Welcome to my blog :)
- Steph Haber
- Apr 5
- 5 min read
Hello wonderful friends and welcome to the first official blog post.
My name is Stephanie – Steph for short; I’m a solo traveller based in Melbourne, Australia.
This is something I have wanted to create for many years, a travel blog to share my knowledge, photo diaries, hidden gems, women’s safety whilst travelling, packing tips and to inspire and encourage everyone to take that leap and book that flight for the biggest adventure of your life.
I first fell in love with travelling when I got the opportunity to study in Florence, Italy on exchange through my university degree (shout out to La Trobe University and of course, my Bachelor’s degree in Graphic Design); and well, I kind of haven’t stopped travelling since. I have been to 99 different countries so far. I am a storyteller, my favourite thing of all time is to jump behind the camera and capture what is most important to me – the experience. I love immersing myself in the culture, trying all of the local cuisines and of course, interacting with the locals because that is how you truly get the most authentic travel experience.
Let’s back track a little – it’s story time.
Let's begin with my grandparents as they deserve the most special mention of all; both sets of grandparents (from mum & dad's side) migrated from Malta to Australia in the 1950's and were the true adventures, they travelled everywhere - I'm talking Europe, South East Asia + more. My nanna Spira would show me photographs of her travels and share her inspiring stories with me which is something I will cherish forever.
My first overseas trip was back in 2008 where I visited Japan with my high school as a part of a student exchange program if you studied the language (which I did for 10 years). This was my first taste of experiencing life overseas away from Australia. We did a study tour for two weeks, exploring the country and had a featured home stay with a host family.
Fast forward to 2014 - I applied for an opportunity whilst studying my Bachelors Degree of Graphic Design at university to be apart of a study tour in Florence, Italy which to my surprise, I was selected. This is what truly ignited my desire to see the world. The experience was unreal, from having lost luggage to not being able to find my accommodation (c'mon, we've all been there) to of course, immersing myself in the delicious food and the culture. A true adventure of a life time. Coming home from my first ‘proper’ 6 weeks abroad was well and truly life changing, as the year continued I graduated from my degree and had no luck finding an in-house design job.
However, the strong desire for adventure was still burning, so I booked a 45 day tour around Europe + 8 days in Egypt in 2015. I worked as hard as I could with multiple jobs – we’re talking 3-4 jobs at a time working all hours of the day and night (shout out to McDonalds) to save every cent to afford my adventures, (yes, all self funded).
Each and every year as I returned home I had already started thinking of my next adventure. 2016 was filled with an Asian adventure. 2017 was 4 months travelling around Europe, UK & North Africa the Middle East. 2018 was an incredible South East Asia and South America adventure where I first discovered I actually enjoyed hiking (thanks Inca Trail)! In 2019, I took my long service leave and embarked on what was truly one of the biggest adventures of my lifetime - an African safari for 3 incredible months from Nairobi to Cape Town, then Johannesburg to Durban.
By the end of 2019, I had visited 6/7 continents and travelled in between working continuously for 5 years. Majority of my travels have been solo, either backpacking or joining group tours, where I have met so many incredible people that have shared their stories with me, who continue to inspire me every day. Then of course, covid hit. I felt lost, the whole world paused for quite some time. Victoria being the hardest hit state in Australia, lockdown wise. I was lucky enough to still have kept my job, so I continued to work and save money. When the borders opened, domestic travel was the way to go.
2023 was the last year of my twenties and a pivotal moment in my travelling life. I didn’t want to spend the last year of my twenties working behind a desk, I craved adventure… so that’s what I did. I booked a 5.5 month adventure around the world, starting strong with 2 months through Central America, ticking off my final wonder of the world I had to see, Chichen Itza, through to Colombia. 6 weeks solo travelling through Europe, visiting new countries and returning to explore others in more depth. To Azerbaijan and Georgia, the 5 Stans (and who could forget turning 30 in Kazakhstan), to finishing off this trip in my favourite country – Turkiye. Once I returned back home to “normal life”, something is always missing, the adrenaline for adventure.
2024 was an adventure in to the Philippines and the Middle East (UAE, Oman & Saudi Arabia), where I did my very first content creation job with Intrepid for the Saudi Arabia Women’s Expedition (which was honestly, such an incredible experience to be surrounded by women of all ages, sharing stories with one another).
2025 – a year of slow travel, I visited South Korea and Mongolia (which was another incredible content creation job I did with Intrepid), another huge bucket list country; and of course our neighbour over the ditch, New Zealand with one of my amazing friends I met travelling in 2017.
2026 – the year has just started, country #100 has been picked and planned, along with other adventures in the works. I am beyond excited to tick off this incredible milestone.
Now that we've deep dived into my travel history, thank you for taking the time to read this. I can't wait to share all of my adventures with you all!
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