Posts

,

Contiki Grand Southern Tour Part Three

Last night in #florida 💖🇺🇸 #staugustine

A post shared by Jess Buck|JourneyswithJessica (@jessica16_x) on

Miami rooftops 🎉🇺🇸 #saturdaynight

A post shared by Jess Buck|JourneyswithJessica (@jessica16_x) on

 

Hi guys, part three of my Contiki trip is here!

After we left Orlando we visited three other cities in the state of Florida before making our way down to Georgia, Charleston and Raleigh. We’ve had a hectic week exploring lots of different places; highlights have included parasailing on Daytona Beach and hopping on a thriller speed boat ride in Miami! Here’s how the past few days have turned out…

Miami

 

I'm in Miami bitchhh! 🇺🇸🎉🇺🇸🎉 #noregrets #grandsouthern #miami

A post shared by Jess Buck|JourneyswithJessica (@jessica16_x) on

 

I was sooo looking forward to reaching Miami as it’s somewhere I have always wanted to go and I certainly wasn’t disappointed! We spent time on the famous Miami beach swimming in the sea, checking out the trendy range of bars, shops and restaurants and hitting up some of the many clubs dotted around this iconic city. We also went on a thriller speed boat ride across Biscayne bay and ventured out to Star Island where we saw the homes of famous A-listers including Brad Pitt,  Jennifer Lopez and Sylvester Stallone. Miami was incredible and I would go back in a heart beat!

Daytona Beach

 

Another day another beach 🇺🇸🌊 #daytona

A post shared by Jess Buck|JourneyswithJessica (@jessica16_x) on

 

We made our way to Daytona after spending two nights partying it up in Miami so it was a welcome break when we were able to chill out on the beach and soak up some sun! We ventured down the promenade, visited the arcades and rides, hit the shops and also had a little movie night down at the local cinema. My absolute highlight was parasailing along the beach; being hoisted 600ft up in the air, cruising along with the waves lapping down below and watching dolphins swimming in the distance – possibly one of the best things I have ever done in my life!

St Augustine

St Augustine 😍🇺🇸 #Florida #contiki #noregrets

A post shared by Jess Buck|JourneyswithJessica (@jessica16_x) on

 

Ah this place is so beautiful!! I didn’t expect much from this little town at all, but St Augustine has been one of my favorite locations on the tour so far! We explored the historic fortress, cobbled streets and old buildings during our short stay and it was one of the most picturesque places I have ever been to. For those of you who like Spain or anywhere with a Mediterranean vibe, this is the place for you- it really is beautiful!

 

I went to infinity and beyond in space today 🇺🇸🚀 @nasa #USA #america #nasa #contiki #noregrets #kennedyspacecenter #grandsouthern

A post shared by Jess Buck|JourneyswithJessica (@jessica16_x) on

 

After our stay-over we made our way to Savannah via the Kennedy Space Centre and stopped to explore NASA HQ for a while! The centre was interactive, informative and so interesting and we certainly saw some iconic space sights during our day there – we loved going to infinity and beyond!

Savannah

Arrived in #Savannah and it is BEAutiful! 🇺🇸😍 #Georgia #america #USA #contiki #noregrets #grandsouthern @contiki @statravel

A post shared by Jess Buck|JourneyswithJessica (@jessica16_x) on

 

Much like St Augustine, Savannah turned out to be one of the highlights of my trip! We spent two nights in this beautiful city exploring the cobbled streets, local restaurants and bars and soaking up the Georgian history. We also took a ghost tour around the haunted streets of the city stopping at a couple of spooky sites to see if we could check out some paranormal activity. Savannah is a beautiful place and I’m thrilled to have spent two nights there exploring everything properly!

Charleston

 

#Charleston 🇺🇸🇺🇸

A post shared by Jess Buck|JourneyswithJessica (@jessica16_x) on

 

This was one of my favourite spots but unfortunately we had barely any time at all to explore this little gem! Brimming with cute café’s, shops, bars and restaurants, the city’s harbour also boasts resident porpoises and other sea life. There was so much history and culture on offer in the city and I just wish we had the time to see more!

#tbt to this place in #Charleston 🇺🇸 #America #USA #contiki #grandsouthern #noregrets #throwbackthursday

A post shared by Jess Buck|JourneyswithJessica (@jessica16_x) on

 

On our way back from Charleston we stopped at Magnolia Plantation & Gardens, home to America’s last large scale romantic style gardens. This is also the site where a number of slaves were kept during the slave trade in America and we learnt a lot about the history of this as well as exploring the beautiful gardens, local petting zoo and original house owned by the Drayton family.

Raleigh

 

 

We literally only had one night here in this little place and really didn’t get to explore much of it at all, but we did have dinner and check out the adventure land where we acted like big kids playing go karting, laser quest and mini golf! I’m not sure what there was to explore in Raleigh but it looked super cute.. answers on a postcard please!

I can’t believe that I’m now on the final stretch of this trip and in just a few days time it will all be over! I am having the time of my life and so don’t want to go home! My final few days will be recapped in part four of my blog and I’ll post this ASAP.

Speak soon!

Love Jess x

 

Savannah ghost hunting with my #contiki fam 👻💀👻💀

A post shared by Jess Buck|JourneyswithJessica (@jessica16_x) on

 

 

Savannah and Charleston, you've both been beautiful!! Next stop Washington DC 🇺🇸🇺🇸 #noregrets #contiki #grandsouthern

A post shared by Jess Buck|JourneyswithJessica (@jessica16_x) on

/by
,

Contiki Grand Southern Tour Part Two

 

Baseball baseball ⚾️⚾️ #Memphis

A post shared by Jess Buck|JourneyswithJessica (@jessica16_x) on

Hey everyone!

Part two of my American adventure is here! Sorry about the wait but I’ve just been having too much fun to blog 😉 Over the past couple of weeks I’ve been everywhere from New Orleans to Miami and I’ve had a blast! Here’s what I’ve been doing…

Fortworth/Dallas

Ah Texas you stole my heart! I absolutely loved my time in this state and Fortworth/Dallas were one of the highlights for me. We strolled around the western town of Fortworth and explored the historic stockyards before making a day trip to Dallas. We visited the Sixth Floor Museum, the site where the late president John F Kennedy was assassinated, and paid tribute to him at one of the many memorials around the city. We also visited the Dallas Cowboys football stadium for a private tour which was a fantastic experience and somewhere definitely worth stopping if your a sporting fan! There’s so much I haven’t seen of Texas and its one of my favourite states so I’ll definitely return one day!

 

 

Stockyard station at #fortworth 🐴🚂 #Texas

A post shared by Jess Buck|JourneyswithJessica (@jessica16_x) on

 

Memphis

After crossing the Mississippi river, stopping at Texarkana, and being in two states at the same time, we made our way towards the rock n roll city of Memphis, Tennessee. We toured Graceland, the home of Mr Elvis Presley, and visited Sun Studios where the likes of The King, Johnny Cash and Jerry-Lee Lewis recorded. We also hit up Beale Street for some epic nightlife and watched a minor league baseball game at the Memphis Redbirds Autozone Park. Memphis was such a vibrant city with so much to see and do; if you’re a music fan this is most definitely the place for you!

 

 

 

New Orleans

New Orleans was a funny place for me, I still don’t know how I feel about it and I’ve been thinking about this since I left there! It’s not that I didn’t enjoy myself, it’s just that I felt there wasn’t enough to see and do to make it stand out for me. I felt the whole place was hot, busy and slightly smelly but that may have been all the sewage problems! Having said that, I had a fantastic time alligator hunting on a swamp boat and enjoying some authentic jazz music down on French street!

 

 

We also explored the local flea market to pick up some bargains and saw the fairytale square of Jackson Square both at night and during the daytime. I may need to return to central New Orleans in order to get the most out of this city as we were staying in the downtown area, but I’d love to hear your thoughts or tips on how I can get the most out of any potential future visits! I also did an Instagram takeover for Travelex UK during my time in the city – head over and check out their Insta page to see my selection of photos!

 

 

Panama City beach

Panama City Beach was one of the hidden gems of Florida and I had a wonderful time with the most amazing view from the hotel room! We spent most of our time at the beach, having dinner and exploring some of the local shops. Panama was beautiful and I really could have done with one more night there!

Orlando

Orlando was one of the highlights for me, mainly because I went to the happiest place on earth!! For any of you that know me well enough, I’m the worlds biggest Disney fan and have been wanting to visit Walt Disney World for as long as I can remember. My dreams finally came true in Orlando and I spent 15 hours running around the parks like a child from dawn til dark! I watched the parades and the fireworks, went on tonnes of rides, ran around after characters and just soaked up the Disney atmosphere in full. I had the time of my life at Disney and can’t wait to go back one day! 💖

 

 

After Orlando we ventured to other parts of Florida and have just been to Georgia for two nights checking out the charming city of Savannah! As you can tell, I’m a little behind on the blog posts but I’ll write again with part three ASAP.

Don’t forget you can still follow my adventure on snapchat @jessica16_x as well as Facebook, Instagram and Twitter.

Until next time!

Love Jess x

 

Finally found my dream horse 🐴🐴 #Dallas

A post shared by Jess Buck|JourneyswithJessica (@jessica16_x) on

 

#Texas you've been a blast! Next stop #Memphis 🔫🇺🇸🎉 @contiki #noregrets #USA #america #contiki #grandsouthern

A post shared by Jess Buck|JourneyswithJessica (@jessica16_x) on

/1 Comment/by

Ready, set, USA here I come!

Ahhh my last day at home before my big American adventure tomorrow!! ✈️🇺🇸@contiki #noregrets

A post shared by Jess Buck|JourneyswithJessica (@jessica16_x) on

 

Guys, I can’t believe I’m saying this but this time tomorrow I’ll be boarding my plane to Los Angeles ready to start my big American adventure!!!! OHMYFREAKINGLORD!!! Time has literally flown by since I booked my trip with STA Travel back in January (shout out to Joe for being so amazing) and I cannot believe the big day is almost upon me…

For those of you who don’t know, back in March I announced that I’d quit my office job in order to travel the world, grow my blog and try to make a career in the travel industry. First on my wanderlust list is an epic road trip with Contiki Holidays across America, from LA to NYC, taking in the bright lights of Las Vegas, Miami and Washington along the way. Back then it all seemed like a fantasy, just a distant dream, but now it is actually happening and it’s just starting to feel a tiny bit real!

1a

I’m not sure what I’m more excited about; the prospect of taking a helicopter ride across the Grand Canyon, or doing a swamp boat tour down in New Orleans! What I do know though is that I’m going to have the adventure of a lifetime and make so many memories. What’s more is that I’m doing it ALL BY MYSELF with no one to hold me back or bring me down and I am so excited to stand on my own two feet, experience a totally different life and just enjoy my month long adventure with my fellow Contiki travel mates.

Now that I’m all packed, my dollars have arrived and I’ve checked into my flights online I can finally start to countdown to my American adventure and look forward to my epic trip ahead!

 

For those of you that are wanting to come along for the ride please follow me on social media as I won’t have the time to write actual blog posts until I return to the UK in July. I’ll be posting as many photos as I can though as and when I have WiFi access so that I can keep in touch with my friends and family back home. As always, you can follow me on Facebook, Twitter and Instagram as well as my new Snapchat account @jessica16_x

So I guess this is it… see you on the other side!

Love Jess x

/by

*SPECIAL ANNOUNCEMENT!* I'M TAKING THE PLUNGE!

Hi everyone,

So earlier on this week I announced something pretty special on my personal Facebook page and thought the time was right to share it with the rest of the world, and all of you lovely readers of course! Back in January I made a crazy, crazy decision… here’s what happened…

announcement

I know what you’re all thinking.. typical new year, new me status blah blah blah.. to be fair I don’t blame you for thinking that! Just after Christmas I realized that 2016 HAD to be the year for things to change for me. I’d been moaning for ages that I needed to do something travel related for work and I needed to explore some more places in order to cure some of the crippling wanderlust that had been trapped inside of me!

 

After deliberating for a couple of weeks I decided to pop into my local STA Travel Store in Oxford to see what long-haul adventures they could tempt me with. I’ve always wanted to visit the States so I was keen to take a look at their American tours. Within just a few minutes I had found my dream adventure: a 27 day mega road trip from LA to  NYC with Contiki Tours – OH.MY.GODDDDDD!

Taking in sights including the Grand Canyon, the Vegas strip, Panama Beach and Universal Studios the tour offers the trip of a lifetime with first class accommodation and incredible options including paragliding, helicopter rides and  theme park entry. I couldn’t contain my excitement as I considered all the different places I could potentially visit in just a few weeks and my heart started beating faster and faster at the thought of just entertaining the idea!

contiki grand tour

Then I did something crazy… I BOOKED MYSELF ON THE TRIP!!! AHHHH!!

So I’m doing it! My first ever solo adventure across 27 states (okay, I’ll join tonnes of others on my trip when I arrive in LA- but I’m flying on my OWN and that’s a big thing for me!) and I’m sooooo freakin’ excited!!! I’ll see so many amazing places that I’ve ALWAYS wanted to visit and cannot wait to make new friends, memories and have the time of my life.

Oh and the other part? I’ve only gone and QUIT my office job in the hope of being able to work in the travel industry when I return from my trip in July! I was undecided whether I should just take a sabbatical from my current job and continue working and earning money when I come back, or whether I should take the plunge and just quit altogether. Then I remembered that, if I don’t leave now, I probably never will, so I just thought, what the hell, and quit anyway!

 

Handing in my notice at work was nerve wracking but my bosses were so good and they fully supported my decision. I think they’d realized that I’ll be 100 times happier travelling the world instead of being stuck at my desk for 5 days a week! Although I’ll be forever grateful for my first ever grown up job they knew it’s not something that I wanted to stay in forever and, right now, I feel the time is completely right to change everything up. My friends and family have been amazing too and they’re all so excited for me!

So that’s it – I’ve finally found the courage to change my life and now I can just look forward to the incredible adventure that I’m going to have this summer! Some people have already started asking me what I’m going to do when I get back and, in all honesty, the answer is.. I HAVE NO IDEA! It’s kinda scary but super exciting at the same time. This is the first time in my life where I have no plans or a routine and I’m looking forward to being spontaneous and just enjoying life, as well as trying to figure out exactly what it is that I want from this beautiful world.

 

I don’t have a boyfriend, kids or a house to worry about and bills to pay, so why  not just be selfish for a few months and look out for number 1?! I’m sure it won’t do me any harm and I’m 99.9% sure it’ll help me figure out exactly what I want to do career wise too. I’m not looking for a new job anytime soon, I’ll probably do some temp work when I come home just to earn some cash and will look for travel related internships ANYWHERE just to get some experience!

I’m super duper excited for my new life though and, as always, I’ll be sharing it all with you every step of the way! Thank you (again) for continuing to follow my travels, your support is incredible and I’ll be forever grateful- I bloody love being a travel blogger and never want this to end!

Have you ever done something crazy and traveled on a whim? I’d love to hear your stories…I wonder if they’re as crazy as mine?!

Love Jess x

 

/14 Comments/by
,

January Newsletter!

Hello and welcome to my first newsletter of 2016!

I have soooo much news to share with you all, so this jam packed edition of my monthly newsletter will give a round up of my oh-so-busy January! It’s been a crazy month and it seems like its dragged on FOREVER but I’ve squeezed an awful lot in to the past five weeks! Without further ado here it is, are you ready?…

I MADE MY NEW YEARS RESOLUTIONS!

I kick-started my 2016 with a positively inspiring challenge which is the motivation that’s going to see me through these dull winter months! I’ve tasked myself with visiting 25 countries before I’ve reached the ripe old age of 25! Find out how I’m going to achieve it here…

I’VE BEEN SHORTLISTED FOR MY FIRST EVER AWARDS COMPETITION!

So on 4th January I entered my little blog into its first EVER awards competition, UK Blog Awards 2016, and I’m delighted to announce that, after over 70,000 votes across 18 different categories, I’ve been shortlisted as a FINALIST in the travel category!! You can read more about my big announcement here… I’m still so thrilled and can’t quite believe it, a big THANK YOU to all who took the time to vote for me, it means everything! <3

I CELEBRATED MY BIRTHDAY!

#birthday #lastnight #vip #oxford #nightout 👯🎉🍸🎊

A post shared by Jess Buck|JourneyswithJessica (@jessica16_x) on

I turned 23 on the 16th and spent the day with family followed by an evening of celebrations with my closest friends in my home city of Oxford! We headed to the fantastic Varsity Club for cocktails and then onto one of the city’s biggest clubs for a VIP experience in a private booth! A fantastic night was had by all and we rolled in at 5am so our heads were a little sore the next morning day/night/week! A big THANK YOU to everyone who celebrated with me. <3

I WORKED ON MY FIRST SPONSORED POST!

This month I was given the opportunity to review a fantastic new guidebook for Disneyland California and I relished working on my first ever sponsored post! Read my write up on this fantastic guidebook here – thanks go to Amazon and Independent Guides!

I GOT PAID FOR MY FIRST EVER FREELANCING JOBS!

I’ve recently started writing for US based company www.abnsave.com and recently received my FIRST paycheck for my FIRST lot of freelance work! I’ve thoroughly enjoyed writing for ABN over the past few months and can’t wait to expand my portfolio. Here’s to many more paychecks!

I WATCHED LES MISERABLES IN LONDON’S WEST END!

What a show! Literally had goosebumps the WHOLE way through! Incredible. 😱🇬🇧🎭👏

A post shared by Jess Buck|JourneyswithJessica (@jessica16_x) on

I had an AMAZING time watching the fantastic Les Miserables musical in London recently – it was definitely an experience to tick off the bucket list! The show, which is now in its 30th anniversary celebrations, was incredible from start to finish- everything from the lighting to the music to the cast was out of this world! I could watch Les Mis over and over again I never tire of its fantastic score and mesmerising scenes – I was left feeling very emotional that’s for sure!

So that completes my January round up- told you I’ve been busy! Stay tuned for some big news coming up in February… I’ll reveal all soon I promise!

Love Jess x

/by