Hey, I'm Jules
—a die-hard budget traveller turned digital nomad from Wales who has explored 51 incredible countries in the past decade.
After a decade on the road, I’ve had my fair share of scams, hairy moments, and nights slumming in dodgy hostels and night buses. Real Talk Travel has been set up on the back of those experiences and from a burning desire to help fellow budget travellers. It’s not a travel blog for the luxury traveller looking for fancy hotels and tours; it’s for those looking to create their own adventures and don’t mind roughing it up for the sake of the experience. If you want a read a little more about my upbringing, keep reading!
I partly set up this blog to be as transparent as possible and show that the life you’re born into doesn’t define how you can live your life.
Ever since I started travelling at 18, people have often assumed that I come from money or that my parents have been funding my trips. But it couldn’t be far from the truth.
I grew up in a council estate in a beach town in South Wales. While I adored the rainy summer holidays spent in the caravan, my world was confined to my town. Sure, I knew of friends who went on holiday to Spain, but that was worlds away from my world.
I guess the butterfly effect moment was when I interrailed with my older sister at 18. I spent two years working in a fish and chip job to save for it, and when I finally graduated from high school, off we went. It changed my life.
In those 10 years since leaving home, I’ve travelled to 51 countries and called a few of those countries home.
While Wales will always be my home home, I’ve really adopted a nomadic lifestyle, working remotely and chasing the sun. Sometimes I have to pinch myself as 11-year-old Julie wouldn’t have believed it.
If you want to get to know me a little more personally, follow me on Instagram, where I share my day-to-day life.