10 Questions For (36): Craig and Linda Martin of Indie Travel Podcast

Great to continue the series with two real nomads, Craig (@Craig_Martin) and Linda Martin of Indie Travel Podcast, and who especially during the start up phase of TBEX have put tremendous effort to gather several of our fellow travel bloggers over there.

1) Who Are you?

We’re Craig and Linda Martin, two Kiwis who started traveling the world in early 2006. Some of the year we teach English, but most of the time we travel wherever we want, creating travel media like stories, videos, photos and audio podcasts.

We host one of the world’s best independent travel podcasts at Indie Travel Podcast and use our network of creative travellers to create a range of media through our business, Indie Travel Media Ltd. We’ve also started publishing digital books, like the Art of Solo Travel.

2) What do you like about what you do?

We love being able to visit dozens of countries each year; being able to spend as much or as little time in each as we wish.

We can work from a café in Berlin or a beach in Vietnam with equal ease (and equal problems!), or pop home to New Zealand for a bit.

The people we meet along the way are definitely the highlight of travel, closely followed by the wine we drink. There’s some thing really special about dropping in on an old friend after a few years away from each other.

3) What don’t you like about what you do?

At the moment our business is quite young, and with that comes problems: business strategy, sales and marketing are not our strong points, so we sometimes struggle to allocate enough time to those aspects… They’re not so fun! As you might expect, cash flow gets a bit tight at times too.

We’re much more adept at the creative and people-focused side of things!

4) Please tell us all about your blog and your aims with it.

Our flagship site,Indie Travel Podcast is an online home for long-term travelers, digital nomads and people on gap years, sabbaticals and career breaks.

We help people to travel in an independent, socially responsible and culturally engaged way. We focus on real cost-saving and practical advice for people who are preparing for and taking part in mid- and long-term travel.

We also run several other sites, including Must Learn Spanish and Make Money Travel Blogging.

5) Your top 3 destination experiences you’ve ever stayed to date and why?

That’s tough I’d have to pick:

1. Walking the Camino de Santiago in northern Spain. The simplicity of this hike/pilgrimage walk was something very special. We felt at home every step of the 1,000 kilometer journey.

2. Road-tripping through New Zealand. Travelling New Zealand by car or camper van is an amazing experience: friendly people, amazing wildlife and vistas, and great food and wine.

Chachapoyas found at Disclose.tv

3. Exploring three towns in northern Peru – Trujillo, Chiclayo and Chachapoyas. I’m sick and tired of hearing about the tourist-ridden Machu Picchu. This was a welcome break from crowds of tourists and offered some of the most amazing pre-Inca cultural experiences we had in South America.

6) Your top 3 accommodations you’ve ever stayed to date and why?

1. Krumlov House, a small hostel in Cesky Krumlov. This was one of the most beautiful hostels we’ve ever stayed in, both in terms of the staff and the light wooden interiors. The setting, in one of Europe’s prettiest towns, certainly helps.

2. Casablanca Hotel, New York. We stayed at the Casablanca during the Travel Blog Exchange conference earlier this year. It was an expensive splurge, but very well-priced for New York. Staff were excellent; complementary and extensive food and wine were served every afternoon; and the location, just meters from Times Square, was perfect.

3. A Spaceship. Not the kind that flies into space, but the New Zealand campervan made from a people-mover. Sleeping between the mountains and a lake while the snow fell, and waking up on the beach were two very special memories.

7) Your top 3 most memorable food / wine experiences to date and why?

While in the tiny town of Sankt Anna am Aigen in the south of Austria, we managed to have two very special nights in one week. On the first, everything in town was closed, so we walked, by the light of the moon, down the hillside and through the vines to reach a farmhouse restaurant. There we feasted on cold-cut meats, cheeses, pickles and bottle of local wine.

Later that week, we attended the Junker Festival, where dozens of local wine-makers presented their =93young=94 white wines. This is a tradition in the region and, while Junkers might cost several euros a glass in Vienna, I think we paid six euros for entry, and that was all. It was an amazing week.

I would be remiss not to also mention our days in Champagne, where we were hosted by a multitude of high-ranking people and walked away with some very nice vintage wines.

8) Your 3 worst destination/ accommodation /food experiences to date and why?

I try not to remember those. Bucharest, La Paz and Sankt Polten have especially failed to excite us.

9) Can you offer the readers 3 destination/ food / accomodation / things to do tips about the city you are currently living in?

I’m currently on a flight between Barcelona and Vienna so..

1. The sandwiches on Vueling flights are really small. The croissants very dry. I don’t recommend them.

2. Sitting on the right hand side of the plane during a morning flight allows the sun to come right in the window and warm you up. Sit on the left side if you want to avoid that.

3. If you have longer legs (say you’re around 160cm tall or more), try not to sit behind someone who’ll recline their seat. It’s quite painful.

10) Any Question(s) you’d expected me to ask that you would like to answer?

Apart from travel and blogging, our current passions (or, rather, preoccupations) are learning Spanish (for Linda) and playing chess (for Craig). We’re slowly getting better at both.

Our newest online project is MatadorU review, which looks at the MatadorU writing and photography courses. We’re also working on the final manuscript for a free ebook on how to travel the world like us, and brainstorming another called the Art of Couples’ Travel to complement Stephanie Lee’s Art of Solo Travel.

Craig and Linda on the Line of Capricorn, near Antofagasta, Chile

My Take

Thank You Craig and Linda. It was great fun meeting you recently and taking you for a ride along the Dutch river Vecht where the well to do traders of our Golden Age (17nd Century) used to have their country houses, and for a bite at a “Beach Club” at a lake (Loosdrechtse Plassen) where I took your portrait:-)