As ‘They’ Travel | Interview With Nathan & Sofia

This week our featured interview is with Nathan & Sofia from As We Travel. Formed in early 2010 As We Travel  is a budget travel site for travelers who are about to leave and explore the world for their first RTW trip (round the world). Nathan & Sofia share simple travel tips, backpacking advice, clutter-free city guides , and personality-driven HD travel videos from all over the world.

Thanks for wanting to be part of our Positive World Travel community! What’s the way you make your travels positive?

We believe that every place and every experience has something positive to teach or show us – we never bring expectations to a new country, we let the country show us what it has to offer without judgement.

Can you tell us a bit about yourself and how you guys met? How long have you been travelling and who inspired you to take off on long-term travel?

We met in early 2008 in Sofia’s hometown of Gothenburg in Sweden, while Nathan was studying classical music there. We’ve been traveling together since the end of 2008. We don’t know who inspired who to travel. I think it was more of a ‘hey – lets go around the world and see what happens…’ – now here we are :p

You recently added videos to your site. What do you hope to achieve with incorporating video with your travels?

Instead of just using words or pictures to try and inspire others to travel, we really want to make them FEEL like they are there – video is the best format to achieve this.

We want to inspire people to travel, and for those who can’t travel we want to show them the world.

You have a pre-travel guide ebook. How will this guide help would-be-travellers make the leap into travelling overseas?

The pre-travel guide is a book designed for those who are about to take the step to start planning their first round the world trip. We help them with every step on the way, from the idea to planning to making it a reality.

We wrote the book with one thing in mind: to give the advice we wish someone would have given us before we left on our first round the world trip back in 2008.

We recently read a post about “planning” rather than “dreaming” to travel. What are some ways that you have achieved your travel goals and how other can achieve theirs?

Many people dream about taking that leap to travel the world, if only for a few months. But they think everything has to be perfect in order to do so: First I have to get an education, then I have to get a job, save enough money etc.

But there is no perfect time to travel – so just do it!

On your site you describe the 5 things you love about travel. What are some other things that you love about travel?

For us travel = freedom. Freedom to eat out every day, explore new places, spend as much time together as we want, to pretty much do what we want – WHEN we want.

You have been blogging about your travels for over a year now and inspiring others to get out and do the same. What advice could you give for others wanting to start a travel blog?

If you want to start a travel blog, know before you begin why you want to start and what you want from it. Do you want to blog for a large audience and update frequently or do you just want to update whenever you feel like and keep your travels for your closest friends to read?

That decision decides everything about your blog; the design, the name, the way you write, how much time to dedicate to it etc. We changed our URL 2 times before aswetravel.com

What are some of the challenges of travelling long-term as a couple?

Compromising is a keyword when traveling together as a couple, which can sometimes be a BIG challenge – that’s when you need to work on your convincing skills ;P

Gone are the days of the guidebook. How do you think technology has changed the way we travel? Do you take these changes as positive or negative?

It has changed everything in the way we travel. Today not even the most stubborn hippies travel without a laptop. Laptops, netbooks, iPads, blueberries – they’re all travel necessities today.

Social Media sites like Twitter and Facebook makes it possible to ask questions and get instant answers about things like good places to stay, visa and transport questions…anything.

What’s your travel mantra?

Life/Travel always works out – you just need to have trust.

Quick Questions

Where to next?

We are in Malaysia at the moment, really have no idea where we will be going next, we normally only make our next plans 1-2 weeks in advance.

What are you reading right now?

Nathan is reading ‘A New Earth’ by Eckhart Tolle and Sofia is reading ‘Yoga for people who can’t be bothered to do it’ by Geoff Dyer.

What are you listening to?

Missy Higgins, Eminem, Katie Melua & Swedish House Mafia on repeat.

What is your favourite travel item?

Our laptops and DSLR camera with its gear. We don’t know what we would do without them. We also love our silk travel sheets – we’ve had them for 3 years and they’ve never failed us!

Famous person you’d love to travel with?

Karl Pilkington and Louis Theroux: would be a funny combination and get us into some awkward but hilarious travel situations

Follow more of Nathan & Sofia’s travels by visiting their website and also their Facebook page. Or follow them on Twitter and watch their videos on their YouTube channel.

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