What’s happening?

Welcome back and welcome to some new faces!

As promised on Instagram, let me fill you in on what’s happening over the next few months.

Are you ready?

I’ll be back on the road this week… 🌎

On Thursday, I fly to Chicago to drive down 9 hours to Tennessee with some of my American friends I taught with in Thailand. I cannot wait to see them and stand beside my best friend who is getting married on Sunday! 👰‍♀️

On the following Monday, I fly to Medellin in Colombia. This will be my first time in South America, after many years roaming South East Asia, and I’m a little nervous, but also excited.

I will be completing a volunteering experience and learning Spanish with Worldpackers and if you also want to travel on a budget and exchange your skills for food and accommodation, I would recommend signing up. I even have a discount code evsadventures for $10 off your yearly plan.

At the end of October, I come back to Ireland, to then fly to Nepal, where I’m joining a group trip with Trip Legend - the guys I’m running my group trips to Kyrgyzstan and Sri Lanka with in 2024. I can’t wait to see how they operate and share my experience with them!

Thennnnn, some time at the end of November, I hope to explore India with a friend… pending.

And in December, I plan to fly to Thailand, a place that feels like home, and spend about 6 weeks there before going to Georgia in January.

And after Georgia, it’s either Ireland or back to Thailand or somewhere else, before the Sri Lanka group trip on March 24th!

I’m actually tired after typing all of that out… lol

Something useful: my favourite apps

I want to share with you some of my favourite apps that I use when I travel:

• Booking.com for all my accommodation needs or at least to compare pricing and see what’s in the market - I’m a Genius 3 level and I get quite good discounts on all my bookings

• Worldpackers to find volunteering experiences and pretty much travel for free! I’m so excited to be completing a volunteer experience in COLOMBIA in a week or so 🎉 (use code evsadventures to get $10 off your yearly plan)

• SafetyWing for travel insurance - I recently paid $14 to get insured for a few days in America. The beauty of SafetyWing is that you decide how long you want to get insured for OR just take out insurance, pay for it monthly and cancel at any time if you don’t have a concrete travel plan

• Skyscanner.com for searching for new routes, best priced flights and different options for flying between different countries - this is how I managed to bag flights from Knock (lol) to Kathmandu in Nepal in November for €331 (I bought them on Kiwi.com which I usually would not recommend doing, but sometimes the savings are worth the risk - more on this in another newsletter)

• Grab and Bolt for all my transport needs in SE Asia and I recently used Bolt in the UK too - it’s easy and great value

• Revolut and Wise for the best exchange rates and easy money management

• GetYourGuide to get inspiration for different experiences all around the world or to book walking tours, boat tours and entrance tickets to a variety of attractions

• Maps.me for an offline map of the entire region / country I’m going to, which can be downloaded prior to visiting

• Polarsteps as a diary of my travels - it tracks your locations, suggests stops you can add to your map and allows you to add text, photos and have an overview of everywhere you have visited, plus you can follow others’ journeys on it

• Lightroom for editing photos - it’s free on mobile

• CapCut for editing videos - I recently started using this, and it’s so good!

• NomadWallet and more recently, StephMyLife’s Vault app for tracking spending - but any app to track your expenses is GREAT as you have an overview of different categories and where your money goes

• Google Translate, especially its camera translate feature to speak to locals, order food, translate menus and everything in between

Where I’m working from today

I’m back home from a weekend in Graiguenamanagh with people I have met on Instagram (I discussed the things I love and dislike about Instagram in my last newsletter and this is one thing I LOVE - community).

Today, we hung up one of my photos in a big frame and it feels so surreal that a travel photo of mine hangs in my home. Here’s Mount Bromo in Indonesia in my kitchen ⬇️

It’s hard to see, so here’s the actual photo. This was one of the most magical mornings everrrrrr. 🌋 

Some inspiration

I LIVE by this.

Scared to do something? Just go for it, because nothing great happens inside your comfort zone.

Wondering if you’re making the right decision? Just go for it, because nothing great happens inside your comfort zone.

It’s scary to step outside your comfort zone, but I promise you, life becomes great when you do.

How to do this? Say yes to everything and everyone (within reason).

What’s coming next?

In the next newsletter, I’d love to share more about my group trips and give you some useful travel tips.

If there is anything you’ve been wondering or would love to learn from me, I’m always open to your suggestions and questions, just hit reply and let me know.

Some things you may be interested in

My group trips in 2024 will be to Sri Lanka and Kyrgyzstan (what a f*n adventure!!!), if you’d like to join or see the itineraries, click here for Sri Lanka (limited spots left) and here for Kyrgyzstan.

If you’re interested in becoming a TEFL teacher and earning money online or moving to Thailand (like me in 2021) or somewhere else in Europe/Asia, check out the courses and internships on tefl.ie and use code EV16 for 16% off any course/internship.

And just a note, some of the links in this email are affiliate links, which help me earn a little bit of money at no cost to you. If you enjoy my recommendations or simply want to support me, click on those bad boys.

Thank you, thank you, thank you for reading, subscribing and following!

Ev x