About Us

Hey there and welcome to Roaming Required. We’re Roma and Russell, a married Aussie couple currently based in London, just trying to experience as much of the world as possible! From weekend road trips to short European breaks, we try to make the most of the history, culture, and adventure on our doorstep. It was our love of travel and exploring somewhere new which led to the creation of our travel blog, Roaming Required. 

The Blog

Roma started Roaming Required about 6 years ago as a way to share our travel stories with friends and family back home. Over that time, we’ve been fortunate that more and more people have been interested in our travels and the blog has grown in both size and scope. Today, Roaming Required offers our readers a collection of travel articles covering the best places to explore in the UK and throughout Europe, various hotel and restaurant reviews, and a particular focus on our adopted home – London. 

Part-Time Travellers

Outside Roaming Required we both have full-time jobs. This makes us, by definition, part-time travellers making the most of our weekends, public holidays, and annual leave quota. Whilst it may be a dream to become full-time travellers, we are very happy with our part-time travel lifestyle. We plan our destinations carefully, identify where we want to go and what our must see places are, and try to experience as much as we can, whilst we can.

Who Do We Write For?

We write our travel articles for people similar to us – full-time working professionals who are looking to get the most out of life. That might be a pop-up cocktail bar after work, short break from London or for those working couples, it might be planning their one or two big annual holidays a year. We wanted Roaming Required to be a helpful resource for fellow like-minded travellers, no matter the length of travel.

We’re not backpackers, we don’t have an interest in party cruises, and we don’t do the 8 person dorm room scene. We’re in our <ahem> late 30’s and looking to learn from our travels, experience new things, and discover the history of the towns, cities, and countries that we visit.

Getting to Know: Roma

I’m Roma, a wanderlusting Australian living in London. I left the sea, salt and sand of Sydney in 2012 to ‘live the dream‘.  Apparently most people think I’m nuts to leave this behind and squeeze my life into a 40 kg suitcase…. but I had an urge for more.  

I’m adventurous at heart and find that I am consistently pushing the boundaries for us to have those adrenaline-pumping heart-thumping experiences.  Everything from sky-diving with a hangover, to ziplining through the forest, to stumbling around a nuclear missile silo, I’m the one with the brilliant ideas, that sometimes looking back, just aren’t so brilliant after all!

My real love is photography. I was given a film SLR as a small child and told to go play. I entered photography competitions for children, and won, several times. Then as a rebellious teenager I put my camera on the shelf where it gathered dust for years ago when I picked it back up several years ago.

As you can imagine, a lot has changed since then so I entered the world of digital photography. In the last year I’m actively trying to make more video content. If this is something you like and want from us, give us a shout and let us know! 

My second love is food.  My mantra is quite often travel, eat, blog, repeat.  As much as I’d love to, we can’t always go to the best/Michelin-starred restaurants but I love a good farmers market and discover locally sourced produce.

Nowadays, after living in London for a few years, I like to think of myself as a realist.  While I’m not a candidate for Extreme Couponing, I am a passionate penny pincher.  Living in London isn’t cheap so we try and find ways to cut costs. In this blog you will find me authoring many tips and tricks to save cash.  It won’t make you rich, but it might give you an extra day or two at a destination, especially London!

Getting to Know: Russ

Yes, I’m the bearded half of this dynamic blogging duo and can often be found reading every possible history board available when travelling. I love learning about history and actively seek out a local museum to go explore, no matter where we are in the world. The opportunity to learn about what came before us is one of my favourite things in the world.  

A little more about me; I was born and raised in Sydney and moved to London in 2012 with my (then) girlfriend Roma to travel and experience as much of Europe as possible.

As I mentioned, one of my passions is learning about history so having the opportunity to explore the UK and Europe has been utterly incredible and I’ve loved every minute of it. If I’m not visiting a museum and taking copious notes then you can generally find me with my nose in a book enjoying some quiet time. The topic of choice shouldn’t surprise anyone, however in addition to history, I also enjoy reading some fiction and the occasional biography too. 

I’ll never forget the first time that I visited the Victoria and Albert Museum and walked through a Roman Ruins exhibition and having the opportunity to touch a stone column which was 1500 years old, it stirred my soul and changed my life. My passion for history and travel was born in that single moment. I will never forget it. 

Personal Highlights?

A small selection of some personal highlights since living we’ve been living a travel lifestyle;

• Experiencing my first real snow fall in London 2013. I was on my way to work when it started snowing and I was so excited I actually called Roma and woke her up to tell her it was snowing
• Visiting Whitby Abbey and being able to walk amongst the ruins and literally touch history
• Churchill’s War Rooms in London, absolutely phenomenal
• Following in the footsteps of the WWII Allies as we explored Bastogne and Hurtgen Forest
• Proposing to Roma during an anniversary trip to Dubai (she said yes, phew!)
• Taking a winter roadtrip along Iceland’s famous ring road
• Driving from London through France to Costa Brava in Spain
• Learning about the long and complex history of many countries in Europe whilst visiting their museums. It made so much more sense than learning from a text book
• Standing on Omaha Beach in Normandy

Now that you know who Roaming Required is…

Get in touch, comment on any posts you like, or find us on social media just to say hi. 

Come roam with us!

Roma & Russell
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