Lauren Burnison – Pioneering the Sober Travel Movement and Adventures of a Single Mum

Lauren Burnison is the founder of We Love Lucid, the UK's first alcohol-free travel company, and a trailblazer in the sober travel movement. From couch-surfing with nomads on the Mongolian steppe to snorkelling with sharks in Oman, Lauren has spent her life seeking off-the-beaten-path adventures—and this year, she took a two-month road trip through Spain and Portugal in a micro camper with her four-year-old daughter to celebrate ten years of sobriety.

In this candid conversation, Lauren shares her journey from self-destructive habits to sobriety, how travel became her school of life, and the joys and challenges of being a single parent exploring the world. She talks about starting We Love Lucid, the lessons learned while traveling solo and with her daughter, and how adventure can transform the way we see ourselves.

Explicit content: We touch on drugs, drinking, and addiction.

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Show notes

• Who is Lauren
• Coming from Northern Ireland Originally
• 41 years old
• Founder of We Love Lucid - The UK's First Alcohol-free Travel Company
• Being a single mum to a very energetic 4 year old girl 
• Being an aspiring writer
• Reflecting back on her early years 
• Being very creative, loving animals, and growing up in the countryside 
• Where her love of travel came from 
• Starting to learn Spanish in school and how her teacher inspired her
• Having a knack for learning languages 
• Finding a diary entry from when she was 15 years old
• Having an ambition to learn Spanish and French and wanting to live in Spain 
• Getting to visit Spain at 16 on a sports camp 
• Having her eyes opened and feeling invigorated while travelling on the road 
• Why A'Levels were such a slog and hated being told what to do 
• Being confident about travelling 
• Deciding to travel around South America 
• Getting into drugs and going down a self destructive path 
• Heading back home to go to university 
• Spending 6 months in Barcelona - working in a pizza restaurant and living in a tent
• Getting her degree
• Being taken further down the path and still being self destructive 
• Making changes at 32 
• Wanting to explore and see more of the world - spending time in South Africa
• Getting in more and more trouble 
• Turning 30 and heading to South Korea to work as an English Teacher 
• Having the best and worst moments of her life
• Hitting rock