For some people, long-term travel is a once-in-a-lifetime experience. For others it’s a lifelong passion. I fall into the latter camp, and have bookended my 10 years or so of adventures thus far with two epic trips.

Before the second stint of globetrotting I had my doubts: would I ever recreate the joy of that first trip? Could I still handle life on the road? Here’s what I learned spending four months backpacking in my 20s and again in my 30s.

Feeling on top of the world in Nicaragua

Technology has transformed the way we travel for good

I knew something was awry last year when I rocked up to a hostel common room in Flores, Guatemala, plonked down my bags and was met with… no eye contact, no hellos, nada. Every one of my fellow travellers was glued to a laptop, phone or tablet. Smartphone zombies in commuter-clogged London are a common sight, but I wasn’t prepared for this.

On my first round-the-world trip in 2011, backpackers rarely travelled with expensive tech and were free from digital distraction, aside from the occasional hour spent video calling home and uploading photos at overpriced internet cafes. Serendipitous encounters happened on the regular and, without the shackles of Facebook, Twitter and Snapchat, people were – ironically – more social.

It’s not all doom and gloom, of course. What we might lose in organic conversation today, we gain in practical tools. Being able to book hostels, transport and experiences on the go made my recent Central America trip feel seamless, and mapping apps made it almost impossible to get lost. I am now dependent on Google for my navigational needs, despite having once traversed Kuala Lumpur quite happily, with nothing but a hand-drawn map.

This evolution will no doubt continue – the next life-changing travel app might be just around the corner – but I’ll always look back fondly on that period in my twenties, pre-ubiquitous free wifi, when sparking conversation with strangers was that bit easier.

Discover your own power in Fiji

Your body is the ultimate travel tool – use it

At 22 I had a list of body hang-ups as long as an unravelled hammock, but solo travel soon changed that. Countless hikes – up O’ahu’s Diamond Head, through Queensland’s ancient rainforests and around Thailand’s hilltop temples – made me see my sturdy thighs as strong, instead of something I wanted to shrink; my broad shoulders still looked wider than I’d have liked in a bikini, but they bore the weight of my backpack like nobody’s business.

I put my body through a lot and it served me well, so with every extra passport stamp came more confidence, gratitude and perspective. Over time I realised that without these limbs, lungs and love handles of mine I’d never have made it around the world alone. Travel has taught me that bodies are for celebrating, not berating.

At 30-something, these days I’m more concerned with the perils of ageing than aesthetics, such as sun damage and dodgy knees. Hotel beds wreak havoc on my crick-prone neck and being hungover in the heat is no longer bearable, yet I do it all anyway, because life is short and – I hope I’m still young enough to say this – YOLO.

The beach in Maya Bay, Thailand, is awash with visitors

Travel is a privilege – proceed with care

Overtourism existed long before the word started hitting the headlines in 2018. I saw it for myself in Maya Bay, the idyllic Thai setting for The Beach, which closed indefinitely to tourists last year. Seven years before the closure, my heart sank as our speed boat jostled for space in the overcrowded cove – the shoreline was cluttered with people. I joined the throng, waiting patiently to take a picture that would give the illusion of a secluded paradise, all while harbouring a growing sense of guilt. It’s easy to resent others for getting in your way when abroad, until you realise you’re no different.

Thankfully, responsible travel is on the rise. Reusable water bottles are now a common sight on the road, elephant rides have fallen out of favour as their negative impact on the animal’s health has been exposed, and sustainable hotels are increasingly sought after. For my latest big trip I chose lesser-visited destinations, took fewer flights and made sure money I spent was going back to local communities. But I know that next time I’ll need to do even more to offset the impact of my travels. As the climate change movement progresses, the way we see the world is going to change dramatically.

Exploring the natural beauty of Guatemala

A bigger budget doesn’t always mean better experiences

I’m lucky enough to count staying in an overwater villa in the Maldives, enjoying a private plunge pool in the Caribbean and eating lobster in Mauritius amongst my travel experiences. I’ve also slept in grimy 20-bed dorms, eaten tuna out of a can for lunch for days on end and washed my pants in hostel sinks (sorry roomies) all in the name of saving precious pennies – and I wouldn’t change that for anything.

These days I’m still budget-conscious, but with a better financial safety net than 22-year-old me ever had. The option to splash out once in a while is liberating, but experiencing both sides of the coin has taught me that a tight budget doesn’t mean you have to miss out, and luxury won’t always lead to the best memories.

Sparky facing her fears head on in Guatemala

Escaping your comfort zone should be a lifelong ambition

The prospect of solo travel in my early twenties was daunting, but I did it anyway. Sky-diving was emphatically not on my to-do list, but after a (drunken) pact, I still threw myself out of a plane. On that first trip I put trust in strangers and flung myself into unpredictable situations with a gusto and naivety that only carefree youngsters can; I leaned in to the thrill of saying yes more and reaped the benefits. Yet the older you get, the harder it can be to ignore the ‘what ifs’ in the back of your mind. It’s easier to settle into routine and cling to creature comforts, which is why, even after countless travel experiences, taking risks only gets harder for me.

I let fear get the better of me while learning to surf in Nicaragua. I’m no water baby, and the strong Pacific waves were alarmingly large. As I entered the ocean a huge wave loomed up ahead and, in a panic, I couldn’t decide whether to lift the board or push it beneath the surface to clear it… too late. My board rushed up to my face and – smack! I flipped backwards, the tide dragging me to the shore in a tangle of safety cord and bloody foam. My mistake? Not embracing the challenge with the enthusiasm of my younger self. I learned that hesitation can hurt – a lot – and the only way to increase confidence in the face of the unknown is to square up to what scares you more often.

Witches and witchcraft have been both hated or revered throughout human history; loved as skilled healers or feminist icons, feared as handmaidens of the devil and practicioners of mysterious dark arts. As a result, witch lore pops up all over the world and sometimes in surprising modern day incarnations. Here are 7 destinations with a rich witchy history or a thriving tradition of mystic healing.

Catemaco, Mexico

Wizard Hector Betaza, raises a sword during a black mass as part of the annual International Congress of Witches in Catemaco (c) Ronaldo Schemidt/AFP/Getty

Alongside Catemaco’s beautiful waterfalls and untouched beaches, the main tourist attraction is their long history of sorcery, mainly practiced by male brujos. Black and white magic are on offer throughout the year, although debate rages among locals about who is a con artist and who is an earnest practitioner of shamanic beliefs.

The exact origin of those rituals have largely stumped anthropologists but the general consensus is they’re a mix of pre-Hispanic beliefs that are now mixed up with Catholicism. Even the mayor is a brujo and heads up the annual Ritos, Ceremonias y Artesanías Mágica, a three-day event that starts on the first Friday of March with a ‘black mass’ near the town’s lake, attracting tourists and purveyors of fortunes, spells and potions.

Harz Mountains, Northern Germany

Women dressed as witches practicing for Walpurgis night (c) Swen Pförtner/picture alliance via Getty

The Brocken, the highest peak of the Harz mountain range has long been associated with witchcraft and legends, with some sources associating it with sacrifices to the ancient Saxon god Woden (Odin of Norse legend). The peak was also said to be the meeting point for witches on Walpurgisnacht or Hexennacht, the night of 30 April. The legend was immortalised in Goethe’s ‘Faust’ and in recent years Walpurgisnacht has made a resurgence to embrace its pagan roots, turning away from being a Christian festival to protect against witches to instead be a chance to dress up and dance with them instead.

Variations are held in various parts of Eastern Europe and Scandinavia but it remains a quintessential German tradition and Harz Mountains is the epicentre. As well as festivities on the Brocken itself, the nearby towns of Thale, Wernigerode and Goslar go all out, including a thrilling ‘storming of the city hall by witches’. The Hexentanzplatz (meaning ‘dancefloor of the witch’) is home to creepy sculptures of witches and devils all year around and, for the more botanically-inclined witch, the hiking trails are extremely popular all year round.

New Orleans, USA

Voodoo altar at New Orleans Historic Voodoo Museum (c) Kris Davidson/Lonely Planet

Forget Salem with its broomstick memorabilia, New Orleans is the real home of magic in the USA, thanks to its rich history of Voodoo. The city’s unique mix of West African spirits and Roman Catholic saints has survived since the 1700s in thanks in part to the enduring legend of Marie Laveau, a famous healer and voodoo priestess. So popular is her legacy, you can only visit her final resting place by guided tour as people still wish to mark an ‘X’ on her tomb in the hope she’ll grant their wish.

The modern practice of Voodoo is fairly limited in the city today but you can dig deeper into the history thanks to the Historic Voodoo Museum in the French Quarter or with one of the many tours. For more neo-Pagan vibes, you can pop into Hex for readings, crystals, herbs and more, with plenty of formulas inspired by West African traditions and Laveau herself.

Siquijor, Philippines

Roots, twigs and tree barks soaked in liquid are the essential ingredients in Siquijor potions (c) John S Lander/LightRocket via Getty

Dubbed the ‘Island of Witches’ by Spanish colonisers in the 1600s, Siquijor still maintains a strong tradition of local healers (mananambal) and hexers (mambabarang). The mananambal throw a huge Healing Festival the week prior to Easter, the culmination of seven weeks of gathering natural ingredients every Friday during Lent. The result is the ever-popular love potions or healing herbs, while rituals and readings are also on offer.

A 400-year-old Balete tree is also a supposedly enchanted place. The oldest and biggest of its kind in the province, it’s also home to a spring that comes directly up from its tangled roots. Once said to be the home to rituals and supernatural creatures, these days, you are more likely to encounter souvenir sellers.

Blå Jungfrun Island, Sweden

Blå Jungfrun is said to be the real-time counterpart of Blåkulla (c) Gustaf Emanuelsson / Folio

According to legend, this is the real-life location of Blåkulla, an island where witches convened with the devil and was once accessible only by flight. For many years, offerings were left on the shores of the island in the hope of appeasing the strange creatures that might live there. Now a national park, it’s home to an intriguing stone labyrinth and archaeologists have recently found evidence of prehistoric altars and rituals in some of its caves.

While visitors are now welcome on this uninhabited island, it maintains an air of foreboding for many. Everyone must be off the island before nightfall and stick to the paths while there. It’s also forbidden to take any of the stones from the island, an act which is also said to bring you bad luck. Stones are regularly posted back by remorseful tourists so don’t say you weren’t warned.

Pendle Hill, Lancashire, UK

England’s most famous witch trial took place around Pendle in the 17th century and is a fascinating story of two matriarchal households, the Demdike and Chattox families, effectively destroying each other with accusations of witchcraft. Many historians now believe the heads of these families probably advertised themselves as practicing witches and the trade may have been a common one in the area known as ‘witching country’.

Pendle Hill is in the middle of England’s ‘witching country’ (c) Lukasz Puch/Getty

On the trial’s 400th anniversary in 2012, an 82 kilometre footpath named the Lancashire Witches Walk was unveiled, leading from Barrowford to Lancaster Castle where the accused men and women were tried. Recent discoveries in the area have included a so-called ‘witch’s cottage’ complete with mummified cat found bricked up in the walls and historians are still searching for Malkin Tower, the home of the alleged Demdike coven.

Lima, Peru

Shamanism has long and deep roots in Peru and is thought to have emerged in tandem with the culture of building magnificent temples all around the country. Traditionally, the shamans would use natural hallucinogens to speak to the the spirit world and gods and now there are tour companies that offer to connect you with a shaman and a safe space for you to experience this for yourself.

Tourists can get a glimpse into the shamanic traditions courtesy of Lima’s Mercado de las Brujas (the Witches’ Market) underneath the Gamarra Station. Here sellers offer all sorts of traditional folk cures for what may ail you, including a variety of unusual uses for snake fat, frog innards and llama fetus.

You can read an author’s entire body of work, study a president’s legacy, or celebrate the achievements of a civil rights hero, but nothing gives you a true understanding of a famous figure like a visit to the place she or he lived. Their home is their sanctuary for creating their art, developing and carrying out their righteous mission, or simply experiencing life in a setting that influenced them. Here are a few historic homes that deliver a thorough education and, if you’re open to it, inspiration.

The house on the Harry S. Truman National Historic Site captures the life and times of the 33rd president / Courtesy of City of Independence Department of Parks, Recreation and Tourism

Harry S. Truman National Historic Site: Independence, Missouri

From 1919, the year he married Bess Wallace, until his death in 1972, President Harry S. Truman lived in a simple Victorian home in, fittingly enough, Independence, Missouri. (During his eight-year residency on Pennsylvania Avenue, it was known as the ‘Summer White House’)

A wander through this home delivers an intimate look at the life of the World War I veteran and 33^rd American President. Like most presidential homes and memorials, this one is part of the National Parks Service and tours by park rangers happen regularly. The home is so loaded with period details, family heirlooms, personal objects and memorabilia that a guided tour is well worth it.

Susan B. Anthony House: Rochester, New York

One of the cornerstones of American democracy – a woman’s right to vote – took root at a modest, pre-Civil War brick house in Rochester, New York, which is located about 90 minutes from Niagara Falls. Pioneering activist Susan B. Anthony turned her house into the headquarters of the suffrage movement, and when she wasn’t campaigning across the country, she was organizing from the parlor here, often with anti-slavery activist Frederick Douglass and fellow women’s rights activist Elizabeth Cady Stanton.

Check out the third-floor attic, where she penned many political documents, and the second floor features a collection of memorabilia that tell the story of the suffrage movement.

John Fitzgerald Kennedy National Historic Site: Brookline, Massachusetts

America’s 35th president was born and raised just outside of Boston, in the ritzy suburb of Brookline, and to this day, the unassuming home where he spent the first three years of his life stands as a monument. It’s a museum-like destination showcasing Kennedy family mementos and photographs.

Through its history, the Morris-Jumel Mansion saw the likes of Washington, Jefferson, Hamilton and many others

Morris-Jumel Mansion: New York, New York

George Washington, Thomas Jefferson and Alexander Hamilton are just a few of the notables who dined in the Morris-Jumel Mansion, a country retreat built in 1765 on an elevated perch overlooking Manhattan in what is now the Sugar Hill neighborhood of Harlem. It was commissioned by Roger Morris, a colonel in the British Army, and his wife Mary. But in 1776 it was seized by the Continental Army and transformed into General Washington’s HQ.

About 35 years later, it was purchased by wealthy businessman Stephen Jumel who pulled out all the stops to refurbish it. Known to be the oldest house in Manhattan, its period details have been carefully maintained, much to the joy of locals over time. (Duke Ellington once deemed it ‘the jewel in the crown of Sugar Hill.’)

Edgar Allan Poe House & Museum: Baltimore, Maryland

The city of Baltimore pays tribute to its longtime resident Edgar Allan Poe in many ways, such as naming its football team the Ravens, in honor of his famous poem. A visit to Charm City can be a Poe-filled pilgrimage, what with Enoch Pratt Free Library’s original manuscripts and his grave at Westminster Hall and Burial Ground.

Of course, the best way to learn about the American icon and his celebrated work is to visit the Edgar Allan Poe House and Museum, a modest building where he lived for much of the 1930s with his teenage cousin/bride, Virginia, and her mother. His workroom sits at the top of a narrow and fittingly creaky staircase while the rest of the house, which became a National Historic Landmark in 1962, has exhibits on his life in Baltimore, his family and the poems and stories he penned.

The contemplative home where Emily Dickinson penned her poems

Emily Dickinson Museum: Amherst, Massachusetts

The tranquil woodsy landscape of Amherst Massachusetts, about 95 miles west of Boston, is the setting where Emily Dickinson penned her contemplative, radical verse. The Emily Dickinson Museum is set in two historic properties – the Evergreens, her brother and sister-in-law’s house, and the Homestead, a two-and-a-half-story brick house, where the famously reclusive Dickinson was born and spent most of her Victorian-era life writing countless poems, only ten of which were published – allegedly without her knowing – during her lifetime.

Wander the Homestead for a look at her parlors, library, kitchen and maid’s quarters and check out ‘my Voice is alive,’ an interpretive exhibit about her early work.

Louis Armstrong House: Queens, New York

The brick house on 103rd Street in the working-class neighborhood of Corona, Queens, doesn’t look like much from the outside, but inside is a time capsule that tells the story of one of America’s most iconic musicians. Louis Armstrong, who grew up poor in New Orleans, lived out his retirement years with his wife, Lucille, in this gorgeously appointed home, which today stands as a tribute to the legend.

The charming kitchen, the opulent bathroom and bedroom, the handsome wood-paneled office featuring original recording equipment, and the inviting living room, packed with souvenirs that Satchmo collected on his global travels, have all been maintained with attention to detail.

The founder of the Eastman Kodak Company, George Eastman lived on 10.5 acres in Rochester, New York

Eastman Museum: Rochester, New York

Photography museums and galleries proliferate the planet, but the oldest in the world is in Rochester, New York at the estate of George Eastman, founder of the Eastman Kodak Company. A National Historic Landmark since 1966, the Eastman Museum is set on 10.5 picturesque acres and contains works from more than 14,000 photographers, including celebrated contemporary artists like Andy Warhol and Cindy Sherman, the world’s largest collection of daguerreotypes, and vintage prints from luminaries like Ansel Adams.