Taking off Travel blog

Next up in our series of travel blogger profiles is Marina Villatoro. Marina’s best known for her expert views on Central American and Latin American travel through the Travel Experta blog. Of the bloggers featured so far, Marina started traveling the earliest – she was a babe in arms when she took her first trip!

Marina, what’s your travel background?

I’ve been traveling since I was born. I took my first plane ride at 3 weeks old. However, the travels I remember started when I was in high school through Europe, Canada, Mexico, Caribbean and Israel, and then a study abroad program in England, to many cross country trips of the US, until my main gap year and half when I hopped on a bus in NYC and headed all the way down to Argentina and Chile. In total I’ve been to over 36 countries, and counting.

Now my travels are mainly with my family around Central America and the US.

What’s different about your blog or site?

My blog, Travel Experta, is a bit different because I focus on Central America and Latin America. Few travel blogs are so specific and niche. With that I am able to provide more help to readers that have these destinations in mind. I focus on everything about this region from what to do, where to stay, for families and couples and everything in between.

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

The most unexpected and life-changing for me was when I crossed over the border of Belize to Tikal, Guatemala and found myself camping next to a young Guatemalan. One thing led to another and we have been married for 8 years, with 2 amazing boys and I have been living my dream of being an expat!

Never in my wildest dreams did I think I’d meet my husband camping in the middle of a jungle.

What do you ALWAYS travel with?

My laptop! Unfortunately and actually very fortunately, my business is 100% location independent, so I can work from anywhere. But that also means not going anywhere without my computer.

What place is on your travel bucket list? Why?

I focus on realistic bucket lists. For instance, I know that in the next several years I won’t make it to India, since I prefer to do that when my kids are older.

So my bucket list for now is in the areas that I know I will have a chance to visit. For now, I really really want to go over Mirador Mayan ruins in a helicopter. You can’t get there the conventional way, but either by helicopter or on a mule. I’ll skip the mule!

What is your favourite travel planning tool?

Myself! I am an addict to planning my trips. It’s one of my bigger joys before going! I just sit on the computer and read all I can from every site possible, and do a bit of cross checking with guide books. But I find guidebooks to be bad and unhelpful. That’s why I’m actually creating guidebooks for families to make it so much easier to plan, especially with kids.

Anything to add?

The reason I started blogging, way back when, was to inspire people to travel with their families to the not-so conventional places. And over the years showing my family in the different spots of the world, doing tours and other fun stuff has helped my readers also take trips with their families, which is super!

I hope more people realize how ABSOLUTELY important it is for kids to travel, it opens their minds and makes them global citizens without discrimination and judgements!

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Thanks, Marina. I totally agree with you about the importance of travel for kids.

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Lea Woodward’s in the spotlight today as part of our series of travel blogger profiles. Moving beyond travel, Lea embodies the life of a location independent entrepreneur and has run multiple businesses from far-flung locations.

Lea, what’s your travel background?

I’ve travelled for as long as I can remember. Growing up in the UK with my father in Hong Kong, I was a frequent flyer from the age of 5. My brother and I were lucky to travel as a family with my father around Asia and with my mother around Europe. My first solo trip was a 6 week inter-railing trip around Europe to France, Spain, Austria, the Czech Republic, Hungary and more. Since then, I’ve made a round-the-world trip, taken a 3 month sabbatical to Australia and New Zealand and, as a location independent entrepreneur, lived and run my business from Panama, Buenos Aires, Grenada, Toronto, South Africa, Thailand, Turkey and more. So you could say I’m quite a keen traveller

What’s different about your blog or site?

Which one? Our online business is focused around a single mission: to help creative entrepreneurs become pioneers of their own lives. We do this by publishing digital resources, running skill-building group courses and professional services. One of our earliest sites, Location Independent, was the first of its kind and is till known as a “go to” resource for the live & work anywhere work style. There are a few things which set us apart – we’re a husband and wife team, we run our business from wherever we are and we truly have multiple income streams from digital products, to professional services, to selling physical goods.

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

The most unexpected incident was probably being mugged by a group of 10 year old girls outside Nice train station.

A group of young girls crowded round me asking for money and holding out a piece of paper in front of them, asking me to read it. I tried to push them away but they kept swarming round me and pawing at me, asking me to read this sign and surrounding me, despite the best efforts of my girlfriends to help push them away.

After a couple of minutes I felt a small tugging on the security money pouch I was wearing (but hadn’t had time to tuck away properly – duh!). I looked down and as I did the kids scarpered having clearly been rumbled. I noticed the zip was open about an inch and was convinced they couldn’t have taken much from such a small opening. They’d actually snaffled around $200.

I didn’t handle it very well – I burst into tears and sobbed for a good half hour! But fortunately I had my two best girlfriends there to give me hugs and moral support. I then called my Dad who promptly transferred the money I’d been robbed of back into my account!

Complete the sentence: I never travel without … because …

I never travel without a digital camera which is obviously used for travel photos but also because it’s useful to keep digital copies of important documents with you.

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

I don’t follow many travel blogs and I tend to subscribe and unsubscribe based upon changing interests and travel destinations. A current favourite is Hidden Europe.

What place is on your travel bucket list? Why?

Japan. Despite the recent nuclear issues, I’ve heard that culturally and socially, it’s unlike any other place. Despite having travelled around a lot of Asia, I believe Japan is a whole different experience and I’d love to immerse myself in it.

What is your favourite travel planning tool?

The internet!! More specifically, I like tools like Skyscanner which let you scan all budget European flights on one site. I also think Twitter is excellent for asking your followers for tips – some of the best destination tips have come from my Twitter friends.

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Nice to get to know you better, Lea. :)

Want to be featured in this slot? Leave a comment on this post to be considered. (Photo: locationindependent)

Today, I’m happy to feature Annabel Candy of Get in the Hot Spot to kick off our series of travel blogger profiles. As you’ll see, Annabel has been a nomad since the age of 2 and hasn’t stopped traveling since!

Annabel, what’s your travel background?

When I was two my parents started sending me on holiday with another family every summer. I grew up in the UK and we only went to the English seaside so it wasn’t very exotic but I still think my taste for travel started there. When I was older we started going overseas for our holidays and by the time I was 18 all I really knew I wanted to do was see the world. Ever since then I’ve mostly been travelling. I’ve lived and worked in England, France, the USA, Laos PDR, New Zealand, Costa Rica and we moved to Australia two years ago. I’ve visited more than 40 countries but  there are plenty more I still want to see.

What’s different about your blog or site?

Get In the Hot Spot’s a travel blog for adventurous travel lovers and other writers. The goal is to entertain my readers, make them smile and ultimately inspire them to go off on, or write about, their own adventures. As well as sharing travel stories I also publish personal writing that resonates with busy women and mothers.

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

One time I was hitchhiking in Tunisia with two friends. We were in the middle of no where. I can just remember this long straight dusty road stretching off into the desert as far as the eye could see. There was barely any traffic but after a while a police man turned up from nowhere. We thought he was going to tell us to get lost or arrest us but he just shook his head and hung around with us. He didn’t speak English and we didn’t speak Arabic so we really had no idea why he was there. We just managed to explain to him with sign language where we were going. At last a car came by and the policeman flagged it down, had a word with the driver and told him to take us to our destination. It all goes to show you should never expect the worst of people. Most people really want to help you when you travel and make sure you get a good impression of their country.

Complete the sentence: I never travel without … because …

I never travel without a good book, a diary and my camera because you’ll never be bored if you’ve got them to entertain you and you’ll go home with some great stories and photos too.

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

I like Peter Moore. He’s an Australia travel writer who’s had some grand adventures. His books and blog posts always make me laugh.

I like Irish travel writer Dervla Murphy too. She has a much more mellow writing style but she doesn’t blog and she’s not on Twitter which is a real shame. To be fair though she is over 70!

What place is on your travel bucket list? Why?

We really want to go to Tanzania because we want to take our three kids ((now aged 13, 10 and 6) on an African safari. We recently spent 18 months in Central America and we all love wildlife. It’s such a privilege to see monkeys, sloths and toucans in the wild. Now we’d like to show the kids the African wildlife and lifestyle too. My husband grew up in Kenya so he has old friends there and in Tanzania. A place with amazing wildlife and gorgeous beaches is our idea of heaven so I hope we get to spend six months in Tanzania before our oldest grows up and doesn’t want to travel with us anymore. We’re saving up for it!

What is your favorite travel planning tool?

I’m a fiend for planning so I try to get all the guide books I can lay my hands on and will spend hours and hours researching on the internet. We use CheapoAir to book our flights. All that planning is a waste of time in the end because the best thing to do is just get somewhere with no plans. Walk everywhere so you get to know the place properly and ask the locals for help and advice. I always make an effort to get to grips with the basics of the local language and CDs and Podcasts are best for that. Benny the Irish Ploygot has the great language learning tips.

Final thoughts?

It’s amazing what you can pick up on your travels. I met my husband 20 years ago when travelling in the Sinai in Egypt. The photo shows us getting married in Vanuatu four years ago with our three kids in tow.

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Thanks, Annabel.

Want to be featured in this slot? Leave a comment on this post to be considered.

Did you ever wish you could find out more about the people behind your favorite blogs, Twitter accounts and Facebook pages? As an incurable knowledge collector, I do too. And since the only way to find out is to ask, I asked a few of the travel bloggers I connect with for a brief interview so we could all get to know them better. The first few interviewees are already lined up (in no particular order):

• Annabel Candy of Get in the Hot Spot
• Marina Villatoro of Travel Experta
• Barbara Weibel of Hole in the Donut
• Andy Hayes of Sharing Travel Experiences
• Lea Woodward of Location Independent
• Loredana Pascal of Travel – Moments in Time

I’m planning to run the interviews on Tuesdays, with the first one starting on September 6.

I’m happy that these bloggers have already agreed to be part of the series, but I don’t want to stop there.  If you have a travel blog that’s been running at least six months, with a clear purpose and identity, I’d love to talk to you. I’d also like to meet and feature some of the travel bloggers who comment on this blog so I’ll be approaching people over the next couple of weeks. If you want to be featured (or want to suggest someone whom you’d like me to interview), then take a shortcut by leaving a comment here so I can check your blog out and email you the questions.