No-nonsense travel guides
Indie Traveller is dedicated to DIY travel—adventure-seeking and following your own path. Our mission is to share with you unfiltered, tell-it-like-it-is travel guides that will help you travel more adventurously.
Travel isn’t just about relaxing or being on vacation; it’s also a chance to venture into the unknown, to get out of your comfort zone, and to truly experience this crazy place we call Earth. From one traveller to another, we hope to inspire you to explore more!
To make your trip research easier, we work hard to keep this site authentic and as user-friendly as possible. At Indie Traveller we…
- Write our travel guides based on real trips
- Don’t use AI to create content
- Don’t use tricks to ‘feed the algorithm’
- Are transparent about monetization
In a nutshell, our goal is to write the kind of travel guides we’d want to read ourselves. If you’re curious about our approach to content creation, you can read our policies or check out Marek’s behind-the-scenes peek at how this blog is made.
Our Editorial PrinciplesFounder story: about Marek
Hi! I started Indie Traveller in 2012 when I first headed off on my long-term travels. Frustrated by setbacks in my previous career as a video game designer, I was desperate to go see the world — and for a bit of a life reset. It was soon obvious that travel would be my new passion in life. I’ve been a travel addict (and a full-time travel blogger) ever since!
I love backpacking-style travel for the sense of adventure and cultural immersion. For me, it’s less about sipping cocktails by the pool (though that can be fun too) and more about zipping around cities in tuk-tuks or hiking epic mountain trails. In recent years, I’ve become especially passionate about sustainable nature tourism and exploring less-visited destinations.
As I’ve built up our writing team, I now get to wear two hats: that of lead writer and editor, working with fellow globetrotters to bring you the best travel tips and guides.
For my complete background story, check out the intro video on YouTube in which I share how my initial 2-month trip spontaneously turned into a 2 year journey…
Happy travels,
— Marek Bron
Contributors
Meet our globe-trotting content team
Marek Bron
Founder
Living a life of travel since 2012, Marek’s passion is to highlight underexplored countries and regions.
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Oumi Haded
Editor
Based in Tunisia, Oumi is our resident editing wizard who helps ensure our articles are properly edited and laid out.
Dustin Kemp
Writer
Living in Vietnam for over a decade, Dustin shares his deep travel knowledge in his detailed guides to Vietnam and Southeast Asia.
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Tom Hennessy
Writer
Extensive travels in South America — while researching a book on the Inca — lets Tom share in-depth advice for Peru and beyond.
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Simon Zhelyazkov
Writer
A Bulgarian backpacker often found on the Asia trail, Simon shares all of his best travel tips here and on his blog, Backpack Moments.
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Jade Poleon
Writer
Jade has visited 101 countries and motorbiked all through Latin America — from Ushuaia, Argentina to Cancun, Mexico.
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Alex Brown
Writer
Travelling nearly full-time since 2019, Alex has visited 81 countries to date, with a soft spot for off the beaten path destinations.
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George Alvarez
Writer
Based in Lima and an expert on travelling in Latin America, George gives you the inside scoop on countries like Peru and Mexico.
view postsWrite for us!
We’re always looking for experienced writers to contribute to Indie Traveller! Instead of typical SEO-style content, we’re looking for authoritative guides from a personal perspective that go beyond the obvious information. Sounds interesting? You’ll find more details here. Succesful collaborations can result in ongoing freelance work.
👉 Pssst, we’re currently looking for a Mexico expert!
Common questions
These are some of the most common questions Marek receives:
It was 65 countries last time I checked. I’m not much of a country counter though — it’s an easily distorted statistic (no, I haven’t been to San Marino…) and ultimately not so meaningful. I like to visit new (to me) countries every year but also love discovering new regions within some of my favorite countries. Many of my most thrilling trips have been re-visits!
I’m Dutch and I’ve lived in Haarlem, Amsterdam, Brighton, London, for a short while in Seville, and since 2016 I’ve been based in beautiful Lisbon. (I have another blog just about Portugal.) My mum is Polish so that’s where the name Marek comes from. Unfortunately, I don’t speak Polish!
I started Indie Traveller when I took a career break to travel around the world. At the time I already knew how to build websites (in my college years, I managed several video game-related sites). I set up a basic travel blog in part just to chronicle my journey. One of my posts soon went viral on Reddit, and things snowballed from there…
Photos and videos are currently shot mostly on my Panasonic G9 II, with a bit of DJI Osmo Action 4 and DJI Mini Pro 4 thrown in. I also use stock photography as the right photo is not always available (and not all of our contributors are photographers), in which case I have no idea what it’s shot with! We aim to select photos that are most representative of the destination, avoiding overly edited or filtered photography.
My maps seem to be popular because I get this question a lot. I make them in Figma (a vector image editing program) using my own designs. I don’t know of an app that lets you easily make maps like mine. Someone should make one!
This is easily the number one question I get anytime I meet other travellers. Yes, nowadays I’m making a decent living doing this — and I even get to work with a wonderful team! — and I’m super proud of what I’ve achieved. However, things were ridiculously tough for at least the first 2 or 3 years. It’s 100% my dream job but I try not to hype it up as it’s rare for people to do this full-time. The algorithms are always changing… it’s not for the faint of heart. But if you’re interested in blogging, I have some personal tips here.
Just creating content is already a full-time job in itself, so I usually can’t offer detailed personalized advice. I pour all my energy into the guides here at Indie Traveller, and for more general travel advice I highly (highly highly!) recommend reading my book, Travel the World Without Worries. It’s like having a mind-melt with me and absorbing all of my travel knowledge in one go — all for the low price of one (1) book. However, if you still have a specific question, feel free to hit me up in a DM or email. 🙂
Follow Marek on YouTube
While this site is mainly focused on “how to” content, for a more visual and inspirational angle, don’t miss the Indie Traveller YouTube channel!
Wondering where to start? How about this remote corner of Colombia, reachable only by propellor plane and bursting with unbelievable wildlife. Or this wonderfully authentic tropical island in Indonesia that is very much the ‘anti-Bali’. Or check out this epic train journey through Bulgaria in an often overlooked corner of Europe.
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