I often refer to myself as a mongrel, due to the rather disparate origins of my family. My mother is American, my father English, but my maternal grandparents were Norwegian and Swedish and my father’s family comes from Wales. Further complications arise from the fact my brother’s wife is Chinese and I was born and grew up in France, not mentioning the fact that I have lived in 10 different countries and never held down a job in England.

I am not a typical travel blogger, as I try to spend as long a time as possible in different countries and try to learn their language as best as I can during my time there. This endeavour is aided by the fact I am both an English teacher and a freelance translator. My interests aside from travel are sport, music and writing.

I decided to start up this site to keep a record of my adventures across the world, share some of my thoughts and give some advice to those hoping to explore the places I have already been to. One small issue is that at the age of 18 I decided not to use a camera and I stuck to that until I was 32, when I was given a free smartphone by a friend. I don’t regret doing that, especially when I see the mess of selfie sticks at tourist spots nowadays, but it means that there are not too many pictures I currently have access to.

Obviously my experiences are personal. I may have come to a place at the wrong time or been unlucky with the people I met, but I try to remain impartial as much as possible. The top ten rankings will change as and when I find a place more deserving than the current spots on the list, although they will retain honourable mention status.

I hope you find the site informative and fun and that it can help you out on your own travel adventures. Please let me know if things have changed in the places I’ve written about by adding a comment.

The Travel Mongrel