5 Minutes With Hand Luggage Only: Yaya and Lloyd

For McCool Travel’s 160th travel interview, I am pleased to present Lloyd and Yaya from Hand Luggage Only. I met them in October at a travel summit prior to TBEX Ireland. Fabulous Kilkea Castle hosted the summit and we all felt like royalty there. Their 1.2 million website monthly page views is about 1.2 million more than I see so I will listen to whatever they have to say.
Hand Luggage Only‘s bio: “Yaya and Lloyd are two travel bloggers from London in the UK. They started their website Hand Luggage Only on an unseasonably warm day while at Cambridge University. Yaya and Lloyd had travelled for years before finally deciding to set up a blog to chronicle their travels (and travel photos) and what started as a student hobby back then has now grown to a travel community with over 1.2 million page views every month.”

McCool Travel interview with Yaya and Lloyd from Hand Luggage Only.
Hand Luggage Only, YaYa and Lloyd

Lloyd and Yaya: Hand Luggage Only

HOMETOWN …
Yaya is from Lagos, Nigeria and Lloyd is from Wales
ALWAYS IN MY LUGGAGE …
My camera! We never travel without them.
3 FAVORITE HOME-AWAY-FROM-HOME PLACES …

  1. In the UK, it would be Scotland (though that’s a cheat as that used to be home before).
  2. Internationally, it would then have to be Vancouver. It’s always so easy to feel comfortable and settled in that city.
  3. 3rd one would have to be New York – it’s just so similar to London in so many ways.

A FAVORITE TRAVEL MEMORY …
Seeing the Rainbow Mountains of Peru. The high altitude made it one of the hardest hikes we’ve ever done but the feeling of accomplishment afterwards was so incredible.
3 FAVORITE TRAVEL BRANDS …

  1. Canon (for the photography)
  2. Apple (for the connectivity i.e. iPhones)
  3. Starling Bank (makes it so much easier and cheaper to use your money abroad)

3 MONEY-SAVING TRAVEL TACTICS I USE …

  1. book things at the right time – flights first then scoring for hotels as the weeks go by
  2. similar to the one above – find a bank that charges less to use your cash abroad (those savings add up)
  3. Be flexible. You can find so many better deals on travel when you’re open-minded about destinations.
McCool Travel interview with Yaya and Lloyd from Hand Luggage Only.
Lloyd from Hand Luggage Only

3 WAYS THAT I HAVE FUN WHILE TRAVELING …

  1. wine
  2. sunshine (preferably with wine)
  3. hanging out with the locals (they always know where the best food is)

8 WORD (OR LESS) TRAVEL MANTRA …
Don’t really have one per se but if we did, it would generally be to be as kind to others as you would hope for them to be to you.
FAVORITE NON-TRAVEL WEBSITE …
Probably Facebook. 🙂
MOST MEMORABLE SOUVENIR  …
A conical hat from Hong Kong. We used to live in Singapore back then and decided to visit Hong Kong just before leaving back for the UK. We added on trips to Australia and Dubai in between and seeing as you can’t really pack that hat away (it would definitely get crushed in the luggage hold), Yaya had to wear this hat for days in Hong Kong, Singapore, Sydney, Dubai, and London. There’s nothing quite like that to make you really remember a souvenir.

McCool Travel interview with Yaya and Lloyd from Hand Luggage Only.
Yaya from Hand Luggage Only

FAVORITE CHEAP EAT …
Nando’s Peri Peri Chicken (it’s not nearly as cheap as it used to be before)
RECENT DISCOVERY …
The beautiful Caribbean island of St Kitts.
I AM FORTUNATE TO HAVE MET …
People who read our blog. You do much of blogging in isolation that it’s nice when you meet someone out of the blue who reads the website. It just makes things feel so much more ‘real’. 🙂
I WOULD LIKE TO MEET …
Can’t really think of anyone, to be honest. Beyonce maybe?

McCool Travel interview with Yaya and Lloyd from Hand Luggage Only.
Lloyd and Yaya from Hand Luggage Only

Thank you so much, Yaya and Lloyd, for sharing your travel inspiration and tips.
Follow Hand Luggage Only on Facebook, Instagram, Twitter, and Hand Luggage Only.
McCool Travel presents tips from travel experts in our 5 Minutes travel interview series—featuring travel industry giants, super frequent travelers, and adventurous persons. Previous 5 Minutes travel interview: Tim Leffel.
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5 thoughts on “5 Minutes With Hand Luggage Only: Yaya and Lloyd”

  1. Hi Charles,
    I love their story. Great advice too on being kind. Being nice and generous on the road has made a world of difference with my travels. Even if I do not speak the native tongue I learn a few words and inject plenty of smiles into what I say, and what I do. Great connector, kindness is.
    Ryan

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