Four Unmissable Free Events in Bristol this Summer

The days are long, the sun is shining and Bristol is awake and ready to party!! 

I genuinely don’t think any Uk city celebrates summer quite as well as Bristol does. It’s not just that there’s always something going on, it’s the fact that so many of the summer events in Bristol are completely free to attend! Whether you’re travelling alone or with family, you’ll always find something to do in Bristol without breaking the bank. There are so many smaller events to stumble upon throughout the summer months, but here are the four biggest events throughout summer in Bristol that you can’t afford to miss!

5 Must See European Destinations to Visit This Summer

European summer is just around the corner, parents are gearing up for sunny half term breaks, and with the long days and warm nights on the horizon, I've found myself looking ahead to sunny weekend city breaks or beach trips. 

Having just had to cancel our cruise this year, I've got absolutely nothing booked and a bit of "blank page" syndrome. There are so many places I would love to re-visit from previous cruises, because one day in port just isn't enough! At the same time, it's a big world out there with lots to explore! If you're in the same boat and looking to book some summer trips, allow me to share a few of my all time favourite destinations to inspire you.

Meet the Sleepy Wiltshire Village that Instagram Destroyed

Castle Combe was a sleepy village in Wiltshire, until a few Instagrammers showed up

Hey Owlets,

After decades of marketing agencies vying for the attention of tourists across the globe, cheap flights and now the power of social media, the days of countries frantically advertising their homeland as a holiday destination are now over for many. In their place sit tourist taxes, “destination management” offices (the new-fangled term for marketing agencies that encourage tourists OUT of their city) and often unfriendly locals. While we’ve been hearing about over-tourism and the dangers around it for years, it feels even more prominent in the post-covid travel boom.

Review: The Drifters Girl at Bristol Hippodrome

Hey Owlets,

This week we were lucky enough to be invited back to the Bristol Hippodrome to watch The Drifters Girl. Featuring all of the biggest hits, you'd be forgiven for assuming that the performance simply tells the tale of The Drifters but you'd be wrong. While The Drifters story is told along the way, the woman propelling them to stardom is the hero of this show.

Moxy, Chester - A Really Honest Review

Hey Owlets,

I know that as a travel blogger I should be excited to try a new brand, and I always am. Am I sometimes a little reluctant to try these new brands? If we’re being totally honest then yes. The whole “once bitten, twice shy” thing definitely applies here, and after a few less-than-great experiences with “millennial-focused” brands I tend to stay clear and wait for someone else to review them first. So when Moxy brought their playful nature and cheeky branding to the UK hotel industry I’ll admit that I was a little slow on the uptake. Having said this, when I was invited to visit Moxy’s Chester location the pages of positive reviews on Trip Advisor filled me with cautious optimism. So, is Moxy the one brand that’s popular with millennials and more than just a gimmick?

What Went Wrong: Cruising Edition

Hey Owlets,

In my last instalment of “What Went Wrong While Travelling” I said I had a huge list of cruise related things to chat about, so I thought we’d make part three into a “What Went Wrong While Cruising”. As with the previous two instalments I’m not saying that what I did was necessarily the best option in that situation, and yes I was an idiot at times. If you’re a more experienced traveller than me then you’re probably thinking I’m an idiot for some of the experiences I’ve shared, but we all have to start somewhere and the only way to learn is by trying your best and making mistakes. Having said that, feel free to have a laugh at my expense!

In Search of the "Cruise Ship Sparkle" Post-Pandemic

Hey Owlets,

If you read my post a few weeks ago you’ll know that I’ve been really struggling to find the motivation with my blog in the last few months. While I started my blog in 2016, it was in 2017 after just one chance encounter and an unplanned cruise got me hooked on travel that The Owlet was really born. For three glorious years I got to travel, see more of what was on my doorstep and what was further afield and I could finally say that I was doing something I loved. So in 2020 when my wings were unexpectedly clipped and I found myself tethered to a two mile radius in a seaside town that no one has ever heard of, I lost my “why”. It’s understandable - when your whole personality revolves around a love of exploring and adventure, a 2 mile radius is never going to be enough to fulfil you - anyway, how do you write about travel if no one is allowed to do it anymore?

One of the things I found hardest was not being able to cruise, so when the opportunity finally came up to be able to get back to doing what I love most I was more than a little surprised to find myself apprehensive. I’ve long spoken about the magic of cruising where everything feels like it’s straight out of a fairytale and you’re the princess. I love being able to make friends with guests and crew and see new places knowing that at the end of the day I get to re-board my floating home and quite literally sail into the sunset for the next destination.

What I've Learnt from 5 Years on the Internet

Hey Owlets,

This February marked 5 years of The Owlet. I know it’s cliche to be like “I never imagined this would happen” but it’s true, I didn’t. I started this blog because I HATED my university and wanted a creative outlet. If I’m honest I didn’t expect anyone to actually read it, I just wanted something to do that wasn’t related to my studies. Now you may have noticed that it’s not February anymore and I’m a solid 4 months late to writing this article, but as I’m sure you can understand, multiple lockdowns kind of got in the way of me feeling creative. Regardless, 2021 is still the 5th year of The Owlet so I wanted to sit down with you and have a bit of a chat. 

I feel like I’ve learnt a lot in the past 5 years, not just about blogging but just more generally about how to be a half-decent human. My family will laugh as I tell you this but I was always well known as the most sensitive of souls growing up - really not the best fit to be a blogger. I would constantly get upset about some keyboard warrior leaving a stupid comment, or I’d accidentally end up in an argument on Twitter because its all too easy to take someone the wrong way and I would try to explain what I meant but it was too late because that person had already decided to take offence. I’ve spoken very openly about my revelation after being in a really bad place back in 2017 but that really was the defining moment. If I’m totally honest, I think it was at that point that I decided I didn’t give a toss what anyone thought of me anymore. 

A Pandemic Hotel Stay: My Experience

Hey Owlets,

I originally wrote this post in November 2020, and I've been holding on for "the right time" to post since then. Now things are starting to open back up I'm desperate to get away for awhile, but I know that not all of you feel the same and you're maybe a little nervous about how travel might look after lockdown. With this in mind I wanted to share my own personal experience from our between-lockdowns trip to give you an idea of what to expect.

 In September we went on a road trip around Devon and Cornwall and during that trip I received a lot of messages asking what it was like to stay in a hotel now, what had changed and if I felt safe. A lot of you mentioned that you wanted to go away but you weren’t sure what to expect, so hopefully sharing my experience will help you to feel more informed about staying in hotels when we’re able to travel again. It goes without saying that this is my experience from before the second lockdown, but I can’t imagine that there’s much more that hotels can change so I still think it’s worth talking about. We stayed at a Premier Inn for our trip - this post isn’t sponsored and we paid for the stay ourselves, but I’m telling you this so that you know my experiences are linked to this specific brand of hotels, because the rules may be slightly different depending on where you choose to stay.

Tenerife in a Day: Top Attractions for Cruise Visitors

Hey Owlets,

Over the years I've been able to visit some incredible ports, and I love nothing better than sharing my highlights with you! In case you missed the previous instalments of my destination guides, I’ve written about what to do in Lisbon, 1 day in Funchal and 24 hours in County Cork. 

Today I want to share some of the must-see attractions and places to visit in Tenerife, from our trip on board Independence of the Seas. As always, this guide is mainly aimed at cruise passengers as I know it can be hard to decide what to do when you only have a single day in port, but all of these suggestions can be used to build a longer itinerary - I particularly recommend travelling to different parts of the island if you’re flying in for a few days. Most cruise ships dock in the island’s capital of Santa Cruz so most recommendations will be accessible and easy to visit on a day trip if you’re based in Santa Cruz. With all of the housekeeping out of the way, let’s get into my recommendations.

Travel Mishaps: Part 2

Hey Owlets,

A while ago I wrote an article called “Travel Mishaps: Everything that Happened” and in that I mentioned that I could’ve gone on for days about other stupid mistakes I’d made. However, not everything that’s happened while travelling was avoidable - either due to lack of experience, lack of knowledge or it was just one of those things. With that in mind, I wanted to make a part two to that article, but this time I want to focus on the things that have gone wrong, so you can have a laugh at my expense but also hopefully learn from them.

Cruising at Christmas: My Experience

Hey Owlets,

If you haven’t been keeping up to date with my Instagram account then you might have missed the spam all about my trip on board Cruise and Maritime Voyages’ MV Columbus. This was a bit of a first for me - both being on board CMV’s flagship and cruising so close to the festive season, arriving back in the UK in the first week of December. It’s one of those times where you aren’t entirely sure whether or not it’s a Christmas trip so I wanted to give you a rundown of my trip to help you.

A Foodie Guide to County Cork

Contains Sponsored Content

Hey Owlets,

When asked to name a few of my favourite trips over the past few years one of the first things to come up is my cruise to County Cork. It wasn’t just the cruise itself, but the areas of the county that we visited, the brilliant independent retailers, the kindness and willingness of complete strangers to make sure we enjoyed our trip, and the food of course. County Cork is known for being a very foodie place to visit and it didn’t disappoint! We went for the cruise and stayed for the food! Fair warning, I hadn’t yet gone gluten free when we took this trip, so be prepared to hate me when I talk about the farmers market sandwich we had, because I’m jealous of my past self too.

Travel Mishaps: Everything that Happened

Hey Owlets,

It’s fair to say that over the last few years I’ve come a long way from being a totally clueless 20-year-old. I’ve been fortunate enough to clock up a lot of miles travelled over the last few years, and during this time I’ve also learnt a lot. Having said that, it took a lot of trying my best and in all honesty a lot of stupid situations and me putting my foot in my mouth! I feel like we all need a bit of a laugh right now, so here’s some of the stupid things that have made me laugh, made me want the floor to swallow me up, or just stuck in my mind over the past few years.

Goodbye Cruise and Maritime Voyages

Hey Owlets,

Cruise and Maritime Voyages was a cruise line with a cult following - every cruise line has their fans, but only a few rise to the level of having online groups dedicated to the cruise line, with friends being made online and met on board, rather than the other way around. 

CMV were the ultimate impossible cruise line, offering a no-frills service on older cruise ships in an industry that was all about over the top decadence and indulging in experiences that were totally unnecessary on ships that overflow with state of the art technology. The ships were basic but beautiful and the entertainment schedule was limited, but somehow just lying on a sun bed watching the waves was enough on their ships. Rather than being handed a jam-packed schedule every day, trying desperately to cram everything in and needing a holiday after your holiday, CMV ships were the place that you learned to let go and relax, or make your own entertainment. 

5 Places on my Bucket List Post-Covid

Hey Owlets,

I feel like throughout lockdown I've been talking about how to get through every day, making the most of your time & trying to see some positives in difficult situations. However, I feel like (for now at least) there's a bit of a light at the end of the tunnel, and with travel starting to open up again I wanted to talk about the places that will be top of my list as soon as it's safe to go exploring again.

Cruise and Maritime Voyages MV Columbus: A Review

Update: I originally wrote this article in February 2020 and it was due to be published at the end of March. Due to lockdown I delayed publishing the article and now CMV have sadly gone into administration. However, when I asked on Twitter a lot of you said you would still enjoy reading the review so I decided to publish it regardless.
Hey Owlets,

Yes, I’ve been on another cruise and yes, I might actually be addicted to cruise ships (if that’s possible!) but another trip means I have another cruise ship review for you, and today I want to talk to you about Cruise and Maritime Voyages’ (CMV) MV Columbus. I originally tried out CMV on a 3 day cruise to Ireland aboard MV Marco Polo.

Mv Columbus is the current flagship of the fleet and the biggest ship they own. CMV are a budget cruise line and buy ships from other cruise lines rather than building their own, which means each ship has it’s own unique personality; Columbus was built for P&O Australia which makes her a unique addition as she still has the “P&O-ness” - if you’ve been on P&O before you have to keep reminding yourself who you’re sailing with!

Despite being over 30 years old Columbus doesn’t really show her age. Unlike other older ships that I’ve been on CMV have clearly put the work in to make sure that she’s well maintained and continues to be an asset to the fleet. There are a few places where her age is starting to show (there is the odd rusty, leaking pipe around) but it’s to be expected when she’s spent 3 decades being battered by waves and salt-water spray - even relatively new cars rot if they’re exposed to salt/salt water on a regular basis. 

Follow Me To: My Lockdown Birthday

Hey Owlets,

In case you didn't see my previous post where I pretty much had a meltdown about feeling old, it was my birthday last week. I know I'm not the only person that had a birthday in lockdown, but it's one of those weird situations that not everyone has experienced, so I got a lot of questions about what it was like. So many, in fact, that I thought I'd go back to "old Owlet" style with a follow me to post. It feels weird writing one of these, but the whole world is weird right now so I feel like that makes it OK.

I can't lie, I was dreading my birthday this year - partly because the thought of being in my mid-twenties was terrifying, but also because I was prepared for a lockdown birthday to be totally miserable. From the start of lockdown I was hoping the world would pick up on my thoughts and ease lockdown before my birthday - it kind of happened, but not really. I'd pretty much decided that I was going to cancel my birthday and have another year of being 23, but the boyfriend talked me into accepting my fate, and between him and my parents they were determined to make it special.

Lockdown from the Perspective of a Travel Blogger

Hey Owlets,

At the beginning of 2020 I sat down to start planning out my year. It's something I've tentatively done before, but this year was going to be the big exciting one. I've been fortunate that in the last year my blog has really taken off and I've started being invited to some incredible trips which meant I actually needed to plan what I was doing, where I was going and when. 2020 was going to be an incredible year for me - I had some amazing collaborations lined up and it was looking like, after my first international press trip last July, I was going to be going on a few more this year to places I'd not had chance to visit before so I was going to be able to bring you some really unique content. Then Coronavirus happened.

In the blogging world people have switched from reviews and destination guides to articles on what to do at home and tips to help your mental health, which is great, but for someone who's completely and utterly travel obsessed, it's hard to write something that you don't get excited to talk about. The one massive taboo that seems to have been introduced, however, is that travel bloggers should absolutely under no circumstances talk about how the lockdown has affected them and their blog as a job, so guess what I'm doing?

Why You Need to Travel Solo (at least once)

Travelling is one of the best opportunities you can hope to experience in life, and it truly does have the power to change your life. You may have been lucky enough to grow up travelling to different countries or to book holidays with your friends when you got a little older, but neither of those experiences can compare to what you feel when you travel on your own.

Travelling solo is one of those terrifying prospects that you’ve been put off of doing, probably by your parents who are terrified something bad might happen when you don’t have anyone to back you up (or is that just my Mum?). Yes the thought of it is terrifying, but the reality is that it’s one of the most incredible feelings you could ever experience and will teach you more than travelling with friends or family ever could. I’m assuming I’ll probably need to convince you, so here’s why you should travel solo at least once.