About Travel With Me

First of all, welcome on Travel with Me, an on line travel blog for inspiration seekers. You can say that in recent years, travel has played an increasingly important role in our lives. It has become a real passion. During our travels, discovering and enjoying come first. It has to be an escape from our daily routine. But if we want to travel a lot, we have to work a lot. This means that we have to be more creative with time and destinations.

Choosing the right destination for the amount of time you have available is therefore the most important travel tip that we can already pass on to you. Within the travel tips category, you will find much more advice on how plan the perfect trip.

To discover and to enjoy is possible, both nearby as far away. That is why we created a category for short breaks and one for more extensive itineraries.

Within short breaks we want to put destinations, where we can plan a pleasant day trip or weekend trip from Belgium, in the spotlight. This can range from trendy city trips to adventurous nature walks, but also the best local places to enjoy great food or drinks.

When we have the opportunity to take more time for a vacation, we usually pick a further destination. Because we want to discover as much as possible when we are there, we usually plan a round trip or road trip in advance that gives us the freedom to go wherever we want. Under the category itineraries on our travel blog you will find our tailor-made itineraries with many hidden gems that we encounter on our trips.

If you already have an idea of ​​where your next travel adventure is going, you can also find travel inspiration on “travel with me” by searching by destination as well.

Furthermore, we think it’s a must to stay in most authentic accommodations when we travel. We can enjoy a luxurious stay, a cozy boutique hotel, but glamping or traveling with a campervan is also our cup of tea.

Due to the many trips and staying in many unique accommodations, it inspired us to do something more with this. That’s why we decided to buy an authentic Belle-époque villa near the Belgian coast and to completely renovate it to then partially rent it out as a holiday home Maison Botanique.

We hope to inspire you with our travel blog to discover more and above all enjoy your well-deserved vacation to the fullest!

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About Sarah AKA ‘the blogger’

My name is Sarah. I grew up in Zomergem, a small village close to Ghent in Belgium. Every year as a child I went on vacation with my parents. From my mother I inherited the sense of adventure and the desire to discover unknown places. From my father, I learned to enjoy the local delicious cuisine and find that little bit of extra luxury when searching for the perfect accommodation. These are still important traits that I carry with me whenever I travel

At a later age I enjoyed discovering the world together with friends.
I also developed a passion for photography and wherever I went, I took my camera with me.

Fascinated by traveling, landscapes and cultures, I studied to be a religion and history teacher. Teaching these subject to others I found less satisfying and therefor I chose to work as a special needs teacher.

Currently, I teach youngsters with a intellectual disability and I am studying for my master degree in special needs education. I am a huge advocate of lifelong learning in whatever way is possible.

Within this busy lifestyle, I needed a creative outlet and I found it on instagram. I started to share my travel photos and received a lot of appreciation from fellow travellers.

A love affair

Meanwhile, I met Jan. We shared the same passion for travel, nature, culture, adventure and photography. You could say a match made in heaven. We fell head over heels and he became my partner in crime whenever I took off for a new adventure.

Jan started to participate in the whole instagram story. Together we searched for the best places to photograph while traveling and shared these with our followers on social media. It made us travel more consciously. We felt that this way we discovered more unique places and hidden gems.

The start of our travel blog ‘Travel with me’

We saw our audience on social media growing. Many people started to follow our journey.

On our big road trip through Thailand and Myanmar where Jan also proposed to me, the idea of Travel with me arose. A online travel blog, where we could share our experiences with like-minded travellers.

Since starting this adventure, we have learned to plan our lives better so that we can create more time and resources to travel, we have discovered numerous new places that we never thought to see, we stayed in unique accommodations where we could only dream of, we have made so many new and exciting friends, but above all we are making our dream come true to explore the world step by step.

About sarah de gheselle
About Jan baelus

About Jan AKA ‘the photographer’

Since as long as Jan can remember he always has a great desire and satisfaction creating things. Drawing, painting, sculpting, assembling elements to put them into a work of art, was his thing.

It was clear from a young age that Jan had artistic talent; so choosing a direction for high school was quickly made.
He had a classic arts education nurturing his knowledge and skills. Next he went to the academy of royal arts to practice and study animation film in Ghent.

After graduating he had a few short professional experiences and jobs, but it was hard to find and maintain a steady workflow in this field.

Not really knowing what to make of life Jan made a long journey in Indonesia and his travel addiction was born. After returning home he felt a void. This void was easily filled with working wherever he could to save money to go on another big trip.

These experiences made him richer but also gave him perspective about what he wanted to do in life, which is creating art.

Meanwhile Jan met me in a local pub where we used to hang out. We fell in love and decided to move in together in Ghent. During our relationship the most important thing is that we motivate each other to be best version of ourselves.

Jan got a steady job at a little vfx company. Finally he could do things he was born for. After three years he switched from the film production to entertainment design, working for the biggest leisure and theme park Company in Belgium.

Why we travel

Whenever we can, we travel. It’s our escape to cope with the stresses of our modern day money driven society. We now can share our experiences with anyone who loves to go out and enjoys discovering the world as much as we do.

Our bucketlist

Since childhood we have both dreamed of traveling and seeing/experiencing as much as possible. We have therefore combined our wish lists into one big dynamic bucktlist that is constantly evolving. Follow along on our travel blog to see how we make our dreams come true…

Africa

Antartica

  • Antartica cruise

Asia

  • Overnight in a Yurt in Mongolia
  • 14- day trek to Mount Everest Base Camp
  • Cross the Zhangjiajieglass Bridge and great wall of China
  • Spring or fall in Japan
  • Temple hopping in Bagan in Myanmar (July 2017, Bagan)
  • See the Taj Mahal India. (December 2019, Agra)
  • The temples of Angkor Wat Cambodia
  • Cruising the streets of Bangkok in a Tuktuk (July 2017, Bangkok)
  • Take a street food tour in Hanoi
  • Visit the Phraya Nakhon Cave in Prachuap Khiri Khan, Thailand (July 2017, Hua Hin)

Australia

  • Backpacking in the Australian Outback

Eurasia

  • balloon flight above Cappadocia
  • The Trans-Siberian Express train

Europe

North America

Oceania

  • Enjoy a luxury resort on a Polynesian island
  • Milfort sound and Fiordland national park

South America

  • Rum tasting in Cuba
  • Hike the incatrail to Macu Picchu
  • Visit the Aztec ruins in Mexico​​​​​​​
  • Rafting under the Iguazu Falls in Brazil
  • Taking pictures on the Uyuni salt plain
  • Perito moreno glacier