About One Small Bag

Hi, I’m Christine, author of One Small Bag. A UK-based traveller who first caught the bug interrailing around Europe in the 80s, which means I’ve been doing this long before Instagram made it fashionable.

For most of my working life, a bag is how I lived, not just how I holidayed. As a roving IT consultant with a passion for going away for fun, too, I just haven’t spent so much time at home. It seems I’m mostly either packing a bag or living out of one.

And somewhere along the way the bag got smaller, and the realisation dawned that letting go of stuff, both literal and otherwise, is genuinely liberating. It’s not about the budget. This is the way I choose to travel, and I would not have it any other way.

How I Travel

You won’t usually find me on a sun-lounger. I’m more budget than bijou, and happiest exploring Europe’s overlooked corners – the quirky, offbeat places full of character that might just be the “next big thing.”

Then there’s my husband Martin, better known for his pub-blogging and beer guides. While I carry spreadsheets and a tiny bag, he carries a Good Beer Guide and a pink pen for the ‘ticks’. We often travel together, sometimes separately, and over the years we dragged our two sons (now grown up) on many an unconventional family holiday, proving you don’t need package deals to have a great trip.

Blog Map

I’ve visited over 70 countries across 6 continents, but that was long before I started writing this blog. The map shows the places I visited more recently and have chosen to write about.

Why Trust One Small Bag?

I write about the world exactly as I find it. The travel philosophies and packing guides on this site aren’t manufactured. It’s just the things I see and the gear I bring. To protect the integrity of this blog and keep my relationship with you completely transparent, I adhere to a strict editorial policy:

First-hand experience only: Destinations, transit routes, and pieces of gear featured here have been personally experienced or tested by me.
100% Independent: I pay my own way. I do not accept sponsored press trips or free stuff in exchange for positive coverage. If a service is brilliant, I will praise it. If it is rubbish, I will say so.

When you read One Small Bag, you are getting the honest truth from a fellow traveller who values your time, your hard-earned money, and the joy of the open road.

Behind the scenes

Want to know more about blogging? Is it dead in 2026? Well I don’t think so. I’m a blogging newbie, not an expert, but here’s a few key things I learned as I grew my blog to 50,000 views in under a year.