to travel to Vienna, Salzburg and Innsbruck so I would like a do-over of that trip at some point in the future.

I do feel the need to add a bit of a disclaimer before I finish this post as I know that the list is rather Eurocentric or Western-centric, I suppose you could say. There is a reason for that. I have a food allergy which makes travel to non-English speaking countries very nerve-wracking for me. My allergy is something that I do struggle with, especially in more unknown situations like travel. It is something that I am constantly working on so that I don’t let it stop me from doing things but, it’s a work in progress. I would love to visit Asia and experience the different cultures the continent has to offer but, I’m just not quite there yet. I hope that sheds a little big of light on that for you. I will probably do some posts about travelling with an allergy, if that is something you’re interested in.

Thank you for sticking with me to the end of my first ever post. Let me know what you thought in the comments or, if you have visit any of these countries, let me know your experience!

Amie x