Practical Wanderlust

Off-Beat Couple's Travel Blog

Lia and Jeremy are the married couple behind the Practical Wanderlust travel blog!

Hey there! We’re Lia & Jeremy. We created Practical Wanderlust in 2016, just before throwing all of our stuff in storage and embarking on a year-long honeymoon. The honeymoon was pretty much a series of unfortunate events  (read all about it) but we had a great time anyway.

On our blog you’ll find practical, down-to-earth, budget-friendly travel tips that will help you avoid making all of our terrible, terrible mistakes. We love off-the-beaten-path travel and discovering what makes a place unique (and a little weird). Our goal is to inform you & make you laugh (preferably at the same time). We want to show that travel doesn’t have to be perfect – sometimes it’s a complete disaster, and that’s OK too!

Want to know more about us? You can low key stalk us here & on our social media channels.

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ABOUT

Meet Lia & Jeremy

Recent Posts

  • I spent years at war with my body. It wasn't a mental thing, either: it was an all-out physical brawl. Trigger warning - I'm going to talk about eating disorders and self harm in this post. Please take care of yourself if you're feeling vulnerable today! . When I was a teenager, I succumbed to the same societal pressure bullsh*t that many of us do. Someone hurt me and I was struggling, and the nearest outlet for my anger and hurt was myself. I hated my body. I punished it. I carved angry words into my skin - you can still see the scars. I starved myself. I made myself throw up what little food I did eat, and then run for hours on treadmills or ellipticals, like a deranged hamster - just in case any evil calories might get the opportunity to deliver nutrients to my body. . This was me at 15: a bobble-head lookin' body with stick arms and a big potbelly, face and cheeks constantly puffy and irritated, poorly bleached blonde hair falling out in clumps. Had I achieved society's idea of attractiveness? Hardly. . It wasn't until a doctor actually said the words "if you keep this up, you will die" that something clicked. See, I have a heart problem. Not because of the eating disorder, but it certainly didn't help. My heart, suffering from the punishment I was inflicting on myself, was giving up. It dawned on me that I might actually put myself in a grave at age 16. . And then I was like, "wait, hang on - that's f**king stupid." What would my death achieve? Would the patriarchy collapse? Would the men who had hurt me stop abusing other women? Would anything change, would there be any positive outcome in the world? UM, NO. It was like giving up and letting society WIN. . And then I got angry. . I spent the next few years devouring feminist theory, going to therapy, growing out my leg hair, and getting my body confidence on. I've been fully recovered for about 8 years, and my confidence is THROUGH THE ROOF. I love myself as passionately as I once hated myself, and I use my body, and my voice, as a platform for creating positive change in the world every single day. . I'm f**king awesome. And you are, too. Love yourself today and every day. You deserve it.
  • Last week was Teacher Appreciation week, and Jeremy is a teacher. (And I'm his chronically late wife.) But hey, every week should be Teacher Appreciation week! ... which makes it OK that this is coming a few days late, right? Right!?!? Ahem. . Here's the thing about teachers: they're some of the most undervalued, under-appreciated people in the USA. They're underpaid and overworked. They raise our children, not just when it comes to the knowledge in their little childreny heads, but their social and emotional development too. . When it comes down to it, kids spend more time with their teachers than their parents. And yet, we think it's all good to pay teachers less than a living wage while they work 60 hours a week (because lesson planning and grading doesn't magically do itself - that's night and weekend work). If anything, summer is just the time when teachers can "relax" back to a nice 40-hour workweek. And don't even get me started on the teaching situation in my home state of Kentucky, where teachers are striking after finding out that their pensions vanished into thin air. But I digress. . Teachers are amazing. They're incredible. They're superheroes in sweaters and cardigans and sensible shoes. And I'm constantly in awe of them, and of my husband. Jeremy loves his kids so much - and yes, we both think of them as "his kids," because they are. Jeremy is the kind of teacher everyone wishes they had: sassy, funny, knowledgeable, fair, and willing to bend over backwards and sideways to help out a struggling kid. He challenges his students to be the best possible version of themselves, to achieve as much as he knows they can, while encouraging them every step of the way. . Jeremy is fortunate to work at a school here in Oakland which is founded on core values that he aligns with, and his fellow faculty members are equally as dedicated, passionate, and committed as he is. Not all teachers have that privilege, and it's something that we are thankful for every single day. It just barely makes the lack of pay and long hours worth it. Or at least, it helps mitigate the sting. . Do you have any teachers in your lives? Give them some love in the comments!
  • I'm gonna let you in on a secret about being a full-time travel blogger: it isn't all jet-setting around the world in flowy skirts taking glamorous pictures in front of brightly colored walls. I mean, obviously that's part of it, or this picture wouldn't exist. But you know what I mean. I want to lift the glittery, gilded, frolicking-on-the-beach-with-a-coconut curtain up and show y'all what it's REALLY like - which is why I've got a new post up with 25 things nobody tells you about being a full time travel blogger (link in bio)! . I usually post about my day-to-day tasks in my Instagram Stories, complete with boring to-do lists like "finish my taxes" and "put on pants, maybe." But this week I haven't even had time for that level of basic-ness. For those of you wondering about my radio silence on Instagram Stories, I apologize (to all 5 or 6 of you). Between my conference next week and only posting twice in April and my Pinterest course and a massive freelance commission that's due next week, I've been freakin' the flip out, y'all! . But here's the thing: no matter how overwhelmed I feel, no matter how panicky that in-over-my-head-what-am-I-doing voice in the back of my mind gets, no matter how much I may be quietly (or loudly) freaking out - I wouldn't trade this life for anything in the world. . This job has allowed me to take FOUR amazing trips with family and friends - just in the last 4 months. Those memories are more important to me than any accolades or bylines (although y'all know I love me some fancy bylines). So all the stress? Worth it. . What are some things you've always wondered about full-time travel blogging? Peep the new post, and drop me a question below! . . . #DameTraveler #girlslovetravel #gltlove #MyTinyAtlas #femaletravelbloggers #darlingescapes #girlaroundtheworld #globelletravels #ladiesgoneglobal #sheexplores #sheisnotlost #thetravelwomen #wearetravelgirls #colombiagrafia #GaleriaCo #colombia_greatshots #travelcolombia #igerscolombia #icu_colombia #loves_colombia #colombia_folklore #visitsouthamerica #PassionPassport #ig_latinoamerica_ #loves_americas #realismomagico #colombia_estrella #ig_colombia #loves_colombia #cartagenacolombia
  • I keep having these "OMG, is this my life?" moments. I have them whenever a reporter for a Very Important Publication reaches out with a request for a quote or an interview or an article they want me to write. Lately, it seems that's been happening more and more, which is SO COOL. Last week alone, I was featured in BOTH Travel & Leisure AND Forbes. Will someone pinch me, please?! I'm living my dream! . I remember when I first started my blog... well OK, actually, 2 years after that. Because when I first bought my domain and hosting I attempted to install Wordpress, broke my entire site, and spent 2 years paying for a blank, white page instead of... I don't know, asking someone to help me fix it. 🤦I eventually set it back up on Blogger, and even though it was 2016, it looked straight out of 2005. Yikes. . Anyway, I remember reading other travel blogs with this awe-struck feeling. As I prepared for our year-long honeymoon, I found myself coming back to certain blogs again and again to seek their advice. I developed that "I don't know you, but I feel we should be BFFs" reader crush on my favorite blogs, and then tried to figure out why I was crushing on some blogs versus others. What were they doing to make me feel that way? Without realizing it at the time, I was doing competitor research! . I felt SO star-struck over those bloggers, especially the ones I knew were full-time. (Full disclosure: I TOTALLY still have bloggers that I fangirl over.) But these days, I consider many of the bloggers I idolized 2 years ago to be my peers. One of them is even my business partner, @HappytoWander! What is my life?! . I've hit so many milestones in less than 2 years, it hardly even seems real. But that's the beauty of this industry: it is brand spanking new, and we're all still figuring it out as we go. Success is there for the taking. . So if there is absolutely anyone out there who feels star struck by lil' ol me, guess what? Pretty soon we'll probably be peers, and I'll be coming to you for advice and you'll be like UGH I'M NOT TELLING YOU ALL OF MY SECRETS LIA STAHHHP. Just you wait! . Do you fangirl over any bloggers? Which ones, and what do you love about them?
  • This time last year to the DAY, we were on the tail end of our year-long honeymoon. We hopped on a plane to go spend a month in Mexico: we house-sat two adorable dogs in Puebla, ate our way through Mexico City, and shook sand from every nook and cranny of our bags (& bodies) in Isla Mujeres. Spending a month in Mexico pretty much killed tacos for me, because they will NEVER be as good as they were in Mexico. See also: elote, tamales, mole, chamoyada.... the list goes on to infinity. . But other than the extra 20 lbs I'm still carrying around from our honeymoon, everything has changed since last May. It's incredible to look back a year into the past to see how different our lives look today. We're not nomads living out of backpacks anymore (though you might not know that from our laundry habits). We're not broke travelers who will go way out of their way to save a couple of bucks, or do things like sleep in a tiny concrete room with no A/C on 2 twin beds because the hostel was cheap ... and located directly on the beach (if anyone needs a rad hostel recommendation for Isla Mujeres, let us know). . Today, our lives look very, very different. We have an apartment, with a patio, which is walking distance to everything we need - from boujie coffee to boujie groceries, with a boujie rent to match. We have jobs that we LOVE. But I'm not working in an office earning a salary, yearning for my next vacation. I'm a full-time travel blogger! Isn't that crazy??! I didn't even know that WAS a job. . If I could go back a year and tell us that this would be our lives in a year, we'd over the moon. This is exactly what we wanted after our year-long adventure. Long-term travel is amazing, but it's not something that everyone wants to do for ... you know, the LONG term. After a few months of constantly moving from place to place, started craving stability and routine like crazy. I guess we're pretty f***king basic after all. . Basic or not, we're loving our lives. We wake up every day thankful and excited. I want to hold onto this feeling forever. And I can't WAIT to see what next year holds!
  • This beautiful photo taken in Isla Mujeres, Mexico doesn't tell you the full story. In fact, it's a little bit misleading. See, you might see this photo and think "I want to visit this exact spot!" But you shouldn't. This is a place I recommend NOT visiting in our Isla Mujeres guide. . Why would I recommend not visiting somewhere with crazy blue water and waving palm trees? There's even a reef and a zip-line. What's not to love?! . We very rarely advise against visiting somewhere, but in this case, we felt strongly enough to speak out. See, this waterfront adventure park has another attraction that it advertises to its visitors: Dolphin Discovery. Imagine a tiny pen holding an imprisoned dolphin, there for you and thousands of other visitors to pet, touch, ride, feed, and do whatever they want to this poor animal without its consent. After a long day of being invaded by tourists, the dolphin will stay in its little pen, recovering from the oils transferred to its delicate skin by the sticky, sunscreen-covered hands of the tourists that delighted in petting it. It is a prisoner held against its will. . In the past few years, we've educated ourselves about eco-friendly, sustainable tourism. As travel bloggers, staying educated and giving informed advice is our duty. And even though we love animals and want to snuggle them all, we do not support any attraction where wild animals are kept in pens and allowed to be touched or pet or held for human enjoyment. . NEVER touch, feed , or cage wild animals. And if we see you posting a photo with a wild animal, rest assured: we are judging you HARD. . Were you aware that tourist attractions featuring wild animals are typically harmful and abusive ? Leave us a comment below! . #oceanside #TravelDiary #LovetoTravel #darlingescapes #exploretheworld #PassionPassport #LetsGoSomewhere #exploremore #BestVacations #MyTinyAtlas #PassionPassport #travelstagram #destinationearth #sidewalkerdaily #igersmexico #loves_mexico #mexicomaravilloso #mextagram #ig_mexico #vivamexico #coastline #vive_mexico #instamexico #instavacation #liveauthentic#flashesofdelight #mexicanoscreativos #travelogue #islamujeres_ig #islandlife
  • When we quit our jobs to take a year long honeymoon, we had this idea in our minds that travelling for a whole year would change us somehow. Everyone says they "find themselves" when they travel, and we were fully prepared to find ourselves, too. . We figured we'd find ourselves doing things like waking up at dawn, doing sunrise yoga, drinking exotic juices, spending the morning meditating or journalling or pensively reading impressively titled books, before casually taking off on a 10 mile hike or some light skydiving, and then turning in at a reasonable hour. . Instead, we pretty much found ourselves doing exactly what we usually do at home, except in exotic places: waking up late, heading immediately in the direction of coffee, working all day, watching Netflix all night, and then turning in 3 hours later than we said we would. Every time we tried to do something adventurous or athletic, it typically resulted in painful and expensive failures. Our honeymoon was pretty much a series of unfortunate events (heyooo there's that Netflix addiction again) but we had a blast anyway. . By the end of our honeymoon, we realized that the selves we'd found were not the adventurous, super-human, very fit Travel People we'd hoped we might be. Instead, we found that we were EXACTLY the people we'd always known we were. . Reality didn't hit us all at once, though. It took a year of reality slapping us repeatedly in the face, stranding us on waterfalls and getting us lost on mountains and yelling at us WAKE UP IT'S NOON HOW ARE YOU STILL ASLEEP?!?! But we finally grew to accept ourselves, with all of our many, many, many, many flaws. . The year long honeymoon may not have changed our personalities or identities or anything like that. But it did change our lives: thanks to the little blog I started for fun to document our journey, I'm now a full time travel blogger! And being my own boss means I get to sleep in as much as I want. So it all worked out. . Have you ever "found yourself" while traveling? Who'd you find, and was it who you expected?
  • I never really "got" Instagram. Before I was a travel blogger and social media was part of my job description, Instagram was one of the social media platforms that just didn't make sense to me. Looking at pictures of people I didn't know in real life holds absolutely no appeal to me. I'm a naturally curious person, and when I see something I like, I want to learn more. . On Pinterest, visual inspiration came with information: click on picture and you can learn how to re-create it in a recipe, tutorial, or guide. Instagram, on the other hand, came with pithy, cliche quotes and emojis. I didn't get it, and I resigned myself to a life of lowly Instagram non-fame. . And then I met some people who finally showed me how to enjoy Instagram. A group of amazing local travel bloggers here in San Francisco who are all KILLING it on the 'gram. Together, sliding through the DM's, we lifted each other up and supported each other's successes. We shared our secrets and stories and learned from each other's strengths. . And then we became IRL friends! Last weekend, we all met up here in San Francisco - some even flew in from across the country. And the sisterhood was REAL, y'all! I've never enjoyed waking up at dawn ever in my life, but with these ladies, it was worth it. And yes, we did it all for the 'gram. . I got more than just a few rad IG photos (including this one) from these amazing women. I got a tight-knit group of friends, spread out all over the country and at times, the globe. And now? I "get" IG. My feed is full of beautiful, inspiring women, and I'm privileged enough to call them my friends, too! . Have you made any friends through Instagram? Tell me about them and drop a tag, below! . . . #alwayssf #sanfrancitizens #sanfranciscolife #passionpassport #californialiving #sanfranciscobay #visitsf #citybythebay #nowrongwaysf #girlgetters #thesanfrancisco #alwayssf #igerssf #igsanfrancisco #mysf #iheartsf #ilove_sanfrancisco #CitizenFemme #DameTraveler #wearetravelgirls #sheisnotlost #GirlsWhoTravel #girlslovetravel #radgirlslife #thetravelwomen #girlsvsglobe #femaletravelbloggers #girlsjustwannatravel #ladiesgoneglobal #wearetravelladies

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