10 years ago I was a travel blogger, signing up for all sorts of escapades all over the world. I say to people often that I’ve lived a pretty boring life, but looking back over photos tells a different story! I’ve fed ostriches in the Caribbean, got engaged at the Grand Canyon, picked tea leaves in Sri Lanka… the list is endless. So, here are 4 fun travel experiences I’d happily pay top dollar to do again.

1. Beekeeping on a hotel rooftop

The beautiful St. Ermin’s Hotel in Westminster invited me to try their beekeeping workshop way back in 2014. We learnt some bee facts, tasted honey from all over the world, made a list of bee-friendly flowers to plant in our garden, and got dressed in all the beekeeping gear. 

Then we went up to the terrace to say hi to the bees and look at their homes. One of the hives was full of French bees apparently too excited about London to fly home. At the time there were about 300,000 bees making a home on the terrace! That’s quite a buzz (sorry).

I thought about Mr Brady, the husband of a teacher at my own primary school back home. How he brought in his beekeeping suit and taught us about how bees make honey. And then we ate honey sandwiches! I’m glad my brain has held onto some of those lovely memories for so long.

2. Have a wee in the Sketch toilets

Now, I did actually go for afternoon tea at Sketch but the toilets were pretty fuckin’ cool. The sandwiches arrived individually tied with little yellow ribbons and the passion fruit tartlets were topped with a delicate daisy made from icing. But the toilets, though! The scones were melt-in-your mouth amazing and I swear the jam was made by a hundred singing angels.

But OH MY GOD THE TOILETS…

I had never peed in a shiny white egg while listening to rainforest sounds – rain, birds flapping, monkey noises – until this moment. Sadly, try as I might, I simply cannot replicate this experience at home. 

3. Sleep with 200 people at the Natural History Museum

Eeew, not like that. It was a sleepover! I loved going to my favourite place in the world (NHM London) to do my favourite thing in the world (snoozing). Heaven. This was back in 2013 and I’d pay good money to do it again. 

Once the day visitors had left, we waltzed in with our sleeping bags and set up camp under the Dinosaur gallery entrance. The whole evening was packed with activities. We started with a talk on, and I quote, “brutal” insect sex (hmm). And then had a go at some life drawing in the Darwin Centre. Then we wandered around the dinosaurs gallery (with no queue!) and listened to ghost stories. Before bedtime, there was a harpist sitting under Dippy’s tail playing the most beautiful Jurassic Park score. Yes, I cried.

It’s 7am now. Vaguely light. I can hear the quiet shuffle of early risers wandering to the bathrooms. And the screeching of Velociraptors. That’s not something you wake up to every day. It was magical!

4. Walk along the Caribbean seabed, underwater 

In 2012, I won a holiday competition to Aruba (I know, I couldn’t believe it either) and signed up to practically every activity going on the island. To this day, I’m astounded I plonked a diving helmet on and walked along the seabed in the Caribbean with no hesitation. 

Sea Trekking involved wearing a large fishbowl style helmet, much like the original copper diving helmets, and walking along the seabed to see the fish up close and experience a different kind of diving. As someone with no diving experience at all, and with my first snorkeling trips being right there on Aruba, I was fracking terrified.

Everything, apart from the fish, goes in slow motion underwater. We walked along a 375 ft walkway, watching all the fish swim about and even getting to stroke a few of them! The divers would squirt some fish food in front of us and the fish just wriggled between our hands. 

After we got back to land, and I was sure I wasn’t going to die, I kept playing the experience over and over in my head and could not stop smiling! 

BONUS experience I would NOT do again: Elephant riding in Sri Lanka

This one I really regret. While it was amazing for me, it’s no life for an animal who should be living free. We visited Pinnawala elephant orphanage in Rambukkana, Sri Lanka and loved seeing the elephants and their babies roaming the park, trumpeting their gorgeous songs. But in reality, the ‘orphanage’ is actually a tourist trap where the elephants are bred and paraded for entertainment. In fact, the Born Free charity does not endorse Pinnawala as a conservation programme. 

After the Pinnawala visit, our tour guide took us a little way down the road to a riding area, which later on we realised probably wasn’t part of the orphanage itself. The elephants looked well cared for, but you never know do you. We had a cuddle with the elephant first and took photos posing with her, then we sat on her back and went for a walk around the compound. I think the part she liked the most was soaking us with water from her trunk. The elephant we rode was called Nona and I hope she is living her best life now.

It felt like a once-in-a-lifetime experience, even getting to touch her, and I suppose it was because I’ll never do it again. Later on our trip we went on safari at Wasgamuwa National Park and saw elephants in their natural habitat. Not a hook in sight, we knew these babies were being cared for properly.