Hi! I’m Danielle and I live in Southern California. I’m an engineer in her early 40s and I get to travel back and forth across the US a lot for work – so I rack up the frequent flier miles and hotel points. I don’t have kids, so I use my spoils to travel the world.
Doing this blog is a vanity project – I’m not making any money off it, but traveling is what I truly look forward to – I mean, who doesn’t like being on vacation? Everyone gives the advice to “do what you love and you’ll never work a day in your life,” so that’s why I’m putting all of this out there. I am a left brained math nerd, creative writing is not my strong suit. I hope the advice and recommendations in here are sound, but my prose and organization aren’t so hot. I try to write in a combination of a trip review and copying the style of bloggers I love that give great advice.
I’m going to give it to you straight. If I didn’t like something, I’ll tell you. But I have my own background that is going to skew how I experience things, just as you will have a different skew. Just because I didn’t like something, doesn’t mean you won’t like it, and vice versa. My #1 goal with this is to set reasonable expectations – I hate going into something with a false over-inflated idea of what something is going to be like because someone is overselling something on social media to make money or make themselves feel better.
I fancy myself as someone that doesn’t like to do the touristy things, but as I’ve been writing this blog I’ve found myself typing a lot – “It’s touristy, but I liked it anyway.” I had a bit of a revelation on my 40th birthday trip to Australia. I was sitting in the amazing Bennelong restaurant inside the Sydney Opera House and this was clearly the most touristy spot in the whole city, if not state and country. I was watching tourists walk around and take selfies and pose for pictures courtesy of their Instagram Boyfriends. And as much as I wanted to eyeroll, I couldn’t because everyone was really happy and because I had jumpy clapped at the first surreal moment of seeing the Opera House in person after seeing so many photos my whole life. So I promised then and there that I’m going to endeavor to hate on touristy things a little less. Still, everything is about balance. The thought of saving up your money to only go to theme parks for a week in Florida makes me want to vomit – this is curated stuff that was focus grouped in a way to make you give a corporation more money. But if you have a trip to Ireland where you temper going to the Blarney Stone and some commercialized pubs with having conversations over breakfast with your B&B hosts and great hikes in the real world, I think you’re doing it right. You can’t not see the big sites – they’re big sites for a reason; but look for what’s real and minimize the artificial.
As I’m not making any money off this blog, you know the posts and recommendations here and in my Instagram are 100% my own opinion. Nothing is swayed or sponsored in any way. Please give me a follow!
Sweet D Travels 