About Us

A Gap Year can mean different things to different people. Maybe you’re just starting or beginning your university education. Perhaps you sit behind a desk dreaming of something more. I’ve been there. I understand that urge to escape. That feeling deep down that says to you there is more to life. You see perfect sunsets, beautiful beaches, extreme sports and exotic animals in the media everyday. Wouldn’t it be great if you could see and do that too?

I, like you, needed to escape. I booked my Round the World flight and jetted off to do things I had dreamed of and a lot of things I never even knew existed. Before I went I created Gap Year Escape back in 2009 to chronicle my journey. This site started off as the miscellaneous ramblings of a solo backpacker and has since grown into one of the largest Gap Year blogs on the web. It’s read in 138 countries and draws on the experience of veteran travellers across the globe. This site is featured on Lonely Planet, STA Travel buzz and various other leading travel websites and blogs.

If you’re new here check out the Photo’s of the Week for some travel inspiration. Maybe you want some more specific destination information? Take a look at places like Thailand, Australia and New Zealand.

If you want to know a bit more about the people behind the scenes, read on…

Amar Hussain

Editor-in-Chief

Amar is a veteran World Traveller, published travel writer and dot com mogul. When not travelling, Amar moonlights as a consultant and also dabbles in Social Media and Online Marketing. He has a keen interest in photography, history, writing, philanthropy and most importantly, travel. He wonders how you can know your place in the world if you’ve not seen it?

Amar enjoys taking amusing or shocking photography and this can also include animals (not like that). Favourite places Amar has lived in are London, Sydney and Queenstown but generally just enjoys a roof anywhere in the world. Sometimes even the stars will do. Amar wishes that everyone, in some time in their life, would do a Gap Year.
 

Hayley Woolf

PR and Writer

Hayley is a vivacious PR professional and creative travel writer from Essex. After graduating from Bournemouth University in May 2010, with a BA (Hons) Public Relations degree, the well-travelled socialite decided to take a gap year, and moved to Sydney, Australia. Hayley plans to stay in Sydney until March, where she will then say goodbye to all her materialistic items, trade her 30k suitcase for a backpack (Wish her luck) and continue “living the dream” along the East Coast.

Hayley loves meeting new people and seeing new places, believing that its the ‘journey not the arrival that matters’. She has an endearing persona and always wears a smile, deeming this the most attractive accessory. Her perfect day out would be somewhere close to the water, if not in it, sailing on a boat from sunrise to sunset drinking strawberry mojitos!

Chris Richardson

The Tech Guy

Chris is The Aussie Nomad. A backpacker trapped in the body of a IT Geek, he is combining the two on an open ended journey travelling the world. His Australian heritage guarantees you he is always up for a beer and will use the word mate more times than Tiger Woods has bed buddies.

At the moment he is currently exploring Europe and all that it has to offer. If you find him floating around your parts, you could do worse than find the time to meet up with him. He’d probably buy you the first beer as well.

Fiona Soper

Writer

Fiona is a 20-something travel aficionado of not-quite-definable nationality. Currently, she trying to find creative ways to balance travel with a PhD (easier said than done) and finds blogging far more fun than science writing because she gets to use adjectives and pretty pictures (and go off on the occasional tangent).

Fiona caught the travel bug early from a brave mother who thought nothing of transporting her (as a small, snotty child) across the world on a regular basis, from Zimbabwe to the Arctic Circle (really!). Since then she hasn’t stopped and doesn’t intend to. Her greatest frustration is that, despite having spent years of her life studying languages (Inuktituk, Italian, Indonesian, French, Swedish and Arabic) and living on four continents, all she ever managed to master was half-passable schoolgirl French.

The Middle East is Fiona’s best-kept travel secret and Oman is definitely next on her to-do list…

Ella Salkeld

Intern

Ella “wants to see the world” (I know, I know). After growing up and realising that money doesn’t actually grow on trees and we can’t live like Peter Pan, she’s taking advantage of the time she does have and taking a year off from study to pursue her wanderlust, in short, having her very own gap year escape.

She loves cheesy, inspirational stuff; acoustic music and dabbles in a bit of acting. As a self confessed wimp, she still loves challenging herself by doing things that scare her… skydiving is on the top of her bucket list! Travel blogging helps keep distract her from the depressing life of full time work before she leaves!

Charlie Smoothy

Intern

Charlie has already had one birthday on a Thai island and would love the next one to be even more exotic. She loves travelling, with trips to Hong Kong, Cambodia, Bali, Singapore, Vietnam and Edinburgh planned. Unfortunately for Charlie, there is a toss up between glorious discovery of shoes and trips abroad. In her spare time, not that she gets much; Charlie is the editor of the popular fashion blog Cocktails to Couture. With experience in retail, being a published writer, and exhibited photographer Charlie has loved working for Gap Year Escape to expand her horizons, and you’ll hear all about her forthcoming adventures.