Donna Richardson Travel Journalist

About me

Donna Richardson is a freelance travel writer who has been published in Wanderlust and in-flight magazines. She is the founder of Backpack Maldives travel blog, winner of Wanderlust Blog of the week award, author of Tramping Around the Maldives by Cargo Ship. richardsonreporter@gmail.com

Donna is a contributor for Ski Luxe magazine, Beau Monde Traveler and Hotelier Maldives. Donna’s work has appeared in Wanderlust and MSN travel as well as inflight magazines and trade aviation titles. Founder of an award winning blog called Backpack Maldives featuring news, views and travel promotions and winner of the Wanderlust Blog of the Week, her adventures have been diverse. She has lived in Dubai and the Maldives and has travelled around Oman and Sri Lanka. She has also visited America, enjoying a magical time in Disneyland in Florida and Aurora in Ohio. After a stint in the mountains in France as a ski rep, Donna visited many parts of Europe including Scotland, Norway, Sweden, France, Spain and the Balaerics, Portugal, Cyprus, Greece, the Czech Republic, Switzerland, Austria and Germany. There are many places still on her bucket list.

Most Memorable Moments

In the Maldives she experienced magical time; being swished by a black tip reef shark while swimming in the Indian Ocean on Christmas day, swimming with a green turtle, manta rays and a whale shark. The Maldives’ azure waters are home to the world’s best aquamarine life and Donna had fun scuba diving experiences spotting mantas, exploring the coral wonderland. The most adventurous thing she did was hopping aboard a cargo to cruise the archipeleago. This epic journey by cargo ship saw a crossing of the equator to Addu, a two day adventure that traversed through the lesser explored middle islands of the Maldives. Out on the ocean wave, Donna learned to fish with line and pole and later barbequed the freshly caught reef fish when back on shore on a desert island beach. A memorable experience was dancing in the bioluminescence infused waters under the stars. She actively took part in adventure sports on resorts including jet skiing, kayaking next to a seaplane, sailing a catamaran, surfing on a coral reef and swimming as well as cycling between islands at low tide. And let’s not forget participating in of the Maldives’ more bizaare sports – hermit crab racing. During her travels Donna was fortunate to stay in some of the world’s most luxurious hotels for free, including an opulent luxury overwater villa. In the luxurious resorts she experienced the same world class spa treatments and the best food prepared by top chefs with unlimited cocktails and wine that celebrities pay a fortune for. The beaches are to die for and in each resort there is one rule – kick off those shoes and go barefoot! This applies to the sea plane pilots who fly you to the resorts too. Together with friends she hired a desert island and stayed overnight for a real Robinson Crusoe experience at a budget cost. That island is now home to one of the Maldives most exclusive resorts. However, some of her most memorable experiences were travelling between islands, meeting local people and staying at guest houses for mere pounds. During her cargo ship adventure she travelled three quarters the length of the Maldives from Male to Addu, taking in all the various atolls and islands along the way.While travelling around Addu, Donna took extra care to see how locals lived, long before the introduction of the guest house policy in the Maldives and stayed in local homes; learning about the many of the inhabited islands outside off the capital Male’. This is how her award winning blog Backpack Maldives was born. In Addu she also enjoyed a memorable stay at the Royal Air Force’s most glamorous bases RAF Gan in Addu Atoll, now the Equator Hotel. As far as hotels it is pretty basic but full of history. The former officers mess still stands, as does the RAF colour scheme.There is also the old naafi shop and Astra cinema.The southern Maldives’ unofficial capital also boasts its own airport also left over from its Forces past when the Brits were stationed here in the 1970s due to it being an ideal Cold War listening station. Donna interviewed some of the members of Coral Command, as they were known, for a series in the Minivan News a local newspaper on the island. In the United Arab Emirates (UAE) where Donna lived and worked as an editor and public relations professional, she soaked up the charms of all seven emirates, equally fascinated by the Bedouin culture and the desert as much as the glamour and extreme wealth of Dubai and Abu Dhabi. The shopping is supreme with malls that go on for miles. Dubai Mall hosts the world’s largest indoor ski slope which is ridiculous as the outside temperatures exceed 110 degrees! Dubai truly is a glittering city that never sleeps. There are plenty of hotels to visit and at weekends you can relax by the glistening hotel pools supping cocktails or get a pamper in one of the luxury spas on a day pass. This is a major perk of being an expat.Brunches happen on Fridays and they are first class; with many options to choose from: Oysters, sushi and champagne at Yalumba to a full English at Irish Village. Cinemas are also luxe with leather reclining chairs that you can get lost in and service direct to your chair.You can bask in unparallelled luxury like all the superstars. You can even hire a yacht with friends from the Yacht Club. Sounds lavish – but you can split the cost. It is memorable sailing around the city at night with its impressive skyline. There is no shortage of luxurious accommodation plenty of exclusive establishments to visit and if you’re lucky stay at including the world’s only seven star hotel the Burj Al Arab and its Jumeriah cousin the Burj Khalifa- the tallest building in the world. Here on Friday nights you can see the dancing musical water fountain, which is modelled on those at the Bellagio in Las Vegas. And then there is the incredible Atlantis on the Palm, rising out of the sea like a pink Palace on an island shaped after a tropical palm tree. The Beckhams once owned a home on this island. All this opulence abounds even in the glittering Media City and Jumeriah areas where professionals work and the Jumeriah Jane’s lunch. Now there is soul in the souks of Downtown Dubai, Bur Dubai and Karama you can see local life and get a decent replica designer bag or an Amani suit too. Too much luxury needs and antidote to keep grounded, and away from the superficiality of the city and the palatial villas lies the Creek in Downtown Dubai. This is where the pearl diving heritage that was once the bedrock of this economy began and still thrives. Nowhere else can you dine out for less than 10 dirhams and enjoy an entertaining ride up and down the water for a single dirham aboard a traditional dhow. The creek is the only fresh water source in the UAE. It connects downtown Dubai to the gold souks, spice souks and bazaar and all the way down towards the glittering skyline and past the world’s richest hotel and feeds into Dubai Marina filled with superyachts. The creek is where the pearls were found that sustained their economy before the oil was discovered.The there is the Meydan where you can watch splendid horse racing and the annual Dubai World Cup- one of the most expensive horse races in the world. The pro European tour competition ends in Dhabi and the Dubai Rugby Sevens is also a great sporting occasion. While Dubai is about superlatives, the capital of Abu Dhabi invested its wealth more wisely.The Yas Marina and Hotel is home to the Abu Dhabi Grand Prix. While that in itself is glamourous, the city is absent of skyscrapers and has a less ostentatious air. It is a more refined older cousin and invests is money wisely. In Abu Dhabi Donna particularly enjoyed strolling down the corniche at sunset, seeing the hustle and bustle of the marina and appreciating its calm wisdom. Donna also ventured out into the desert to experience quad biking, camel riding; eating an iftar of local food around a fire and seeing the local custom of belly dancing first hand. In neighbouring Al Ain where Donna also worked, she attended an airshow and saw the planes fly across the rolling desert. A sight to behold. She had visited Dubai airshow the month before in her former capacity as aviation journalist where some of the world’s most lavish planes were on display. Al-Ain is known as the “Garden City” for its greenery. Its expat scene is more typically British while Dubai is Americanised. The Jebel Hafeet Mountains are wonderful to see the dawn break over and there is a wonderful old Fort.During weekends Donna embraced trekking, climbing and diving adventures. She travelled to the Al Hajar Mountains of northern Oman, widely considered the fjords of the Middle East. She has visited magical forts and palaces and slept in a tent on the beach in Fujairah overlooking the Indian Ocean.In Sri Lanka, with just 24 hours to collect her Maldivian working visa, Donna embraced the capital of Colombo by comandeering a tuk tuk driver for the day who took her around the sights of the city. The city still bore the scars of Civil War at the time with a heavy military presence. It was 2010 after all, just a year after the conflict ended.However, there was plenty to be seen from the giant Buddha and beautiful lotus flowers in the cities main park and the old railway by the beach where we stopped for lunch. Unlike secular Male, this city is a melting pot for different religions though it is predominately Buddhist. We visited a temple where I met the monks and the temple elephant. We also saw a Hindu temple and a church. We also visited a bar, a welcome change from the dry Maldives where the only place outside a resort to get a drink is the Hulhule hotel. All this was achieved in less than 24 hours. Donna has also profiled Gothenburg, Malmo and Linkoping in Sweden where she visited the Swedish Air Force and the former Saab and Gripen companies on a press tour; Bergen in Norway, Munich, Germany, Bordeaux and St Emillion in France; Porches in Portugal and Spain plus Brussels and Bruges in Belgium as a journalist. She has also worked on ski resorts in Austria. Donna has yet to write about a trip to the Czech Republic from Prague to Karlstein, Pilsner and Jesenik in search of fairytale castles, gothic architecture, ballet and natural spas; travelling by bus, tram, rail and segway.She has travelled extensively around Scotland visiting the West Coast, Loch Ness, Loch Ewe, Fort William, Glasgow and Faslane, Stirling, Elgin, Aberdeen, and later visiting the Highlands locations of Inverness and Brora. People inspire her, and her observations of locals, expatriates and travellers are key to her writing. She loves interesting destinations and adventures. Now she has a young family she is looking at family friendly adventures with an exotic appeal.