travel insurance masterGet to know one of our Travel Insurance Master Affiliates, Tatiana of familyroadtripguru.com and instagram.com/family_roadtrip_guru
Based in San Francisco, California, Tatiana has been blogging for 2.5 years and shares a wealth of knowledge about putting together ready to go, educational, fun and affordable family road trip itineraries in North America.
Tatiana, walk me through how or why you started?
I have always loved to travel and always traveled a lot. So far I have lived in 5 countries, visited over 20 more and explored 25 U.S. States. In the last 20 years I have accumulated so much useful information that I felt the urge to share it with people because it was just a shame that it was sitting in my head and in my paper notes, doing nothing. On top of that, I always loved writing and blogging is basically travel writing.
Do you feature a specific type of travel or area?
My blog is dedicated to educational, fun and affordable family road trips in North America with a focus on California. I often feature day trips and weekend getaways from San Francisco and Bay Area hidden gems. I also have some unique travel categories on my blog, such as Adventures under $10, Adventures in the footsteps of famous books and/or movies, and Time Travel (making learning history fun).
What is your favorite part about being a blogger?
Helping people discover hidden gems. When I feature little publicized but exciting attraction, activity, restaurant, etc. it on the one hand helps travelers to explore new things and on the other hand helps to bring in tourists and money to small businesses, which otherwise cannot compete with big well-known places with huge advertising budgets.
What is your favorite or dream destination?
It is hard to choose one favorite. I love National Parks, Florida and California coast, Hawaii, Alaska. My dream destination is Canada Rockies. Hoping to get there next summer.
What is your favorite travel tip?
Start your trip planning with obtaining the right credit card. There is a lot of money to be saved on travel if you smartly use perfectly matched travel-related credit cards (airline and/or hotel)
What other suggestions do you have for travelers?
Never go for quantity, go for quality instead. Yes, you can potentially visit 5 National Parks in a week but how much would you learn about each park and how much would you get to experience each park’s uniqueness?
What suggestions do you have for bloggers or what has been the biggest obstacle you have had to overcome with your blog?
My biggest obstacle is fighting with social media outlets, which is frustrating and time consuming. They are not in the business of helping small businesses grow. I understand that to reach new followers I may need to pay, it is logical, because IG and Facebook are business too, not charity. But what is appalling is that I also have to pay to reach my own followers because IG, for instance, shows a new post to only 10% of the account’s followers. But if someone follows me, they do it for a reason, they like my content and want to see. So who gave IG the right to decide who will see it and who will not?
How can our readers follow your travels?
The best way is to subscribe to my blog’s newsletter and follow me on Instagram.
Anything else you would like to share?
I love being a blogger because it helps me meet so many interesting people and learn so much, which I would not have been able to achieve if I were not working in this enormous virtual space that does not have any borders.
Be sure to follow familyroadtripguru.com and instagram.com/family_roadtrip_guru
