THE JOURNEY #19 – Lonely Planet Books

It seems a strange and surreal thing to be titling this latest edition of The Journey, but there is a good reason for it. Lonely Planet books, it seems, are set to become a big part of my life. At least in the immediate future. This is good news not just for myself, but also for my readers and subscribers. In short – you! But more on Lonely Planet books a little later. First, let’s catch up with what’s been happening with my travels recently.

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For those that receive my newsletters, you may know a bit about what I update here. A bit of time has passed since I wrote my last edition of The Journey, and a lot has been going on.

Let’s take a look.

Housesitting in Europe

My recent trip to Europe was amazing. It was Winter, so it was pretty cold, but I enjoyed every minute of it. One decision that I made early on though, was to get into housesitting. This was essentially to help me to save money on accommodation, but also to provide me with some new experiences that I was really excited about.

And it did that in spades.

Housesitting was a wonderful experience, and is something that I will continue doing as I travel the world. Being able to stay in a “real” house and look after some really lovely cats and dogs was incredible. From England, to France and then to Switzerland, I had an absolute blast. I made friends with owners, fell in love with some wonderful pets, and learnt so much about local life in those countries that you just can’t learn from a hotel or Air BNB.

My latest update in THE JOURNEY #18 I spoke about my house sit in Holmfirth, England. From there I had another Sit in Manchester, looking after an adorable dog by the name of Benji. We only had a few days together, but he was beautiful, and we took some really nice walks around his local area.

From there, I had a few days to kill before heading to France for my next sit, so I found a little Air BNB and decided to indulge my love of English Football by doing a tour of Etihad Stadium, the home of Manchester City Football Club. It was incredible, and something that I would encourage any football fan to do one day! You can read my full review HERE.

I also took the time to head to Old Trafford Cricket Ground, and Old Trafford Football Stadium where Manchester United reside. I couldn’t get on the tour there as they were all sold out, but just being there was rather surreal.

A couple of days later I headed to the airport and boarded a flight to Lyon, France, for my next house sit.

This sit was actually in a small town just south of Lyon. I was sitting for a beautiful old Siamese Cat who was adorable, and caused me no issues at all. Half the time I hardly even knew he was there! This allowed me to do a bit of hiking, exploring, and spend an entire day visiting Lyon. The city is beautiful, and a place I would like to return to one day and explore some more.

Switzerland

From Lyon, I had to head to Switzerland for my next House sit. Trying to find an economical way to do it was a real brain teaser though. Trains in France and Switzerland are expensive, and even though it was the most handy way to travel (I was staying right near the train station) it certainly was not fitting into my budget. I then looked at the bus, which was cheaper. The problem there was that it left from Lyon, and once I caught the train into the city, it ended up being around the same price as catching the train anyway.

That was when I found out about BlaBlaCar. This incredible app is a car pooling app that allows you to find people that are, say, commuting, and hitching a ride with them! It’s huge in France, to the point that they even have dedicated, signposted stops on the sides of the road for pickups.

For passengers, like me, I get to travel for a fraction of the cost, and for the driver, they get compensated on their petrol for the journey. Win win!

In my case I was able to hitch a ride on the app to the nearby town of Annecy, where I had been wanting to visit for some time, and never actually thought I would get to. From there, it’s a simple and rather cheap Flixbus ride to Zurich, so it was a no brainer!

Annecy was beautiful. It’s an alpine town sitting on the cleanest lake in France. The views are astounding, and the entire town looks like it fell right out of a fairy tale. I spent many hours just wandering the streets and parks, taking in the views, eating gelato, and taking WAY too many photos.

I was in Annecy for 3 days, before heading into Switzerland. The bus took me through Geneva, Lausanne and Bern, as well as some incredibly panoramic countryside. My final destination was a small town called Altendorf, on the southern shoreline of Lake Zurich.

I spent a great week in Altendorf. I was looking after a beautiful 2 year old black Lab by the name of Ares. He was very active and needed up to 7 walks a day, but together we explored the entire area around the town. Every day we were up hills with the most incredible views, walking through heavy snow some days, and brilliant warm sunshine on others. It was a week that I will never forget.

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Back to Bali

All good things must come to an end though, and it was back to Bali after Zurich. I had planned to stay longer, but I needed a break to catch up on work, so made the decision to book a flight. As it turned out, Zurich had really good prices for flights to Indonesia, so it seemed to be destiny in the end.

Back in Indonesia I settled into my life with Jo again after meeting up with her in Jakarta. This life really revolved around sitting at a computer most days though, as I blogged away constantly and worked on my website.

This is the life of a Travel Blogger though. Traveling fulltime is not ALWAYS about being on the road 365 days a year. Sometimes, days and weeks go by where you are holed up in one place catching up on work. I mean, you have to pay for your travel somehow. Right? It’s just nice when you can arrange for that place to be at home. The last place I had hunkered down for a long period to blog was over Christmas in Plovdiv, and as much as I loved that time, it’s still not home!

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Lonely Planet Books

So, now back to the Lonely Planet Books!

I had been back in Bali working for a few weeks before I suddenly received an email from an editor at Lonely Planet. They were updating their Lonely Planet Books, and were reaching out to me as they need someone that has spent a bit of time recently in Bulgaria, in particular PLOVDIV, to assist them with their upcoming editions. This was right in my wheelhouse, as I had only just spent an entire month there!

I emailed her back and we got to talking. What I found out about Lonely Planet Books and their new upcoming editions was exciting, and I jumped in boots and all.

You see, the company are coming up to their 50th Birthday, and having just done a LOT of market research had decided to really “reinvent” their Lonely Planet books and guides. A lot of what they have traditionally put in their books is outdated, and irrelevant to readers anymore as you can find it all by simply Googling. No one needs phone numbers and addresses for hotels and restaurants anymore!

What they have decided to do with their Lonely Planet books from now on is concentrate on experiences, and really deep dive into places. They want them to contain things that you just can’t Google. Things that I like to write about in my blog!

This was perfect for me, and I got really excited, really fast! Needless to say I signed up, and am heading back to Bulgaria in a couple of weeks to do more research. I pretty much know Plovdiv back to front, but am excited to get out into the Southern Highlands to a few towns I would like to cover in the Guide, and maybe do a few hikes I had my eye on last time I was there. Spring/Summer in Bulgaria will be a lot different to Winter!

CHECK OUT the new Lonely Planet Guide Books format at THIS link.

Working on Lonely Planet Books is something that I never dreamed I would do. When I made the decision to become a Travel Writer, that would have been seen as my Holy Grail. I never set my eyes on it, or targeted it. The only thing I ever set out to do was to build my Travel Blog into a sustainable and successful business. As it turned out, it was also the perfect portfolio, that ended up leading right to Lonely Planet!

I will be spending the end of May and beginning of June in Bulgaria doing research. Then it will be back to Bali where I will be writing my chapter of Lonely Planet books guide to Bulgaria. It will take a while to complete, but I am excited about it.

The good news for my subscribers is that there is also something in it for them! Once I am done, I will be adding quite a few new articles about Bulgaria to my own website. If you enjoy my writing (I hope you do) then also make sure to pick up a copy of the new Lonely Planet Guide to Romania/Bulgaria.

Well that’s it for this edition of THE JOURNEY. I will see you all again in THE JOURNEY #20, which should come to you when I return from Bulgaria!

Lonely Planet Books. Who would have thought it!

Cheers for now

J