Naomi is a pediatric nurse by profession and has an absolute weakness for frozen mango pieces and mangosteen. Almost half of our vacation budget goes to satisfy her almost insatiable hunger for tropical fruits… well, maybe a little exaggerated. Naomi is an extremely affectionate person and insists on her daily cuddles. Apart from that, she would love to take all the children on earth with her and is a very open-minded person who likes to be around locals and learn about other ways of life. When she’s not traveling, she likes to engage in sustainability topics, knot macramées, or do weird poses on a mat in our flat – I think it’s called yoga. When traveling, Naomi is much more organized than I am and actually always has a good overview of where her stuff is. A trip without her is unimaginable by now.
DThis is Julian: explorer, enthusiastic, pure joie de vivre. A little free spirit from the beautiful Palatinate region of Germany and thus, of course, a self-confessed wine lover. His travel career began as a little worm in the tow of his travel-loving parents. He loves meeting new people and immersing himself in foreign cultures, preferably in places where hardly any other tourists besides himself go. Julian learns parts of the local language amazingly fast and I am speechless when whole conversations start which I understand the least. Since about 3 years his beloved camera accompanies him on all his trips and slowly but surely the two of them develop into a well-rehearsed team. As a declared reptile fan and passionate passion fruit eater, he loves to be on the road in Asia. He is almost always hungry and tries with relish any dish of the country’s cuisine, often three different ones per meal. Lovable slob, who often has to carry his things behind him but overall my favorite travel buddy in the whole world.
Our travel philosophy
Some things are particularly important to us when traveling, which for us make the adventure backpacking. We have summarized everything that makes traveling for us or not. Isn’t every young traveler today somehow a backpacker? Is one a real backpacker just because one travels with a backpack? Unfortunately, traveling has become more and more of a self-expression and show of strength in recent years. It always has to be more extreme, further, more remote. The “best traveler” is the one who has visited the most countries.
For us, that is not what travel should be about. We prefer to take our time, to travel countries intensively (hence the name of our website “Travelsloth”), to book only what is necessary in advance, to do everything by public transport or on foot, and to get as close as possible to the local people without being pushy. It is important that we also familiarize ourselves a little with the cultural characteristics in advance. How revealingly do the locals dress? What is the role of women? Is it allowed to shake hands, etc.?
Our Blog
It is important to us to reflect the experiences as we have experienced them without embellishing them. In addition, we do not want to try to be an expert:in a country where we have spent only a short time. It is also important to us to report about less great experiences that we have made or that concern the travel country and about which one gets in Germany only very little. In our opinion, this is also important to share. When traveling, not everything is always great. There are inevitably always moments when you throw up, but that in turn makes you enjoy the good moments all the more. If we have a driver who takes us from a to b (although public transport also runs), pre-book our hotel and then order an “experience” from the hotel’s catalog on site, where exactly is the adventure in that?
Traveling Sustainably
At the same time, even if it sounds like a double standard at first, we try to be as sustainable as possible when traveling ourselves. It’s also clear that you can’t compensate for the CO2 emissions of flying, which in turn doesn’t mean that you shouldn’t try to make the rest of your trip as sustainable as possible.
But: There are some ways to travel sustainably (not only environmentally).
- No domestic flights or intercontinental flights unless absolutely necessary.
- Public transport and no private drivers -> buses and co. drive anyway.
- Do things on your own without a tour, etc., if possible.
- Respect and courtesy towards the locals, because that also shapes the sustainable relationship between travelers and locals.
- Take your time and enjoy the moments instead of checking off as many attractions as possible.
- Look for good, sustainably produced and durable quality in your equipment.
- Have Life-Straw filter with you -> So you can drink water from anywhere -> Saves some plastic bottles.
- Foldable Tupperware -> If you get food to-go you can have the food packed in there.Spork dabei haben -> anstelle von Einmalbesteck
- Foldable drinking cups -> saves plastic when you get e.g. juices at the street
- When choosing your accommodation, avoid booking.com or agoda, contact them directly or drive by. In this way, you contribute to making the accommodations less dependent and more remains with the operators themselves..
- Try, unfortunately not always possible, to find guides etc. directly on site without travel agencies etc.. In our opinion, the service is provided by the guide and not the agency, but the agencies take a high commission rate, which the guides and co. in turn lack. Therefore you will often find numbers for direct contact on our website
- Support local retail and markets, they need your money more than the large supermarkets
