I came across Stella’s European Travelling Advisor in a Google Alert which picked up her piece about European Festivals in October. I always like to promote other sites which feature useful and interesting content about travel in Europe for readers, so I contacted Stella to ask if she’d do a guest interview for the Europe a la Carte online magazine. I think that you’ll agree that European Travelling Advisor does what is says in the title.

What is the aim of your blog?

Education. I think that people today lack education about travel. What I mean by that is getting away from hundreds of guides that all talk about the same thing and agencies where you buy «instant pleasure» as I like to call it. We all know what happens when you come into a travel agency; you are offered a few coulourful papers, already made itineraries that are supposed to satisfy travelers with different tastes and interests. People don’t think much about the trip itself, only about the destination. They go there because they might like it or because somebody else liked it. I’m trying to bring about awareness about all the possibility and variety of travel experiences. Also, getting into a lot of aspects of travel, teach people that they, themselves, can plan better itineraries than the agency would provide them with. Not only accommodation wise, but budget wise too. And the foremost benefit, teach them how to personalize their travel adventure, by meeting their needs, their interests…

What prompted you to start your blog?

I guess two things. Searching the internet about travel, I was surprised that there are almost no websites that provide travelers with good advice. There are a lot of websites and blogs where people talk about their experiences, what they saw and did travelling to certain places, which I like to read myself because I have a lot of travel experience and fun days on the road. The rest is just rewriting articles from magazines or talking, giving advice about cities and places they haven’t visited.

The second thing that prompted me to start writing my blog were the conversations I had with other people. I was surprised how little people knew about travel and all sorts of events going on around Europe. Or the fact that they didn’t have the answer to a simple question like «Why did you decide to go to Spain?» and getting them excited when talking about what they can do at a certain place they were interested in. At the end of conversation though, I would get the same comment: «You have planned so many trips, you have the knowledge, the experience, but I don’t know what you know…» and right there they would give up on something that put a smile on their face just seconds ago.

What has been the hardest aspect of having your own blog?

I enjoy every aspect of it, from deciding what subjects I will bring every week, the writing itself to seeing what pleases to my readers the most. Something that is maybe a little challenging is providing really good information to my readers in a way that appeals to them but at the same time staying true to my writing tone and my point of view.

What is the funniest thing that has happened to you running your blog?

Very quickly I started getting comments to my blog and the first time it happened, in just a few days, people posted a lot of comments. I have been writing a lot about different subjects for a long time now because I enjoy it. But I have never shown my work to anyone, except my best friend and sometimes a few other people. So the first time I started getting comments was a little overwhelming and I was going crazy thinking «OMG, there are people actually reading my work!» …of course they were, I made it public, with a clear goal but I just wasn’t expecting to appear to me so real in such a short period of time. Silly, I know…

Is there anything you would do differently with the benefit of hindsight?

I wouldn’t do anything differently, I can always introduce new topics and later on engage my readers more in creation of my blog, considering their interests. But I will stay true to my style and my point of view. That way you stay recognizable and show that you walk your talk which is one of the most important things if you want to connect and gain trust.

My comments – Stella and I are certainly on the same wavelength about the advantages of planning your own trips in Europe to see what really interests you and get better value for money. Yes, there is loads of travel content on the internet but it’s not always easy to find quality content which is relevant to you and your travel preferences.