Meet Maria & Katerina from It’s All Trip to Me
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In this installment of the travel blogger interview series, I have another to introduce you to. Today, I’m happy to introduce you to Maria from It’s All Trip to Me!
It’s All Trip To Me is a travel website created and run by writer Maria and photographer Katerina, two passionate travellers currently living in their hometown Athens, Greece. Through highly informative travel guides, carefully planned-out itineraries and the best travel planning tips, Maria and Katerina inspire people with full-time jobs to travel more by making the most of their vacation time.
How long have you been blogging for? Why’d you decide to start a travel blog?
We’ve been blogging since the beginning of 2018, but we’ve been travelling together for over a decade now.
For the past ten years or so, as part-time travellers ourselves, we gradually became experts in planning the best short-term trips during which we managed to visit all the must-sees a destination has to offer while, at the same time, explore each place’s more authentic side at a slow pace.
Therefore, we started It’s All Trip To Me in an effort to show fellow part-time travellers that it’s possible to travel more and better as long as they learn how to make the most of their vacation time. Moreover, we’ve always wanted to inspire people to embrace sustainable and ethical travel.
Last but not least, starting a travel blog was for us the best excuse to unconditionally give in to our great passions for travel, photography, and writing.
Do you have any tips for new travel bloggers/aspiring travel bloggers?
Start a travel blog only if you are really passionate about it because, no matter its joys, it’s a hard job that takes a great deal of commitment and sacrifice.
What’s one thing you wish you knew before you started traveling?
We really do wish we had invested in a professional camera right from the very first trip we ever took together. We regret having visited the most gorgeous places and not having decent photos from those trips to use on our website and other channels now.
Why do you love to travel?
There’s nothing in the world that makes us happier than seeing the world and meeting people from different cultures and backgrounds. Yet the most important thing of all is that travel has the superpower to make us better people. This is priceless.
What’s your best and worst travel experience?
It’s really hard to choose the very best among so many fantastic travel experiences we’ve had. However, we think that watching the sun set and rise over the sand dunes in the heart of the Sahara Desert in Morocco tops our list.
Speaking of bad travel experiences though, at that time we were desperately looking for a dentist in Seville Spain as Katerina needed an urgent root canal treatment while being in terrible pain beats them all.
Do you prefer solo travel or traveling with other people? Why?
Katerina and I love to travel together. We are each other’s perfect travel companions. We enjoy doing the same things and share the same worldview, so this enhances the experiences we live during our travels.
What’s your favorite place you’ve ever been to? Why?
Our favourite place on the planet is Italy, and it will always be Italy. No matter the wonders of the world we see, Italy will forever have a special place in our hearts.
We love the food, the people, the architecture, and literally everything in Italy. But what fascinates us about Italy the most is the fact that it feels as though beauty is the driving force for everything there.
What’s your biggest travel tip?
If we had to pick just one travel tip that would be: Choose your accommodation wisely!
Cheapest doesn’t necessarily mean best and spending the night at a horrid place can ruin an entire vacation. Not to mention that certain destinations feature unique accommodation types (for instance, the impressive cave dwellings in Matera, Italy or Santorini, Greece) that you definitely won’t want to miss.
Is there one specific thing you like to do, see, or buy in every place that you visit?
We love to send postcards to ourselves and to our loved ones from any new place that we visit. Also, we always make sure we eat all the local food wherever it is that we’re travelling.
Is there one particular food that you’ve tried while traveling that you loved? What food was it and why do you love it so much?
Katerina will never get over the steak she had at a cosy B&B in the Cotswolds, England. As for Maria, she can’t get enough of pasta in Italy.
Quick Questions
Plane or train? Train for Katerina. Plane for Maria.
Hotel or hostel? Hotel.
City or nature? A combination of the two.
Popular site or off the beaten path? Best of both worlds.
Suitcase or backpack? Small suitcase.
Fast travel or slow travel? Slow travel is the dream, and it should be the only way to travel. Although we’re part-time travellers, we’re doing our best to achieve slow travel.
Professional camera or iPhone photography? Professional camera.
Warm or cold weather? Warm, warm, warm.
All photos used throughout this post are courtesy of Maria & Katerina from It’s All Trip to Me.
