By Rachel Wilson

Heather seems to be your ordinary family woman from England, but what you wouldn’t guess is that this wife and mother finds the time to travel around the world as often as she can. She was brought up in London but moved to Bristol 20 years ago, where she currently lives with her family. She has been traveling in some form or another for years, starting with camping trips around Europe with her parents as a child, then expeditions as a student, and soon holidays with her husband and family. Now that her kids are teenagers, she enjoys many different types of trips with friends and family, from city breaks and family holidays to activity breaks, such as mountain hiking. She has always combined travel with working or family commitments, so she tends to take a lot of short breaks and pack in as much as she can when she’s there. Heather loves the experience of new cultures, connecting with people who live a different way, and the beautiful surroundings away from her normal busy life that come with traveling. This inspiring traveler exemplifies the idea of being able to travel while still having a “normal” life at home.

Heather started her own blog, heatheronhertravels.com, about three years ago after spending a few weeks traveling through Ecuador with a couple of her friends. She had started posting her photos on Flickr during her trip as a way to share her journey with family and friends. They traveled from the highlands of Quito through the Avenue of the Volcanoes, the Ruta des Cascades through Banos, then traveled by dugout canoe down the river as far as the border of Peru, staying in rainforest communities or camping on sandbanks. It was such an inspirational journey to Heather that when she returned home she decided to start her travel blog to share her experiences.

Heather was kind enough to answer a few questions for The Hostel Life. This is her story.

THL: Where did you go on your first trip abroad?

H: As a family we always went camping somewhere in Europe, packing up the Morris Minor and setting off in the middle of the night for the channel ferry. It was all on a tight budget and we stayed in one place for a few days, saw the sights and then packed up the car and moved on. We visited France, Spain, Switzerland, Austria, Italy and Yugoslavia on these summer trips. Every so often my parents send me a photo of myself as a child in a place that we visited, such as Rome or Salzburg, and then I try to go to the same spot to recreate the photograph.

THL: What were some of the obstacles you faced before going on your first big trip?

H: As a student, I organized an expedition to Papua New Guinea, raised the funding and organized all the research projects that we were planning to undertake in the Western Highlands, well out of the reach of any tourism. Only a few weeks before we were due to leave I learned that our research permits had been turned down due to an unfortunate interview that I’d given with a local newspaper that mentioned cannibalism. After a lot of work to recover the situation and much groveling we got our research permits, but it taught me to be very careful how you communicate what you are doing—always assume that the people you meet and work with are going to read every word that you write about them, even more so in this Internet age.

THL: What does the hostel life mean to you and do you have any favorite hostels?

H: When traveling with my family, we often stay in hostels, although we make sure we have private rooms with their own bathrooms when possible. As my kids are now teenagers, we find that they love the relaxed atmosphere and it’s always useful to have free WiFi so they can keep in touch with their friends on Facebook when we’re away. Although we like to try the local food specialties when we’re out and about, it’s also great to be able to keep costs down by self-catering for some meals. We try to choose hostels that are family friendly but have a bit of a design edge. We’ve particularly enjoyed staying at Rooms Deluxe in Valencia, which is a hostel/hotel hybrid, and the wonderfully relaxed Hullam Hostel in Revulop, Hungary on the shores of Lake Ballaton, where they served a different one pot stew every night cooked over the open fire.

THL: What is it like running your website?

H: Hard Work! I have a full time job and a family, so I have to squeeze in working on my blog in between everything else. Every evening and weekend I do something on the blog, whether it’s writing an article, editing a video or podcast, dealing with e-mails and advertising requests, not to mention trying to keep up with replying to comments and keeping a presence on Twitter and Facebook. I’d love to be blogging full time in the future, so I’m working hard to produce lots of great content and looking at ways to earn money from doing what I love.

THL: What are some of your favorite travel destinations and what made them so memorable? Where is the next stop?

H: I really enjoyed a week touring Lebanon, which gave me a desire to see more of the Middle East—there's so much to see within easy driving distance. You can be in a glitzy beach club in the morning and visiting old monasteries in the Quadisha valley in the afternoon. This year I loved the few days I spent at Siwa, a desert oasis in the western desert of Egypt where it feels like time has stood still, with mud brick houses and donkey carts—there was such a relaxing feel.  Next year I'm hoping to visit Ethiopia with my family to visit friends and see some of the amazing rock churches in the north.

THL: If you could give advice to someone interested in traveling for the first time, what would it be?

H: My daughter is 16 and already pretty well traveled and talking about planning her gap year before university. For someone like her who’s planning to go somewhere far from home for a few months I’d suggest starting with somewhere where there are plenty of other likeminded travelers, such as Australia, New Zealand or Thailand. It’s also great if you can find some friends or family that you can start by visiting and acclimatize to a new culture before planning the next leg on your own. If I were going to travel for a few months, I’d probably just plan the first week of travel and accommodation and then leave any other decisions until I arrived in the country.

You can book a stay at the Rooms Deluxe Hostel right here on our book-a-bed tab!

For more travel tales, videos, podcasts and photos, visit Heather's blog at Heather on her travels. You can also connect with Heather on Twitter and on her Facebook Page.