 Welcome everyone! This is our Thursday livestream. Habiba, if you're watching this for the first time, from the Trekking Pals and I'm joined today by Emily from Emily Eats and Explorers and we've been doing these live streams for the past two months or so where we bring travelers from all over the world to share their travel stories and share tips about traveling all around the world and I'm very excited to have you with me, Emily, today. Thank you, I'm very excited. Yeah, the first question I have for you, are you the real Emily in Paris? I wish when that first started and they had a little preview on Netflix, right when you got to your Netflix screen and it said like, oh my name's Emily Cooper and everybody was like freaking out, I got so many text messages, messages on Facebook and Instagram and it was crazy, it was craziness. So I wish that would be of Paris but fortunately that's not me, it's not based on my life. All right, so let's do this for people who are joining us who don't know Emily, if you want to go ahead Emily and introduce yourself, where you're from, how did you get into travel and what are some of the things that you do? Sure, yeah. So I'm Emily, I'm from Massachusetts, I was born and raised here. I am a full-time epidemiologist, so I started working remotely back in March of 2020 and continuing to work remotely, having to stay in the US but that's been really nice. So that's my job and I started doing content creation back in, I really started picking it up in about October, just as a creative outlet and a way to kind of share my travel tips and tricks and places that I've been because I realized family members and friends were always asking me for travel tips or asking me if I could help them plan trips or places to go or whatnot and I started doing some solo traveling and so my friends always thought that was kind of inspirational. So I just thought it would be a fun way to share some of the things that I've learned and all of that. So that's how I got into that but I've been a traveler pretty much my whole life. My family always made it a priority. We did a lot of traveling just on the east coast which is pretty typical for someone in Massachusetts. You do you know like some beach trips and you go to Florida a lot, Disney World, things like that but when I was in fourth grade we actually did a trip across the country so we got a pop-up camper and we just traveled all summer. It was about two-ish months or so all over the U.S. which is why I've been to so many states but I would love to hit them again. You know appreciate them more when you're in fourth grade. You know you don't appreciate them as much as you can now and also you know that creative side it would be interesting to see them through you know the lens that I have now like with social media and sharing and things like that. So I think that's about it for me. Yeah and I think you've done you said you're pretty new with content creation but you have been traveling for a long time. You covered more than 40 states here in the United States which is impressive. More than 30 countries around the world and a lot of solo travel. So I'm sure there are a lot of things that we can learn from you. What was your first solo trip and what was your experience like? So I did a small trips in the United States but those it was pretty comfortable pretty short trips and I was just starting to do that you know when I was in my graduate program and my friends started working and I realized it was hard to kind of always have someone to go with so I was doing small things here and there. But my big first solo trip was to Copenhagen and that was my first one abroad and it definitely wasn't the experience that I was hoping for. I think a lot of solo travelers do well from what I was reading when I was doing a lot of research solo travelers will do longer trips and you know they're staying at hostels and in Asia and South America and these really established backpacking routes that have you know a ton of activities like everybody is just out to make friends and enjoy everything and I was thinking it was going to be a lot like that but solo traveling in Europe and Scandinavian countries is a bit different especially the time that I was going. It was a lot of people going for work versus just you know a trip for pleasure and so it was a bit hard for me to meet people. I was also staying in a hostel for the first time and I didn't really know exactly what to expect even though I was doing research and things but I was always hearing like really great things about hostels you're going to meet a ton of people they're so fun and I was just having to learn as I go you know with sharing rooms with these strangers and having to deal with you know the noise and the lights and like having to share your space with you know five other people so I really had to learn a lot about myself and learning to you know to be alone and just enjoying the experience for what it is versus having you know these very high expectations um but I did end up meeting some really nice people but I did a lot on my own which I think was great as well and so that's really helped me on my other solo trips because you know I'm like oh if I spend the whole time alone that's okay and I'll enjoy it but if I don't and if I meet a lot of people and we get to do things together you know that's great as well so yeah it was definitely a big learning experience but I'm glad that I stuck with it and I kept going yeah that's true because a lot of the content creators or just people who share about their solo trips they make it sound like it's this glamorous type of travel and sometimes the reality versus what you really experience is different and also people have different personalities and your experience might be different than my experience but how do you feel like now when you compare your first trip when you traveled solo to what's going on right now do you feel like you're more confident right now did it help that you've been doing it a lot of times absolutely I think that the more that you do it the more that you gain experience and and pick up little things along the way like I have had a completely different like hostile experience and obviously if I went back to Copenhagen I think I would definitely have a different experience I'm not blaming the place at all um I think it really just sometimes it depends on the mindset sometimes it does depend on location sometimes it depends on the people a lot of things but I think what makes me the most confident is that I feel like you know I can definitely navigate transportation in cities all on my own I can spend the whole day by myself I can handle you know if there's anything going on with roommates that's making me uncomfortable I can handle situations like that so I definitely feel like the more you do it you know the more that you're going to grow as a person and be able to just enjoy yourself that much more because you know you have skills that you didn't have in the very beginning so I definitely feel a lot more confident now and it's definitely more enjoyable now that I've been doing it more and uh I think you just came back from from a solo trip just recently right us I actually got back last night wow that's pretty soon yeah but I think we have a question right here if you guys have any questions feel feel free to to leave them in the comments here we'll just tackle them as we go this is a question from from my friend summa do you work while traveling or do you plan your trips as vacation so that is a great question during you know oh oh the height of the pandemic we'll say I was doing some smaller trips where I was staying you know more around Massachusetts doing New England and things like that um and I was working a bit then but I realized that it's really hard for me to work and want to experience the new place that I'm in even if it's just you know around my state or I did a trip with my boyfriend we we were with his family down in Florida and I did work then as well and I think when they're not like these month-long trips then it's a lot harder to work and want to travel because you're like uh I'm I had this meeting but I want to be outside with all of my friends and or the people that I'm with or even if you're alone you just want to experience this new place and sometimes you're just torn from having to work and planning vacation so this last trip that I just got back from I did end up taking two days off and then Monday we had a holiday so I didn't work at all during that time and I think that was really helpful for me to just like fully enjoy the experience um but if if I was there for two weeks you know I would definitely uh be working and just kind of planning my days around my work schedule sure it's sometimes difficult when you're traveling you have work commitments but at the same time you're very excited to explore the destination it's hard to strike that balance um we have another question from our friend here I'm sorry I don't know how to say your name uh but she is asking have you traveled somewhere where English isn't the primary language if so how did you navigate yes I absolutely have um I have never had a huge issue with a language barrier most of the time I will try to speak in the language like I will say hello in their language but then I will also follow up follow up with an English hello just for them to realize that I'm being respectful but that I'm also a native English speaker and a lot of times people will like that and realize okay you know you're trying to be respectful by speaking the language but we also realize you know English is your first language so most of the time you know if you're in the very touristy areas a lot of people will speak English um if you're having any troubles with this then um I you I like to use google translate so that is an app that I have on my phone you can also download it so you can use it offline which is really great and then I also found out they have a camera in the app and you can take photos of like menus and it will translate that for you or any type of like document that you need translated um so this hasn't been an issue for me if another person hasn't um like doesn't speak English and we can't figure each other out usually I will just use the app or you know hand gestures or or mining or anything like that um you know you'll end up getting to where you need to go it just takes some patience it takes some time on both parts but I haven't had an issue and the translation apps are definitely helpful also having some common phrases like in your phone that you can take a picture of that you've you know studied a bit beforehand so you can say you know hello thank you things like that just to have them you know um um any numbers that you might know like in the US it's 911 but if there's anything like that and any emergency numbers any emergency phrases um those are also good to have on hand as well. What was it like in these Canadian countries I've never traveled in that region did you come across a fair amount of people who speak English with with no issues? Yes I don't think I had any issues with someone not not speaking English um you know sometimes it was like very very brief but you know it I think sometimes if you don't understand that they might not know a lot of English it can come up crossed as rude but it's definitely you know they might just know these certain phrases and you know you can always use the app to try to figure everything out too and just you know you just always want to work with the locals and you have to realize that they're not there to like cater to you so if you get from you just have patience and just you know try to work on it as you go. Absolutely so there are a few questions about money which is an important topic and I know that over on your Instagram Emily you create content to help people travel for cheap and then travel smart so this this first question from my friend Neema here she's asking how can the college students start on their solo trips in terms of financing the trip and safety? So that's a great question um I definitely didn't think when I was a college student I would be able to travel that much and now I realize that's definitely like a limiting belief that I have. I know a lot of people that aren't college that do travel now so I think you know if you have any type of like part-time job or any way that you can make money I think putting a chunk aside into a savings account and just you know having that not touching it I think that's a great way to start is to start saving up that money and just making it a priority. There are multiple ways that you can travel for free so you can use credit card points if you have a decent amount of like if you have a good credit score you know you have credits we've either you know credit cards before or loans or things like that you can get these credit cards and you can get point bonuses and you can use those for I usually like to use those for flights so you can use things like that you can also use programs like Workaway or any other type of volunteer program if you're also interested in volunteering and those are programs where you can work with a local organization and in exchange you also get housing you get food and you just get to know a lot more about the local culture so that's a great way to lower your costs as well a lot of those times you know you aren't working all day you do have a chunk of time to go out and explore when you want but accommodation and food are obviously one of the most big the biggest probably one of the biggest expenses you know besides the transportation on your trip and then staying in hostels you know if you don't want to do any type of volunteer experience then you can stay in hostels it depends on where you go but they can definitely be really cheap the one that i just stayed in was 40 a night but if you go to southeast asia or south america central america those can be really cheap you know as low as two dollars three dollars a night and then if you guys follow packs light she has a really great online resource where she posts travel scholarships and opportunities where you can travel for free so they do have scholarships for college students for traveling for studying abroad things like that and she will post those on her resource page so packs light if you want to look her up on instagram or whatnot so that's also a great resource that i never knew anything about um and yes um safety you know definitely the biggest thing is just following your gut but i definitely tried to do most of my activities during the day not going out at night um communicating with friends and family where you're going to be what you're doing and not communicating that to strangers so not telling strangers where you're staying um you know a lot of the times your uber driver or you know people on the street will ask you where you're staying or what you're doing and i usually say oh i'm staying with a friend you know i'm meeting a friend at this point um so just you know being smart not sharing information a ton of information with strangers but sharing a lot of information with your family back home and um with your embassy and things like that so awesome uh great tips emily i put uh i wrote down work away for people who are not familiar with the platform it's a great platform and the pack slides is the the instagram of the other creator um i think the second question was probably around the same how to travel for for cheap or for free another question from our friends wild curlies they are asking have you ever tried woofin or traveled while volunteering so i have done some volunteer programs mostly with like um high school and then i did a travel program when i was in college there were they were short trips they weren't like study abroad or anything um so i did find those really enjoyable because like i said before you do get to see a different side of the country that you're traveling to um and meet locals and connect with them i would love to try woofing so i have a long-term trip planned to southeast asia it's been coding i've been putting it off because it's not open yet um pretty much just chailand is open and i did want to bob around southeast asia so when i do go there the they have amazing woofing opportunities so i'm definitely going to look into that why i'm in that area um they have great ones in like cambodia in vietnam and pretty much all over southeast asia and you know you could just stay in these really cool like treehouse or bungalows like right by the beaches and you know try all the local food and so that would be a great opportunity i just haven't done that yet but hopefully in the future yeah southeast asia sounds like a great destination especially for cheap backpacking if you are on a budget and even if you are traveling solo it's there a lot of countries that are pretty friendly uh one more question well i'm liking this emily we're getting a lot of questions on this live stream uh so this question do you think traveling during the covid or during the pandemic with all the travel restrictions could be hectic or what was your experience like traveling during the pandemic yes so i really liked doing road trips during the pandemic but i didn't have to deal with you know all the flights and going through the airport and testing and all of that so i have yet to travel abroad since the pandemic um but i am hopefully going to europe at some point soon but within the us um like my my last trip that i just had there were a lot of cancellations um because of the omicron variant so a lot of flight staff um have been getting covid and so they just don't have the staff to run the flights um there were also some weather issues um but you know in cases like this where your flights get canceled it's just something that you have to just go with the flow with and just be really flexible if you do want to travel right now um you definitely want to use online resources you know either like sky scanner has them trip it has them to look at you know where you're going if you need to quarantine if you need a covid test so if you just need an antigen test or if you need a PCR test from a doctor um you really just have to know what restrictions and requirements that your country or state needs from you um and make sure you have all of those and then just realize that you have to kind of go with the flow when it comes to traveling because flights might get canceled um you know there might be issues with hotel rooms you just you just never know right now so um I think it it could be hectic but if you plan well and you plan for some bumps in the road then it will just be an experience like everything else absolutely I think planning will make it a lot better especially during this time and the there are probably countries that are more traveled during covid friendly than others so maybe even look into countries that are easy to travel to right now awesome um Emily I want to hear about your experience with the creating travel content um what made you want to start creating content for travel what's been like uh in the past you used to travel without creating content and now that you travel while creating content what is your experience like creating content so I originally started this instagram I wasn't posting it posting on it that much but I originally started it because I was planning on this long term trip so I wanted something separate from my personal instagram account to document all my travels on this hopefully I'm planning for about a year or a year and a half of traveling and so that's where it started and when I realized you know the more and more it was going I think I just lost Emily oh now it's good okay good um I just started posting about my current travels so I would do you know some reviews on places that I have been staying and free things to do and the hostels that I stayed in and such and then I started you know going more into travel tips and learning more about you know growth and strategy and it's just it's been really fun I've been really been enjoying it I really enjoy making the reels I've been getting a lot of good feedback so that helps me to just keep going and keep sharing and um I'm trying to start a youtube channel also so on this last trip that I went to I was filming trying to do filming for YouTube and then if I you're back I'm trying to also get into um TikTok more as well so I'm just trying to film a lot for all of those and it can get overwhelming but I told myself I was just going to have like one day where I was going to do a lot of filming and then I was just really going to enjoy the rest of my time there and just take photos and take some videos where I want um so it's been really nice and I've really been enjoying you know seeing it from that side of like how I can share this you know in a way that helps others and you know also it's been nice for myself because I get to document my travels and remember all the places that I went to and where I went and where I you know see things that other people have done you know other content creators that's been really great as well just connecting with them so it's been really fun it's been a journey yeah that's awesome I I personally have been enjoying your content on Instagram I think it's very helpful and like the traditional form of content where people just show you beautiful places you bring in that additional value which is pretty neat thank you so much I love your content as well obviously thank you um all right well for people who are just joining us right now we're talking with Emily here about solo travel travel tips how to travel for cheap so if you have any questions feel free to leave them in the comments um in the meantime what are your future travel plans I know you talked about southeast Asia but that's still up in the air any exciting destination soon yes I have um two more trips that I am going on shorter trips so I am doing a little weekend long weekend away with my boyfriend up in Maine so that's I'm really excited for that we're staying at a really cool place so I can't wait to post about that and then I'm doing a trip like a girls trip with my mom and my sister and my niece and that's going to be such a cool accommodation I can't wait to share it's it's very very unique and I haven't really seen it a lot on Instagram or anything but I feel like it's going to be a place that blows up so I'm just keeping those very vague for right now but you'll have to follow me to see the places that I'm going to um but then I'm also going to Portland Oregon for uh the women's travel fest I'm very excited for that so I will be there for about four days and then um I'm also going to travel con which is in Memphis Tennessee and I am traveling I'm staying somewhere for a month that I'm also keeping a secret I like to be ominous about everything but that will be my first like really long term trip since all the pandemic happened so that will be really nice that's awesome I think it's fun when you don't give away where you are going so that people who love enjoy or love watching your content and enjoy they just built that excitement she's pretty needs very nice um so other than that I mean I was actually watching your stories earlier today with some crazy happenings during your last trip do you have any crazy travel stories or something that wasn't so pleasant that happened in one of your trips that we can learn something from yeah I mean um for those who don't know but I just posted on my story about a situation that happened um with a woman in a cafe she was becoming very violent and physical with a worker and um you know things scary things and I was one of the only ones in the cafe so that was definitely the scariest experience that I've ever had traveling I would say um but I think I'm also really safe when it comes to I think I lost you again so you're back oh am I there uh you are back yes I think the problem is connection yeah just making sure that you do your research on you know the areas that are safe to walk around in um and yeah so that I definitely haven't had that many experiences I had had some situations you know like your typical like cat calling or things like that um people going up to you you know asking for money and things but I haven't really been in any situation where I've felt like completely unsafe um so I think that's been really lucky but you definitely just have to be vigilant you just have to be aware of your surroundings you know don't always have your headphones in don't be walking with your face in your phone all the time just just be aware you know know the right way to go and try not to wander around or arrive at a place at night you know in situations where you might be a little bit more vulnerable vulnerable or you know sticking out a lot in ways that you could potentially be a target for you know pip pocketing or anything else in this world yeah I think you're right like you said sometimes it's just common sense things that you wouldn't do at home don't don't be cavalier about things and try you know go wild in your new destinations you have to be more careful uh we have another question from Niema she is in Salem Oregon and she's asking about uh places to to visit in Portland if you have any suggestions yeah so I haven't done too much on my Portland um I would definitely love suggestions if anybody has those I'm I because it is a conference I'm spending a lot of the time in Portland at the conference center so I think it's the world forestry center they're having it at um so it's two it's about two and a half day conference and um they're doing some trips on the side to um um who lost you again can you guys yeah you're here yeah um yeah so I definitely haven't looked into Portland too too much if anybody has recommendations for me then that would be great but definitely um excited for you know some good coffee I just heard it's really good vibes in Portland you know the food's really good voodoo donuts everybody keeps telling me about um yeah I definitely have to do my own own research but I only have you know a day or two where I get to myself that's not in the conference since it does go all day yeah I have traveled to to Portland back in 2018 uh it was very beautiful there obviously the the famous waterfall I don't remember the name and they have beautiful state parks and they also have not too far from downtown they have this beautiful mansion that you can go and tour and it's also got a beautiful view overlooking mount hood and mount hood is the the highest peak in in the state so the view is very beautiful if the sky is clear I think it's worth going there and checking that out great thank you awesome all right so we talked about trips for safety we talked about traveling for for cheap we talked about content is there any other tips or advice that you'd like to share Emily I just let everybody know if you have if you've thought about doing any type of solo trip you know it doesn't matter what it is you can start small but if you thought about it at all and you're just worried that you know bad things are going to happen or you're going to feel lonely or any of that I would just recommend but you know you've just you learn so much about yourself and you learn how to rely on yourself you gain so much confidence and it's such a great experience and it's also a great way to learn more about the country or the city that you're traveling to um great way to you have complete autonomy about everything you know you really get to decide exactly what you're doing where you're going and it's something that you don't always get in everyday life so I would just say do it and if you're worried follow me send me a dm and we can definitely chat about it and talk through all of your worries and but yeah awesome yeah so if you guys are not following Emily already I think you're absolutely sure she's always sharing wonderful tips and sometimes this just helps to know that there are other people out there with the same interests perhaps the same personalities who are doing it and it's very encouraging I know Emily that you started the I think building a community called travel connects can you talk a little bit more about that I think there might be some people who are interested here absolutely so I posted a story a little while back around christmas time just asking if people would be interested in needing for content creation to just talk about you know what they're doing what's working for them what's not working for them and just support because there are some highs and lows when you're creating content and you know trying to grow community and following and things um so I also had someone message me and asked you know if I would be interested in doing something for solo traveling and maybe solo traveling for the first time and just a way to chat so I decided to see what interests there would be in creating those two groups so one for travel content creators and one for solo travelers and I have had a lot of interests so far so I'm just trying to you know increase the numbers and then I'll be starting to do some groups I'm hoping to do one do like each group once a week and it would be like a zoom and just very casual maybe having different topics every week you know so people would know the topic and if they're interested in the topic they could join and just chatting through and working on challenges and that and just connecting with fellow people that you know it's always good to have support in whatever area you're working on or doing or whatever that interests you it's always good to have other people in in that niche so yeah I haven't started them just yet I'm just you know collecting interest right now and then kind of allowing it to unfold from there it'll probably will evolve a lot at some point but right now it's casual groups where you can discuss you know what's what's going on in your life and sometimes it's helpful like you said in if you have a group of solo female travelers just to support each other sometimes you get nervous right before your trip or while traveling it's good to know that there is a community or small group of people to talk to and share that concern definitely so hopefully that that all works out but I'm really excited for it and everybody else seems to be too so to be started awesome well and if you guys have any other questions you can put them in the comments but I think we we covered a lot of useful tips right here so thank you so much Emily for your time and make sure that you go subscribe to her Instagram and any last thoughts is there anything that you want to share before we wrap up the for right now no I just want to thank you so much for having me this was awesome I love connecting with other travelers and I know you do a lot more adventurous things I'm hoping to get to that some point eventually and you know going off the beaten path but yeah so I just want to thank you so much I want to thank everybody for all of your questions and I hope this was useful and definitely go to my page and check around and hopefully you know you'll get some good resources and tips from that so thank you everyone thank you Emily have a great day everyone