Last updated: May 2026

Welcome! 

We are Laurence and Jessica Norah and we are pleased that you stopped by to learn more about us and our blog! Our blog is written for curious, intelligent, savvy folks who like to engage in global independent travel. Liking cats is preferable, but not required. We’d love to have you stick around.

Unlike some of the big travel websites, we only write about places we’ve been and things and products we’ve actually tried. So no worries about reading a post about the top 10 things to do in Panama even though we’ve never set foot there!

We sincerely hope that our stories, advice, research, and anecdotes on this website will entertain, inspire, and help you become a more savvy independent traveler.

In addition to sharing our travel stories and advice, we also like to occasionally spice things up with some travel-related research information or a post on some interesting travel history. Yeah, Jess is boring like that and loves research, history, and books. 

Our Story

Laurence and Jess met in 2014 during a travel conference in Italy and got to know each other on a subsequent short press trip. Two months later, Laurence flew to San Francisco to see if the spark in Italy was real and 10 days in California led to the beginning of a romantic relationship and the forging of our travel blogging lives.

Laurence had been traveling and blogging since 2010 at his blog Finding the Universe while Jess had been blogging with her prior partner Ethan since 2013. In 2015, we joined forces both as a couple and as a blogging team.

In 2015, we also got married aboard the Queen Mary 2 in the middle of the Atlantic Ocean! We left the United States and move to beautiful Scotland, near Edinburgh. At the end of 2019, we moved a bit further south to Bath, England. Then, in 2024 we moved back to the USA where we are currently based.

We have had plenty of wonderful adventures together and look forward to many more!

We hope that you’ll join us as we move forward in both our new marriage and our exciting upcoming travels. It’s a progressive journey together and we look forward to learning more about each other and picking up some useful travel wisdom along the way. We hope that our adventures and savvy travel advice help you along on your own travels and journey in life!

Meet Jessica Norah

Hi there! I’m Jessica, the primary writer here at Independent Travel Cats. I’m originally from Ohio and now live back in the USA, after several years living in Edinburgh, Scotland and then
Bath, England. Before this was full-time work, I spent over a decade as a clinical research psychologist in California, and that background still shapes how I approach travel writing:
methodical, thoroughly researched, and evidence-based wherever I can be.

My passion for travel began when I was young, on family road trips across the United States. Then came a trip to Europe at sixteen that stayed with me for years (I waited eleven more before
I made it back to Paris). I started this site in 2013 as a way to share what I’d learned from independent travel, and my husband Laurence joined me as co-author and photographer in 2015.

Travel is exciting, enlightening, invigorating, and inspirational for me and I hope you’ll join us on our adventures! 

Meet Laurence Norah

Hello! I’m Laurence! I grew up in the UK and the Seychelles, and my parents gave me a love of travel that I’ve always carried with me, with family adventures taking us through Europe and Africa. Yes, I have some pretty awesome parents.

After giving a career in IT a go in the UK, I concluded it wasn’t for me, so since 2010 I’ve been traveling the world full-time and sharing my stories about my adventures, largely through the medium of my camera, over on my site Finding the Universe.

I absolutely love travel (and photography!), finding new places to experience, as well as have adventures and fun on the way. I was lucky enough to meet Jess in Italy, at a travel blogging conference no less, and am delighted to be able to take part in adventures with her as an Independent Travel Cat!

We hope you’ll follow our adventures together!

Meet Our Cats: Dodger and Dash

And yes, we do in fact have cats—which perhaps makes our website name slightly less confusing:) The kitties currently are living in Albuquerque, New Mexico with Ethan. These kitties have been included in many of our travels around the United States! Let us present Dodger and Dash.

Hello, I am Dodger. I am an orange tabby. I was born in Albuquerque, NM and traveled with my parents to California when I was only 6 months old. I love to play fetch with my toys (take that dogs!), run around outside, and eat grass until I throw up. I am scared of just about all loud noises, particularly the vacuum cleaner. My favorite spot is perched on top of the bookcase.

Hi all, I’m Dash. I am a snowshoe Siamese and tabby mix. I was born in Santa Cruz, CA and was adopted when I was only 6 weeks old. I love chasing the laser pointer, play fighting with Dodger, and watching the birds outside the window.

I am one tough cat, but I admit that I am also scared of that noisy vacuum cleaner. My favorite spots are curled up next to my parents or ‘hiding’ somewhere like under a blanket or inside a box or basket (even if I barely fit!).

If you want to get into contact with us, check out our Contact Page. If you have found our travel blogs helpful, you can find ways to support our blogs here.

We hope you’ll stick around and follow us on our journey!

Our Editorial Standards

Every destination, attraction, and product on this site is one we’ve experienced personally. We take all the photos ourselves. Where prices or factual details matter (opening hours, ticket costs, transport options, product specifications), we verify them against the operator’s own site before publishing, and we update articles when things change.

If we’ve been hosted on a trip or received a product for review, we always disclose that on the article in question. Our recommendations are based on what we’d genuinely choose ourselves,
and we’ll tell you when something isn’t worth it for your situation, even if it’s a product we have an affiliate link for.

How This Site Is Supported

Independent Travel Cats earns income two ways. The first is through affiliate partnerships, where we earn a small commission if you book or buy through our links, at no extra cost to you.

The second is display advertising. We are not paid to feature any of the destinations, attractions, or products we cover, and the editorial decisions about what to include and how to review
it are entirely our own.

If you’d like to support the work we do here, the most helpful thing is to use our affiliate links when you’re planning a trip. We’ll never tell you something is worth your money if we don’t
believe it is.