Steve Biggs

I try to only write about ‘unique experiences’. Ones that nobody has written about before, or better still experiences that nobody has ever had before!

It all started out when I won a private jet for myself and 49 friends to Stockholm and I thought, you know what, I might write a blog post about that. Then there was running the New York City marathon with a supermodel – Christy Turlington – whose charity, Every Mother Counts, I’m now the UK running ambassador for. These stories are also written by a 41-year-old man with a mortgage and a full-time job and not by a fresh-faced 23-year-old backpacker.

I’m currently living just north of London in a pretty little market town called Hitchin and work out of Central London for an international travel company. When not blogging or working I like to run the odd marathon (5 and counting) and ride around on either my Brompton fold-up bike, road bike or mountain bike.

You can work pretty much where you want to – on the road, do you find it hard to work or do you just have fun and work when you come back home?

Back home. I've become weary of late that sometimes I can be so focussed on taking the different type of photos for each of Facebook/Twitter/Instagram I'm viewing where I am through a DSLR viewfinder or through a 4.3" iPhone screen rather than enjoying the moment and simply "looking with my eyes". So on a recent trip, I made a concerted effort to put down the camera and enjoy where I was and who I was with - in Florence and with my girlfriend in this case.

Yes - take the right pics, and make the right notes but I do all the editing, writing and everything else that goes with travel blogging when I get home.

Do you feel many people are envious of your lifestyle?

I have a full-time 9-5 job too but yes some friends are mildly envious (in a nice way). I guess that comes from me posting more travel content than what their average friend might be doing. And as I space out my Tweets and Instagram posts long after I'm back home they probably assume I'm constantly on my travels which really isn't the case.

Then again I might be envious of the school/uni friend on their sole holiday of the year camping in a wet and windy Wales but together with their lovely family, which I haven't quite got to yet.

In which countries have people recognised you, even when you thought nobody would?

I haven't been recognised anywhere abroad yet. I guess that's something to look forward too but I would never assume it was from my travel blog. I'd always have to go for it being an ex-school friend, a university friend or simply a neighbour from where I live. Something would have to explain it.

Which three items would you never travel without?

It's so tempting to go with all the technology we have to cart around these days! I could easily say iPhone, charger and battery pack, but I've got to mix it up a little bit!

So, let me have the iPhone and its chargers as one item and then I'd add to that my little blue travel wallet embroidered with my initials SB that my mum bought for me over 10 years ago, plus a trucker's cap bought for me even longer ago by my best pal Dan. Perfect for keeping the sun off front or back and covering up bad hair days!

Are there any specific souvenirs or other things you collect from the places you go to?

Fridge magnets! Once I had bought that very first one it meant I was doomed from that point onwards!

The only rule I have is that I only buy magnets from abroad and try to go for nice ceramic ones if I can. My travel companions generally get bored of this as I can never buy a magnet from the first souvenir shop I go in to. I have to visit at least five shops and then invariably go back to buy the first one I saw.

Tagged as: United Kingdom

SteveBiggs
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