https://www.phoebelilyvickers.comRSS Feed for Phoebe Lily VickersenSun, 28 Jun 2026 00:00:00 +0100https://www.telegraph.co.uk/travel/travel-writing-competition-winners-nicaragua-india/?msockid=17fd29027dd76544362a3e357c996496Nicaragua short travel non-fiction winning entry for The Telegraph's Amateur Travel Writer 2026.Sun, 28 Jun 2026 00:00:00 +0100https://www.telegraph.co.uk/travel/travel-writing-competition-winners-nicaragua-india/?msockid=17fd29027dd76544362a3e357c996496https://www.telegraph.co.uk/travel/travel-writing-competition-winners-nicaragua-india/?msockid=17fd29027dd76544362a3e357c996496Sun, 28 Jun 2026 00:00:00 +0100https://www.telegraph.co.uk/travel/travel-writing-competition-winners-nicaragua-india/?msockid=17fd29027dd76544362a3e357c996496https://hostelhotline.substack.com/p/everywhere-better-than-cancun-and?r=5vh1alTulum didn't feel like a beach paradise so much as a velvet rope strung across anything pretty or interesting. The downtown areas of Cancun and Tulum were pleasant as brief basecamps for Chicen Itza and beyond, but the resort-heavy beach zones offered little adventure that wasn’t being throttled behind a paywall. I was told (rather smugly) by other travellers that I had not been to the real Mexico. In fact, I was warned of this so many times I started to wonder if the blue waters of Bacalar were...Mon, 22 Jun 2026 00:00:00 +0100https://hostelhotline.substack.com/p/everywhere-better-than-cancun-and?r=5vh1alhttps://open.substack.com/pub/hostelhotline/p/all-the-reasons-you-should-and-shouldnt?r=5vh1al&utm_campaign=post&utm_medium=webI love the part of travelling where your international tour meets somebody else’s staycation. On the beaches of Santa Marta, Colombian hen-do’s sipped from coolers, and extended families fried fish around barbeque pits. Arriving in the heat of a Colombian Christmas, it was obvious that the other guests in our apartment building were on a Latino Devon/Cornwall getaway. Perhaps not as glamorous as a weekend in Cartagena or the South of France, but wholesome, slightly forced, family fun in a beachy...Thu, 18 Jun 2026 00:00:00 +0100https://open.substack.com/pub/hostelhotline/p/all-the-reasons-you-should-and-shouldnt?r=5vh1al&utm_campaign=post&utm_medium=webhttps://open.substack.com/pub/hostelhotline/p/can-your-friendship-survive-the-backpacking?r=5vh1al&utm_campaign=post&utm_medium=webOne of the worst nights of Phoebe’s life happened in a budget hotel in Panama City.Her and our mutual friend, who had been travelling together (almost) harmoniously for two months, had a drunken argument that led to a door closing on a friendship forever.It was perhaps a case of pot boiling over. Of not having the right conversations when it mattered, of being anxious and tired and losing track of who owed who thirty quid.It was the hardest way she has ever learnt that when you are moving – thro...Wed, 17 Jun 2026 00:00:00 +0100https://open.substack.com/pub/hostelhotline/p/can-your-friendship-survive-the-backpacking?r=5vh1al&utm_campaign=post&utm_medium=webhttps://open.substack.com/pub/phoebelilyvickers/p/your-final-act-of-love-should-be?utm_campaign=post-expanded-share&utm_medium=webI once came across a repost from a friend-of-a-friend whose ex-partner had cheated on her and verbally degraded her throughout their relationship. The video read “No revenge because he has to live with what he did”.A quick trip over to his Instagram and you could see him living with what he did. In Marbella. In Dubai. At concerts in London and on ski trips in France. I saw my friend’s profile picture floating in the likes of a reel that read ‘for my final act of love I will be nothing like you’....Wed, 22 Apr 2026 00:00:00 +0100https://open.substack.com/pub/phoebelilyvickers/p/your-final-act-of-love-should-be?utm_campaign=post-expanded-share&utm_medium=webhttps://phoebelilyvickers.substack.com/p/are-you-dreaming-of-self-sufficiency?r=5vh1alA straight, white woman in a hideous dress rolls in the grass with three blonde babies. Her husband fixes a door (or something) whilst she washes dirty carrots in the sink. They hug and kiss in a field surrounded by golden retrievers and their Aryan offspring. The caption reads: “every man’s dream” , “this is all I want” , “the real goal”. Reposted by the worst person you know. In fact, reposted by someone whose last time in the countryside was a year 6 leaver’s trip. If your screentime is anywh...Wed, 15 Apr 2026 00:00:00 +0100https://phoebelilyvickers.substack.com/p/are-you-dreaming-of-self-sufficiency?r=5vh1alhttps://open.substack.com/pub/phoebelilyvickers/p/green-juice-and-red-pills-the-hidden?r=5vh1al&utm_campaign=post&utm_medium=web&showWelcomeOnShare=trueWed, 01 Apr 2026 00:00:00 +0100https://open.substack.com/pub/phoebelilyvickers/p/green-juice-and-red-pills-the-hidden?r=5vh1al&utm_campaign=post&utm_medium=web&showWelcomeOnShare=truehttps://open.substack.com/pub/phoebelilyvickers/p/how-to-stop-limerence-101?r=5vh1al&utm_campaign=post&utm_medium=webThe first, probably most relieving thing, that I am going to tell you is that you are not obsessed with Brad, 5’8 from Hinge.You might think you’re obsessed with him. You might spend hours analysing your texts, his Facebook, his mum’s Facebook, your Facebook - but you aren’t obsessed with him. In the most miserable hours of my life, I have really, really wanted a boyfriend. For a long time, I saw a relationship as living proof that I wasn’t as annoying, fat, weird or broken as I thought I was. A...Sun, 29 Mar 2026 00:00:00 +0000https://open.substack.com/pub/phoebelilyvickers/p/how-to-stop-limerence-101?r=5vh1al&utm_campaign=post&utm_medium=webhttps://open.substack.com/pub/phoebelilyvickers/p/vulnerable-viral-and-not-a-clue-in?r=5vh1al&utm_campaign=post&utm_medium=webLong before my mum knew that girls could be neurodivergent, she dealt with some of the greatest meltdowns of the early 2000s. I’m sure the times I lay screaming on the floor of Woolworths were probably picture-worthy, but she never once reached for a digital camera. Now twenty-four, and a neurodivergent content creator myself, I often open my phone to videos of children smacking themselves against car windows, trying ‘fear foods’ for the first time, or crying about being bullied at school. Norma...Tue, 24 Mar 2026 00:00:00 +0000https://open.substack.com/pub/phoebelilyvickers/p/vulnerable-viral-and-not-a-clue-in?r=5vh1al&utm_campaign=post&utm_medium=webhttps://open.substack.com/pub/phoebelilyvickers/p/how-to-fit-a-life-between-your-to?r=5vh1al&utm_campaign=post&utm_medium=web&showWelcomeOnShare=trueFor a very long time, I have cruelly convinced myself that I am waiting in the wings for my real life to begin. The brand new me is skinny, and organised, disciplined and fun, she has the tidiest bedroom in the world and she definitely exists and is arriving tomorrow as long as I stick to a routine and stop lying around doing nothing.She just needs one more notebook. She just needs one more meal plan.It doesn’t matter what the old me has achieved, all the fun we’ve had or things we’ve seen becau...Sat, 21 Mar 2026 00:00:00 +0000https://open.substack.com/pub/phoebelilyvickers/p/how-to-fit-a-life-between-your-to?r=5vh1al&utm_campaign=post&utm_medium=web&showWelcomeOnShare=truehttps://open.substack.com/pub/phoebelilyvickers/p/what-the-it-will-come-when-you-least?r=5vh1al&utm_campaign=post&utm_medium=web&showWelcomeOnShare=trueI once got broken up with and took 3 days off work to cry to in my garden. We’d dated for less than six months. I acquired both a tear-streaked tan, and in the years that followed, a life I don’t think I ever really needed that boy to be a part of. For much of my early 20s, I put romantic relationships on a pedestal. Unable to see the wood for the trees, the strength of my friendships, the love of my family, successes and all the things I’ve done seemed like placeholders for the real deal. Roman...Sat, 14 Mar 2026 00:00:00 +0000https://open.substack.com/pub/phoebelilyvickers/p/what-the-it-will-come-when-you-least?r=5vh1al&utm_campaign=post&utm_medium=web&showWelcomeOnShare=truehttps://open.substack.com/pub/phoebelilyvickers/p/help-my-luteal-phase-is-trying-to?r=5vh1al&utm_campaign=post&utm_medium=web&showWelcomeOnShare=trueIt is 2022 in a dark uni room in Southampton, and I am googling the symptoms of Bipolar disorder surrounded by Jaffacakes and ASOS parcels I don’t remember ordering.I hate my life. I hate my friends. I hate this university, and I am not smart enough anyway. I should lose weight. I should dump the boy I’m seeing. I just shouted at my mum on the phone and I don’t know why. I hate the way this top fits and I should go travelling. I should book a flight tomorrow. I’ll quit my job tonight.I become th...Wed, 11 Mar 2026 00:00:00 +0000https://open.substack.com/pub/phoebelilyvickers/p/help-my-luteal-phase-is-trying-to?r=5vh1al&utm_campaign=post&utm_medium=web&showWelcomeOnShare=true