Today I’m happy to introduce to you Caroline, an amazing and young #TRLT. Caroline is 24 years old and was born and raised in Michigan. She occasionally travelled with her family as a child, mostly to the Caribbean, and always enjoyed it, but really fell in love with The Road Less Traveled on a 26-day trip to Europe after her sophomore year of college. In her life so far, she has had the pleasure of traveling to 53 countries and can’t wait to discover more places!

Durian + Slow Loris + Malaysia = <3

Q; Why do you like taking The Road Less Travelled?

A: I love The Road Less Traveled for so many reasons. I love trying weird food – here are my top 5 favorites from Asia. I love being outside – hiking, skiing, rafting, laying in the park, skydiving, stargazing, scuba diving are all things that I enjoy. I find people to be fascinating; this includes how different people around the world live and eat and act as well as travelers and their motivations for traveling as well as how they go about doing it. I also love sharing the fact that the world isn’t as terrible as it sometimes seems like it is. Growing up I heard a lot of bad things from the TV as well as other adults that I knew that in my experience so far in life isn’t in any way true of the majority of any one group of people. I love being able to share these experiences and have my travels help others be less afraid. 

Q: What are your top 5 destinations?

A: It’s so tough to choose favorites! …but if I have to:

Favorite city: Berlin, Germany

Best food: Italy

Country I loved and can’t wait to explore more: Iceland (only was there for 4 days!)

Favorite people: Cambodia (locals, other travelers, and ex-pats!)

Most off-the-beaten path: the Wakhan Valley of Afghanistan (visited in July 2016)

Q: What destinations are you most keen to visit?

A: Again, a very tough question! Eventually I have the goal of going to every country, but the next few places I’m headed are Portugal (with my momma!), South Africa, and Iran. I often book inexpensive fares when they are available and let cost dictate where I am going. If I were to choose three places to visit where I didn’t need to consider cost or availability of flights (or my time!), they would be Antartica, Bhutan, and Ethiopia. Of those three, I will likely make it to Ethiopia first.

Q: Share the story of one of your favourite travel photos.

A: This photo was taken by my good friend just after sunrise after we spent the entire night climbing Mt. Sinai (or Mt. Catherine) on the Sinai Peninsula in Egypt. Overall the trip to Egypt was quite short and the friend I was traveling with and I both wanted to scuba dive and climb Mt. Sinai. This meant we needed to do some careful scheduling, and the only way it worked out was that we would arrive in Sharm el-Sheikh at about 8pm, make the drive to Dahab, and immediately go to climb Mt. Sinai after a full day of sight-seeing in Luxor earlier in the day. Needless to say, we were pooped! But the view at the top of the mountain at sunrise is one of the most memorable of my life. Egypt was one of the first places I went that worried a lot of my family and friends at home, but while there I encountered nothing but the friendliest of people – some of whom I talk to online on a regular basis to this day!

Q: How did you find out about #TRLT

A: I found out about TRLT because some of the people I follow on Twitter were participating.

Q: What is the best piece of travel advice you can share?

A: Don’t be afraid. There are wonderful people all over the world, no matter what the media makes it sound like. That said – don’t go into travel experiences without proper preparation and safety precautions when they are necessary.

St. Basil’s Cathedral, Moscow, Russia

Mt. Daly at sunrise, Colorado

Moynaq, Uzbekistan

Venice, Italy

Angkor Wat at Sunrise, Cambodia

“Caroline after swimming in Lake Karakul, Tajikistan”

Kromlau, Germany

Rock climbing in Ireland

Oktoberfest 2015

Be sure to follow Caroline on Social Media:

Facebook/ Twitter/ Instagram/ Website

If you LOVE travelling as much as we do and want to share your stories and pics with like-minded people join us today for our chat on TRANSPORTATION at 1pmNYC/6pmUK time on Twitter! Don’t forget to use the #TRLT hashtag. See you then!

For more info on how to participate in #TRLT on Twitter and what our upcoming topic and Qs are, click HERE

Stay tuned for next week’s interview with #TRLT Tuesday Traveller – Brian Cicioni

Savannah Grace