An unforgettable 3 weeks in Morocco, a place which left me with a love-hate feeling..
We flew into Marrakech from Barcelona & started our trip staying at Le Riad Yasmine which is a stunning little riad just outside of the hustle and bustle of the main Souk.
First morning began perfectly- breakfast by the poolside.
We then went to explore the hot and humid streets of Marrakech, we were previously warned of some of the locals in the Souk, and we quickly understood what they meant, approached and hassled, and something I had never experienced in another culture was the aggressive sales approach, if we told them we weren’t interested in their restaurant they would follow us up the street and then say “Fuck you”. I never really felt unsafe or threaten, it was actually rather funny. We learnt quickly just to ignore them and carry on our way.
Although this cultural experience Marrakech was still so interesting and I would never encourage anyone not to visit, but its nice to go prepared!
The stalls are filled with beautiful rugs, lanterns & ancient treasures, I wanted to buy it all! But when you are living out of a backpack that already weighs far too much, its just impossible 🙁
Here’s a quick run down of our itinerary;
We spent 4 nights in Marrakech around the Souk area, we then hired a car and drove to Ait Ben Haddou an ancient town half way to the Sahara, we spent the night at a quiet B&B and had the BEST dinner on the rooftop, the owner was an older Moroccan man who was SO sweet. The b&b is called Riad Tamdakhte Guest House, we came and stayed again on our way back because we had such an enjoyable visit! Next stop was the Sahara desert, we went to merzouga region and spent 3 nights under the stars, the first camp we stayed at was called Sara & Ali’s desert camp, and the second was Kam Kam Dunes.
We drove back to Marrakech for a couple of nights but stayed out of town at Aman Jena, This was a little oasis just outside of the busy Marrakech, I really loved this resort, we had a huge villa & felt like you had the resort to yourself. Next we took a drive out to the coastal town of Essaouira, really we took the drive out there for the night to see the Goats in the tree, which we sadly didn’t get to see 🙁 next time maybe, if you don’t know what I’m talking about, google it, so funny!
We than took an overnight sleeper train to tangier- spent a night, & then caught a bus to Chefchouan – blue Pearl of Morocco..
We spent 3 nights in Chefchouan, which I believe was probably too long.. it is incredibly unique, but I admit by this stage I was a bit done with Morocco for now!
Lastly catching an overnight train back to Marrakech to fly out.
I left feeling like it was one of those incredible places I’ve been and done and don’t need to return. but a year later here i am finishing this blog off thinking to myself.. id love to go back soon.. 😉
Here’s a collection of out Morocco images, some unseen..

Most outfits by Faithfull, Shop via this link

The much awaited Philippines blog, I’ve put together as much information, as I seen such a demand for this blog from you all!
I know my Instagram doesn’t always give away as much information as you would all like, I guess I want my blog to have a bit of a point of difference to my Instagram, and by going into more detail over here gives those who really follow and are interested the chance to learn more about my trips, and to help them plan! I actually don’t do much research before my trips, so I guess they are always a bit of an adventure this way, but we sure run into bumps along the way!
Comment below any suggestions and what you think of this blog, its always nice to get some feedback!
My first suggestion for the Philippines would be to have some idea of when you want to go, and where, this way you can plan out your flights and ferries beforehand, as getting from island to island can be a bit of a whirlwind.
We were of course so last minute, and found we would be flying here there and everywhere because flights had sold out.
We always use Skyscanner to book our flights, I choose this site because it compares so many different airlines and bookings sites to get the best prices and options, its also super easy to use & I’ve never had issues booking through any of the third party sites.
First Stop is the Island of Cebu; We flew from Manila to Cebu city, from there we got a private mini van at the airport down to Moalboal, this took 4 hours- I suggest eating something at the airport before the drive, we couldn’t find anything along the way HA, ended up stopping at some shopping centre and eating fruit because all the food options there just weren’t very appetising! I was joined by Jack, my twin; Els her partner Alex and then met up with our good friends Hayley, Kyle & Lee for a week to explore Cebu together.
We spent a few nights here to visit Kawasan Falls and the coastline. We found a place to stay on booking.com, which was a little self contained house, 2 bedrooms, which was incredibly cheap, and allowed us to cook our own meals, which we fast learnt was going to be the best option in this area, travelling with a vegan (elsa) Vegetarian (meee) and a bunch of fussy healthier food addicts this was so much better than trying to eat out here. Lets just say the options were not endless unless your into sugar filled bread, fried chicken & strange americanised fast foods… But hey the mangoes in the Philippines made up for this lack of food options 😛
I guess I’ve travelled to a lot of parts of Asia, and one of the highlights is usually the incredibly tasty local cuisine, Philippines certainly lack this, due to the colonisation by Spain in 1565, and then shortly after became ruled by the United States in 1898, someone told me this is what had affected the food culture.
We rented scooters from our accomodation to get around, but driving in the Philippines was pretty crazy, so be super careful, and if you’re not experienced maybe just catch the tuk-tuks, they are so cheap and accessible.
On the way to the waterfall one of the mornings Jack and I seen a really crazy accident, and we don’t know if anyone was killed, but all 3 people affected were not wearing helmets, and all I could think was that if they were wearing helmets this would have been a totally different scenario, it was such a wake up. Unfortunately helmets just aren’t really a thing in the Philippines yet, and it was actually such a challenge to even hire them at times.
Whilst in Moalboal we visited Kawasan Falls twice, both mornings and during the day we explored the different beaches along the coast. You can also do Canyoning there but this didn’t really interest any of us.
We were quiet happy spending our days sipping coconuts on the beach and working on the tans 😛
Next we organised another private van around to Oslob and spent a few nights here, we hired a house on Airbnb, which I probably wouldn’t recommend doing this, it was like we were in someones old grandmas house, it was old and creepy, and had cockroaches crawling around at night, it also wasn’t really cheap, there was 7 of us staying there, but I would certainly suggest a hotel, not Airbnb in this area anyway.. There was one good thing about this accomodation, the cutest puppies lived there!!
The first day we went searching for a place to eat and shop for food, there wasn’t any good supermarkets around, but we did find a market where we were able to buy loads of fruit and veg, to cook our own dinners and breakfast, for lunch we found 2 good places that made wood fired pizza, nothing overly special, don’t be expecting some Italian quality, but when the options are so poor your expectations surely are lowered. (if you like pizza, they have this in the Philippines) One place was called La terrasse – Chez Tonton, the other was a restaurants at Cebu Club Fort Med, this could be a good option to stay here.
That afternoon we went to a nearby waterfall, it was pretty late and low light, but so magical- this is called Tumalog Falls.
The following day we spent the morning swimming with Whale sharks, it was the most incredible experience ever!
When we got there we seen loads of tourists and thought oh my this is not what I expected and going to be a total nightmare!
We rented our own private boat for our swim, when we got out there we weren’t near other boats and felt like we pretty well had the experience to ourselves, the Whale Sharks are such gentle giants, and it certainly took a while to get comfortable with how big they were. I’ve been told in other seasons there is a far more natural way to experience this when they are doing their natural migration, and I would highly recommend trying to do this if you can, this would certainly have been our preferred choice, and if I were to go back I would make sure I am there in the right season to see them naturally.
Again more research before the trip could have answered these questions for us! haha

Next island stop.. The island of Siargao (my favourite island out of all visited heres why..)
To get here was a bit of a challenge, so firstly we took a private van to Cebu city, which was 5 hour drive this time, then we flew from Cebu city to Manila, we decided to spent the night in Manila as it was valentines and felt like treating ourselves to a lovely city hotel, so we could have a night in with room service and a candle-lit bath! Jack surprised me with roses & treats 🙂
The following day we then took another flight to Siargao, at the airport our hotel was waiting and it was a 1 hour drive to where we were staying, I think the best and only region I would suggest staying is General Luna, this is where all the accomodation and restaurants are.
We stayed at Siargao Bleu Resort, which was clean and nice, id recommend this, it also had a small gym which was a little bonus!
Places to eat: Okay so finallllyyy some good food was found, because this island is one of the renowned surf breaks of the world, there is a great vibe and some cafes and restaurants with vegetarian and vegan options, almost felt like a little taste of being back in Bali!
First day we went to Shaka for a bowl as this was recommended to els, turns out this place is actually owned by someone from my hometown which is really awesome and made me love it that much more!
Another place we ate at that els was invited to was Yoga Dojo at lotus Shores, which had so many vegan options, in fact I am 95% sure its completely vegan! Lots of Indian inspired meals, I certainly recommend this place, its apart of a hotel/yoga retreat and was down some bumpy and flooded road which was a bit of a pain.
Next was Arkahayahay resort which did the besttt dragonfruit bowls, so thick and frozen!
and finally Harana surf resort, which is where we originally booked to stay but they cancelled due to over bookings.
This was just next door to our hotel and had so many veg and vegan options, we went here every night and it had such a nice vibe, the banana hart curry was my fav! (I think thats what it was called)
Anyway, getting on with the Island, Well we didn’t plan this one out too much and as we arrived and with a little google research found that we had come in their off season, rain and wind, damnnn, as soon as we arrived it was already raining, but I straight away knew this island was SO beautiful, absolutely covered in Palm tree and the most gorgeous coastlines, the mix of this, the surf laid back culture and good eats, this island straight away glued with me! We had two days cruising around the island and exploring, no sunshine and I was about to loose hope.. on our last full day we woke up to some hope! some blue sky poking through, we had agreed we were going to get a boat to the nearby small islands regardless of the weather, but luckily enough we had almost a full day of sunshine, so we sure made the most of it and visited naked island and surroundings. Even though it was a bit windy and the weather was a bit hit and miss I had the best day and was amazed at how beautiful this place was regardless of the imperfect weather.
The water was the most insane colour, we snapped sooo many photos this day, and this is where most of my Philippines content came from, this one day!

Lastly, Palawan- El nido. To get here we flew from Siargao to Cebu, Cebu to Manila, Manila to Puerto Princess- Palawan, then we took around a 5 hour mini van ride up to El Nido town.. long journey right..
First night we had greek food & margaritas on the beach, there was far more of a restaurant scene here in El nido, I guess being one of the most common tourist destinations it has a bit more there then the small towns we visited in Cebu.
We organised our own private boat ride for the following day to visit the islands of El Nido, this costs us around $200AUD don’t quote me on that though.. they took us to 4 spots & made us the yummiest veg lunch spread that we requested! We just found one of the many tour shops along the road, we went with one called HANNAH tours.
Some of the places visited were; Secret Lagoon, Big Lagoon, Snake Island, Shimizu Island, 7 Commando Beach, Pinagbuyutan Island, and Entalula Beach.
We took a private boat out 2 of our 3 full days, the other day we had our driver take us to Nacpan Beach which was around a 30-45 minute drive.
We stayed at Bayview Resort El Nido which is a brand new resort which was still under construction while we were staying, its around a 5 minute drive out of town and we were able to rent scooters from reception.
Favourite places to eat in El Nido; Trattoria altrove- this is a must if you like Italian, every night there was ques down the road to get in.. they also have a sister restaurant that is much more casual and only does pizzas, which is never as busy, we went there one night for pizzas because we couldn’t be bothered waiting for a table when we were only going to be ordering pizzas!
Also if you’re into falafels, on the main strip there is a little takeaway falafel shop that makes a tasty falafel pocket/gyro, i’d recommend this for a quick and cheap meal, so yum!

Some of these pictures I’ve taken from my sister – @elsas_wholesomelife
Please leave any comments or suggestions about my Philippines blog!
Travelled with our friends (all linked here)- the obvious ones Jack @DoyouTravel, Ellie @elsas_wholesomelife, and also joined by – Alex @Alexwatson, Hayley @Haylsa, Kyle @Kyle_Hunter, Lee @lee.vs.world

Abu Dhabi tourism brought us to the desert city for 3 days of exploring.
We flew in with Etihad directly Via Nairobi, Kenya.
The first day we took a 2 hour drive to the island of Sir Bani Yas and stayed at Anatara Beach Villas, this island has 3 resorts by Anatara & is renowned for its animals brought to the island.
We did a sunset Safari & learnt about the work they were doing with animals here on the island, what I found the most fascinating was that they had reintroduced an extinct species back to the wild due to their breeding programs on the island.
Heres a link that explains more
It was a beautiful sunset and we got so up close with the two brother cheetahs.
The following morning we watched the sunrise from the ocean right in front of our villa before an early breakfast and transfer back to the mainland to head back to the city before lunch.
We checked into the Ritz Carlton with a beautiful suite overlooking the Grand Mosque. For sunset we headed to Shangri La, where we had tea, shisha and the most unreal spot to watch the sunset behind the Mosque.
Dinner that night was back at the Ritz Carlton at their middle eastern restaurant- Mijana.
Day 3 was a busy one- we started the day off with a visit to the Grand Mosque, this is obviously a must do when visiting Abu Dhabi.
All girls have to be completely covered up, and thats why I wore the full covered dress, not even your hair is allowed to be out in your face, which I struggled with when taking photos!
After lunch we took a 2 hour drive out to the desert, to Qasr Al Arab resort, this resort is SO incredible, if I go back I will certainly be spending a night or two out there, surrounded by the most beautiful sand dunes, it looks like an old desert village nestled in the dunes.
We stayed out at the desert and resort until after sunset, we were had our driver just take us around to spots that we pointed out, we’ve done the camel rides for sunset in other parts of the world, and found most the time we’ve missed the best of the sunset on an uncomfortable camel back rather than out on the dunes to enjoy it.
And finally our last day here, we headed to the Jalboot office where we met all the team before heading of on our private boat ride to Zaya Nurai Island, which is a 5 star resort island around 30 minutes from Abu Dhabi.
On arrival to the island we checked out some of the villas before spending the day at Smokey Pineapple beach bar, this place was so much fun, so much to do, and so many photo opportunities, only thing that could have made it better would be staying a few days at this resort so we could relax and take beautiful photos in the dreamy afternoon light that Abu Dhabi has.
We had fresh wood fired pizzas, some mocktails and spent the day on the jet skis, over water swings, wave rider & by the pool.
When we got back to The Ritz Carlton they had us booked in for a spa treatment, this was one of the best massages I’ve had!
We quickly rushed to the Grand Mosque for one last sunset visit before it was time to head to the airport.
highlights for me; Zaya Nurai Island resort, Qsar Al Arab Resort (desert) & the Grand Mosque.

In January we spontaneously decided to come explore Cambodia, Jacks 3rd time here and my first! We flew to Singapore & were planning to head to some Islands on the east coast of Malaysia, but after a quick last minute research we found that it was the worst time of year to visit, and there was actually no ferries or any resorts even open- oops! So then we had a few options in the air on places to visit in January and Cambodia took the win!
We arrived to Siem Reap via Bangkok & spent 3 days visiting the Temples of Angkor although we didn’t have the best weather for the first few days with unseasonal rain, but this gave us more time to sit in our hideout – Vibe Cafe, a vegan cafe hidden in the streets of Siem Reap. If you’re like me & always on the hunt for good quality healthy eating when travelling than this place is for you! Travelling so often I really have to do my best to eat as well as possible, I love to try local foods, and if I was on just a 2 week holiday of course I would indulge a little more on local foods!
The menu at Vibe cafe has a great range of options; acai bowls, Avo toast, salad & Tempe bowls etc, the smoothies are SO good & also have cold pressed juice. One of the owners met with us and explained how his sister was a nutritionist so therefore all meals were a balanced portion, the food is super filling & makes you feel amazinggg! 
We also found a local gym- Angkor muscle gym! Costs $1 to enter, and is a fully equipped gym, it’s very local and a bit old and sweaty in there but hey that’s half the fun of it! Also something I’ve never seen was paying per 10 minutes on the treadmill, it was 50c per 10 min, I did notice I was the only one using the treadmills!!
We spent only the early mornings exploring Angkor Wat and surrounding temples, as soon as the sun rises the crowds of tourists flock.

Next stop was Battambang, we took a private taxi here, there is also the option for a bus which is around $6USD, Private taxi costs us $25USD. We mainly went to Battambang to check out some small villages and get footage of children for the video we are making. The locals in the villages were so friendly and welcoming, even if the only words understood were hello.
A visit to battambang isn’t complete without going to see the thousands of bats that pour out of the cave at sunset everyday.
Also as many of you know, I’m always on the hunt for good vegetarian food- and I found an absolute gem in Battambang, Jaan Bai! We got to visit twice, I was so obsessed!! The mushroom dumplings…. mmm.
Always booking with Skyscanner!


Next up on our trip was a little stop in luxury- Song Saa Resort.
We flew from Siem Reap to Sihanoukville & were transferred to the private island of the island of Koh Rong. We spent 2 nights here in an over water villa, although it’s a 5 star luxury resort they have some incredible projects that we learnt about, and pride themselves on their sustainability. It really is a unique property!
We got to visit the local village where majority of the staff are from which is pictured below along with the resort;
Last stop- Koh Rong
The next two nights we spent on Koh Rong Island, on long beach.
The whitest sand I’ve seen in south east asia, and beautiful clear, clean water.
Perfect way to end our time in Cambodia. 

Recently we visited India with the Beautiful Destinations team & ITC hotels.
For a quick 1 week trip we visited the Golden Triangle of India.
Places visited included; Delhi, Jaipur & Agra
From sunrise at the Taj Mahal, Sunset above Jaipur, Indian Mock weddings, Holli Festival, sunrise on top of the spice market of Delhi.
It was one of the most memorable trips; being surrounded by so many talented & inspirational influencers (all linked at the bottom of blog)
Unseen and new india images below; leave a comment if you have any Q’s

“You’ll Never Know Until You Go..”

For a little more insight into the trip & what was created watch this video by @TaylorCutFilms
Influencers that joined me for a week in India;
Jack Morris (Of course)
Tara Whiteman
Alyssa Lynch
Jordan Wright
Sam Kolder
Aspyn Ovard
Parker Ferris
Nataly Osmann
Murad Osmann
Jacob Riglin
James Relfdyer
Jeremy Jauncey
Tom Jauncey
Callum Snape
Alex Stead
Nathan Henry (Canon_Photos)
Eleanor Calder
Max Hurd
 
 

After Fiji jack invited me to come hang out and explore Bali & Lombok together, this is what we got up to, and where we found love ❥ ^_^

 

April 2016