Our goal is to help you “Travel With Confidence” and to create awareness of how easy it is to “Make Your Own Traveler’s Luck.” It is not about us; it really is about you and how we can help you!
If you’re looking for instances when we had the fortune of being lucky travelers, check out the blog posts with a 🍀. We understand that time is precious, whether you’re planning your next trip or trying to make the most of your vacation. That’s why we want to share tips and tricks to help you travel with confidence 👀. Our personal experiences and valuable insights from visiting 22 countries in the past 40 years should provide a valuable tool when planning your next trip. As an alternative, you can also contact us to plan the trip for you.
Use the list of our true and trusted travel resources. Since we started traveling, we’ve used hundreds of companies. Some have been great, some have been just awful. Get the low down and use the good ones confidently the next time you travel. We share some stories about when things don’t work and how to recover from it, or at least how to see the humor in the situation. Life is all about fun; you only have one to live, so you might as well make the best of it.
Who are the “VanderKansies?” We are Johan and Aletta. My mom coined this nickname over 30 years ago, a play on words. Our last name is VanderWalt, and she always talked about us as the “vanderkansies.” In Afrikaans, our home language, vakansie means vacation. So roughly translated, it would be the “vandervacationers.” Yes, we started traveling when we were young!
Our love for food and travel will be evident in the description of our meals and the photos you see. In our travels, we try to take in the local culture, eat what the locals eat, and eat at the local hangouts. You will seldom see us in the restaurants recommended by Yelp or other significant sites and guidebooks.
Our Biggest Travel Dream
We love our kids, but those little grandbabies are even closer to our hearts. If we knew how great it would have been to have grandkids, we would have had them first, then the kids. 😊 In 2020, the whole family, all 14 of us (including 6 grandbabies under age 6), took a three-week trip to Italy. It was fantastic, marvelous, enjoyable, and the best trip ever…you get the picture. Who said you cannot travel with babies. Our biggest dream is to do this again – a family trip that now will include even more grandbabies (and their parents.)
Our Philosophy
We try to have as much fun as possible, and when things go wrong, we step back and see how we can make something positive out of it. We plan to eat our way through the world! So many great places to go, dishes to eat, or to cook yourself.
Find the Travelers’ Luck 🍀
We believe in “travelers’ luck,” but realize that sometimes you need to take a step back and celebrate that marvelous thing that just happened to you, especially if you did not plan for it – that’s luck. In the blog, you will see the 🍀 every time we had unplanned travelers’ luck.
Wining and dining
We absolutely love food and consider ourselves foodies. Food markets are always at the top of the list of places to visit. When facilities are available, we love to get the freshest produce and cook “at home.” We even have a food blog, Chew and Chatter. If eating was an Olympic sport, we would be in-line to win a medal.
Pack Light
We tend to be light on planning and packing and heavy on eating, having fun, and enjoying ourselves. Why would you lug those suitcases that are big enough for your “mother-in-law and her fridge” around? Travel light! The best example of us traveling light is when we only had two carry-on pieces each for an 8-week trip to Spain. This trip included packing to walk the pilgrim’s route called Camino de Santiago, 7 weeks of being a digital nomad, and traveling in the shoulder season, which meant we had to pack for cold weather as well. If we can do it, so can you!
Go With the Flow and Where the Wind Blow
Sometimes, we plan, but most times, we don’t. If we have a rental car, we often only have the first night in a hotel booked. We set out to talk to locals and other travelers for their opinion of the best places to visit, which in many cases are not in the tourist guides, but off-the-beaten-track. With a short visit to the local pub and “Bobs your uncle,” we hear about the best sites not flooded with tourists. This approach of not booking in advance allows you to stay longer in places you love and shorter in places you don’t like. This takes guts, but you won’t be disappointed with an online booking that did not quite live up to the expectations the online photos created.
Affordability
Travel can be as expensive and as cheap as you can afford. We hope this blog will help you find some of the gems we have found through our travels.
About the Writer and Our Travel Journal
Aletta’s writing is a little tongue-in-cheek; she loves bringing the bright and funny side of our experiences into the travel journal. In the travel journal, she focuses on our experiences; it is more personal, highlighting what happened to us. Those writings might have hidden tips, but they mainly show everyone how much fun travel can be.
The Photographer
Johan is the main photographer for the blog. He has been taking photos for 40 years, ensuring that we keep our memories on paper 🙂
Countries Visited
Africa
Europe
North America
Central America
On that Bucket List
- Argentina
- Chili – specifically Patagonia
- Isla Mujeres
- Israel
- Kenia
- Paraguay
- Tanzania
- Uruguay
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Contact Us
We would love to hear from you. Don’t hesitate to contact us to share your experiences or request travel planning services.
Read more about our food blog at Chew and Chatter
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