Flying The Nest with Stephen & Jess
At Travefy, we like to throw the spotlight on travel pros and bloggers that we’re falling in love with.
Meet Stephen & Jess, an amazing traveling, blogging, and vlogging couple who has decided to make the world their love nest.
We sat down to chat with Steph & Jess about adventure travel à deux.
Photos Courtesy of LoveandLondon.com
T: Who are Stephen & Jess and how long have they been travel blogging?
S&J: We are still very new to the travel blogging world as we launched our blog just over 8 months ago back in September 2014. Even newer is our daily vlogging YouTube channel which was launched in early February.
Everything has been moving so quickly and sometimes it can be so hard to keep up. We couldn’t believe our eyes when we saw the 1 millionth unique visitor come through our site just a few short months ago.
If you were to ask us where we will see ourselves in one year’s time, I don’t think we could give you an accurate answer.
T: How did you find your way into travel and blogging?
S&J: Travel is such a large part of who we are and what we want to do. We wanted a journal of our life to be able to come back to and seeing as travel is interesting subject to write and share about we decided to base our blog around this.
We are so happy we started it when we did as when we get older we will have all this content sitting there waiting for us to read and help jog memories and stories to share.
Since launching the blog we have been fortunate to evolve “Flying the Nest” into a full time job which helps us get out there and see more of what the world has to offer. Our journal mentality is still there but it is also our jobs now.
T: What really sets “Flying the Nest” apart from other travel blogs?
S&J: Diversity and frequency.
Every single day we have a brand new blog post and also a brand new daily vlog online and that’s before we even start talking Instagram and our other social media accounts. We are producing a lot of high quality content that we hope will reach and inspire other travellers no matter what platform they are on.
We also understand that the world is a large place so not only do we mix up the countries we talk about but also the types of blog posts. One day we will have an inspirational/wanderlust post about unique beaches around the world and the next day will be our personal recount of kayaking through the Canadian wilderness.
Our focus is on adventure and couple travel. We understand that there are a lot of solo travel bloggers out there (and quite a few couple ones too). So we also like to add our unique take on couple travel with certain posts including both of our personal recounts on an experience.
For example, recently we bungee-jumped in Whistler and Jess hated it, me on the other hand loved it so we decided to not just have one overall feeling representing the blog but also both our thoughts on the day.
T: What has been the most eye-opening experiences you’ve had while traveling?
S&J: It really comes down to the activities and adventures we go on. We love getting out the hotel room and into the cities to see the destinations we are travelling to. If you are able to combine adventure with exploration then you have a winner with us.
One of the best experiences we had was when we skydived over The Palm Islands in Dubai. Not only was this a personal achievement in itself but we also did it over one of the most breathtaking man-made structures in the world. The view on the way down was awe-inspiring.
T: What has been one most frustrating travel experiences you’ve had?
S&J: To be honest we haven’t had any major terrible experiences beyond something small happening, having a quick complain about it, and then moving on.
T: You two travel together, any tips for others traveling together? Like best friends or couples?
S&J: Pick someone that has similar tastes and interests to yours. We have been together for just about 8 years and have been travelling together for 7 of them – we know what we both enjoy so it can be very easy to travel together. If you find someone who wants to go to museums when you want to go to the beach, it will always cause some sort of conflict. Yes we know you can make sacrifices and compromises but do you really want to always be substituting 50% of your travel because you picked the wrong travel buddy?
Your interests don’t have to be purely travel-related. For example, if you both love watching Game of Thrones, why not plan a trip to Europe to visit the filming locations?
T: What’s your best-kept secret for others planning a trip to a place they don’t know about?
S&J: Is anything a secret anymore? haha. After travelling for so long in a digital world, it can be hard to know what’s a secret as it becomes such a norm to you. For example we came across a lovely couple the other week who had never heard of Skyscanner and we thought just about everyone knew the site.
Certainly the use of the internet to plan, compare and price-match is a big tool. If you are able to save a few extra dollars here or even less hours in a layover then you are already winning.
There are so many apps and websites out there that will plan, organize and get you the best price whilst you lay in bed watching Netflix. You can be lazy and save money in this modern digital world so maybe do some research before accepting that price from the travel agent next to your local supermarket.
T: By the way, how is it like to skydive? Do you remember the first time you gave into adventure travel?
S&J: We didn’t just dive straight into adventure travel; we had to work our way up. Skydiving (or bungee jumping) was always the end goal – the peak of what we wanted to do but we had to work up the courage.
We started with parasailing in Bali and then moved onto paragliding in New Zealand before finally jumping out of a plane in Dubai and off a bridge in Canada.
To be honest, we are glad we took our time as each new height made us more excited for the next so if we started with skydiving then undertaken paragliding we probably would’ve gotten bored when we jumped off the small mountain.
T: Do you have tips for first-time thrillseekers too afraid to take it to the extreme but still want to feel the adrenaline rush?
S&J: Do what we did, start small and then work your way up. We found it to be very enjoyable to do adventures in increments as you have plenty of time to work up the courage to do more of the thrill seeking adventures. Those adventures will always be there waiting for when you are ready.
T: As travelers passionate of photography and filmmaking, got any killer trick for a tourist photographer?
S&J: We love going to a place and being able to photograph the area with enough details that we can remember the day enough to share our story.
We always start with an establishing shot of the landscape to show where we are and the surrounding area. We then move in closer to show the houses or local shops, is there a hustle or the serenity feel to the area?
Once we have these shots we then look for the personal shot, whether it is a profile of a craftsman working or a layover of your coffee and cookie, sometimes it is this final shot that reminds you of that amazing coffee you had that brings back memories of your trip.
T: What are your favorite channels for sharing your adventures? Why?
S&J: At the moment we are really enjoying daily vlogging on our YouTube channel. Not only do our friends and family members get to see what we got up to that day but we have also started to build an amazing community of new friends that tune in to see what adventures we got up to.
We feel that this network is way more personal and rewarding than some of the other networks as someone has to take 5-10 minutes out of their day to watch your video. It’s not like Twitter or Instagram where you can scroll through hundreds of tweets and images in matters of minutes.
There is so much content out there including TV shows, movies, other social medias and even other YouTubers and this one viewer decides that they want to spend 10 minutes with you today – the feeling is just indescribable.
T: What’s the next trip you’re going on?
S&J: We are just finishing up our 3-month stretch in Vancouver and will be heading out to Alberta to explore Banff, Calgary and Jasper.
T: What’s your favorite travel accessory, and Why?
S&J: It would have to be our Sony RX100II vlogging camera. Yes it has had a few bumps and bruises but we use this gadget more than any other as we film so much of our day on it.
The built-in stabilizer is a lifesaver as it is one less thing you have to think about when talking to a camera. The low aperture settings also make the camera very diverse when filming at night.
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About Stephen & Jess
Stephen and Jess are Australian daily vloggers and travel bloggers who are currently travelling the world full time. They share their experiences on their travel blog Flying the Nest and YouTube channel of the same name.
If you enjoy getting out there and making the most of your trip, head on over to their blog to get inspired. Be sure to catch them on Facebook, Pinterest, Twitter, and Jess and Stephen’s Instagram accounts