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Independent Travel Philosophy

Independent travel is about unique social and cultural encounters and enduring memories of places we visit. It is also about building relationships and emotional connections to the hosts and their communities over homemade meals, late night drinks and engaging conversations. Our ever-evolving trip itineraries have allowed us to experience the unplanned and unexpected. Being flexible and open-minded, staying with the locals have been the cornerstone of our travel philosophy. You just never know whom you might meet next day and the insights you might bring…

Travel Notes from our Trip to Louisiana, USA

“Day 1: A cozy room with a small residential home in the Cajun countryside. Our host, who grew up in a local family of 19, is sharing with us a heart-warming story of his childhood. During the conversation, he finds a photograph of the latest family reunion, which looks like a picture of a high-school graduation class. Accompanied with generous helpings of home-made hearty meal, our dinner continues well into the night. The following morning, we leave for our next destination, fully loaded with fresh satsumas (a local Louisiana citrus fruit) from the garden.

Day 2: A neatly appointed in-suit room in an opulent mansion on the bayou near Baton Rouge. We are walking around an elegant garden on a vast property dotted with marble sculptures and stone benches.  Our hostess, a lady in her mid-fifties, is proudly showing us around the entire house, including the attic. Why on Earth, did we need to see the Attic, you might ask? It was just before Christmas, and the attic, which served a permanent gift-wrapping station, was a curious place to see. That same night, our hostess learned that we did not have any firm plan for the following day. She picked up the phone and booked a “not-to-be-missed swamp tour” for us.

Day 3: Next morning, we met our guide and the boat owner, a bearded older guy, who, as it turned out, had been featured in the National Geographic one of the previous years. He took us on a trip through the swamps to greet the plentiful native and migrant water fowl and the gators (who seemed stunned by unseasonably cold late fall that year). “It’s 5 o’clock somewhere”, he proclaims philosophically at the end of the tour, while pouring us a shot of  homemade peach moonshine…”

Independent travel is full of surprising twists and turns on the road. Your Airbnb host or vacation rental owner might be the treasurer of Aruba or a prominent New-York-based bikini fashion photographer. You just never know, whom you will meet next time you book a trip. Do you?