Travel Bloggers guest post: The Navigatio

Hello friends!

Today’s post marks a new chapter on the blog: I’m starting a new series where I’ll be introducing travel bloggers I find inspiring. It will be a sort of getting to know/interview with these talented travel bloggers. For the longest time, I wanted to have guest posts but never figured out how to do it. Until I got this idea: how about I ask fellow travel enthusiast bloggers to tell me more about themselves and about their blogs?

I hope you like this new series! We start off with one of my favorites: Nele, from the travel blog, The Navigatio. You heard me talking about her blog a few times before, and more recently on 3 Travel Blogs I’m reading, so it makes sense to kick off this new series with Nele.

Nele – The Naviagatio

Hi! I’m Nele (pronounced as Nay-la), a 24-year-old Dutch expat living in the UK. I moved to Manchester when I was 18 to study English and Creative writing, but I fell in love with the city. So I stayed 😉 I run a full-time travel blog and work as a freelance writer/SEO specialist, love playing a good video game, drinking coffee, and reading.

Why did you start a travel blog?

I started The Navigatio in the summer of 2017. I had just finished my last exams in my second year at university and I wanted to set myself apart from my classmates. We were all going to graduate with the same degree in a year, so what would make me stand out (apart from being a foreigner!). I had started many blogs in the years previous to 2017, but they were all hobby blogs on free WordPress sites. I never felt confident enough to dive into the world of self-hosted websites, but I felt like it was the right time to do so!

Starting The Navigatio has taught me so many skills and ultimately led me to get really interested in SEO too. It’s crazy to see how far I’ve come since starting it, and I’m super excited to see where the future will take me and my website.

What was your favorite trip so far?

Japan! In 2018, after graduating from university, my boyfriend and I went to Japan for 16 days. Since I was 13, Japan had been my absolute dream. Actually turning that dream into a reality was something incredibly special. I cried when we landed in Tokyo – both from excitement and relief (as we had a bit of a nightmare getting there, canceled planes, missed connections… Took us 28 hours!). We visited Tokyo, Kyoto, Osaka, and Nara. I got to see all the places I had been dreaming about for almost a decade. Fushimi Inari, Tokyo Tower, Osaka Castle, I got to wear a kimono – it was the best trip of my life and I’m dying to get back to Japan!

I also really enjoyed my road trip in the USA, from Denver to Los Angeles. I traveled through the states for 3 weeks with my mom, my dad, and my two sisters, and it definitely turned into one of those trips that I’ll remember for the rest of my life. The USA has so much to see and we definitely packed a lot of stuff in 21 days!

What is your dream trip?

I’d absolutely love to go back to Japan and explore more of the countryside and the lesser-known parts. But apart from Japan, I would love to go to South Korea and Hong Kong – those are both really high on my list.

How did Covid19 affect you and your travel plans?

It has been such a crazy time to work in the travel industry, as you can imagine. In March, I asked for my press trip to Italy to be postponed, and despite being a little sad about it, I definitely think it was the right decision. I think it’s super important that travel bloggers/writers set the right example and not travel when it could affect others. It’s better to wait for travel to be safe again!

As for my business, my blog and website have been badly affected by the virus. Most of my traffic comes from Google (with my SEO background) and Pinterest. But since nobody is searching for any travel-related articles, my viewership has dropped almost 75%. With that, my ad revenue, affiliate sales and other ways I create an income from my website have almost completely vanished… It’s definitely not easy, but I’m trying to make the most of it. Even though traffic is down, I have used this time to update older posts to make sure they are the best they could be.

I’ve also focussed more on my SEO and writing freelancing to pay for the bills. I think the hardest thing is not knowing when this will go back to normal. It’s impossible to predict when traffic will go up again, which makes it super tough to plan my work accordingly. But, I’m super happy that me, my family and friends are safe and healthy. That’s obviously way more important 🙂

Share with us your favorite post you ever wrote.

Ahhh that’s a tough one! I think my six-day Tokyo itinerary is definitely one of my all-time favorites. I had so much fun writing it and reliving my time in Tokyo. I’m also very proud of my Budapest itinerary. I went last November and I think it’s the trip where I really started seeing a big improvement in my photography. I’ve always loved taking photos, but it wasn’t until last summer that I started learning how to shoot manually and editing properly in Lightroom. I think it’s improved dramatically over the last year and I’m super excited to keep working on it!

Where would you like to go once the Covid19 pandemic is over?

The first trip I’m going to make once the travel ban is lifted will be the Netherlands. My family still lives there and I haven’t seen them since Christmas. They were planning to visit me in Manchester for Easter, but obviously, that was canceled. Living abroad, I don’t get to see my family very often but knowing that I can’t just book a last-minute flight to see them is kinda getting to me.

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