World travel can seem daunting. After all, there are many places to go, a lot of preparations to make, and some uncertainty about what you’ll find once you reach your destination. Fortunately, there are tools online to help ease both your burden and your anxiety about traveling abroad. We found one called YouCouldTravel.
RewardExpert talked with Cory Varga, co-founder of YouCouldTravel, to learn more about the website.
Sharing their experiences
Before founding YouCouldTravel, the Vargas spent a month in Japan, vacationing and soaking in the culture. While there, they saw an opportunity to help others.
“I was in Japan with my husband, when we realized there was so much we would have loved to know about the country and its customs prior to our arrival,” Varga says.
They launched YouCouldTravel.com in April 2016 to guide others through what they experienced—the culture shock that accompanies landing in a foreign location.
“We never expected to receive such a warm welcome and grow it so quickly, in such short period of time,” says Varga.
Built from a sense of adventure
A major component of YouCouldTravel is the Travel Blog, which serves as both a knowledge relay from the Vargas to the site’s visitors, and as a sort of diary for Varga herself. In all of the content, from “The Ultimate List of Best Travel Movies” to “How to Make the Perfect Japanese Sushi,” the couple’s love of traveling shines through.
“It’s the continuous learning curve. With traveling, you never cease to discover something new, be it a dish, a new tradition, or piece of history,” Varga says. “The world is ever-changing and traveling fuels our appetite for knowledge.”
The website receives about 10,000 unique visitors per month, and has more than 35,000 social media followers itching to hear about the Vargas’ latest adventure.
Your online travel guide
YouCouldTravel’s Travel Guides section is an often-visited part of the site, thanks to its deep dives on important things travelers need to know when abroad. Articles such as “How to Have the Best 24 Hours in Kyoto” are great for those who want to get the most out of a city while passing through, while pieces like “An Expat Guide to Moving to the UK” prepare readers for a more permanent stay.
In addition, the site’s food guides are also a popular stop. If you’re totally new to Japan, reading “What is the Japanese Tea Ceremony” will get you up to speed on an important part of Japanese culture. Once you know that, “How to Drink in Japan Like a Local” will help you with another one.
Both the travel and food guides hark back to the initial desire Vargas and her husband had when starting the website. If you’re traveling to a new place and you want to know the ins and outs, YouCouldTravel may have the guide you’re looking for.
Inspiring travel
To Varga, inspiring others to travel is immensely important. “YouCouldTravel focuses on out-of-ordinary quests and underlines positives experiences abroad to encourage and motivate through personal adventures,” she says.
Varga recounts one of her own adventures, when she and her husband got lost in the mountains of Tenerife and were in real danger of missing their bus back to their hotel.
“Who wants to be stranded in the mountains during nighttime, right?” Varga jokes. “We tried speaking broken Spanish with some locals, got even more lost, and eventually got a lift from a complete stranger with a dodgy car.” The driver spoke no English, but was friendly and got them back to their bus, though Vargas notes that travelers should always exercise caution when dealing with strangers, especially if traveling solo.
You can learn more about YouCouldTravel by visiting their website, YouCouldTravel.com, or by following @youcouldtravel on Twitter and Instagram.