Click here for the top things to do at Shark Bay Western Australia in a 2WD. There are some great activities in Shark Bay for you to experience the best of what this World Heritage Site has to offer. It's a must see on your Western Australia road trip! #sharkbay #sharkbaywa #shellbeach #hamelinpool #eaglebluff #westernaustralia #roadtripaustralia

About

Hi guys! Thanks for stopping by Escapes Etc! I’m Laura and this is my partner Tom. We’re an incredibly normal couple who simply love to travel and have mastered the art of finding low cost, high-value travel experiences. We wheedle out what is really worth doing to help people travel further for longer.

From staycations to around the world trips, I have seen over 25 countries, left Tom at home to backpack around the world with my best friend and later spent 2 years in Australia on a working holiday (I took Tom with me for this one)!

The mission of Escapes Etc is to show you how to find the best travel experiences for less, so you can see, do and experience more. I got fed up with reading fluffy guides, so if you’re looking for down-to-earth, practical guides that tell you everything you need to know about a place (including the good and the bad), I’m your girl!

Things they don’t tell you about the outback…

My story in a nutshell…

I grew up in a small village in Essex and have been lucky to travel from a very young age. From what I’ve been told, my first trip abroad was to visit family in the US at the tiny age of 2. Hats off to my parents for doing that! I was so lucky as a child to go abroad on family holidays every year because my parents knew the value of seeing new places. My love for travel definitely comes from them!

In 2012 I graduated from University with a degree in Biological Anthropology and naturally, have done nothing with it since. Instead of chasing a career I got a job in my local supermarket and worked as many hours as I could to save to go backpacking.

In the meantime, Tom and I met and we got together even though I was about to leave for a long trip.

Fast forward to April 2013 and I was jumping on a plane with my best mate Jess to start a round-the-world trip. In 8 months we travelled to 14 countries across South East Asia, Australia, New Zealand and South America. It was fast, exciting, exhausting and unforgettable. How lucky was I to travel the world with my best friend?!

So you want to visit the temples of Angkor Wat but don't know where to start. Here's my handy guide to help you have an amazing time exploring in just 3 days.
Are you even a backpacker if you haven’t bought some of these trousers?

After this trip, I spent a few years working before Tom and I decided to travel again. Tom had joined Jess and I for 1 month in Australia and we hadn’t managed to shake the country from our systems since. So we decided to go back for 2 years on a working holiday visa.

Our 2 years in Australia were the best. We lived in Sydney and Brisbane. Road tripped in a car with a bed in the back and did a mini van conversion to do a lap of Australia. We saw the NYE fireworks over Sydney harbour, scuba dived the Great Barrier Reef, watched sunset over Uluru, swam with turtles and hiked through more national parks and gorges than you could shake a stick at.

Tom became a passionate drone photographer and I got myself a Sony a6000 and we spent a lot of time travelling to spots to get the shot we wanted. On one hand, this sounds a bit odd but our mini quest definitely lead us to places we wouldn’t have visited otherwise!

Check out my Instagram and Tom’s Instagram to see what I mean!

We love everything about Australia! Including the beer and burgers… 2 things they do surprisingly well, just FYI.

After our 2 years in Australia ended, we headed back home to not-so-sunny Essex where we’ve since slipped back into the 9-5 life.

So, basically, my life has gone like this: work, quit work, work, quit work…. needless to say, I don’t have a standard career path but I don’t regret a second of it!

When I tell people about these trips I always get told how lucky I am. And I know I am, believe me! But luck doesn’t really come into it. I’ve simply prioritised travel, cut back on the stuff I don’t really need and saved as much as I can – something anyone can do!

And don’t forget, travel isn’t shoehorned into big trips like these! A day trip to that place up the road you’ve always meant to go to is travel as much as a round the world trip. Travel is all about experiences!

So, what’s next?

Well, that’s the million dollar question- but I just don’t know!

Tom and I are now in our 30s but we’re not ready to settle down yet. We’ve got an ever-growing bucket list and there’s a lot of the world we are yet to really see, including the UK!

So stay tuned to follow along and find out where we end up travelling to next. Thanks for being part of our journey!