About Hippie travel blog Rachel Jones
personal narrative snippet by blogger & team
They Says,
Rachel Jones founded Hippie in Heels in 2013 to document her crazy and fascinating life throughout the world. Rachel grew up in a tiny town in Ohio, where she lived with her parents and elder brother, Travis. Hippie travel blog Rachel Jones made memories with people she would have for the rest of her life there. She thought there was more to life after graduating from Ohio State University with a nursing degree, and she was determined to discover it.
Rachel dabbled with travel throughout her undergraduate years, spending two summers travelling across Europe and one month living in Uganda, but her life was forever transformed when she chose to stop nursing and travel solo through India for three months while living in Charlotte, NC. She met Ben after that journey, and just a few months later, after a brief return to nursing, she chose to uproot her life and relocate to Goa, a small Indian state.
Hippie travel blog Rachel Jones would call Goa home for the next six years, starting Hippie in Heels during her second year. From then on, she inspired fans all around the world as she regaled readers with tales of life with Ben in the jungle and her increasingly more glamorous adventures around the globe. She wrote like she was advising her same best friends from Ohio and at one point, she was reaching over a million readers worldwide.
About Rachel in her words,
I used to tell my buddies that I’d work any job for six months if it meant I could travel for the other six. My two favourite activities are travelling and shopping. I saved all year in college so that I could spend my summers travelling around Europe and my winters alone in Africa.
I grew up in a four-person home in a little Ohio town. My father worked at GM, and my mother is a special education aide. I have one elder brother (and I’m hoping he and his wife produce some babies soon to relieve some of my stress).
Being from a small town has given me the advantage of having some of the same friends since preschool. Soccer, schoolwork, and getting into a lot of secret mischiefs on weekends were all a blur in high school.
College was usual, with plenty of drinking, working, and studying (but not really). It was over the summer between my sophomore and junior years that I began to seriously consider the direction I wanted my life to go. In my senior year, I spent two summers touring Europe and one month in Uganda.
Even with all of the wonderful things and people in my life, I sensed that something was lacking. I knew deep down that I belonged among the wildflowers, someplace where I could be myself (Tom Petty, my favourite song of all time).
After graduating with honours as a nurse, I went on from OSU to Charlotte, NC, where I retired after 11 months of cardiac care. It didn’t take long for me to understand I was in the “real world,” and I didn’t like it. As a result, I decided to build my world.
I opted to travel the world with my bag, eat street cuisine, and get massages for $4… across the globe, where I’m just scraping by to make ends meet and fretting about getting auto insurance ready to cover three speeding fines.
I wanted to climb a mountain and ride a camel. That was all there was to it. I was determined not to waste any time. I embarked on a three-month solo tour to India. In a pub in southern India, I met the love of my life.
I returned to the States and worked as a travel nurse in Seattle for three months, but I couldn’t sit still. Before I knew it, I was back in India.
I frequently come across the following quote: Travel is only glamorous in retrospect. (Paul Theroux) and, although I agree on my first few visits, I’m learning how to make it spectacular IN THE MOMENT without spending a fortune (despite my unfortunate newly gained allergy to champagne). I’d like to show you another aspect of India, one that the movies don’t show you.
I make a lot of mistakes, but I’ll show you how to avoid them. There is a balance here; picking the less expensive mode of transportation, such as a local bus, will allow you to stay in a beautiful hotel when you arrive. I’m an expert at locating the loveliest boutique hotel with a pool, haggling for valuable jewels in marketplaces, and sourcing exotic but often pricey silks and cotton to sew my outfits.
To finance it, I may have to ride the cheapest sleeper train with three people attempting to share my bed… But it’s the ADVENTURE that makes it all worthwhile, even with a sleeping pill and my iPod.
It’s been said that I’m a contradiction (my bf calls me the hippie barbie). I just as much like putting on a full face of makeup and a new dress for a club as I do spending a week love-drunk on a beach forgetting what a hairbrush is. Some of my friends regard me as a girly girl, while others regard me as a filthy hippy. My blog’s name comes from the fact that I’m a little of both. I call this a glamourous travel blog because I appreciate luxury but don’t require it. I adore pretty beach shacks with hammocks and comfortable homestays where the owners prepare local cuisine for supper.
I enjoy fashion, jewellery, coffee, reading, the Real Housewives of practically everywhere (I write for Bravo TV’s travel department), and my dog Huckleberry Finn (edit: my dog died away last year… but I love him too much to delete anything). Shanti, Omni, and KitKat are my three new dogs and cat.
To be kind, I believe I’m becoming a “foodie,” but in reality, I just eat a lot.
Liz Lemon (30 Rock) and Monica Geller would be my blend if I were two individuals (Friends). Is it enough to label me a nerdy, socially uncomfortable, neat freak? I don’t believe so… However, because these parallels are commonly made, it’s worth emphasising as a cautionary note.
Another of my favourite phrases is “Not all who wander are lost” (JRR Tolkien), and while I’m not lost in life… I’m probably lost if you see me meandering down a road. A few times, I’ve been known to be unsure about which nation I was in… My buddies, don’t go on a ferry while inebriated.
Now I’ve been living in Goa for the past three years, experiencing what it’s like to be an expat and continuing my travels throughout the world. Hawaii, Jordan, Turkey, and Sri Lanka are among my favourite destinations. I’ve visited 30 countries thus far and counting!
Every “monsoon” season in Goa for a month in July, I return home to meet family and friends. I’ve already blogged about our adventures in Toronto, Hocking Hills, Vegas, and Nashville.
I’m sharing my experiences in the hopes of inspiring other females (and boys) to quit their jobs, travel, and look gorgeous while doing it. You don’t have to be wealthy (though some cash is required! ), you don’t have to be with your pals, and we’re all getting older… There will always be a reason not to go, and it would be a pity to keep waiting for something that will never come.
– Rachel
Unfortunately, we lost Rachel in late April 2019, which you can read about here.
Hippie travel blog Rachel Jones may be among the wildflowers today, but her hundreds of postings and words are still part of Hippie in Heels’ legacy. We, her family, aim to keep her memory alive by reaching out to you in the same manner she did. We want to assist you in travelling and pursuing the adventures you’ve been putting off, and we also want to keep her spirit alive in the place where she poured her heart and soul, hippie travel blog Rachel Jones.
Whenever possible we are keeping hippie travel blog Rachel Jones’s articles untouched. That said, to keep the blog fresh, one or more of the below is consistently underway:
- We selectively update Rachel’s articles in partnership with Rachel’s good friend, Jules. Jules lives in Goa and provides honest and accurate updates regarding restaurants, places to stay, fun things to do & such!
- We work with select female-solo-travel-freelance writers, many of whom knew or knew of hippie travel blog Rachel Jones, to add new content. It’s important to us that the writers embrace the same love of travel Rachel did.
- Samantha, Rachel’s go-to support while she ran Hippie in Heels, continues to run the day to day of the blog. She does a fantastic job! You should check out her blog There She Goes Again
- We intend to highlight female travel bloggers and you can see a few of those here and here
Blogger : hippie in heels by Rachel Jones
Her Blog & Social Network Pages
Blog Website : hippie-inheels.com
Instagram : @hippieinheelsblog
FaceBook : @hippieinheelsblog
Pinterest : @hinheels
Twitter : @hippie_inheels
Youtube : Rachel Jones
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