About Lia and Serge
About Lia and Serge is the story of a Canadian who met a Brazilian back in 2009. Three weeks after their acquaintance, Lia asked Serge if he wanted to travel with her to Croatia. She had planned to visit a friend and spend roughly a week in Zagreb. Serge waited until the last possible moment to give an answer. Since he had never travelled internationally, he needed to fast track his passport application. Then the travel itinerary went from London - Zagreb - London TO London - Zagreb - Ljubjana - Venice - Bergamo - Arrenzano - Lyon - Annecy - Zagreb - London.
And that is how it all started. Having heard from other couples, planning such a trip in the early stages of a relationship bring a sense of Make or Break. However, Lia and Serge are still trotting around the world, adding new destinations. In fact, they highly enjoy discovering new destinations that they created this very blog - Discovering Destinations !
Follow their blog : Discovering Destinations
Check out their travel pics : Instagram
View their videos on : YouTube
Strengths
- planning
- execution
- documenting
- making local connections
- self guided / orientation
1. Planning
With each new trip, Lia and Serge improve their trip planning. Google Maps has been a huge help. Now, before each trip Serge uses Google Maps in order to find new destinations to discover and pegs them as 'would like to visit'. Then Lia and Serge pay it forward by giving their own review of the locations they visited. To this day, they are considered Level 8, have contributed over 2,000 photos which have been viewed almost 18 million times !
They also use Trip Advisor as part of their planning.
Lia and Serge enjoy the use of Freewalking Tours to get acquainted in a new city. It allows them to get a rough overview of the city layout and new ideas for places to visit.
Contact Lia and Serge to help plan your next trip 🙂
2. Execution
It's one thing to plan, however it's also important to execute your plan. That said, Lia and Serge accomplish what they set out to do. For example, in 2016 they both left their jobs to travel in South America and Europe. They planned to land in Paris, France and leave from Copenhagen, Denmark. The idea was to use the Eurail train pass to cross Europe from West to East then make their way north. The only destination they left behind was Romania which was for reasons of lack of accessibility.
3. Documenting
Lia has a strong background in office administration and coordinated the budget. She has built detailed spreadsheets with each city and location visited. The spreadsheet roughly comprises of location, cost, rating and time allocation suggestion.
4. Make connections
Lia and Serge are not big fans of crowds, however they do enjoy FreeWalking tours. When they do their own thing, they keep an open mind and approach the locals to ask their advice. Sometimes they'll talk with the local workers, b&b owners, local population in the city or other travellers.
For example, when visiting a pub in Dublin, Ireland they met a group of Americans while enjoying a few pints. The American travellers talked about visiting the historical Brú na Bóinne.
5. Orientation
When visiting a new city, it can feel intimidating when trying to find your bearings. Some cities are easier to navigate than others. Again, Lia and Serge use Google Maps offline when travelling which is how they find their way. Serge discovered that he could use his Google Maps application even in airplane mode. Additionally, he also found that he could 'download
