https://www.findingtheuniverse.com/ Travel tales, photography and a dash of humor Fri, 04 Sep 2026 16:18:56 +0000 en-US hourly 1 https://wordpress.org/?v=7.1 https://www.findingtheuniverse.com/best-camera-backpack-for-hiking/ https://www.findingtheuniverse.com/best-camera-backpack-for-hiking/#respond Fri, 04 Sep 2026 16:12:29 +0000 https://www.findingtheuniverse.com/?p=42947 I’ve been carrying cameras up hills for over fifteen years as a professional travel photographer, on moorland in Cornwall, on waterfall hikes in Iceland where it rained more or less continuously, and on day hikes across the US. For most of that time I’ve done it with two very different setups: a dedicated camera backpack…]]> https://www.findingtheuniverse.com/best-camera-backpack-for-hiking/feed/ 0 https://www.findingtheuniverse.com/best-castles-in-scotland/ https://www.findingtheuniverse.com/best-castles-in-scotland/#respond Thu, 27 Aug 2026 16:28:12 +0000 https://www.findingtheuniverse.com/?p=42627 Jess and I lived in Edinburgh for four years, and I’ve stood at and photographed every castle on this list myself. Scotland doesn’t make shortlisting easy. There are castles on sea cliffs, castles on islands in lochs, castles that are still family homes and castles that are three crumbling walls and a view. This guide…]]> https://www.findingtheuniverse.com/best-castles-in-scotland/feed/ 0 https://www.findingtheuniverse.com/best-castle-hotels-in-scotland/ https://www.findingtheuniverse.com/best-castle-hotels-in-scotland/#respond Wed, 26 Aug 2026 16:10:20 +0000 https://www.findingtheuniverse.com/?p=42682 For a good few of the years we lived in Scotland, my birthday worked like this: sometime in January, Jess would disappear into a browser for an evening, and in February we’d find ourselves checking into a castle. February in Scotland is nobody’s idea of peak season, which worked well in our favour. The rates…]]> https://www.findingtheuniverse.com/best-castle-hotels-in-scotland/feed/ 0 https://www.findingtheuniverse.com/2-days-in-mobile-alabama/ https://www.findingtheuniverse.com/2-days-in-mobile-alabama/#respond Tue, 25 Aug 2026 19:52:48 +0000 https://www.findingtheuniverse.com/?p=42532 Mobile is the nearest coastal city to home for us. We live in Montgomery, about two and a half hours up I-65, and when we want salt air, live oaks and a proper plate of oysters without crossing a state line, Mobile is where we point the car. It’s also one of the most historically…]]> https://www.findingtheuniverse.com/2-days-in-mobile-alabama/feed/ 0 https://www.findingtheuniverse.com/visiting-gulf-shores-orange-beach-alabama/ https://www.findingtheuniverse.com/visiting-gulf-shores-orange-beach-alabama/#respond Mon, 24 Aug 2026 16:38:07 +0000 https://www.findingtheuniverse.com/?p=42447 We live in Montgomery, which puts the Alabama Gulf Coast about three and a half hours down the road from our front door. Gulf Shores and Orange Beach are our closest real beaches, we’ve stayed down there several times, and we were back again this August. In this guide I’m going to cover what those…]]> https://www.findingtheuniverse.com/visiting-gulf-shores-orange-beach-alabama/feed/ 0 https://www.findingtheuniverse.com/things-to-do-in-greenwich-london/ https://www.findingtheuniverse.com/things-to-do-in-greenwich-london/#respond Fri, 14 Aug 2026 13:53:10 +0000 https://www.findingtheuniverse.com/?p=42583 I’ve been writing UK travel guides since 2010, and Greenwich is one of the places I most often suggest people add to a London trip. It has royal history, a famous sailing ship, the line where east officially meets west, and what I think is one of the the best free views in London, all…]]> https://www.findingtheuniverse.com/things-to-do-in-greenwich-london/feed/ 0 https://www.findingtheuniverse.com/best-hotel-booking-sites/ https://www.findingtheuniverse.com/best-hotel-booking-sites/#respond Wed, 12 Aug 2026 17:31:58 +0000 https://www.findingtheuniverse.com/?p=42253 During my old corporate job I lived in a Marriott long enough to be invited to the staff Christmas party. I suspect that says more about my travel schedule back then than about my charm, but the habit stuck. These days Jess and I still book a lot of hotels, enough that I hold Marriott…]]> https://www.findingtheuniverse.com/best-hotel-booking-sites/feed/ 0 https://www.findingtheuniverse.com/google-photos-alternatives/ https://www.findingtheuniverse.com/google-photos-alternatives/#respond Tue, 11 Aug 2026 15:14:05 +0000 https://www.findingtheuniverse.com/?p=42250 If you’re leaving Google Photos and want the closest thing to a straight replacement, it’s Ente. It’s end-to-end encrypted, open source, and it has a step-by-step import path for Google Takeout archives. If what you’re moving is a real photo archive rather than a camera roll, no single app will do the job. You want…]]> https://www.findingtheuniverse.com/google-photos-alternatives/feed/ 0 https://www.findingtheuniverse.com/best-tablet-for-photo-editing/ https://www.findingtheuniverse.com/best-tablet-for-photo-editing/#respond Mon, 10 Aug 2026 15:02:39 +0000 https://www.findingtheuniverse.com/?p=42244 I’ve been shooting travel photography professionally since 2010, and in that time I’ve bought into the tablet-as-editing-machine idea twice. Both times I ended up back at my desktop. Things have moved on a lot since then, and the tablets in this guide are far better machines than either of mine were, but my position hasn’t…]]> https://www.findingtheuniverse.com/best-tablet-for-photo-editing/feed/ 0 https://www.findingtheuniverse.com/best-tour-booking-sites/ https://www.findingtheuniverse.com/best-tour-booking-sites/#respond Sun, 09 Aug 2026 14:32:56 +0000 https://www.findingtheuniverse.com/?p=42238 You’ve found the tour you want. The problem is that it’s on GetYourGuide at one price, it’s on Viator at a slightly different price, and the operator’s own website has a third number that may or may not include the same things. You’ve got three tabs open, and you’re wondering whether the cheap one is…]]> https://www.findingtheuniverse.com/best-tour-booking-sites/feed/ 0