Tamara Thiessen

Born with a travel itch on an end-of-the-world island, all my writing is an invitation to roam. And that is what I have been doing all my life.

A journalist, travel writer and author, I am an incurable traveller. The need to escape Tasmania and discover the world has shaped my life ... But my heart-shaped island, with its otherworldly nature and island solitude, will forever pull on my heartstrings.

After several years as a journalist in Australia, I found the perfect antidote to this paradox (the push and pull of my island home and the need to escape and return). Embarking on a freelance (and footloose) career as a travel writer and foreign correspondent, I have lived a dual-hemisphere existence for three decades between homes in Australia and France.

My stories as a foreign correspondent and travel writer have been published in newspapers and magazines worldwide – from The Age, The Sydney Morning Herald, The South China Post, Monocle, Forbes and The Globe and Mail to National Geographic Traveller, World Nomads, Islands, Conde Nast Traveller, Wanderlust, and Decanter.

In 2016, I finally found myself a bolthole ... a little Parisian pied-à-terre. Yet much of my writing life is still spent on the road, living out of a suitcase. It's an inevitability of being born in Australia. Like a short-tailed shearwater (a Tasmanian muttonbird), I migrate between my southern and northern hemisphere bases about once a year, taking in as many amazing places as possible en route.

Despite the ills of overtourism, it is hard not to encourage people to see the world.

The world is your oyster, devour it!

In the words of French philosopher Montaigne, we must 'Whet and sharpen our wits by rubbing them up on those of others.'

For me, news journalism and travel writing are natural bedfellows. As a news journalist, my passions pivot on international politics, social issues, and the environment. As a traveller, it's the heady thrill of exotic places and people that carry you far away from mundane existence ... whatever that is.

Through a Covid-stationary couple of years, I attracted a million views a month to my Forbes contributor page, writing about the pandemic's fallout on travellers. Particularly, border closures and travel restrictions in Europe, the US, and Australia. These days, I continue to dab my nib in new horizons, writing about life in France, travel, culture, adventure, food and wine – and extraordinary people and places. A passionate broadcaster, I have worked for the ABC and SBS in Australia, as a radio presenter and producer in Paris, and as a correspondent for Monocle Radio in London.

Please connect with me on my website, Instagram or Facebook page. For all of them, I use the social media handle @TamaraThiessenTravels.

Meanwhile, dear readers, safe and happy travels ... bon voyage.