The episode you never asked for but you never knew you needed! This long awaited (ok, mostly by us) episode will take us to some of the tallest towers in the world, some epic monuments and talk about height stats in general.

Despite having a fear of heights, our co-host Darius loves going up tall buildings. After a friendship of 20 years, Emma only learned this while on the viewing platform of the Palace of Culture and Science in Warsaw, Poland 🇵🇱! It was in fact Darius’ idea to go up - but he then stood nervously looking at the view, much to Emma’s surprise and delight. Since then, the quest for tall buildings and the chance to plug them in every possible episode has been on!

From Dubai to China, France to even Cambodia - come visit the highest of the highs!

Where have you been? Share with us in the Lovelly Travels community.

The best part about travel is the adventure! Letting yourself go and committing to the journey. And on her trip to Bolivia, Emma had to do just that.

In this episode, Emma welcomes her travel buddy Jess Picton to relive their escapades from Peru to Bolivia in 2012. After travelling alone, they united in Cusco and took an epic bus adventure across these two South American countries, creating memories and lessons to last a lifetime.

"Our trip had mishaps, misadventures and miscommunications! In some ways I would look back on Bolivia and see it as difficult - but the blessing of traveling with someone as amazing as Jess, was that she helped me to see that all of these misses ... made the adventure!!!

From Copacabana to Isla Del Sol on Lake Titicaca, to La Paz and then Salar de Uyuni and back again. I would go back to Bolivia again in a heartbeat! Epic landscapes, incredible history and a tapestry of culture. It's a must". Emma

Country #29 of 57 for Emma's UN recognised country mission

This was a pretty fun one to record and ticked a big bucket list for our show. We talked about visiting the sheep farm of Trav and Millie Carter in Episode 24 - A real life farmer's wife, and in May 2021 - Emma did just that.

Listen to excerpts from Emma's visit to the massive 5000 acre sheep farm and Trav the farmer who works the land.

There's so much more to farming than many of us think, and these people really need to be a bit of a jack of all trades. There's also a lot of technology now involved - which we got to experience on a real life tractor ride!

Shout out to all our fans in Kaniva, Victoria and thank you for listening! It was such a joy to get to experience some of that country hospitality at a local fundraiser and to meet some of the wonderful people Millie had spoken about.

It was also so wonderful for Emma to get experience a whole new side of her own country! Make sure to get out and do the same!

We're off to the land of the Swiss! Come with us as we explore this tiny but mighty country.

So many famous things we know and love come from Switzerland. It's also possibly one of the most picturesque and postcard-perfect countries in the world. Think mountains, think lakes, think serene!

Darius shares from his many visits to this beautiful country. Discussing food, the epic tunnels through mountains, thousands of lakes and some great places to visit.

Emma proves that she has very limited to little knowledge of Switzerland and has only really flown into the country, driven through it and skiied in and out of it (and fallen over in it! Blame the cheeky chocolat chaud!)

Enjoy as we travel vicariously back to Switzerland through these travel chats.

This is another deeply personal one for Emma and this week she's flying solo as she talks about a journey of a different kind. Emma shares her birth story and her family's own struggle with mental health before and after the birth of their first child.

Of course it is Finn (Emma's son's) birth story that we will hear. But actually when a woman has her first baby, it's also the birth of a mother. It's this journey through matresence and navigating motherhood that Emma shares so openly and intimately about in this episode.

Emma had always prepared herself for mental health challenges after the birth of her son, but she never expected it to impact her darling husband. With his permission, Emma tells the story of those challenging early weeks and months as a new family.

If you're struggling at all during the pregnancy or early parenting journey, please seek support and help - there are some wonderful links in the show notes to guide you.

With love, kindness and gratitude.

This is our second visit to Poland on the podcast, but this time we're taking a deeper dive.

We're chatting to Tess Colman, one of Emma's dearest friends, who is Polish by descent. Tess's Grandfather, Alex Colman, moved to Australia from Poland with his family (including Tess's dad) after surviving World War II. There's even a book about his history, After Forty Years Silence, which we highly recommend you read and can be found on the Jewish Holocaust Centre's website (see show notes for link).

Tess and her family went back to visit a few years ago and she shares that experience, as well as more of the history of her family. She also talks about some wonderful memories of growing up with her Grandmother's amazing Polish cooking.

Emma adds a little from her brief time in Warsaw and together they daydream about when they can visit Poland together! Including the coast - which Emma again proves her lack of geographical knowledge by not realising that Poland does in fact have a coast!

In 2020, the distance in Australia that had seemed to no longer be such an issue became a challenge again. It was a time when in fact, the regions started to really come alive and with travel becoming more local as we can't go so far, regional areas are booming.

Jane Hillsdon lives and works in regional NSW and is passionate about helping businesses to better market themselves, to their regions and beyond. Emma connected with Jane through Business Chicks and although they first met online, have now formed a friendship in the flesh too. When Emma was driving through NSW recently, it was Jane she reached out to to get the low down on her coastal area of Port Macquarie and Jane was every bit the local guide. She's also a passionate traveller and shares her love of exploring with us.

In this episode we talk about the unique nature of "regions" in Australia, being that our country is so geographically spread. And what regional business and travel might look like in the future.

Jane is an absolute gun marketer and you can listen to her podcast over at the "How to do Marketing Show", where Emma just happened to be a guest! See the show notes for more details!

Wow! Our first anniversary. We cannot quite believe it.

This idea came about on a roadtrip at the end of 2018 through the Baltic region in Europe. It went something like “hey, I like podcasts. You like podcasts. We’re good at talking. Let’s do a podcast.”

But it actually happened! And here we are, only 18 months after that trip and with now 60 episodes under our belt!

Huge thank you to all of our amazing guests who have helped us to talk about some really interesting and thought-provoking aspects of travel.

Thank you of course to our listeners, more than 1000 so far, and our beautiful community over at Lovelly Travels group on Facebook. We love you and we appreciate you. Keep the conversations going!

And to Darius! The co-host with the most (awesome). Thank you for your passion, skills, editing prowess and patience with my lunatic antics, including Roadtripping across 5 countries in 2 days (something totally unimaginable now in 2020/2021). Thank you my friend.

This has been a dream come true and there’s so much more to come. But for now, thank you from Emma (Lovelly) Lovell. I’m so grateful for your support in following this mission to 195 countries and for raising awareness about mental health!

More to come!!!

This week we’re off to Hungary! On many of the episodes we make you hungry with our discussions of lovely food - but we are in fact discussing the country this time.

Beautiful architecture, a fascinating history and of course, incredible food. Emma and Darius share their brief but memorable trips to Budapest and their hopes to explore more of this wonderful European country.

For Emma this was country 42 of the 195 UN recognised countries she plans to visit. Follow along @lovellytravels to hear more about this mission!

This conversation was too good for just one episode! We're back this week with Darius and his mum, Wilma!!

We pick up with Wilma leaving Iran as the revolution began. She then travelled to Saudi Arabia to earn some travel money and visits Iraq, Syria and Turkey before heading back home to Germany.

Her travels took her through Asia, back to Germany a number of times, before finally getting to settle in Australia with her young son, spoiler altert, our co-host Darius!

Enjoy this beautiful conversation between mother and son as they relive shared travel experiences and learn about the road that got them to one another.