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 environments.

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.

In February 2018 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.

This trip took us from the beaches of Brazil to the chilly southern tip of Patagonia, to the mountains of the Andes and back up to the beaches of Colombia. After 5 months in South America we travelled to Asia; a continent I fell in love with on our last big trip and had been dreaming of returning to ever since. We spent 6 months in Asia before heading to the incredible Caucasus region and then returning home.

Patagonia, March 2018

In 2020, we bought a house back home in Derbyshire. 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.

In 2023, after 10 years together, we got married ♥️

Then, we put our house up for sale, and decided it’s time for our next long term backpacking trip! 🌎

Iceland, April 2023