Social media is abuzz after British solo traveller and TikTok travel-content creator Zoë Reeve spent an afternoon in the hills of Laventille.

Although it was unimaginable to some, Reeve is not unfamiliar with spur-of-the-moment adventures like that.

She visited Trinidad in 2015 and spent time with a family in Moruga.

Reeve grew up in Surrey, a county in southeast England, and her parents travelled almost annually. In an interview with Newsday, she recalled a trip when she was around 14 and her family stayed at a resort in Turkey.

“I remember always being really curious. We went to Turkey this one time, and it was a resort, and I was like, ‘Please, please can we leave the resort? Can we please? I just want to see what’s outside.’

[caption id="attachment_1066316" align="alignnone" width="576"] Zoë Reeve sits on a fence in Stephensville, Morvant. - Photo courtesy Zoë Reeve[/caption]

“Even from a young age I was always really curious about what was going on in those countries, so I always pictured that when I got older, I would travel without my parents and well…that’s what happened,” she laughed.

Her first solo trip was at 19, while she was studying at Queen Mary University of London for a degree in Spanish and French. She also worked during the summer break at the Wimbledon tennis tournaments, where she earned £1,000. With her university expenses covered by student loans, she was initially unsure what she would do, having that amount of money for the first time. She eventually decided to take her first trip to Jamaica, for two weeks.

“I wanted to go to Jamaica because I was at university in London and there were dancehall parties and Caribbean culture, so I wanted to experience where dancehall music comes from.

“So I bought a flight to Jamaica. I didn’t really tell anyone before doing it, I just did it and it took up most of the £1,000. So I was like, ‘What am I actually going to do when I get there?' Because I used most of the money for the flight.”

Thinking of the budget constraints, she took to the internet to seek out options to reduce costs.

“I read about this website called Couchsurfing where you can sleep on people's couches for free because there’s a cultural exchange.”

Using the site, she found a family who lived in the hills of Jamaica who were willing to host her. After connecting through the website, she had an introductory video chat with them ahead of her trip.

While her parents were supportive, other people warned her, telling her it would be dangerous to travel alone in a foreign country.

But Reeve said, “That trip to Jamaica really kick-started everything.

[caption id="attachment_1066315" align="alignnone" width="1024"] Zoë Reeve, solo traveller and content creator takes a photo after a hike to Bukit Bangkong in Perak, Malaysia. - Photo courtesy Zoë Reeve[/caption]

“I went and had the most amazing time. I made friends with this girl who worked in a rumshop and I served the drinks with her for fun and she had these boys who drove down from Kingston and they drove us t