Rachie is a female travel blogger that I met through an app totally unrelated to blogging. Once I found out Rachie had her own travel blog, I knew I had to feature her on our blog! Find out more about Rachie and her adventures!
Table of Contents
Introduce Yourself
I’m Rachie, a New York raised, Florida settled travel blogger. Florida is my home base and I love exploring all it has to offer – especially the springs and rivers – but I love venturing out of the state and hopefully soon again, out of the country.
Besides traveling, I’m obsessed with my two bunnies and doggo, I do aerial silks for fun, I’m forever an emo kid, and I’m a die hard Rangers fan.
You can usually find me and my boyfriend chowing down on some nachos and margaritas or eating Pub subs – there’s really no in-between for us.
How often do you travel?
I try to hit a new spot in Florida at least once a month, but out of state travel is about once every two to three months. With COVID my travel schedule has definitely gone out the door, I haven’t gone out of the country or contiguous United States since 2019 – which is a very long time for me. Hopefully if nothing goes too crazy this year, my dry international spell will end!
How do you afford to travel?
Before COVID-19 I was working in the athletics field and living at home, so all of my money went to fun. Before that, I was still in college and I am fortunate enough to have parents that love to travel and can pay for me to travel with them. Things look different this year, I now freelance but I have an amazing and supportive boyfriend who helps me travel and takes me places with him! My travel budget kinda comes from all over the place right now but my future plan is to develop my own brand where I can host events and partner with other travel companies and brands.
What’s your best travel story?
I wouldn’t say it’s the best, it was scary and embarrassing at the time, but it always makes me laugh and miss Norway and my friends from that time.
When I was in Norway for study abroad at the age of 20, my friend and I decided to go out drinking and partying in Oslo – ah those were the days when that was still an option! It was a Thursday night, we got on our party clothes, and headed across the fjord by ferry to the city. We found this awesome mini golf bar where we drank and played a round of 18 holes. When we were sufficiently tipsy, we went out exploring the city and popping into random places, running around taking funny drunk pictures, and I was talking to every guy we came in contact with – typical twenty-something girls night out.
Here’s where it gets embarrassing and funny – I apparently can’t read the ferry schedule or a bus route. So we got a little lost on the bus on our way back to ferry, the driver was sympathetic and took us as far as he could but it was the middle of the night so he ended up dropping us off on the side of the highway – two small girls from North America in a foreign country. We ended up finding another bus after debating sleeping under an overpass – even though it was the summer, it was still close to freezing at night in Norway. We took the bus to the pier where we could catch the ferry to find out that I read the weekend schedule and not the weekday schedule for the ferry. It was probably 2AM, and the next ferry didn’t leave until 6 or 7AM. We laid on a bench for a while, thinking we could wait – but quickly realized our clothes were way too thin and tiny to stay warm during the night.
I ended up calling an Uber, which is incredibly expensive in Norway, and charging it to my parents card. I woke up the next day to a text from my mom asking why she had a $100 Uber charge on her bank account, so I had to tell my mom this whole embarrassing story. Luckily my mom is a total mama bear and was more freaked out about me getting stranded in a foreign country than she was about the charge.
It was miserable at the time but now we laugh about the whole thing and I always make someone else read the schedule!
Where is your favorite place?
Hawaii, for sure. I love hiking up mountains and doing anything to get my adrenaline pumping, but I also love the warmth of the sun and beach days, so Hawaii is the perfect mix for me!
Advice to someone traveling?
Just have fun, go with the flow, and enjoy it for what it is. Plan what you want to do but don’t give yourself crazy expectations. I’ve burnt myself out before, trying to fit everything into a one week itinerary, it’s not sustainable or healthy. Sleep in or turn in early some days, those places aren’t going to disappear, you can always return.
Also, you’ll find the best recommendations and friends at the local watering holes. Stop in for a beer at a local bar or pub and make some friends, ask where to go, they always have the best recommendations and can make for some fun stories.
You can catch Rachie’s blog here.