About Anna

“The world lies in the hands of those who have the courage to dream and who take risk of living out their dreams- each according to his or her talent.”- Paulo Coelho

Hi! My name is Anna Zalazar and I am the Chief Adventure Officer, writer and storyteller behind this site.

I used to work in corporate America before I embarked on the biggest adventure of my life. How I got there was quite an adventure too.

Born and raised in the Philippines, I moved to New York right after college and was immediately bitten by the travel bug on that plane ride. My big move from Manila to New York and living in two completely different cities got me so curious to learn and discover the world more so I decided to work in the travel industry using my background in finance. Fortunately, I landed a job at a financial and travel company, American Express. After five years fulfilling my dreams of working for a fortune company, traveling around America and a first solo adventure to the mountainous region of Wyoming, I challenged myself and set a goal to travel the world in my own terms. So, I saved, sold most of my possessions and on May 2011, quit my job and went on a one woman adventure that took me back to Asia.

Since then, I have been traveling around the Philippines, Thailand, Malaysia, Indonesia, Cambodia, Laos, Hong Kong, Macau, Singapore, Sri Lanka and Vietnam. All of which I have made my way as a solo traveler.

On my way back to America after my first year trip, an unexpected connection in Switzerland made me decide to spend my summer in Europe. For three months I have been traveling around Switzerland, Germany, Hungary, Slovakia, The Netherlands, Belgium, Spain, Italy and France.

At the end of my summer adventure, I felt a strong desire to further explore Europe, a continent that was new for me. So in winter of 2013, I decided to move to a city that I fell in love with and spend my winter and early spring in Madrid, Spain. Here, I embraced a slower pace of travel and have a home base where I managed to do some freelance teaching that enabled me to continue my explorations in different parts of Spain and Portugal.

I created this blog to create a community with other travelers and fill it with travel tips and advice on independent female travel, destination recommendations, budget travel, personal stories and insights from my travels to inspire you in living a more fun and adventurous life.

I hope you stay a while and join me in my quest to explore the world and follow me in my (mis)annzventures.