Taking off Travel blog

It’s another in our series of travel blogger profiles. In the spotlight today is Will Peach, currently traveling around Spain.

Will, what’s your travel background?

Howdy! I’m a travel blogger and editor who’s spent the last six months living and travelling in different parts of Spain. I’m now on the verge of living in my third city in six months!

Before Spain I was living in London where I worked as a site editor at gap year travel site Gap Daemon. My travel experiences up to then included two years living in Saigon, Vietnam (where I got to travel to Malaysia, Singapore, Cambodia, Thailand, Laos and Indonesia), a year living in Miami (as an exchange student) and forays into Italy, Russia, France and Australia along the way. I guess I was pretty well qualified!

Now I’m all set up as a true location independent worker and run a string of travel blogs and edit over on the digital travel magazine Vagabundo. My two main blogs are MySpanishAdventure (where I record my travel and learning experiences in Spain) and TravelSexLife, a site dedicated to love and romance on the road. I also run the busy travel blogger interview site TraveLinkSites! Read more »

Today’s featured travel bloggers are self-proclaimed travel junkies Lane and Juliet from the Lost Backpack, who encourage others to challenge their ideals and beliefs through travel.

Lane and Juliet of The Lost Backpack show off the tiger bite.

What’s your travel background?

Lane:  I was born into a family of truck drivers.  We all have road maps for veins and asphalt in our blood.  I’ve covered the U.S. from coast to coast.  In 2002, my daughter and I took our first overseas trip — ironically, to England.

Juliet: I have one British and one American parent and was raised in the UK. Early family trips included visits to the US and many trips to France–I had my first wine tasting experience at age eleven! During summer vacation in college, I went backpacking around Europe and the US. In 2002, I moved to America.

What’s different about your blog or site [or travel and lifestyle business} and please provide a link to it.

The Lost Backpack maintains a good balance between humor and conveying information–we don’t take ourselves too seriously. We are relevant to a broad range of travelers, as we cover both domestic and more exotic locales.

What’s the most unexpected thing that has ever happened to you when you traveled and how did you handle it?

Lane: I was canoeing in Tennessee when nature called. I was answering the call behind a bush when I realized that a Boy Scout troop was setting up camp next to me! They had toilet paper.

Juliet: I got bitten by a tiger in Puerto Vallarta. We were visiting a zoo where you can help socialize baby big cats. I was rolling a ball for a tiger cub to chase. He got over-excited and nipped my leg. I showed off that bruise for days.

Complete the sentence: I never travel without … because … Read more »

Today’s featured travel blogger is freelance travel writer Nancy Mueller, author of Work Worldwide: International Career Strategies for the Adventurous Job Seeker . Nancy has traveled around the world and blogs about travel on the Wanderlust and Lipstick network. You might also have seen her work on Uptake and GoNomad.

Nancy,  what’s your travel background?

My world travels include teaching in Egypt, directing an international cultural exchange program in the Pacific Northwest, presenting communication skills workshops in Canada and throughout the United States, consulting in Europe (France, Spain and Italy), whale watching on a small-ship cruise in Alaska’s Inside Passage and in the Galapagos Islands, and traveling in Brazil, Hong Kong, China and Ecuador.

What’s different about your blog or site?

My website, http://wanderlustandlipstick.com/blogs/wanderboomer is for active baby boomers, their friends & families.

What’s the most unexpected thing that has ever happened to you when you travelled and how did you handle it?

The most unexpected thing that has ever happened to me when traveling was discovering a kindred spirit in a most unlikely place and time in my life. I handled it as best I could . . .

Complete the sentence: I never travel without … because …

A journal, pen and camera because I’m a travel writer!

When it comes to travel and travel blogging, who is your mentor/hero and why?

Pico Iyer is always an inspiration for his writing and his humanity as a global citizen. Beth Whitman, owner of WanderlustandLipstick.com, has been a phenomenal mentor and inspiration as an astute business owner and travel writer.

What place is on your travel bucket list? Why?

Australia and Antarctica! Then I will have been to all 7 continents.

What is your favorite travel planning tool?

I still love poring over maps and guidebooks before and after my travels.

Anything to add?

Travel with an open mind and an open heart. Treasure your travel memories.

Martina in New Zealand

This week’s featured travel blogger is Martina McAuley, whom Travelpod users will know as FlyingBat. Martina’s been traveling to various parts of the globe for 15 years. She says giving up everything to travel was one of the best decisions ever!

Martina, what’s your travel background?

I’m Irish but left Ireland in 1988 to go and live in London. I only started traveling 15 years ago. Back then, I had to make a choice between taking a promotion at work or traveling and working on my own around Europe, which I’d never done before. For me, it meant giving up my car, my job and my house in London and heading off on my own, knowing nobody and trying to get a job and accommodation in every country I went to.

Well, it was the best decision I ever made and it came down to trusting my gut instinct when making that decision. I kept coming back to Amsterdam, which is where I’m based at the moment but have gone further afield to places like America, South Africa and New Zealand. Most of my work background has been in the hospitality business, working for 20 years in bars, hotels and restaurants all over Europe but more recently I have had roles in customer service and administration. Photography is also a skill that I’m developing and my ambition is to become a freelance travel writer/photographer.

What’s different about your blog or site?

I love traveling with my heart and soul, with all its ‘ups and downs’. Writing travel blogs for me is a way, to put into words, my passion for traveling and to be able to convey that to my readers, so that they want to go there too. I only started blogging 2 years ago. I blog about my travels abroad but I also have a blog about events, concerts, exhibitions in Amsterdam that I’ve been to or I think will be interesting to go to. I have a huge passion for New Zealand, with a special interest in the Maori culture and in November 2009, had an article published in The Holland Times newspaper, about the Mana Maori Exhibition, which was held at the Volkenkunde Museum, Leiden.

I’ve been to New Zealand twice and totally fell in love with the place, the people, the stunning scenery, the diversity of things to do there, the Maori culture and the spectacular wildlife. So I would love to concentrate on writing about New Zealand and make that my niche market, if at all possible. I’m also mad about Irish music and had an article recently published in The Irish Music Magazine about the launching of the first album by a band called Kayna.

What’s the most unexpected thing that has ever happened to you when you travelled and how did you handle it? Read more »

This week, I’m happy to feature Justin Mussler of The Great Family Escape. (don’t you just love that name? I know I do!) Justin and his family are ‘obsessed with travel’ and plan a long term trip around the world, traveling mostly by bike!

Justin, what’s your travel background?

Well, I have never been able to get enough travel through my system. I wasn’t raised as a traveler. My family stayed close to home, but once I went off to school and tasted the open road I just never looked back.

The biggest adventure my wife and I ever went on was a year long trip to China. We quit our jobs shortly after getting married and just went. We saw the whole country. The past few years we have been watching our kids grow and realized we want to show them the world. We travel whenever we can. A few years back we drove across America and back with our1 year old daughter on a whim. Often we just go, but this time we are planning for a big adventure.

What’s different about your blog or site?

Our blog is The Great Family Escape.

Well, we are a family that is going from the working and living in Boston to potentially traveling the world by bicycle for many years to come. We are so obsessed with travel, that we just couldn’t bear the thought of traveling short term.

Instead of waiting to travel, I wanted to track the whole process of our journey from beginning to end. I literally started before we had any idea of what, when, and how we were going to do this. In fact, we still aren’t 100% sure, but we have learned so much and have just set a date for December 1, 2012 as our ‘launch’ date.

I think our readers love the truth, candor, and the ability to find something about themselves in the writing. There is a lot of talk about lifestyle, travel, money, kids, etc…

I think people love seeing the process we are going through. And they love the idea of traveling forever. Read more »