Caroline Howley

At 25, I quit my writing job, packed my big red backpack, and set off for a seven-month solo trip to South America and South East Asia.

I’d fallen deeply in love with travelling a few years prior, during a (very) budget trip to Thailand, when I’d trekked the golden triangle in wildly inappropriate footwear, sliced my arm open on a bamboo stalk and been repeatedly scammed.

I was entranced by the culture shock and – born and bred in industrial Northern England – the sprawling greenery. I tirelessly plotted my return.

With a handful of travel writing commissions in my pocket, I struggled up the Inca Trail to Machu Picchu, posed with a series of props on the Uyuni Salt Flats and paraglided off a mountain in Rio de Janeiro before finally heading back to Bangkok. The traditional Southeast Asian backpacker circuit followed – Thailand, Laos, Vietnam, Cambodia – followed, before a spell in Hong Kong, a month in dreamy Bali and onto Australia.

Returning home was a different kind of shock, and before long I was back on the road for a 13-month trip exploring more of Asia and Eastern Europe – and writing about it along the way. Post-pandemic, I’ve focussed on shorter but slightly more glamorous trips in Western Europe – although I’m still a backpacker at heart.

I specialise in writing about long-term, long-haul travel, seeing the world on a budget and city breaks. You can find my work everywhere from Suitcase Magazine and Emirates’ in-flight mag to The London Economic and Seeker.