Privacy & Cookies
Last updated: September 4, 2026
Who we are
Our Happy Detour Abroad (“OHDA,” “we,” “us,” “our”) is a travel website created by Penny and Jim. This page explains what information we collect when you visit ourhappydetourabroad.com, how we use it, and the choices you have.
If you have any questions about anything on this page, you can reach us at hello@ourhappydetourabroad.com.
The short version
We are a small travel site, not a data business. We collect a limited amount of information: your first name and email address if you choose to sign up for our emails, whatever you send us through our contact form, and general analytics information about how our pages are used. We do not sell your information.
Our website platform
This website is built and hosted on Squarespace. Because Squarespace provides the hosting and infrastructure for our site, it processes certain information about visitors on our behalf as part of delivering the website. This can include information such as your browser and device type, general network information, your IP address, the page you visited before arriving here, and the pages you view on our site.
Squarespace also maintains its own privacy practices as a company. You can read the Squarespace privacy policy on their website at squarespace.com.
Information you give us directly
Email signup. If you sign up for our email list or request one of our free guides, we ask for your first name and email address.
Contact form. If you use our contact form, we receive the information you choose to enter in that form, along with the message you send us. Submissions come to us by email and are also stored by our website platform as part of providing the form.
We only ask for what we need, and you are never required to give us information in order to read the site.
Information collected automatically
When you browse the site, some information is collected automatically in order to run the website and understand how it is being used. This can include the pages you view, the approximate general location associated with your network, the type of device and browser you use, how you arrived at the site, and how you move through it.
Website analytics
Squarespace analytics. Our website platform includes built-in analytics that show us information such as which pages are visited, where visits come from, and general geographic regions.
Google Analytics 4. We use Google Analytics 4 to understand how people find and use the site — for example, which guides are most read and which pages people leave from. Google Analytics uses cookies and similar technologies to collect this information and processes it on our behalf as our analytics provider. The information we see in Google Analytics is reported to us in aggregate, and we do not use it to try to identify individual visitors.
Google may process this information in accordance with its own privacy practices. You can read more about how Google handles data in Google’s privacy policy, and Google also offers a browser add-on that allows you to opt out of Google Analytics across websites.
Cookies and similar technologies
Cookies are small text files placed on your device by a website. Similar technologies, such as local storage and small tracking pixels, work in comparable ways. The cookies and similar technologies used on this site fall into two broad groups:
Essential cookies are needed for the site to function — for example, to keep the site secure, to remember basic preferences, and to make features like forms work correctly. These are set because the website cannot operate properly without them.
Non-essential cookies are used for analytics and measurement, so that we can understand how the site is performing. These include the cookies used by Google Analytics 4 and by our website platform’s own analytics.
Your cookie choices
When you first visit the site, you will see a cookie notice. You can use the options in that notice to accept cookies or to open the cookie preference controls and choose which non-essential cookies you are comfortable with. Until you make a choice, the non-essential cookies controlled by our website platform — including the analytics cookies used by Google Analytics 4 — are restricted.
The cookie notice controls cookies and similar storage placed on your device through our website platform. It does not control every request your browser makes to another company when a page loads. Where a page includes a feature provided by someone else — such as our Flodesk signup form — that company may receive limited technical information about the visit as part of delivering the feature. We explain this in the email signup section below.
You can change your cookie preferences at any time by reopening the cookie preference controls on the site.
You can also manage cookies through your browser settings, including deleting existing cookies or blocking new ones. Please note that if you block or delete cookies, some parts of the site may not work as expected, and our analytics reporting becomes less accurate.
How consent affects Google Analytics
If you decline or restrict non-essential cookies, our website platform restricts the analytics cookies placed through our Google Analytics integration. If you later accept, analytics cookies may be set from that point forward. If you accept and then change your mind, you can withdraw your choice through the cookie preference controls, and non-essential cookies will be restricted again going forward.
Email signup and email marketing
We use Flodesk to manage our email list and to send our emails. When you sign up, your first name and email address are handled by Flodesk as our email service provider.
When a page containing one of our Flodesk signup forms loads, Flodesk may receive limited technical and usage information about that visit, such as the page being viewed, the referring page, IP address, and browser or device information. Flodesk uses this information in part to provide form-view and conversion analytics. This can occur before you submit the form and does not rely on a non-essential analytics cookie.
Confirmation is required. After you sign up, we send you a confirmation email asking you to confirm your subscription. You will not receive the guide you requested, and you will not receive our ongoing emails, unless you confirm.
Once you have confirmed, we may send you the resource you requested, along with travel tips, itineraries, new guides, and occasional updates about what we’re working on. We may also see general email engagement information, such as whether an email was opened or a link was clicked, which helps us understand what is useful.
Unsubscribing. Every marketing email we send includes an unsubscribe link. Unsubscribing stops our marketing emails. If you would also like us to delete your information, please email us at hello@ourhappydetourabroad.com and we will action your request.
We do not sell or rent your email address, and we do not share our list with other companies for their own marketing.
Flodesk maintains its own privacy practices as a company, which you can read at flodesk.com.
Spam protection
Our contact form uses Google reCAPTCHA to help prevent spam and automated abuse. reCAPTCHA collects certain information about your device and interaction with the page in order to distinguish real visitors from bots, and this information is processed by Google in accordance with its own privacy practices.
How long we keep information
We keep information only for as long as we have a reason to, and in practice that means:
Email list information is kept while you are subscribed, and for a reasonable period afterwards for record-keeping and to honour requests such as unsubscribes and deletions. You can ask us to delete your information at any time by emailing us.
Contact form messages are kept for as long as needed to respond to you and to keep a reasonable record of the conversation.
Analytics information is retained by our analytics providers according to the settings and retention periods those services apply.
Links to other websites
Our site links to other websites, including airlines, hotels, booking platforms, tourist boards, and other travel resources. We do not control those websites, and this page does not apply to them. We would encourage you to read the privacy policy of any site you visit through a link from ours.
Your privacy rights
Depending on where you live, you may have rights over the personal information we hold about you. These commonly include the right to ask what information we hold, to ask us to correct it, to ask us to delete it, and to withdraw your consent to marketing emails.
If you would like to exercise any of these rights, please email us at hello@ourhappydetourabroad.com and we will respond as promptly as we reasonably can.
Children
This site is intended for a general adult audience. It is not directed at children, and we do not knowingly collect personal information from children.
Changes to this page
As our site grows, the tools we use may change. When that happens, we will update this page and change the “last updated” date at the top. If we ever make a significant change to how we handle personal information, we will make that clear.