Thanks for taking an interest in me and my site! Here’s a more detailed story of my past and how MJ Travel Guides was born. 

Childhood Years

I grew up in Wolverhampton, a working-class city in the middle of England, about 17 miles outside of Birmingham. I had a perfect childhood and enjoyed summer holidays with my family to the south of France, Spain, Portugal and Greece. 

Filmmaking Years

My passion as a young adult was very much cinema and I set my heart on working in the film industry.

From the age of 22 and for the next 15 years I wrote, directed and produced independent films as well as crewing on other indie productions with varied success.  

I hardly ever travelled outside of the UK during this period, except for a trip to Cannes and then later to LA. As my filmmaking ventures waned, my dream of travel and seeing more of the world only intensified.

Me back in my filmmaking days, wishing I was travelling.
Me back in my filmmaking days, wishing I was travelling.

My Big Trip – 2013

In 2013 I finally took the plunge and spent 9 months solo backpacking around the world.

I worked on an indie film production in the US for a few weeks and used that as a springboard to travel around the US, Canada, South East Asia, India and Nepal, before ending my trip walking the Camino de Santiago in Spain. 

It was a truly transformative year for me, and as I headed back to the UK penniless I knew deep down that my passion for filmmaking had been replaced with a newfound love for travel.

Some of my travel adventures in 2013.

Teaching English Abroad – 2015/16

After my big trip in 2013 I was desperate to travel again and I didn’t have to wait too long before my next travel adventure.

In 2015 I said yes to a couple of Erasmus programmes which allowed me to live and work in Spain (La Coruña and Seville). 

After 2 months in Seville I visited a travel friend in Madrid and ended up teaching English there for up to 6 months.

I absolutely loved my time teaching English in Spain and that led to me working as an online English teacher for the next several years. 

Starting MJ Travel Guides – 2024

Although teaching online gave me a regular income and paid for more travel adventures, I was really intrigued in transitioning to a full time travel writer.

Although MJ Travel Guides wasn’t launched until May 2024, I was actually travel blogging on another website all the way back in 2022. 

It took me a couple of years to figure out the world of travel blogging and I made plenty of mistakes along the way. Looking back on my progress as a travel blogger from 2022 to now, I’m so proud of the progress I’ve made.

Travel blogging is a far from easy endeavour – there’s been plenty of times where I’ve wanted to quit and felt like giving up. 

But the combination of travelling and writing are my two biggest passions in life and I’m so excited for this blog site and my dreams for it to continue to grow into the future. 

2025 & Beyond

Looking to the future I very much intend to continue writing about my travel adventures on MJ Travel Guides.

But I also plan on launching my own Youtube channel and continue writing about my travel stories through as many different channels as possible.

On top of the world!
On top of the world!