who is worldly adventurer?
Travel is best when it’s slow and meaningful.
That doesn’t mean to say you need to have six months, a whole year, or even more to travel. It just means you need to slim down your itineraries and make the most of each and every destination you visit.
If you slow down, you have a better chance to discover those ‘must-see’ places that, ironically, so few other travellers ever pause long enough to discover.
Ready to really discover Latin America?
Search the web and you’ll find yourself inundated with articles claiming they’ll tell you about the top ‘must-see’ destinations in the whole world; the places that you just have to visit if you’re traveling; or the top ten South American destinations that you need to fit into a three-week holiday.
That’s one way to travel: fast, superficially, and following a trail of other tourists.
It’s never been a form of travel I’ve ever wanted to emulate, and particularly not since starting Worldly Adventurer back in 2015. Instead, I enjoy really discovering a place: getting under its skin, meeting local people, and exploring destinations beyond those classed as the “must-visits”. It helps that I’ve spent years living in and writing guidebooks about Latin America and can quite confidently tell you exactly which places deserve the hype – and which are those barely-visited gems that you won’t find written about anywhere else.
Whether you have ten days or ten weeks for your trip, it really doesn’t matter. I’m here to show you the best way to use that time, and yes I’ll throw in the crowd pleasers – as long as you’re willing to give some lesser-known destinations a shot, too. And, with 1.5 million readers around the world trusting Worldly Adventurer each year, it’s fair to say people enjoy reading my advice!
But there’s another concept close to my heart: sustainability.
Worldly Adventurer helps you to plan short (and long!) trips with a focus on spending your money directly with local tour operators, hotels and restaurants – all activities that can help ensure tourism dollars go directly to the local communities, rather than being syphoned off by multinational companies. That’s why I recommend local companies that I know are brilliant, rather than faceless operators on sites such as Viator and Get Your Guide.
I’m also here to help you go deeper into destinations that rank amongst the world’s most visited for travellers: everywhere from Patagonia through to Machu Picchu, the Salar de Uyuni and Easter Island. But, at the same time, I want you to consider widening your lens and adding some of those lesser-visited destinations that sorely need your tourism investment: think the Salkantay hike rather than the Inca Trail; northern Peru rather than just the south; and the Carretera Austral as well as Torres del Paine National Park.
What do I know about Latin America and going beyond the beaten trail?
My name’s Steph, and I’m an English teacher turned travel journalist and guidebook author from the United Kingdom. When I gave up my career and moved to Bolivia in October 2014, I really had no idea what my plan for travelling was; I had a volunteering position lined up with BiblioWorks in Sucre for six months, and then: the world was my oyster.
Fast forward ten years and I’ve lived in four countries in Latin America and spent extended periods of time in many more. I’ve volunteered for educational organisations in Bolivia and Peru where I was interviewed in Spanish on live Bolivian TV, taught English lessons, led biology classes and delivered photography workshops (in Spanish), and overall, discovered how fulfilling spending many months living in a destination could be.
I started Worldly Adventurer back in 2015 and since then, I’ve hiked a lesser-known route to Machu Picchu and through Patagonia’s most famous national park, learned about the remarkable history of the Rapa Nui people on Easter Island, and spent four days sailing into the magical depths of the Patagonian fjords, among many other adventures.
Many of these trips have come about thanks to my role as a guidebook author and travel journalist. I got my break thanks to the UK-based Rough Guides, but have since worked on over a dozen guidebooks including for US publisher Hachette writing a brand new edition of Moon Chile, which saw me traverse the entirety of Chile.
I also write for publications around the globe. I’ve rafted with ex-FARC militants in post-conflict Colombia for CNN Travel, explored how sustainable tourism can be a key preserver of cultural traditions for the South China Morning Post, learned how Medellin is shaking off its image of drugs and violence for Adventure.com, hiked to Machu Picchu along a less-travelled route for The Independent and searched for pumas in Patagonia for JRNY Magazine.
My travels as a journalist, guidebook author and blogger have allowed me to visit some of the furthest corners of Latin America – and made me hungry to travel even deeper into the continent.
Along the way, I’ve become even more convinced that travel can be a means of stemming the tide of xenophobia and bringing sustainable and long-lasting opportunities and money to communities all across the world. Travel when done the right way, can be a tool for good.
These days, it’s not just me writing on the site. I’ve got a handful of contributors who either live in the countries they write about or have spent extended periods of time exploring Latin America and who can offer detailed and personal advice about exploring this incredible continent. You can learn more about them here.
“Steph gave us the information and confidence that allowed us to spend a month visiting Argentina’s Lake District, negotiating the Carretera Austral, and trekking through the beautiful national parks of Chile and Argentina.”
Interested in learning more about me?
If you’re interested in working with Worldly Adventurer, please head to my Work With Me page or browse the articles and narrative pieces that I’ve written as part of my day job as a travel journalist on my Freelance Writing page.