Image of author of blog travel linger relax

Hi Ladies,

I’m Tracy and I’d like to welcome you to the world of Travel, Linger, Relax and solo female travel for those of us that are over the age of 40. I hope you find the support you need to help you find the confidence to take that first solo trip.

I’m so super excited to be here to meet you all. I’ve been thinking about launching my blog for so long, it’s kind of surreal for it to be actually happening.

I write about building the confidence to travel solo. As a woman who was 48 when she first took that trip, I totally understand the fears and concerns you may have. But trust me. You are a powerful, strong , capable woman – even if you don’t always feel it! You can do this. And until you believe this yourself – I got you.

About Me

So a little about me. I’m 54, a mum to 3 grown kids and a fur baby: Hugo. I’m an English teacher in my full time job, a bit of a geek and a definite bookworm. I love fantasy, sci-fi and urban fantasy, both books, and TV and don’t understand why the rest of world doesn’t agree that it would be a better place if magic really did exist! But most of all, I love travel.

I live on Shetland at the moment, which is very remote, rural and beautiful. I’ve been here 3 years now and have spent all my adult life living in Scotland, so I’m a bit of an expert. I’ve lived in Edinburgh, Stirling, the Borders and now Shetland.

Figure of woman in pink top standing on edge of cliff looking over bay with white sand and turquoise sea
Me overlooking Meal Beach on Shetland, my favourite beach – the sand is so soft and white and just look at the colour of the sea: beautiful!

I struggle a bit with Shetland, as all my close friends know. It’s been really good for me, the people are amazing, such a lovely community, my job is great, the beaches stunning, however the weather gets me grumbly. I need a bit more sun in my life.

A cunning plan to become location independent

So here I am with a 5 year plan – secretly hoping it’s a 2 year plan – to be able to become location independent. I have a three-pronged approach planned to make this dream come true. Stage one is creating a successful blog.

My blog is all about solo female travel. Why do we need another? I hear you ask. Good question.

My solo travel journey

I only started travelling solo 2 years ago at 47. Prior to that I had bought into the fear. You know, the general underlying fear that I would be raped, mugged and murdered, that the world was a scary place and that I had no skills to help me navigate it.

Then I stumbled across a travel memoir written by a young women by the name of Kristen Addis. ‘A 1000 New Beginnings.’ You may know her better as Kristen from the very successful travel blog, ‘Be My Travel Muse.‘ This book opened my eyes to this whole world of young women out there travelling and exploring and not only surviving, but flourishing.

I’m an avid reader and I began reading everything I could about this new word: books and blogs and YouTube. Another favourite blog of mine is Never Ending Footsteps by Lauren Juliff, she struggles with anxiety and writes openly about her experiences and how she grew stronger through her travels. Eventually a little voice started in my head – ‘if they can do it, why can’t you?’

So I bought a rucksack and took my first steps into the world of solo female travel at 47. I went to Venice and Rome for 11 days and fell in love. I fell in love with Italy, with the feelings of freedom, with all the art and the architecture and just the beauty of the world.

Me ready to head off to Italy – and yes my rucksack tottaly needed adjusting properly!!

Yes, I was nervous, yes, I got lost a lot, but I gained so much more than I lost. I gained confidence, I gained a new perspective on myself and what I am capable of.

Supporting women is my goal

And now I want to support other women in taking those first steps. I’m a member of a lot of travel and female travel groups on FaceBook and I see similar concerns from women in their 40’s and older worrying about the same things I did. ‘Am I too old to stay in a hostel?’ No. Will I be safe? Yes

I am a still a fledgling traveller. I’ve been to Paris, Amsterdam, Brussels, Bruge and London on my own. I’ve organised and taken groups of teenagers to China, Barcelona and London. I’ve been to India on a custom tour, which was a bucket list experience. I’ve still not been to Asia or to Nepal or any of the myriad of other places I want to go. I want to see all the places and I want to take you with me on my journey.

Photo shoot
Woman in hot pick dress in front of canall in Spain
at Plaza de Espana
Author of blog dressed in hot pink maxi dress
in Sevlle

Becoming Location Independent

If you’re still with me, you may well be wondering what are stages 2 & 3 of my plan to become location independent?

Stage 2 is to create a successful digital product store on Etsy. I love using Canva and creating digital products. This is my way to create a passive income. I’ll be writing more about my journey and how it progresses over the coming months and you’ll soon be able to buy some of my products right hear on this website 🙂

Stage 3 is to start earning money as a Copywriter and VA. You can checkout my website over at Let The Ink Dry (coming soon) or find me on Instagram @… This will allow me to work remotely and start exploring the world more regularly when I’m not tied to school holidays.

So now you know a little about me and about my hopes and dreams. Hope they resonate with you enough for you to stick around and follow me on this journey.

Read on to discover how to begin to travel solo, travel guides to safe destinations (I only write about places I’ve actually been to) and a sprinkling of my musing & travel writing diaries where I share my experiences of travel.

Tracy xx