Karen Bryan caught the travel bug and built a business

Karen Bryan quit her job to work on her website full-time.

Up until her late teens, Karen Bryan rarely holidayed outside the UK but now she spends her days jetting across the globe, scoping out new destinations for her travel blog Europe a la Carte.

The website, which she started in 2002, was the perfect solution to combine Karen’s love of travel with earning a living online.

She looks at travel around Europe and gives good, honest reviews to help travellers decide if it’s the destination for them.

And with the site attracting hundreds of thousands of visitors looking for Karen’s top tips for holidays, it’s fair to say she must be doing something right!

“The site has proven pretty popular over the last decade, and particularly in recent years as more people have started to connect to the Internet and there’s been a shift away from package holidays towards creating your own trips,” said Karen.

“It’s a great, fun way to earn a living and hopefully I can help people make the most of their holidays at the same time, by offering no fluff reviews of hotels and restaurants and top tips for the attractions worth seeing.”

Karen, 55, who grew up holidaying in a caravan on the west coast of Scotland, experienced her first real holiday abroad at 19. She spent seven weeks exploring the Greek mainland and islands and met her now husband of 36 years, Demetrius.

“It was a solo trip,” she recalled. “I really wanted to see Greece, but none of my friends had enough money to come along, so I went by myself. It was such a great place that it made me want to see more of Europe.”

Mum-of-two Karen started writing about her holidays abroad for fun and in 2006, launched a blog on her website. After that, things really started to take off.

Three years later, she quit her part-time job doing social surveys for the Scottish Government to work on Europe a la Carte full-time.

Her blog includes countries all over Europe, from Croatia and the Channel Islands to Slovenia, Spain and Switzerland.

“I’ve been to the majority of the places on the site and tried and tested them out for myself,” Karen said.

“And I try to use my own photos so that my blog gives a true reflection of what it’s like to wander around and soak up the atmosphere of these places. The ones I haven’t been to have been written by contributors who have visited.”

Karen has been to so many beautiful locations that she finds it hard to choose a favourite but Iceland, Budapest and Santander on the north coast of Spain are up there with her most memorable trips.

However, as much as she loves travelling abroad, Karen, who moved to Berwick-Upon-Tweed from Scotland seven years ago, also enjoys writing about areas closer to home.

Her website includes the top 25 unusual and fun things to do in the country where she grew up, from admiring the beaches of the Shetland Isles to visiting the Queen mum’s birthplace at Glamis Castle in Angus.

“I love Scotland,” she said. “I was born in Dundee, grew up in Fife, then lived in Stirling, so it’s fair to say it’s a destination I know exceptionally well.”

For more information, visit Karen’s website at europealacarte.co.uk.