About High Heels & a Backpack

Welcome to High Heels and a Backpack! This is a cultural adventure travel blog written by a British Travel Writer based in Athens, Greece.

The site has a focus on helping you travel to Greece and the Mediterranean, in addition to “offbeat” places around the globe. I came to Athens on vacation in 2017, fell completely in love with the city, and never left. Years later, I’m still here!

Athens is often overlooked and misunderstood. In the years since moving here, I’ve made a full-time career out of writing about and promoting this chaotic Greek city that I love so much.

My writing about Greece has been showcased in various Greek and international publications around the world. Today, with 250,000 monthly readers, High Heels and a Backpack is one of the world’s biggest Greece travel blogs.

Beautiful Greece  

While living in Greece, I have had the pleasure of exploring this beautiful country extensively. On this site, you can find a plethora of information about visiting Greece – suggested itineraries, island hopping guides, travel inspiration, and advice on how to plan an independent trip, as well as practical information like how to rent a car in Greece, driving in Greece, etc.

Over 30 million people visit Greece every year – that’s a whole bunch of travellers! While off-the-beaten-path travel in Greece sounds like something of an oxymoron, rest assured that could not be farther from the truth. There are tons of places that tourists don’t know about.

Greece is full of places that the locals keep to themselves. That is, those winter getaway destinations in the mountains of Northern Greece, or secluded tranquil islands that offer a calm slice of paradise, even in the middle of August!

Guides for Adventurous Solo Travellers

Greece content aside, High Heels and a Backpack is a travel website contains comprehensive travel guides and advice on travelling the world solo – whatever your age, gender or experience level.

Here, you will also find detailed solo travel advice guides for adventurous destinations like Oman, Azerbaijan, Bhutan, and Uzbekistan

The site provides guidance to travellers that prefer to travel to unconventional and lesser-known destinations in order to push the boundaries of solo travel and challenge themselves. Travel teaches you hat the world really isn’t as scary a place as the media often depicts. There is beauty everywhere and I want to be able to show that to people.

So if you seek authentic, local experiences when you travel and you love to explore the places that tourists seldom see then High Heels & a Backpack could be the blog for you. It’s for the people who love the great outdoors, who aren’t afraid to push themselves, and who don’t care to change outfits seven times for an Instagram shoot.


highheelsandabackpack

Alice Cooper is a British Travel Writer and Blogger based in Athens, Greece. She writes for numerous high profile travel publications across the globe - including Forbes Travel Guide, Matador Network, The Times of Israel and The Huffington Post.

19 Comments

  1. Hello! I plan on visiting south korea in the spring of 2020 and it’s my first time going to another country by myself and I’m super excited! Your website has helped me plan a few places I want to visit and I’m so incredibly excited and grateful I stumbled across your website.
    I was wondering if maybe you had any suggestions on cute cafes and possibly some of your favorite reateraunts you visited while in korea?
    Also how did you plan your trip? I dont even know where to start! I want to do so much but I only plan on being there for a week or so. Any tips on organizing my travel time?
    Hope to hear from you soon!

  2. Hi Melissa! Great blog! I’ll be traveling to Italy, solo on July 29 and after a few days in Rome, heading to Tuscany for yoga teacher training for the month of August.

    Would love to connect and talk more about the Digital Nomadic lifestyle and how I can customize to my own goals as a global yoga instructor.

    Kind regards,
    Kim

  3. Hi Melissa,
    Congratulations
    on your great blog. I’m enchanted by all of it: what you write, reasons for it, layout, information provided and the take you’re coming from. I stumbled across it, and what made me start to seriously read it was your inclusion of archeological sites, museums, and nights of high culture. All these are a rare mention in most blogs and I just don’t get it because surely they are a main reason for travel to millions of fellow travellers/tourists? Well done you on that score,as well as your sense of adventure, love of life, and taking the time to help us all with your information and insights. Cheers,
    Lesley from Tasmania

  4. Hi there, how do you manage to find work in American/Middle East/British companies and be able to work for them remotely? I am fascinated by the idea of becoming a digital nomad. Are you able to sustain yourself financially by just running a travel blog? Would appreciate your response.

  5. I stay in India & wish to visit Jordan & Israel in Nov 2019 with my sister & her family. We intend to meet in Jordan first & then go to Israel. Can you guide for no days required , cost of tour , places to see , visa process etc.

    Regards.

    1. Hey Navalram,

      There are a lot of resources on this site to help you plan your trip to Jordan and Israel. I will be updating these in the coming weeks too.
      I recommend that for visa advice, you check the requirements via your local government website. I am British and did not need a visa in either country, though the situation may not be the same for other nationalities.

      Useful posts about Israel can be found here – https://www.highheelsandabackpack.com/category/israel

      Useful posts about Jordan can be found here – https://www.highheelsandabackpack.com/category/jordan/

  6. Hello,
    I LOVE your site for Athens! I am traveling there after 10 days in Instanbul. I arrive on the 29th at 3 AM (!) our plan is to be in Athens 3-4 nights and then go to 1-2 islands. We leave Athens on the 10th. As I look at the islands (Santorini, Milos and Mykonos) I have yet to find a nice hotel that is still open. Is it not suggested to go to an island at this time? I have Never been to Greece before. Even Athens seems to be very busy our first weekend there and may just spend a nigh or 2 and then finish there when the higher end hotels are very reasonable. We love boutique hotels with character, and more artsy/contempory/stylish but need to be under $150 US a night. We don’t need hustle and bustle but don’t want to be with out restaurant options etc…(we are restauranteurs)any advice of hotels that may still be nice on the islands would be appreciated. Or should we just do one island and then stay on the mainland? This is a last minute trip for sure and I’m kind of stumped.

  7. hi! I have just read your itinerary for Oman and I read some great tips, so thank you.
    I recognize where you took your profile picture, by the way, you were in Como, and probably on the pier 🙂 I know it because I am from there, although I live in Switzerland.
    I have taken a few solo trips myself, but this time I will go with two girlfriends. We will visit Oman and Jordan in January.
    Question: do you need an international driving licence to drive in Oman?

    thank you for all the information on your blog.
    All the best,
    Sonia

  8. Hello Melissa,
    I read your articles on Greece in your blog as I’m visiting this beautiful country next October. I’d like to thank you for your updated material that helped me have an idea of antique and modern Athens. Keep it up!!

  9. Hello dear sister mellisa,
    Warmest greetings from Bhutan.
    I am the greatest fan of you & so proud of you writing on Bhutan and it’s beautiful nature.

    I am looking forward to work together with you. Thanks

  10. Dear Mellisa,

    Love your blog; its a great help! I am looking to move to Zakynthos this year and I am struggling to find out if how much in savings I need to show to in my bank to live in Greece. Do you know please? We are UK citizens.

    I see the €2000 monthly income, but how much do me and my wife need to show between us to move?

    I cannot find this info anywhere…

    Any help would be greatly appreciated.

    All the best James.

  11. Hi Melissa! I am very interested in talking to you about additional information about moving to Greece. (Though your on-line information is fantastic.) I am a photographer, and I would like to share with you some of my shots of my visits to Greece, some which have been used in travel publications, but my questions for you would be more of a “pick your brain” nature that do not need to be spelled out here. Let me know if you might be interested in communicating! – Blake

  12. Hi Melissa,
    Thanks for all the info on your blog, it’s been so useful for many of my trips!
    I’m a UK citizen currently going through the process of building a property in Greece, on the island of Syros. It’s fairly early stages (we’re tendering for building contractors) so I’d love to speak to someone who has already been through something similar and might have some invaluable advice on how to approach things. Can you recommend a social networking site or similar community that might be able to help?
    Many thanks

  13. Goodmorning Melissa,

    Congrats on your inspiring blog. My name is Yanna Klitsa and I represent a co-working space in Athens, Greece. Please contact me, so we can talk about the possibilities of a collaboration between your blog and our our company.

    Yours sincerely,
    Yanna Klitsa

  14. Hi
    I am planning a trip to Greek islands with my daughter who wants to visit the Mama Mia highlights in Skopelos:
    We are staying in Glossa .Having read your article I am interested in perhaps doing a boat trip from Skopelos to Agios Ioannis then to Kastani beach. Any suggestions as to where to find someone willing to do this sort of trip ?
    Any advice greatly appreciated

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