The story and crazy ladies behind Taival Travel
Ah, a tale as old as time. A friendship born in high school, which has evolved, deepened and grown with time. And here we are, still cannot get enough of each other. To the point that we started a travel project together! We might have taken different paths in life, from living in different countries to career choices, but we haven’t grown apart. Something tells us that it’s our shared love for adventure, travel, learning and wonder that plays a big role in this.
Travel has united us from the very beginning. Since we first met, we’ve amassed quite a number of adventures. In 2024, during one of our catch-up sessions (as Riitta lives in Finland and Elli in the Netherlands), we came to realise that both of us yearn for something new in our lives, something that can help us with the building itch to birth something: a creative outlet. This led to some brainstorming sessions on thinking about what form this outlet could take. It became evident quite quickly that it would centre around travel.
But just any travel blog is not enough: we want this to be something that looks and feels like us, that feels like a fun, a creative challenge where we gather our stories, successes and failures that hopefully resonate with other curious, emerging, existing and/or exploring travel souls out there.
Through our own travel experiences, it’s not just about sharing these but doing some critical and introspective reflection on things that we might do differently today. Therefore, rather than this being a source of absolute truth, we want to invite you to our journey of reflection and being real about travel. We hope to help you explore or deepen your own perception of what travel means to you, while also being mindful not to romanticise travel unrealistically.
It’s particularly important to us that while we want to take a reflective and explorative stance on the impact of travel, we also want to preserve the lightness and fun of it. Because without fun, what is there left in this world?
Finally, we hope that over time, this platform transforms from a one-way outlet of thoughts to a conversing community of travellers excited to experience the world, all the while not being afraid of having important conversations on how to maximise positive impact and venture out of your comfort zone. We’re here to understand, embrace and navigate the full spectrum of colours of travel.
To make a commitment to our project and to you, we came up with five core principles that we want to follow as the lighthouse in everything we do.
Curious - Coming from a genuine place of interest and willingness to learn about the world around us, the stories revolving around places and people and how we fit into all of that.
Respectful - Always. Being considerate of others and our environment, from cultural differences, barriers, foreign smells and customs, we are visitors and it’s our duty to respect the local way of life.
Self-aware - The ability to critically reflect on our own impact, behaviour and place in the world.
Excited - Together with curiosity, finding joy and pleasure in adventure and travel. Exploring places from a positive place and optimistic outlook without getting utterly discouraged and crushed by the shades of grey and contradictions in the world. You choose to highlight the positive, but you acknowledge the negative.
Caring - Empathy, authenticity and genuine emotional connections as driving forces in action.
Let’s travel together?
