Lydia Swinscoe

Lydia is a freelance travel writer and woman&home’s Lifestyle News Editor.

Her travel writing has been published in BBC Good Food, Oh magazine, Harper's Bazaar, Town&Country, ELLE, MailOnline, Woman, and woman&home.

She began her career compiling fashion and beauty pages for teen magazines at the BBC where she interviewed and styled some of the world's biggest pop acts, from Taylor Swift and Demi Lovato to One Direction, before joining celebrity magazine Now, as Fashion and Beauty Director, and later Woman magazine as Lifestyle Director, overseeing all fashion, beauty, food and travel content. But it's travel that has been a constant passion over the course of her 14-year career. 

A solo trip to Guatemala, Belize, and Mexico aged 19 kickstarted the addiction and she's since gone on to explore parts of 56 countries, returning to many often. 

At 23, she quit her job and traveled out of a backpack for a year, living on just $26 (£20) a day. Of the 15 countries she visited, 13 were explored by land in a bid to cut her carbon footprint. Highlights from the trip include a teaching by the Dalai Lama in the foothills of the Himalayas, sleeping on the world's largest salt flat, Salar de Uyuni in Bolivia, and being completely overwhelmed by the magnificent Iguazu Falls on the Argentina-Brazil border.

In 2015 Lydia traveled solo through India and Nepal for three months, visiting some of the most spiritual places in the world, and completing Nepal’s Annapurna Base Camp trek. 

Portugal and Spain made up 2021's three-month solo trip where she was on a mission to hunt out the best restaurants, find one-off boutique hotels, and visit incredible art exhibitions. 

Day-to-day she manages an international team of nine news writers and oversees all news content on woman&home.com