About Macca Sherifi | Top UK Travel Blogger
Hi guys, and welcome to An Adventurous World! I’m Macca Sherifi, a UK adventure travel blogger, photographer and presenter, and I’ve been running An Adventurous World since 2014. In that time I’ve travelled to more than 80 countries across six continents – I live and breathe travel every single day.
Adventure is the whole point. I’m happiest when a trip involves a hiking trail, hitting the ski slopes, or going on an epic road trip most people have never heard of. I’ve summitted an active volcano in Chile, wandered through an abandoned settlement in Greenland, and spent three years travelling around the world, starting with a one-way ticket to Delhi and a bag on my back.
I’m a trained journalist too. Before becoming a full-time travel blogger, I spent four years writing for national newspapers, magazines and travel websites, and that training shapes everything I publish. My guides are practical, fact-checked and regularly updated, because a guide is only useful if you can actually plan a trip from it. And that’s what this site is all about.
As a Lonely Planet Trailblazer, I’ve created articles, photos and videos for them in Argentina, Chile, Croatia, Iceland, Mexico, Turkey, the UAE and beyond. My work has also appeared in The Telegraph and Mail Online, and I’ve produced content for KLM, Manfrotto, Tastemade and dozens of tourism boards around the world.
That work has been recognised across the industry. I’ve won awards at the Traverse Creator Awards, the Teletext Travel Awards, the Caribbean Tourism Awards and the Blogosphere Awards, and been shortlisted at the British Travel Awards and the TravMedia Awards.
Today An Adventurous World reaches 1.4 million readers a year, with 62,000 followers across social media and more than 2 million views on YouTube. My readers are aged 26 to 56 and based mainly in the UK, US and Canada, and they come to me for adventure, city guides, family travel tips and practical trip planning. I present my own videos, and I’ve spoken at WTM, Traverse, BorderlessLive and KeyFrame about content creation, photography and working with influencers.
Macca Sherifi at a glance
- Who: Macca Sherifi, UK adventure travel blogger, photographer and presenter
- Blogging since: 2014
- Countries visited: 80+ across six continents
- Specialisms: adventure travel, outdoor activities, road trips, adventures with kids
- Published by: Lonely Planet, The Telegraph, Mail Online
- Brands and tourism boards: KLM, Mazda, Manfrotto, Tastemade and dozens of tourist boards
- Awards: TravMedia Awards, British Travel Awards, Traverse Creator Awards
- Services: sponsored campaigns, press trips, video production, photography, presenting and speaking
If you’re a tourism board or travel brand looking for a UK male travel blogger who can write, shoot and present a campaign on his own, let’s talk. Think of me as a one-man production team. Take a look at the ways we can work together, or drop me an email.
The History of An Adventurous World
Being bitten by a massive crocodile aged eight in the Gambia
It sounds clichéd but I like to think that I was born to travel. I was actually conceived in Jordan (the country, not the woman – a very unnecessary family fact there for you) following which I was extremely lucky to have adventurous parents carting me off around the world year after year.
A typical highlight was a family holiday to the Gambia in 1994 when I was just eight. Dad decided to book a holiday just as the military coup occurred (he’s always had an eye for a bargain, and nothing bottoms out the tourism industry like war). Unperturbed by what was going on around us, we weren’t just happy lazing by the pool; we wanted to get out of the hotel and explore all the Gambia had to offer.
One day dad took us to a sacred crocodile pit, a place where the crocodiles are touched by god and are therefore safe to pet and play around with. You can see where this is going…
After walking around tentatively stroking one or two somnolent crocodiles, I eventually ran my hand along the belly of a 4ft pregnant female (I should mention at this point that yes, we did have a guide, and no, he didn’t say anything about this particular crocodile). SNAP! Quicker than the eye could follow, this crocodile whipped its head around and tore my knee apart. It was in shreds.
Okay, so it wasn’t *that* bad, but I was eight-years-old and there was a fair amount of blood. Thankfully dad caught it all on camera, because like every good dad he probably thought he could flog it on You’ve Been Framed.
Still, I lived to tell the tale and like to think that this episode was one of my first adventures in life, or certainly one I remember so vividly.
The day I caught the travel bug from my brother (and yes, it is a real thing!)
During my first year at uni where I was learning all about the minute detail of biochemistry, my brother was having the time of his life throughout Southeast Asia.
This was in 2006, before blogging was really a thing, but my brother Carl would send these amazingly descriptive emails with photos attached of all the sites and attractions he’d been to. On cold February evenings I’d pour over these emails looking up all the places he visited and I was completely sucked in. That’s when it happened, that’s when I caught the travel bug, for real.
That summer I decided to follow in his footsteps and I travelled around Thailand for a month with a couple of friends. And do you know what? I loved every second of it.
I loved eating street food in Bangkok, lazing on beautiful beaches in Koh Phi Phi and Koh Phangnan, hiring scooters and zooming around Chang Mai and Pai. The whole trip was perfect from start to finish, and it really gave me that thirst to travel and see some more of the world.
Well, I was never going to be a scientist, was I…
Halfway through uni I quickly realised I didn’t have what it takes to be a brilliant scientist (or even a mediocre one at that), and during some of my more boring lectures on neuroblastomas my mind would drift back to Thailand – it was then that I decided I wanted to travel, to really travel.
So, after uni I saved up all my pennies and set off on my first big trip – two years backpacking around the world in 2009 and 2010. I booked a one-way ticket to Delhi in India, booked my first two nights’ accommodation, and that was it – the rest I just worked out on the road.
I wish I could tell you everything I got up to, I really do, but I don’t have the time and you don’t have the patience. This isn’t a cliché, but it was the best trip of my life and made me who I am today.
I wanted to travel to learn about different cultures and societies, to learn all about the world outside of this little bubble I had created for myself, and travelling was the best decision of my life. After just three months of travelling, I learned more about the world, and most importantly, more about myself, than I ever did in three years at university. If you’re ever thinking about travelling, do it – I promise you it’s the best thing you can do.
One of the things I did before my big trip was set up my first blog – called SlumChums – for all my friends and family back at home to see what I was up to while I was away.
Back then, I didn’t have the faintest idea what I was doing, but I really enjoyed writing and taking photos. Like most bloggers, I couldn’t believe it when people I didn’t know started reading and sharing my stories. It was a rush like no other, and it really gave me this desire and passion for storytelling.
Getting over the post-travel blues
I can assure you, after being on the road for a couple of years you need a damn good plan for getting over those post-travel blues. Luckily for me, I knew exactly what to do – I wanted to be a travel journalist. I knew I wanted to keep on travelling and make a career out of it, but I knew I had to make it sustainable too, so I retrained as a journalist.
After working for a couple of local papers (think “cat got stuck up tree” and “village fete gets out of hand”), I finally landed my first gig in the travel industry at gapyear.com, a travel advice website specifically for student travellers.
I couldn’t believe I was getting paid to write about travelling, but something wasn’t quite right. It’s one thing writing about travelling, it’s another actually doing it, so after a few years of working a steady 9-5 I decided to pack my bags again and go on another big trip.
The birth of An Adventurous World
One of the things I really missed was not having my own blog; so in 2014 I set one up. On that trip (which seems like such a long time ago now), I started in Eastern Europe for a fair few months before making my way over to Canada. From Canada it was down to Mexico, all the way through Central America, before travelling around Colombia and Ecuador. Another year passed by but I was finally creating content for myself.
I can’t tell you how many adventures I’ve been on since then, but my reasons for travelling are still exactly the same – I still want to learn about different cultures and societies, to learn about the world (and a little bit more about myself along the way).
When I first started travel blogging in 2014, it still wasn’t really an industry or a profession. We were all just making it up as we went along. Fast forward to today, and it’s now one of the most important niches in the travel industry. Travel influencers not only inspire people where to travel with their content, but they show people exactly how to do it with detailed up-to-date guides that traditional guidebooks just can’t do anymore.
I feel that fact that I have managed to thrive in such a competitive industry, and that I’ve adapted and evolved over time, shows why you should follow me. I just want to make travel accessible for all. As long as I can bring you with me, I’m happy!