Hi, I’m Zoe. Welcome to Zo Around The World!

Here’s a bit about me:

I’m originally from Derby, a small city in the UK. Until I turned 18, I could count how many countries I had been to on one hand. I’ve now travelled to over 50 countries in 6 continents around the world.

I graduated with a degree in Geography in 2012. I have always had a passion for studying the world; people, places and the environment.

After a month inter-railing around Europe I caught the travel bug and I was soon planning a big trip around the world.

After 1 year of saving money working 4 jobs in Derby, I had saved just enough money to leave home. In that year, as well as spending every waking moment that I wasn’t working planning and over-preparing for the trip, I also met my wonderful boyfriend (now husband) Shaun. He also wanted to travel long term; and off we went.

In this first trip together we travelled for 12 months, spending a large part of it working in Australia and we also travelled around large parts of Asia and Australasia travelling on a very tight budget, which you can read all about in this blog.

Luckily, despite not knowing each other for very long at all, Shaun and I quickly became the perfect travel team; with me being the over-organised one who plans it all, and Shaun handling the logistics of successfully getting from A-B when we are on the road.

In 2015, we then moved to London together, where we spent 3 years working hard saving money, but we also managed to fit in some amazing budget holidays around Europe and Morocco. After 3 years, we left our jobs and our flat in London and jumped back in to long term travel again , we had no time constraints and ended up being away for over 12 months. This trip was our biggest yet – we visited 20 countries across South America, Asia, The Caucasus and Europe.

We then decided to move back home to Derbyshire, where we bought a house and both got jobs. I also embarked on a Masters degree. For the following few years, the covid 19 pandemic slowed down any travels for a bit, but we still managed some great trips closer to home including Poland, The Baltics, Italy, Malta, and Iceland.

Then in 2023, after 10 years together, we got married ♥️

What next?

At age 32, we sold our house, and have decided it’s time for our next long term backpacking trip! 🌎