Hi, everyone, and welcome to my new travel blog – fast-paced travel. My name is Lauren and I’m excited to have you join me on this new adventure!
This blog has been a long time in the making. Ever since I started travelling more regularly and travel, particularly city break travel, became a serious hobby for me, I’ve wanted to set up my own little corner of the Internet to share my travel stories and tips. The problem was that there are thousands of travel blogs out there, and it took me a while to work out exactly what I could bring to the virtual table.
It was only as my sister and I started full-time jobs and I started reflecting on how fantastic it is that we managed to fit so many holidays into our annual schedule while holding down a 9-to-5 job (well, to be honest, the 9-to-5 part is more my sister, but since we always travel as a family, my point still stands) that my ‘why’ for starting this blog came to me.
I want to share my tips and tricks for living the traveller lifestyle while holding down a full-time job.
Our approach to travel is certainly not for everyone: it involves a lot of mad Friday night dashes to the airport, a lot of running around (well, not literally, but you get the idea) a European city on a Saturday trying to check off all the must-see sights on our list, and a lot of post-midnight arrivals back home on a Sunday, just in time for work on Monday morning.
I often sit at my desk on a Monday and wonder if the whirlwind weekend in Barcelona, Berlin, or Budapest was merely a dream. But one thing I never do is regret making the trip to see these amazing places.
So, if you, like me, dream of getting out there and seeing more of the world, but you’re not quite made for life on the road full-time, this is the blog for you.
Here, I’ll be sharing all my best tips for packing as much as you can into a weekend break. I’ll also be posting detailed destination guides and 1-day, 2-day, and 3-day itineraries for some of the most popular tourist destinations in Europe.
But, before we get to those tips, I thought I’d use this first post to introduce myself and to share a little bit more about the type of content you can expect to see here moving forward.
Hi! I’m Lauren and I’m a travel enthusiast
Although I only starting travelling beyond your typical summer beach holiday in 2018, holidays have been a highlight of my year since I was little.
As a kid, my parents always took my sister abroad on holiday twice a year: once to Mallorca and once to Disneyland Paris. We made so many core memories on those family trips that I will cherish forever, from chasing my sister around a lighthouse in C’an Picafort to getting to open the park with Mickey Mouse at Disneyland Paris.
We ventured beyond those destinations over the years, taking our first transatlantic trip to Walt Disney World in Florida in 2009 and varying our beach holiday destination by visiting Gran Canaria in 2007 and mainland Spain in 2008. But it was in 2018 where we really took our travel plans to the next level.
In February 2018, after seeing how much I was enjoying learning to speak Spanish at school, my parents decided to book a city break to Seville. And I have to say, what a first city break it was! To this day, Seville remains my favourite European city to visit. Those three days spent admiring the intricacy of the architecture of La Giralda, the grandeur of the Plaza de España, and the expanse of luscious gardens at the Royal Alcazar opened my eyes to a whole new type of travel experience: the weekend city break.
Since 2018, I’ve been lucky enough to travel to most of Europe’s best city-break destinations, focusing particularly on Spanish and Italian cities. And I don’t plan on stopping any time soon. Not only that, but I’ve continued to travel to Walt Disney World and Disneyland Paris on a fairly regular basis. Basically, I’ve been gradually building my travel portfolio.
And, in case you were wondering, between all that travelling, I graduated from university twice with a bachelor’s degree in Spanish and Italian and a Masters degree in translation. Since then, I’ve set up my own business and work as a freelance translator and tutor (shameless plug, but if you happen to be reading this and require either of these services, head to my other website, Lauren Campbell Translation).
Why Fast-Paced Travel?
One thing I wanted to briefly discuss in my first post was the inspiration behind the name of this blog because, trust me, it took me a long time to come up with an idea I actually liked after sleeping on it.
So, as you might have gathered already, I’ve become quite the expert when it comes to packing as many must-see attractions as realistically possible into a 1 or 2-day city break itinerary. In other words, I guess you could say I travel at a fast pace.
And, thus, the name Fast-Paced Travel was born.
What content will I be posting?
I plan to cover three main types of travel on this blog:
- City break travel
- Disney travel (mainly Walt Disney World and Disneyland Paris)
- UK travel
Since I have quite a backlog of cities I’ve already visited that I’d like to write about in here, you can expect the city break content to be coming thick and fast. This will include detailed city guides, hotel and restaurant reviews, transport guides and 1, 2, and 3-day itineraries.
My aim is for you to be able to find all the information you could possibly need before visiting a destination on my site, so throughout my various posts about a city, you can expect to find detailed practical information and tips on visiting the city, including everything important I learned in my pre-trip research and the things that I wish I’d read up on in advance.
My Disney posts will be presented in a similar style. With the ever-expanding roster of attractions, restaurants, and hotels and the ever-changing in-park systems at Disney resorts across the globe, it’s more important than ever for first-time visitors (and those who have not been to the parks in a while) to do some pre-trip planning. That’s why I’ll be gradually building up the library of Disney parks content available on this blog, including in-depth park guides, attraction, restaurant, and hotel reviews and a variety of itineraries to help you plan your perfect Disney park day.
And, for those of you who, like me, have also developed an interest in learning about the fascinating stories behind your favourite Disney rides, I’ll also be throwing a few Disney history and attraction backstory posts into the mix. To be honest, this part of the site will act as a little passion project of mine. And, don’t worry, for those of you not interested in this type of content, the majority of my Disney content will be tips-based.
These two types of travel will be the topic of the majority of my posts here, but occasionally, I will be sharing my tips for travelling around my home country, the UK.
My aim is to post new articles here twice a week, on Mondays and Fridays. So, that is to say, expect to see my first proper travel post tomorrow!
In between posts, you can follow my travel adventures in real time over on Instagram.
That’s just about it for today’s post. If you’re still reading, thank you for taking the time to read my first post, and I hope to see you back here soon.
Lauren