Hi I’m Mallory, Mal for short. I grew up with a family that loves to travel, and I’ve had the travel bug for as long as I can remember.
I learned to crawl on the sandy beaches of Maui, lost my favorite pink bejewelled hat at age 5 on Castillo San Felipe Del Marro in Puerto Rico, hiked around Machu Picchu at age 9, learned to surf in Lahaina at age 11, and have loved exploring new places!
It wasn’t until I started traveling on my own (sans family) that I realized how much time, money, planning, and work went into a good trip.
The first trip I did on my own was with my childhood best friend when we were 16 to visit our other best friend whose family had just moved to Oahu. On that trip, the airline lost our luggage, we hiked up mountains in the mud and pouring rain, my friend passed out at the flea market, and we missed our connecting flight on the way home. I’m sure other less-than-ideal things happened on that trip, but it was a trip to remember and I’ve learned a lot of travel hacks and survival tactics since then.
About a year later we went on a school trip to Europe through EF Tours. This was my second trip “on my own”, or self-funded, and it was another learning experience. I ran into budget issues after realizing I spent too many euros on food or souvenirs (I did need the “Ciao Bella” t-shirt after spilling gelato on my already dirty shirt but did I really need the fake prada bag from that street vendor in Rome?). A guy in our travel group left his passport at home and we had to wait for his mom to drive an hour to bring his passport to the airport. This same guy then forgot his wallet on buses, in stores, at the hotel, etc., and we even once almost left him in a store as our tour bus started to roll away. This guy grew up and is now my husband. Just kidding. But he is brilliant and has done well for himself academically. So, no shade to him, but that trip taught me just how much new travelers are not used to doing for themselves.
During my University years I didn’t have the means to travel abroad, so I opted for being a “tourist in my own backyard”. Where I studied, I was about a 2 hour drive from Yellowstone National Park, Jackson Hole and the Grand Tetons, and less than 30 minutes away from sand dunes, lava caves, and ice caves. I spent one summer working for the Boy Scouts of America (RIP) as a camp cook and discovered outdoor rock climbing, canoeing, camping, etc., something I had not yet been exposed to, despite my upbringing near the Rockies. After my outdoorsy summer I decided to volunteer for an 18-month church mission in the southern half of France. I fell in love with French culture, the people, the food, the big cities, the landscape, everything all the way down to the small boulangeries in tiny villages. I’m obsessed with everything French and I go back to visit as often as I can, so you may notice lots of info for France on my site.
After my 18 month sejour in France as a missionary, I went back to Idaho to finish my undergrad and then quickly made my way back to Europe as an au pair in Namur, Belgium. While living in Belgium, I took short weekend trips to different Belgian cities, as well as Paris, Lyon, Copenhagen, Metz, Luxembourg, and Den Haag. I got deported from Belgium, bringing me back to the USA, and I’ve been living here and trying to travel as much as possible ever since.
Hopefully my experiences can help your travel planning or at least provide you with some entertainment! If anything, writing my trips and itineraries all down helps me with my future trips.
Happy planning and bon voyage!
Miles With Mal 