We are so happy to announce that Yellow Van Travels is a winner of the Liebster Award! The lovely folks at Our Wanders nominated us. They are a super cute couple who love traveling the world. Like us, they still work normal jobs and spend lots of their free time traveling. Thanks Bea and Csaba for the nomination!
The Liebster Award is aimed at new bloggers who deserve recognition for their efforts in the blogosphere. By accepting the award, you write a blog post and answer some questions about yourself. Then you get to pay it forward and nominate 5-11 more blogs you think deserve the award!
Onto the Questions from Our Wanders:
Are you a planner or a spontaneous traveler?
I am a HUGE planner (as you can see here and here for example). It really stresses me out to not have a plan, especially when it comes to traveling and exploring. Ben on the other hand is much more spontaneous and would love it if I pulled off at every side road attraction. We are a good team though; I’m getting a little bit more relaxed and spontaneous and Ben is becoming slight more of a planner.
What is your favorite city?
Ben’s favorite city is Venice. It is like taking a step back in time when you visit it because so many of the buildings have been in the city so long. The canals and the architecture and the history are all amazing. My favorite city is Chania (pronounced HAWN-ya). This is a coastal city located in Crete. We were there for a stop on the cruise we just went on and I absolutely loved it. It had some of the clearest waters I have ever seen. It is a small, Venetian inspired city with cute shops, buildings, beaches and water.
 |
| The Bridge of Sighs in Venice |
 |
| Coastline of Chania, Crete |
What are your 3 favorite beaches in the world?
Seeing as neither one of us grew up anywhere near the ocean or traveled to the ocean very much (if at all) we haven’t spent tons of time at beaches. But after getting back from our Medeterrian cruise, we have a few new beaches we can add to our list. Our favorite beach was probably in Chania, Crete. The water is so clear; the sand is so soft. It is one of our favorite places. We also really liked Red Beach on the island of Santorini in Greece. And we enjoyed Mission Beach in San Diego when we were there on our honeymoon.
 |
| Red Beach on Santorini, Greece |
Do you always travel to new places or are there places where you keep going back again and again?
We like to do a mix of both 🙂 We visit family often in Colorado, Minnesota and Arizona and we also go to St. George, Utah a lot because it is close to our home but far enough away to feel like a vacation. But we also love exploring new places as well. We just got back from Europe which was a totally new experience for us and we have plans to go to so many other places around the world!
Do you like visiting museums? Why or why not?
We LOVE visiting museums! We are both big into learning and education, especially learning through experiences. Museums offer lots of learning opportunities, even if they are teeny tiny. Usually if there’s a museum where we are traveling, we will stop by and explore it. That said, we are more interested in the museums that house “stuff” or interactive exhibits. Art museums are not our thing we discovered after we went to the Louvre and Orsay museums in Paris. While it was cool to go to such famous museums, we were underwhelmed by the artwork.
What is the ideal way for you to explore a place (guided walking tour, hop-on/hop-off bus, following a guide book, exploring randomly, etc.)?
Most of the time we like doing our own thing. Usually we do lots of planning and see what things there are to do at our destination and then go explore them. While in Europe, we did some guided walking tours from Rick Steves that we really liked. We discovered that we like having a guide of some sort whether that is a tour guide or an audio guide.
Do you prefer traveling alone or with someone?
Traveling with each other is our favorite way to travel. We also love going places with our friends!
Have you traveled in your home country/in the country where you have grown up?
We are both from the United States and have both traveled throughout the country. I have traveled all over the country with my family and Ben has only been a few places.
Has any place disappointed you? Why?
Thessaloniki, Greece was a stop on our cruise and we were very underwhelmed by it. Besides shopping, there are only a few other things to do. We went to the White Tower in hopes of getting history of the tower. While the museum inside the tower was cool, it was not giving us the information we hoped for.
Is blogging a hobby or a career for you?
Blogging is just a hobby for us right now. Someday we hope it might be more than that 🙂
What have you found the hardest when starting your blog?
The hardest part is how time-consuming it can be. I work full-time as a first grade teacher so when I get home the last thing I want to think about is writing a blog post. But after we had been blogging for a few months we started to have a post calendar where we decide in advance what we are going to write about. I also try to use a schedule for writing my posts and editing my pictures. These things have really helped with the time consumption.
Now that you know a little bit more about us, go check out our nominations!
Our Nominations:
Thanks again to Our Wanders for the nomination and good luck to our new friends! Please pass on this awesome award and don’t forget to answer our questions for you below.
Our Questions:
- Where is your favorite place to travel?
- Which places are at the top of your bucket list?
- What is your favorite way to travel (plane, train, car, donkey, etc.)?
- What’s the strangest animal you have seen while traveling?
- What are some of your essential travel items?
- What is your favorite part of blogging?
- What advice would you give to beginning bloggers?
- What is your favorite social media outlet for your blog?
- What’s the weirdest thing you have eaten while traveling?
- Besides traveling, what are your favorite things to do?
- Why do you love to travel?
