The Journey That Changed Me: Lottie Gross

The Journey That Changed Me: Lottie Gross

From the biggest myth in travel literature to the dream destination she hasn't seen yet, author Lottie Gross shares the journeys that changed her

Lottie Gross is a busy woman. As a travel writer, author, speaker, and founder of the popular newsletter Talking Travel Writing, she has a thoroughly daunting schedule—but that's hardly new.

Before graduating, Lottie had written for National Geographic Traveler, produced a short film about the women's village of Umoja in Kenya, and secured a coveted job at travel publisher Rough Guides.

Lotte GroßLottie Gross, author of Dog-Friendly Weekends

Since then, Lottie has written for The Times, The Sunday Times, The Telegraph, The Independent and the i, among others. She has traveled to less traveled countries such as Ethiopia and Albania and was named Young Travel Writer of the Year 2021.

After contributing to several guides and coffee table titles, she has now authored her own book: Dog-Friendly Weekends: 50 Breaks in the UK for You and Your Dog.

Here she tells us why she wrote this book, how her travels changed her and how she managed to achieve so much in such a short time.

As an experienced travel writer, what do you think is the biggest myth in the field of travel writing?

That you get paid to travel. The actual travel portion of my job is essentially unpaid – I was rarely compensated for the time I spent on the road. Instead, I get paid for the words I write afterwards, meaning a 10-day trip can sometimes only net me £200 if I'm unlucky. But I can get it to work. The point is to collect enough orders and assignments from each trip to make the time spent there worthwhile financially.

You have a dream job. Can you remember a single stroke of luck or was it slow and steady?

I always knew that I wanted to be a journalist and that traveling should be a big part of my work, so I worked hard to make sure that everything I did could lead me to a career as a writer and as a traveler. I suppose a lucky moment was when Rough Guides was looking for an entry-level online editorial assistant at the same time I was getting my degree in journalism, but everything after that was really won through hard work.

Lottie was introduced at her job at Rough Guides

I focused my work on international reporting and travel writing during my studies, I worked hard on my application to Rough Guides and networked with travel writers as much as I could before I left university. This all helped me land this role at my favorite travel publisher, and from there I started building a career by continuing to network, taking on as much responsibility at work as I could, and learning from and listening to experienced editors in the industry.

You traveled alone a lot. Can you remember any hairy moments?

I've always been very happy while traveling and haven't experienced too many disasters, but in Ethiopia I had one of my scariest moments.

I had traveled the country alone for a fortnight without a hiccup until I arrived in Bahir Dar to relax by a lake for a few days before the long flight home. I had inquired at the dock about boat trips to an island monastery, but later decided I would sleep in rather than get up for the 8am departure.

MarcoBallin/ShutterstockLake Tana from Bahir Dar, Ethiopia

I spent the day driving around in a tuk-tuk with a new friend I met on the bus, and then we sat in the hotel lobby drinking beer and watching Ethiopian soap operas. The man running the boat trips stormed into my hotel lobby that night and came right up to me, took the beer out of my hand and threatened to break it and hurt me if I didn't give him 800 birr. He was drunk, high on chat (a chewable stimulant), and absolutely furious.

Chaos ensued when the hotel's security guard came in and pointed his AK47 at the man, and the entire bar became involved in the brawl. I left my 800 Birr on the table and quietly sneaked out while they all argued about it, and I sat awake for the rest of the night until my bus departure at 5am, afraid he would come for more.

Can you tell us something more positive about the journey that changed you?

When I was 21, I spent three months in Kenya - part time playing tourist, part time working on my thesis for university. It was probably the most adventurous three months of my life. I traveled completely independently, taking my mother on the night train from Nairobi to Mombasa and then on her first ever safari. After she flew home, I spent two months hitchhiking from the capital to the border with Ethiopia, where I was making my university film - a study of all-female communities around the world - and back again via a wonderfully remote area called Lake Turkana.

Lottie's university film about the women of Umoja

I had never been somewhere so remote, dry, and harsh, and I had never traveled outside the confines of “traditional” transportation. Since there was no road to drive on, there were no buses to the destinations we were trying to reach, so instead we used a cherry picker to ride on trucks full of UN bags of rice and beans or squeezed into the back of cars owned by missionaries and missionary aid workers to get where we needed to go. This is how everyone in the north got along. We met all sorts of incredible people in northern Kenya - nuns, doctors, women's rights activists and local teachers, some of whom I'm still in touch with today - and experienced hospitality like nowhere else. Here I really learned the kindness of strangers.

Moiz Husein Storyteller/ShutterstockRough conditions at Lake Turkana

I look back on it now with nothing but good memories, but I also remember being scared at times. We were two young women – an anthropologist friend and I – traveling alone in an incredibly remote region. In some of the areas we visited, the civil war in Somalia further north has seen regular gun-toting feuds between rival farmers and occasional terrorist attacks. I often think about the burden we placed on people on our journey north: the woman who made us sleep with her chickens and goats when we arrived in her village at 2am with no place to stay, the boy who took us to his home for lunch, met his mother and showed us around his village.

This trip changed me because it made me really think about my impact on a destination. Not necessarily the impact on the environment, but the impact of my presence and how much I take from a place versus what I give back. I think and hope that it has made me a more responsible and respectful traveler.

Tell us about your new book

Dog-Friendly Weekends is an essential guide to traveling with your dog in the UK. It was largely inspired by the travels I took with my late Manchester Terrier, Milo. We explored everything from Lincoln city center to the Isles of Scilly in Cornwall, and he checked into some of the UK's fanciest hotels with me during our adventures.

Lotte GroßIt's a dog's life

He was a real joy to travel with (most of the time), but there were moments when I realized that not all "dog friendly" hotels are actually that friendly to dogs. They were dog-tolerant, but certainly not overjoyed to see your pet by your side, and many had ridiculous rules like "no barking" and "no paws on the furniture, even when alone in the room" (I never mastered telepathic discipline).

Lotte GroßDog-Friendly Weekends separates “dog-tolerant” places from truly dog-friendly places

I was also frustrated by the lack of useful content about dog-friendly travel in the UK. There's a lot about walks, pubs and hotels, but very little about actual activities, from museums you can visit with the dog to experiences and tours you can book for the whole family. That's why I put this book together. It features 50 weekends across the UK, each location chosen for its dog-friendliness, with ideas for things to do with your dog beyond eating, sleeping, drinking and walking.

What is the most surprising thing you learned during your research?

I was really surprised at how much ancient history is part of our landscape in Britain. It was on Dartmoor that I found myself completely mesmerized as I walked among the rows of stones at Merrivale, which are still a mystery today as we have no concrete idea of ​​what they mean or what they might have been used for. Perhaps they are a burial site or a ceremonial structure. Who knows?

Lotte GroßLottie and her dog by Bellever Tor

I stood in Bronze Age roundhouses on the slopes of nearby Bellever Tor, and in the Shropshire Hills I walked Iron Age hill forts with distinctive ditches that once formed their fortifications, overlooking a green, rolling landscape.

What I love about Britain's ancient history is that it's everywhere, but if you don't know what to look for, it's nowhere. However, with the right eye or the right guide, you can find evidence of our past civilizations all over this land. It's absolutely fascinating.

Do you still have a dream destination that you haven't seen yet?

So many! I've barely touched the surface of this earth, so there are hundreds of places I'd like to visit, but lately I've fallen in love with Uzbekistan. I love deserts and mountains and I've heard this Central Asian country has plenty of both, so I'd love to spend some time on its hiking trails or in its empty spaces.

Shchipkova Elena/ShutterstockThe Chimgan Mountains in Uzbekistan

Hotel or hostel (or camping)?

Hotel, please. Or at least a private room in a hostel. I'm too old for dorms now and would rather have a hot shower and a nice mattress than sleep under a canvas sheet.

Do you count countries?

Absolutely not. It is a vain and superficial exercise that has no impact on worldly experience. The idea that anyone would want to visit every country in the world when we are in a climate crisis is frankly ridiculous. We want our trips to be enriching and meaningful, not a chore.

Finally, what was your most important travel experience?

Flying over the coast and into the desert in Namibia in a tiny four-seater plane is by far the most exciting experience I have ever had. Seeing the beach turn into desert where the dunes are some of the highest in the world and if you look closely you can see zebras running across the sand will forever be etched in my memory.

Smelov/ShutterstockWhere the Namib Desert meets the Atlantic Ocean

I'll also never forget the moment when we got so close to the ground in the plane that I almost alerted the pilot before the ground fell away from underneath us and we flew through a huge canyon in the middle of the desert. I still get chills just thinking about it.

Dog-Friendly Weekends is a handy guide to dog-friendly holidays in the UK, including museums where you can take the dog, heritage railways where the dog rides for free and countless walks for the whole family. Most importantly, it distinguishes the merely “dog tolerant” from the truly dog-friendly.

Main image: Andrzej Kubik/Shutterstock

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