About me

Welcome to my travel blog, Love Travelling.  I’m Marion, an independent traveller writing about my visits to countries near and far.

I  research destinations myself without the need for a tour guide or packaged trip.  That’s part of the fun – visiting the local library and selecting some travel guides, looking things up online and, of course, all the amazing tips I discover from fellow travel bloggers.

The world is a book and those who do not travel read only one page. Augustine of Hippo

My passion is travel,  I just love visiting new places, immersing myself into local cultures of life around the world and discovering the unexpected!  Stepping off a plane, I’m always in a hurry to get my passport stamped, reclaim my luggage and walk out of the arrivals hall ready to begin a new adventure.

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Cadiz, Spain

I love the planning, the anticipation, the journey, be it by plane, train, bus or boat and of course, the actual holiday and finally all the wonderful memories and experiences I bring home that live with me forever.  That was the original reason why I created this blog so that I could have an online diary of my recent trips to look back on in the future.  I’ve been surprised but thrilled that so many of you have taken an interest in my travels and enjoy reading about my trips – it’s very encouraging and makes me very happy!  From starting as a hobby my blog has evolved into an award winning online travel resource providing inspiration to fellow travellers.

Love Travelling Blog author Little Miss Traveller
Seoul, South Korea

I didn’t set foot on foreign soil until the age of 13, on a school holiday to the Black Forest in Germany, travelling by coach and ferry.  I adored everything about that first trip, from the little things like driving off the ferry on the other side of the road, the strange money and the language, and I knew from that day on, that I wanted to explore as many different countries as time and money would allow and to experience local cultures first hand.  I’ve been fortunate in being able to fulfil my dream and to share my love of travel with my family but, naturally, there are so many destinations still out there waiting to be explored.

Travel as much as you can, as far as you can, as long as you can. Life’s not meant to be lived in one place

The countries I’ve been fortunate to visit to date are:

Australia, Austria, Belgium, Canada, Croatia, Czech Republic, Estonia, Finland, France, Germany, Gibraltar, Greece, Guernsey, Hong Kong, Hungary, Indonesia, Ireland, Italy, Jamaica, Latvia, Lithuania, Luxembourg, Macau, Malaysia, Malta, Monaco, Netherlands, New Zealand, Norway, Philippines, Poland, Portugal, Qatar, Romania, Russia, Singapore, Slovakia, South Korea, Spain, Sweden, Switzerland, Taiwan, Thailand, Turkey, United Arab Emirates, United Kingdom, United States, Vatican City.

Twenty years from now you will be more disappointed by the things you didn’t do than by bowlines, sail away from the safe harbour.

Catch the trade winds in your sails.

Explore,  Dream,  Discover.       Mark  Twain

As well as overseas travel, I’m also a firm supporter and champion of the British Isles.  From dynamic cities to rural towns and villages and from seaside resorts to national parks there is so much to enjoy and be proud of.  Within this section of my blog I explore short breaks and days out at places of interest.   I take my photographs using my Lumix TZ80 camera which I really like as it’s easy to use, has good features and is small enough to fit into my handbag.

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Using my Lumix TZ80 camera in Seoul, South Korea

Hopefully, drawing on my personal experiences, I may be able to pass on some useful insights and travel tips to help you get the most out of your holidays and perhaps inspire some of you to visit destinations that you might not previously have thought of.

Thank you for taking the time to read this.  I’m already looking forward to sharing my travel stories and photos with you.  Do come along and join my adventures!

Marion, aka Little Miss Traveller

I recently won an international travel blog contest and my prize was a four day visit to the Finnish city of Tampere.  Since returning from Tampere I have been privileged to take on the role of international ambassador to promote tourism in this part of western Finland.
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©Love Travelling and ©Love Travelling Blog 2015-2023. Unauthorised use and/or duplication of this material and photographs without express and written permission from the author of this blog is strictly forbidden.  Excerpts and links may be used, provided that full and clear credit is given to ©Love Travelling with appropriate and specific direction to the original content.

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1,483 thoughts on “About me”

  4. Hey Marion,

    Thanks for visiting my blog and thanks for encouraging me by liking my post.

    I can see, you too are traveler and have really beautiful blog. I was wondering if you would be interested in having my latest published adult coloring book – Travel Your Color Dreams. I am sure, you will love coloring your dream destinations in book. Please let me know. Would love to send it to you.

    Thanks!!

    Liked by 3 people

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    1. It’s really kind of you to think of sending me one of your adult colouring books, that would be so nice if it isn’t too much trouble or to costly for you to post. If you send me an email (details on my contact page) we can discuss. Thank you, Marion

      Liked by 1 person

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  5. Marion ,you have got a fantastic blog owing to your great travelling experience spanning some 50 countries !I have been following your blog for quite some time now and presume that you havent toured India -a country with unique unity in cultural diversity,Multi-religious blogs on Indian multi-language speaking poputaion with a great historical background!Being a prroud Indian I have highlighted these features in my blogs!I request you to go through my blogs to get some idea of the visual treat on offer!Pl.find some time and you wont be dissapointed !You may follow my blog if you find it worth!pl keep ,healthy,happy and safe😊

    Liked by 3 people

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    1. Thank you Mike for taking the time to read my blog and for your welcome thoughts. It’s so nice to hear from you and I hope you’ll be inspired to visit some of the places once we are all free to travel wherever we wish once again. I just spontaneously decided t start a blog and it’s like a dream come true how it’s evolved.

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  10. Thanks a lot for visiting my blog. I am happy to find someone who have something common with me. Apart from love of travelling, and keeping memories of the travel I also never use guided tour. I do my own research, buy book (mostly lonely planet) and make my own plan. sometimes those turn out good sometimes not but at the end those are experience to remember.

    Liked by 3 people

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  12. Only had a chance to quickly look through tonight however signed up to the mail list and marked the page to come back to it tomorrow as I get the feeling I’m really going to enjoy your content!

    Liked by 3 people

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  13. Thank you for visiting my blog. It’s always nice for me to discover new blogs as well. I’ll be making some changes to the appearance in coming days/weeks. Pop by and tell me what you think. By the way, I see some places here I will have to put on my list to visit if I ever get to Spain! Lord knows I’ve been trying to visit for much of my life.

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  15. Love that you’re all about doing it yourself when it comes to researching your travels! Definitely a woman after my own heart! Looking forward to reading up on your next adventures!

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  16. Hola Marion,
    You surpassed yourself with the Russian photographs – mind you they do rather stand out and say “take me, take me…” with their sheer size and almost fairy-tale variety!! As usual,all very interesting. Good luck on future travels. I follow when I can…(sadly, not physically…) Best wishes. x. `

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  18. Hello there Marion and thank you so much for liking my page bout the Broadstairs Folk Week 2018. Actually I am typing this in Broadstairs. I came down and played the Festival as usual and then things got a little “interesting” which means I am still here. I am still in the process of writing the whole thing up but it starts here if you are interested.

    https://fergysrambles.org/2019/08/13/broadstairs-folk-week-at-last/

    I love your take on travelling as it so closely mirrors my own and looking briefly at your site it appears we have visited many of the same countries. I really can’t wait to have a good look at your whole site. I was interested to read about your award in Finland as it is not generally regarded as a tourist destination but I played up there some years ago and ;loved the place. I didn’t get to Tampere but I did get to see a fair bit of the country. I also see that your most recent posts are about Sicily which has been high on my wish list for years so that will be another interesting read.

    I am going now to begin trawling my way through your vast output.

    Speak soon,

    Fergy.

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  19. Hey Marion, big fan of your posts and congratulations on the blog contest, that sounds amazing! I have noticed you have a LOT of followers! I am hoping you might be able to help me with some advice? I would like to get my blog out there more and reach a bigger audience. It’s not about money for me, I write my posts almost as a diary for me to look back on. The thing is, people liking my posts or commenting to say I have helped them plan a trip – I’m sure you’ll agree, there is no better feeling! So I’d really like to increase my following and reach out to more people who are similar to me 🙂 I’ve been looking at moving to wordpress.org and self hosing and noticed that even with your large following you are still on wordpress.com which makes me wonder whether I would be fine to stick with this as I do find it very user friendly! If you don’t mind me asking, do you use a wordpress.com plan and is there one that you would recommend for me? Any help appreciated! I have been looking in to this for days and my mind is going boggled! Sorry I would have messaged you but not sure how to on here!

    Also would like to say, I’ve noticed a few places on your blog that are very close to home for me so i’m looking forward to having a proper browse through your posts again soon too! 😀

    Liked by 3 people

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    1. Hi Sophie, Great to hear from you and for showing an interest in.my blog. I’ve never considered moving from WordPress.com as I have been satisfied with the service. I just use a Personal plan and Flickr Professional for my photo input. Over time I have increased my views via search engines considerably so am not planning on self hosting at the moment but might consider it sometime in the future. Enjoy blogging, I agree that the engagement with others makes it all worthwhile. Best wishes, Marion

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      1. Oh interesting! That is exactly the plan I have at the moment! I didnt know if there might be a restriction on how much traffic you can have coming to your site on this plan. But I guess not? I’m also not sure whether you can monetize posts on this plan either or include ads which would make sense to do if you’re driving a lot of traffic in 🙂

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  20. Dip Thapa

    I’m so new to this whole traveling business let alone blogging it’s cool to see awesome examples of others who’ve gone through the path already before me.
    As a first time solo traveler at the age of 27 it definitely makes a feel a bit less lost knowing these sorts of things exists in the world!
    :]

    Liked by 3 people

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  21. Thank you for liking my Atlantic Irish Mist post. Your blog is delightful and so well put together. A few months ago I decided, at last, to ‘surf the wave’ of blogging and I’m delighted that I took the plunge. Look forward to following your travel experiences… Regards, Elaine

    Liked by 3 people

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  22. Hi Marion, I am just learning how to make the most of my WordPress blog and discovered you whilst doing so. Thanks for liking our guest post on travelling light. You don’t look over 50 but if ever you find yourself back in the UK during university term-time – when I have a free bedroom – you’d be very welcome to stay and explore this little corner of Kent in exchange for a guest blog for SisterStay. In the meantime, enjoy your travels and keep up the fabulous blogging! Sue-Anne

    Liked by 4 people

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    1. Thank you Fran for taking an interest in my blog, it’s s nice to hear from you. I’ve actually visited San Francisco twice but not for about 20 years and long before I started blogging so I think I’m long overdue a return visit to your lovely west coast city!

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  25. bossyflossies

    Hi Marion your story is inspiring! I also love blogging and I would love to one day visit as many places as you have and write just as many good stories. Congratulations on the award!

    Liked by 5 people

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  26. Your preface is inspiring for travelers, and travelers-to-be alike. I also like how you’ve alphabetically listed the countries you’ve had the pleasure to see. Like you, I always have a good camera in tow (the Nikon D5000 in this case) , but, like many Americans, we are not the most travel-savvy. Even beyond that, for some reason only about 1/3 of Americans have passports / My countries of travels is quite modest > Austria, England, France, Germany, Italy, Myanmar(Burma), New Zealand, Scotland, Spain, and Thailand < as I tend to return to places of great enjoyment / but with encouragement from your world-view I think it is time for me to take on places less traveled and more off of the mainstream (thanks Little Miss Traveller for your work)

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    1. Thank you so much for your kind words which are much appreciated. It’s so nice to read that you are enjoying my blog and I hope it inspires you to visit some new places. There is nothing wrong with returning to countries that you have enjoyed visiting – I like to do that as well as Ive been to Finland at least 14 times as I feel so content there. Happy Travelling Mark, Marion.

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  28. Hey Marion, thank you for stopping by and giving me a like. It gave me quite the confidence boost that at least something I wrote was entertaining enough. I wish you all the best with your travels and may happiness and good fortune continue to be with you.
    Congratulations also on all your accolades as well.

    Liked by 4 people

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  30. Marion, thanks for liking my review of “An American Princess”! It’s great to have the support of established bloggers like yourself. I enjoyed your Hull post, it’s a town I’ve heard of but never visited.

    Liked by 3 people

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  31. Hi Marion! Thanks for liking my first ever travel post about Taiwan and also for following me (followed you back too!) ❤ Your travel posts inspired me to push through with going out there in the world. I was a really boring person, but this year I'm gonna make things fun and the first step is to travel and inspire people to get out there 🙂

    Liked by 3 people

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  38. Hello, Miss Traveler. Thank you for visiting/reading my blog for quite some time. I am actually researching long walks (rambles?) in England and Ireland, specifically the Coast to Coast trails in both countries. But it looks like reservations are required for both trails if you go in the Spring or Summer. I prefer to decide each day how far I want to go and do not want to carry a tent and associated gear. South West Coast Path was another option but I was told that that (or large sections of it) requires reservations, also. I welcome any suggestions.

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    1. Hello, Its nice to hear from you. I think it depends on how far you intend to walk each day as some villages might not have many options. I wouldn’t want to carry a tent either and if the weather is poor you don’t want to have to endure a full day if hiking, so I think I would try and research a few likely accommodation options and then you could perhaps contact them the day before to check on availability. Unless it is the UK school holidays or our bank holiday weeks I think you will be OK.

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  41. maristravels

    I was in Stockholm a few years ago for the Midsummer festivities. Mixing with the Swedes, wearing a handmade headdress of leaves and blossoms and joining in the dancing around the Maypole was an amazing experience. The Swedes are such lovely people, generous and friendly.

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  43. After reading a few blogs of your travels, I finally ventured to your Home Page and read a bit about you. I can only assume you are a Finlander. Day 8 in Sweden was top notch, photos, information, flow. The wife and I have traveled a bit, nothing to your extent, however. I shall read up and become familiar with Tempere. Never too old to learn I say (75). Off to Delaware in the morning for a Grand Nieces wedding. It’s a short 115 mile trip up the Delmarva Peninsula. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Delmarva_Peninsula

    Have a grand weekend.

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  45. Hi Marion, I don’t get as much time as I’d like to always follow your travels, but do peep in now and then. Those feet are made for walking, no doubt! Stockholm etc., looked very interesting; I’m in awe of all the places you’ve visited so far in your young life, Amazing, all power to you. So far, we’ve managed Holland, France, Vienna, Greece,Majorca, Spain, Denmark, Italy, Jersey, The Bahamas, USA, and Canada (lived there for 18 fascinating months!) We are now retired in Spain (from UK).What a world, eh! Enjoy! x

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  46. Byron McLeod

    HI, Marion. I wanted to thank you for liking my post. I just wanted to say I hope I can get my country numbers up to yours one day and its lovely to meet someone who shares such a love for adventure.

    Liked by 3 people

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  47. Saw you came by theRoosters Blog, thanks for paying me a visit. Son-in-law works for USA State Dept, travels all over the world, some spots nice, others, unfortunately, not so. I feature him often as “Where in the World is Jeff Berthiaume.”

    You do a nice job with your Blog, Peace.

    Liked by 3 people

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  49. Karen Churchill

    Love your blog! I’m just starting to plan a trip to the UK for next year. Your blog will be inspirational and great practical help too – as well as being enjoyable to read. Thank you!
    Cheers, Karen

    Liked by 3 people

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  50. Merlyn Banzuelo

    Wow! Your trips had been quite a lot. Hope to experience the same since I also recently started a blog that’s about my everything. Hope you could visit my country too, the Philippines! More trips and adventures for you!

    Liked by 2 people

    Reply

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