Traveller Profile - Alexys from travelexys

Introducing our featured traveller profile for the month of November - Alexy. Check out Alexy’s great adventures below…

Hi there! My name is Alexys, and I can be found on Instagram @travelexys or through my blog travelexys.com. The last trip I was able to take was to Portugal and France in February 2020 right before everything shut down, and the upcoming plans I have are mini road trips around my home city of Los Angeles. 

I’ve ventured to 50 countries so far, and I’m hoping to move to Europe next year where I’ll be able to see a lot more places. 

1. Why do you travel?

For me, it’s because traveling gives me a little more open-mindedness and appreciation for differences. Once I was able to see that from the first international trips I did in my early 20’s, it was hard for me to not want to always be abroad.

I’m also very food-motivated, so discovering some new favorite dishes is always a big part of the fun with traveling. 

2. Tell us your favourite: a place to visit, mode of transport and source to get travel info.

I think my favorite place to visit is Southeast Asia because of the food (I especially LOVE Thai food), the customs, and some pretty memorable experiences I’ve had there. I’ve been a few times and I try seeing a little more each time I go back to that region. 

My favorite mode of transportation is a plane because it gets me to far away places that are not easily accessible any other way from Los Angeles. 

I rely a lot on Lonely Planet books because I’ve found some great highlights in there that I haven’t found in many other sources. I also like bringing the paperbacks with me on my travels to look up some destination information while I’m out exploring. 

3. What is your favourite travel memory?

​Oktoberfest 2019 in Munich, because that was near the end of a 2-month Europe trip and I was carrying all the great memories I had experienced from the previous weeks, so at the festival it really hit me. I remember looking around at all the people singing on tables, ordering beers with the new friends we just made in the tents, and thinking how amazing it was to be there and be experiencing all this. 

4. What's the most important thing you've learned while travelling?

I’ve learned a lot about patience and perspective. What’s considered “normal” to me and how I grew up is completely foreign to some others, and vice versa, so I should never assume anything and should be mindful of different beliefs and possible perspectives.

5. Who would you love to sit next to on your next flight?

Sitting next to a National Geographic photographer, so I could hear about the fascinating places they’ve been to in order to get a photo. Either that, or Jake Gyllenhaal. 

6. What's your best money-saving tip to travel?

Have a travel credit card — mine has saved me thousands because I haven’t had to buy any of my flights out of pocket for the past 2 years. I just use my accumulated points. 

7. How do you deal with the post-holiday blues?

By planning for the next trip! Before COVID, I usually had at least 2 trips scheduled in the future, so I would trip plan and it’d get me excited for upcoming adventures. But now, working on my travel accounts is what’s helping me miss jet setting a little less. Posting to Instagram gives me an excuse to go back and look through photos and remember the experience, and blogging really transports me back when I’m telling my personal stories.

8. What's one thing you like to do in every place you visit?

I try getting a souvenir from each country I visit to hang on my travel wall. It started off with mostly wooden items, but it has expanded to paintings and clocks and pretty much anything I think would look nice on the wall (: 

9. Travelling can leave a big environmental footprint, how do you minimise yours?

This is something I’m actively working on, even when I’m not traveling, but ways I try to travel sustainably are by walking between destinations or taking public transportation, always carrying a refillable water bottle with me instead of getting plastic bottles, and I opt to go paperless as often as possible — saying no to receipts, using e-tickets to board, etc. 

10. Plan an around the world trip for us, stopping in one city only on each continent.

Starting in the great North American city of Los Angeles, then —>  Auckland, New Zealand —>  Hanoi, Vietnam —> Budapest, Hungary —> Marrakech, Morocco —> Cartagena, Colombia —> and ending with a boat ride to Antarctica. 

Thanks Alexys. You have me pumped to travel again. There is no better feeling then boarding a plane on another adventure.

To read past traveller profiles; click here.

Each month an enthusiastic traveller will share with us their personal stories from their adventures around the world. If you would like to be featured in the upcoming months then please drop us a note below…