St. Petersburg resident Jen Ruiz is a former lawyer turned full-time travel blogger.
She has written travel stories for major newspapers and contributed to travel guide books like Lonely Planet.
Now, her journey from a windowless office to traveling the world, is shared in a new book, "12 Trips in 12 Months: Make Your Own Solo Travel Magic."
WUSF's Cathy Carter recently spoke with the author.
Jen, back in 2017 you were working as an attorney at a nonprofit, but you decided that something was missing in your life as you approached kind of a milestone birthday. Can you tell us that story?
The year before my 30th birthday, I was experiencing what I imagine many people experience when they approach a milestone birthday. Just really wondering if I was where I wanted to be by that age. I really wanted to find, how can I best take advantage of where I am right now at this point in life, and do something that's going to feel like a great way to send off this decade.
As you write in your book, the first trip you took that year was to Greece. You had such an amazing time that you came up with a rather ambitious travel plan.
My original goal was one trip a month. That it would be a really fun challenge, where at the end, no matter what happened, I would have these really wonderful travel experiences to look back on. So, when I started doing them, I was trying to find affordable flights, I took on a second job teaching English online while I was still practicing law to be able to afford all of these trips. And then when I got to the halfway point, I didn't want it to end. That's when I started just taking as many trips as I could fit in. And so, I completed 20 trips to 41 cities across 11 countries.
As you share in your book, you went to many amazing places. What are some of your personal highlights?
You know, the moments that are just at the top of your list, I knew that I wanted to go to the south of France. For me that was something that was a dream trip, seeing the south of France with the lavender fields in full bloom and seeing the sunflower fields. And then I had other moments throughout like watching the sunrise over Angkor Wat Cambodia, which is actually the world's largest religious site. But the year was filled with so many I mean, swinging off the edge of the world in Ecuador, going into a volcano in Iceland, you know, so many beautiful memories from that year.
Well, that’s great but at this point some people might think you must be a wealthy young person but as we mentioned, you worked at a nonprofit. You just educated yourself in how to travel on a budget, so can you share some tips with us?
I think that there are three guaranteed ways that you can find cheap flights. And I used all three of these ways during that year. The first is flight alert sites. These are companies that have people that their job is to look for flight deals. That can be a sudden price drop, it could be a mistake fare, whatever the case may be, when they see a price drop, they email you. Just last week, there was a deal for a $100 round-trip flight to Ireland. The second way is budget airlines. I flew with budget airlines on my yearlong challenge. I was able to get to Iceland for $99 and back for $150. So less than $300 round trip. And the last way is points and miles. So, when you take out a travel credit card, you usually get a bulk sign-up incentive. I redirect my existing spending to travel credit cards, and I've been able to redeem those points and miles for things like three free nights at the Marriott in Cairo overlooking the pyramids of Egypt from my balcony.
Okay, so we feel a little bit better about the money part but a lot of people are nervous about traveling solo. What is some of your advice on that?
I used to say the same thing. The fear usually comes from fear that you will be lonely, fear that you won't know what to do, fear that you may be unsafe. I think those can all be addressed. For instance, if you are worried that you're going to be lonely, there are lots of groups that have solo female traveler tours. If I wanted to go out at night and I'm by myself, I've done things like a haunted walking tour, or a food tour or a pub crawl, with people. So, there's a guide that's designated to get you back safely at the end of the day and there's a group of people that are already built into that activity that are going to be with you for the next two or three hours. So, I would say don't wait for somebody because time moves fast. You're not guaranteed to have the money to be able to go again or the mobility to be able to go again. Before you know it, you will have realized that your best time was spent waiting.
A book talk with Jen Ruiz happens Sunday, June 16 at Oxford Exchange in Tampa.
