Valentina from Kookylovestotravel - Eco Tourism should be widespread

Born and raised in Croatia, at the age of 18 Valentina started her nomadic adventure – exploring the world as much as she can! 

She’s travelled to 13 countries, thousands and thousands of cities and 4 seas.

“I've lived in 3 European countries, changed 40 apartments and houses, had over 100 roommates”.

Kookylovestotravel.com - is about adventures, exploring and discovering our world with all the beauties that are around us. Special focus is on adventure travelling, exploring hidden gems, travelling on a budget with everyday positivity, enjoying life to the fullest and being eternally happy. Valentina specializes in storytelling and sharing honest experiences with her readers and followers about places she visits and things or activities she does.

“Question everything and keep my free spirit always fully alive”. 

Valentina hopes to inspire others to push their limits, leave their comfort zones, cherish their creativity together with curiosity and open their lungs fully in order to start living fully.

“To have fun. To see the beauty in everything. To throw away insecurities and prejudices. To travel. To move. To LIVE. And to smile each day”.  

Currently, Valentina is a travel blogger, copywriter & social media manager with some skills in web/graphic designing, developing, video editing and photography. She creates digital content for small companies and particulars who need help with building their brand and promoting.

Having always been creative and loving to create in every possible way inspired by her endless curiosity and positive sanity. Writing is one of Valentina’s great passions. Besides, she has always loved traveling.  

“I was 14 when I first went on a solo trip for about 400km with a train. That passion still exists and I use every possible chance to explore another place. One day, on a hilarious 11-day road trip in Spain, my boyfriend suggested to me to start sharing my writings and photos. So, from that day on, I’ve reached into my own life to tell stories of my experiences and travels. I started to make and share content in hope to inspire others”. 

This sentence describes the best of her love towards traveling: "I travel not to go anywhere, but to go. I travel for travel's sake. The great affair is to move."   

Valentina quit her 9 to 5 job more than a year ago and decided to become a freelancer and fulfill her dreams to be a full time writer and creative digital creator - basically - just to do what she loves.

During the COVID Lockdown she had been based in a small village near Tarragona in Catalonia, Spain and was usually working, educating herself, taking medical cannabis classes from Israeli Uni, creating content and writing too. Keeping herself occupied with yoga, reading, learning Spanish, cooking, relaxing and spending time with her boyfriend. Nothing changed drastically for Valentina during the COVID lockdown.

Like plenty of other people she had some trips cancelled and was sad about certain countries like her homeland Croatia, Spain, Greece and Italy as those countries live from tourism and they ended up in the worst situation from all the European countries.

“I am not planning to travel abroad soon, but perhaps I will go in autumn or winter to visit my family in Croatia”.

Valentina believes that ecо-tourism should be widespread and that Mass Tourism was a huge problem, she is quite curious how this will be after COVID.

“As far as I am concerned, people should receive a short eco-sustainable presentation in each transport on their way to each destination. In that way, people would be much more considerate about the environment than they are now”.

She sees the situation seems to be better than ever because people are finally waking up and seeing what they did with their ignorance. Maybe not many, but enough of those who can start making bigger changes. “We all, just have to follow”.

Valentina always tries her best to do eco-travel. For example, she always carries an insulated water bottle and refills it or recycles - “I hate plastic”. This is just an example of something small yet important and big she thinks is possible for everyone to follow.

“Unfortunately, I am an expat so I was often using airplanes which are not eco at all, but airplanes were the fastest way to spend longer time with my family. Plus, they were often cheaper too. Nevertheless, I think airplanes will be more expensive in the future so like it or not, we will for sure start eco-traveling more. Let"s say that is one of the good things in COVID times”.

Moving from Croatia to Amsterdam 5 years ago, Valentina spent 4 years of her life in Amsterdam and then moved to Spain. She has lived in Spain for more than a year now but states that moving abroad is never easy.

“Basically, you have to build your life again, from scratch. As I see it, expat life is the best thing that someone can do for themselves. Not only can you have a good income, but you can meet many people, have plenty of experiences and chances in your life and on top of all of that - expat life helps you grow as an individual especially on a mental level”.

Valentina has found expat life to make her stronger as in the beginning it’s not always easy or affordable, but she suggests people are smart enough to have enough savings in their pocket while moving abroad. “You never know what can happen”. 

Valentina’s advice to others in the travel industry is to stay positive, work, educate yourself, think and find new and unique ideas, promote, turn to the digital world and be creative. Find new ways to present your skills and goods or products that you offer. “I believe the internet is the future. Excuses, we are already in the future”. 

Once we are free to travel again Valentina would say Crete island in Greece and Mallorca plus Menorca island in Spain and of course Croatia are her top recommendations. Those islands are a pure paradise with many natural wonders, historical landmarks, generous people, colorful sand beaches, epic viewpoints, crystal clear sea and the tastiest food she has ever tried. Plus, they are affordable and they have opened their borders to citizens of Thailand!