If a year ago someone would've told me I'd be living in Spain for 2 months I'd probably laugh and say something like "only in my dreams...." a lot of things had to go wrong for me to be able to just hop on a plane and pause my day to day life, but even more things went right. I've never been a huge plan in advance type of gal before, but being in a long distance relationship has taught me the beauty of planning ahead of time. It also gives us both a countdown to the next time we get to see each other, which is always exciting! Long story short I no longer had a full time job, my boyfriend lives in Spain and a lot of time on my hands to be spontaneous. I've never been to Spain so getting to experience it this way was the ultimate dream come true! I'm so grateful for him, his family (which welcomed me with open arms) and all the amazing people I met along the way.

I had the pleasure of creating content for Merry People. I even got to answer travel questions for them. I'll include some of them below but head to their blog for the full article.

Putting together cute outfits on a backpacking holiday is a gift! What tips and tricks have you learned on how to put together a “wanderlust wardrobe” that is cute, comfy, mix-and-matchable… and most importantly, fits in a suitcase!

I used to be quite the overpacker just throwing everything I think would look cute but definitely not practical in my suitcase. Packing for two (usually) dramatically different countries when it comes to weather, forced me to use the “less is more” motto, while still wearing fun, stylish things that made me feel good. It started off as a challenge and now I'll be using these tricks on all of my travels:

My first tip is to narrow down bottoms and only have 1-2 pairs MAX of each.
pack more tops to balance it out. It may seem impossible but the amount of versatile outfits you can create by just wearing different tops/bottoms is worth it.
TRY ALL OUTFITS ON - if you’re iffy or unsure about it when it’s on at home you won’t wear it at ALL on your trip trust me.
Also it helps me to see visually what bottoms go with what tops and shoes etc. Packing cubes! I organized my suitcase using packing cubes. It helped tremendously! I had a cube for each, for example all dresses fit in one, all bottoms fit in one, tops, swim etc.

Ashley's Adventures in UK and Spain: What To Pack, How To Style and Where To Go

Estepona

We walked around Old Town Estepona - found lovely street cats, drank sangria in a courtyard and found beautiful scenery! We went to Palm beach for lunch and explored lots of Estepona!

Benhavís

Okay this place was by far a FAVORITE. We went here randomly and I fell in love with the beauty of every single thing here! We parked along the street and saw this glass over look which was a bit scary but I had to go view it...I'm so glad I did because the view was just breathtaking. We walked around and let me tell you I couldn't top taking photos of every building, restaurant, shop...it was all beautiful! Just when I though it couldn't get more beautiful we stumbled upon this staircase....it was pure art! We ended up coming back here to hike and swim. There's natural waterfalls and rock pools if you keep swimming. I'd 100% go back to Benhavís and highly recommend going if you're looking for a small town with gorgeous mountain views and adventurous activities!

Marbella

Marbella was also such a gorgeous place to visit! I found Marbella Club Hotel on instagram, immediately had to go eat there and see how gorgeous it was in person. AESTHETICS were going off! We ate at El Patio - the atmosphere was stunning, the waiters were so so nice and the food was good. It was overly expensive for what it was but I already knew that going into it. Marbella's old town was also quite a sight! There's so many beautiful restaurants, bars, beach clubs...I was overstimulated with things to do. We went to Marbella a few times while on this trip and it's another place I loved going back to. The quaint alley ways, the courtyard dinning, sipping wine next to fountains, I loved it!