Travel Company Experience: An Interview with Sylvia Live

Today, we share with you our interview with Sylvia Moran from SylviaLive.com. Once again, our colleague Alex shared the inspiration behind Vibe Adventures’ travel company and some of the experiences he has faced. Stay with us and learn more about us in this great interview!

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Interview

Sylvia: Welcome to Sylvia Live. In this episode, we meet Alex from Vibe Adventures, a travel company with a difference. Alex, welcome to the podcast. Great to meet you today.

Alex: Hi, Sylvia. Great to be with you here. Thank you.

Sylvia: You’re from a very interesting company, Vibe Adventures, a travel company with a difference. I have a passion for travel, and I always have, so I’m so excited today to hear your story and hear about some tips that you have to give us for traveling. Can you tell us, firstly, where you’re from? And secondly, what is your travel company, Vibe Adventures?

Alex: Yeah, first of all, thanks for having me here, Sylvia. It’s a great pleasure. I’m originally from Belarus, Eastern Europe, but life gave me a lot of opportunities to experience studying, working, living in other countries, and actually discovering the world.

That’s my main passion. At some point, I arrived in Mexico. It was almost five years ago, and that’s when Vibe Adventures was born. Again, it is out of my personal interest to discover the world and find it in a more authentic, off-the-beaten-track way, avoiding commercial activities that sometimes don’t really provide the real face of the destination.

So yeah, based on what I study, because also my background is and from my travel and experiences, I try to incorporate all the best that I could and just do the travel differently.

Sylvia: And your company has been now centered in Mexico. You have an office there, you take bookings from people. I’m just curious, about your travel company, we were just talking before the interview about who has been the youngest traveler you’ve had in your tours and who has been, more interestingly, the oldest traveler that you’ve had in your tours.

Alex: There were all kinds of ages. I think the youngest were almost newborn kids who were traveling with their parents, I guess. And the oldest probably in their late ’80s, some American friends. We have a group of American friends, but they were pretty strong ones, I would say.

Sylvia: It’s fantastic that people in their 80s travel. And what difference do you notice between those who travel and those who maybe are not so lucky and haven’t traveled as widely?

Alex: I would say the main difference, and you notice it almost immediately when you talk, is that people who had a chance to travel are much more open-minded.

They tend to have fewer stereotypes and mental barriers in various topics.

And yeah, you feel that the vibe is just completely different. It’s much more accessible, much more energetic, and so on.

Sylvia: Your company, Vibe Adventures, offers tours both to the tourist locations in many places I’m sure across Mexico and beyond, but also to those unknown locations that only locals know of, which we all dream of discovering because we don’t want to be near the crowds a lot of us. So for those first-time travelers who might be looking for a holiday with a bit of a difference, what tips would you offer?

Alex: I would say there would be some general tips that I would give to any person who would like to travel. First of all, the one that was helpful for me, was when I actively started traveling when I was a teenager and then later in the university, one of the most active years of my travel, was not waiting for anyone because very often we get things planned, we agree with our friends, with our family, and then somebody doesn’t go and we need to change our plans and we feel frustrated because of not following our dream, following our passion.

The first tip is don’t wait for everyone. Just follow your inner inspiration and follow your dreams. If some country or some place calls you, you just go. It means life is preparing something for you, something to learn. I am not afraid of traveling alone. I know some people have different preferences, but there is a lot to learn and a lot to discover.

The second tip probably would be to do some research, prepare well, learn about the destination, what to see, what to try, where to go, and how to keep safe, also very important during your travel.

Sylvia: You mentioned solo travelers there and I know there are a lot of people who want to travel, but they’re on their own and they don’t have somebody to go with. I know particularly for females who would love to discover and travel to new locations, but they’re concerned maybe about safety and all the rest of it. What advice can you give for solo travelers?

Alex: Yeah, I would say it will probably be similar. Prepare well, and avoid this because there are always opportunities. Some people can feel a little bit at some point, bored or alone, but it’s an internal feeling. We might have it with people or without people.

Sometimes, when we travel alone, we can discover parts of ourselves we never knew before. So, I would say, first of all, we shouldn’t be afraid of being alone. When we talk about safety, I would say preparation, some investigation, and some homework are great.

Talking to locals and meeting local people is always great, whether it’s having a tour guide in a specific area or just knowing locals. Fortunately, there are a lot of places where we can meet people.

There are Facebook groups for solo travelers where you can catch up with some people who do the same route, for female travelers, international travelers, and so on. There are some websites, for example, couch surfing, one of the most famous ones, where you can not only be hosted but also host people. Yeah, it’s always like a community. You can check the comments and reviews of people, but you can also go to local events.

Additionally,

You can meet local people and catch up with fellow travelers, so things are becoming much more entertaining and safe.

Sylvia: And that was- I don’t know- my question regarding budget-based traveling. Most people have a budget in mind, and I’m wondering where your company, Vibe Adventures, fits into that. So, what tours do you offer? Your offices are located in Mexico. Is it just your focus in Mexico, or do you go beyond Mexico with your company?

Alex: Indeed, our office is in Mexico City. We primarily focus on Mexico and the region, but currently, we are onboarding as a travel agency. We are also onboarding tours by other local tour organizers with whom we share values and type of work, mainly focusing on small group and private tours because we believe that being in a huge class of 50 people with one guide, ever seen hour-by-hour, that’s not the way we like to travel and we don’t focus on this. So there are different kinds of tours.

I would say most of them are in the middle segment regarding prices. We mainly focus on foreign travelers coming to Mexico, mostly North Americans, Europeans, British, and Irish. But due to the distance you need to cross the Atlantic, they’re definitely less than Canadians and Americans. But Mexico, especially during pandemics, became a much more popular destination because it never shut down. It was always open.

So yeah, we offer different types of tours. There are group tours, which definitely have a lower price tag, and there are private ones, too.

So if you go with a traveler, specifically a group of three, four, or five people, there are many more opportunities, advantages, and almost the same price. So it becomes much more intimate, much more family-focused travel.

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Keep listening to our episode to learn more about our travel company with Sylvia here: