Welcome back to some Weekend Travel Inspiration! On our traveler interview series, Rendezvous with Rovers, we welcome Veronika and her experiences and blog called Travel Geekery. I love that name, don’t you? Veronika has traveled all over Europe, and has taken some longer distance vacations, too. Take a look at her travel vision!
Tell us a little about yourself. Who travels with you? Where do you live now? Tell us a little about where you are from and if you recommend it to people as a travel destination.
I’m Czech and live in Prague, Czech Republic. Prague is an amazing place to visit and even better to live in. After studying abroad for 3 years, I was happy to come back to my home country. Prague is my base, from which I travel often. I travel either with my husband, with friends, by myself or on blogger trips. Each year it’s a unique blend of different types of trips for me. I love it!
What inspires you to travel? What types of places call to you? How often do you get to travel?
I travel every month, usually on shorter trips. Winters tend to be quiet for me in terms of travelling, but once spring sets in, it becomes much more intensive! I enjoy going overseas a few times per year, but 80% of my trips are around Europe, which is simply easier to do out of Prague.
Recently I’ve been enjoying nature more and more. I love going off the beaten path, hiking… But at the same time I haven’t forgotten how to enjoy cities. In the last years I’ve also been exploring small towns around the Czech Republic, and there’s something special in each and every one of those I visited.
Describe your travel philosophy. What is your style? Are you more of a luxury traveler or is backpacking more your style?
Again, I need it all and I need to balance it out. Take my wedding & honeymoon trip to Mauritius, for example. While we indulged in luxury for a few days in a resort, we then proceeded to stay in Airbnb apartments around the island to immerse ourselves in the local culture and way of life.
In my travels, I enjoy a mixture of luxury trips, general city trips, as well as going camping and backpacking. But the older I get, the backpacking share is going further down. Staying in hostel dorms is mostly unappealing to me today. I see it as a normal progression.
What types of things are you interested in while you are traveling?
I extremely enjoy just wandering around and exploring more by chance. But it depends how much time I have in a destination. So seeing the main sights often needs to be planned. Other than that, I’m trying to soak in the local vibe and culture. However, if there’s a unique adventure activity, I go all in. I loved flying in a hot air balloon over the desert upon sunrise in Dubai.
What is one funny, embarrassing, cute, or even frustrating anecdote from your travels?
Visiting caves near Yangshuo village in China. First of all, I was the only one there. So while I enjoyed having the guide to myself, I didn’t enjoy the guide and a photographer trying to convince me to take some nude shots in the cave’s thermal pools. I was so glad that I resisted after I came out of there and saw pictures of visitors plastered all over outside the cave’s exit!
Then it continued with me not being able to get back to Yangshuo, as all buses were gone for the day. A young Chinese couple took pity on me and invited me to share their tiny scooter with them. It was one of my most memorable rides. Riding in three people on a small scooter through the beautiful landscapes of Guangxi Province. It felt a bit bizarre and I kept giggling the whole time. It was an amazing showcase of local hospitality, as they risked getting a fine by taking me.
What is your next destination and what are you looking forward to doing there?
Right now I’m planning a trip to Ethiopia with a friend! I’m so excited! In Africa, I only visited Morocco so I’m looking forward to finally get a glimpse of what real Africa is like.
How did you get started travel blogging, and what would be one piece of advice you can offer newbie bloggers?
I started blogging after having travelled a bit, with my friends constantly asking me questions about the destinations I visited and my family being curious what all I did. We stopped talking about each of my trips, because at some point it just became too much and we’d never be able to cover any other topics. I started writing about the places I visited from an advisory point of view. After a while I realized the blog could once become something like a business, which perfectly aligned with my long-term desire to launch something on my own.
As an advice to newbie bloggers – be sure from the beginning if you want to just write for friends and family and take it easy, or whether you’re willing to go all in and develop a business out of it. If you’re after the second option, you’ll need at least 10 hours a week to work on your blog. Take it seriously.
Author Bio: Corinne Vail is a travel photographer, food lover, and a perpetual traveler who has been travel writing for over 14 years. For many years she lived overseas in Germany, Japan, Turkey, South Korea, and the Netherlands teaching the children of the US. military. She’s visited over 90 countries, and she’s not stopping anytime soon.
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