Collecting my stories on this travel blog has changed the way I travel. There’s no doubt about that. I’ve been choosing different locations and different travel activities, as well as making other small changes to my way of travelling.

My travel story

Basically, I’ve been travelling all my life. I believe that my current love of travel is the result of dozens of small trips I took with my family, with friends and by myself. I’m also convinced that this love will only grow in the future and will lead me to even more amazing experiences.

Early childhood

My first big experience with travel was at four years old.

I went skiing with my parents and my sister in Austria. The thing is, I don’t remember a lot about this trip, but it was still a big, influential moment for me.

Since that trip, we went skiing almost every year until I was about seventeen. Our yearly family ski trips were a week of intense bonding and having fun plowing through the snow. I loved every single second of it, down to the sugar rush from all the candy we ate during the long car ride.

At this time, I wasn’t thinking about pursuing travelling as a career at all. I wasn’t looking at travel blogs or watching travel videos. I just knew that we went skiing every year, and I knew that it was going to be as much fun as each year.

My early teen years

As soon as my sister and I were about seven years old, our family travels became more than just the yearly ski trips.

The first big travel-related experience, beside skiing, was the first time I took an airplane to another country. One of the first times my family and I travelled together was a short trip to Sevilla (Spain), where we visited friends of our parents.

At the time, I didn’t speak a word of Spanish (Why would I?). Additionally, the Spanish are notorious for not being the best at English. As a consequence, the entire trip was quite confusing for me, as I had to rely on my parents to understand what was going on.

Other than that, I loved it. I loved eating boquerones with my head in the air, I loved eating the fruit from my mom’s sangria (and thinking I was drunk) and I loved the feeling of sunshine on my face.

Since then, we’ve had many of these small family trips during the summer. Some destinations that spring to mind are London, Paris, Porto, Venice and southern France.

My student years

For me, the big turning point between being a family-dependent traveller and being an independent traveller was my first solo trip to Dublin. Even in a non-travel-related context, it was a big moment in my life. It was the first time I spent five days in a foreign city, with nobody to keep me company but myself.

It was also the first time I could truly do everything I wanted to do. I didn’t feel forced to do things I wasn’t really feeling up to. That’s why my trip to Dublin sparked my interest in solo travel.

I started getting more serious about travelling when I went to university in 2015. Beside summer vacation, I only had one week where I didn’t have any classes and I didn’t have to study for my exams. And I wanted to make that week count.

How travel blogging guided me to a different style of travelling

I started blogging in January 2017 and my first blog post was atrocious. I actually started blogging on the free version of WordPress, where you don’t get your own URL (which I do now). After a few days I quickly realised that I’d need to upgrade to the self-hosted version of WordPress and get my own web host.

Looking back on my first blog posts now, I feel it’s safe to say that my English and my storytelling skills have both improved drastically.

The first thing I really blogged about was my Dublin trip. As someone who was new to the travel blogging world, I was trying to find a niche for my blog. And I still am, honestly. That was one of the reasons why I decided to give solo travel a try. And I’m very happy that I did.

Recently, I’ve also become more intrigued by travelling off the beaten path. My reasons for doing this are very selfish. There is already an abundance of travel bloggers. It’s a very competitive niche and it’s incredibly difficult to get your name out there. I want to create interesting posts about things that haven’t been written about a lot.

This evolution in my travel style went hand in hand with the fact that I was starting to capture my adventures in short travel videos. I wanted to make unique, one-of-a-kind videos. After all, nobody wants to see another video of the Eiffel Tower and the Champs-Élysees. Today, I actually prefer making videos over taking pictures when I’m travelling.

Even more excitement for travelling

In the last few years, I’ve become increasingly more excited for future travel opportunities. I strongly believe that starting my blog has played a big part in that.

I find myself browsing through flight comparison websites, googling possible travel destinations and reading travel blog posts about places that I had never even heard of.

Luckily, one of my best friends (with whom I’m going to Slovenia in September, by the way) is just as excited about travelling as I am. She’ll often just send me a video or an article about some destination we’re both thrilled to see.

By writing about my past experience with travel, I become more excited for future trips. Even just reading blog posts I’ve published in the last year and a half makes me ridiculously excited to be on the road again.

I want to take every opportunity I get to travel. I don’t want to waste any time because I won’t be this young forever. Life is passing me by, and every time the sun goes down is another day I could spend travelling.

Small changes in the way I travel

A travel blog won’t only impact your style of travelling in huge ways. There are some smaller ways that are harder to notice in which my travelling has changed.

• I’m more connected. I try to make sure that I capture everything worth capturing, be it in video footage, in pictures or in a travel story. The main reason for this is that I want to inform the readers of my travel blog and avid video watchers about the things I experience on the road.
• I’m a more responsible traveller. Having people watch and read about every move you make has a way of making you more conscious about your actions. That’s why I consciously make an effort to opt for activities that don’t have a negative impact on the local community.
• I’m more open-minded. I didn’t used to be very interested in other cultures and beliefs. Now, though, the part of the trip I most look forward to is learning about other people.

This travel blog has changed the way I travel, and I’m sure it will continue to do so. If you’re looking for a reason to start a travel blog yourself, beside being able to keep friends and family at home updated about your travels, this is it. You’ll be more conscious and live in the moment while on the road.

Have you ever considered starting a travel blog? Do you already have one? Let me know in a comment!

Thanks for reading!

-S