A female solo traveller who ditched her career at an estate agent to pursue exploring full time and now gets paid to travel said she “refuses to let fear” stop her.
Grace Kelly, 33, first started adventuring when she felt a “sense of accomplishment” after summiting Mount Snowdon in 2018 and then pursued hiking because she was “in a bit of a lonely place”.
“All my friends had settled down and none of my friends were wanting to get into hiking or anything,” she told PA Real Life, adding that four of her closest friends all became pregnant in the same year.
She climbed 23 mountains in 2020, and then expanded her adventures abroad, with her solo trips taking her from Canada and Iceland to Austria and Costa Rica.
Since starting, she has amassed more than 113,000 followers on her Instagram @graces__adventures, and more than 36,000 followers on her TikTok of the same name.
After two years of travelling around her work schedule at an online estate agent, Grace was able to pursue exploring full time as she gained brand partnerships and turned her travelling into a business by hosting trips for small numbers of travellers.
Grace, based in Stratford-upon-Avon in Warwickshire, has hosted four trips for men and women so far, with three more planned, charging between £1,600 and £1,900 which typically includes accommodation, food, transport and more.
The first trip she hosted was in collaboration with a man who owned a yellow American school bus that he had converted into a hostel on wheels with three sets of bunk beds.
She said: “I hosted two back to back road trips in Scotland on this big yellow American school bus, which is so cool and that went really well.”
Grace made the decision “early on” to allow men and women to attend the trips, explaining: “I know that there’s so many guys out there as well that want to meet new people and make friends and step out of their comfort zone.
“We’ve had some great laughs and some great experiences and great…
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