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The 9 Most Important Steps to Creating a Travel Blog

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First and foremost, rest assured that the start-up costs for blogging are low. Score! Secondly, nobody taught me how to build a website or a brand. It took hours on hours, days on days, months on months, years on years to fine tune it all…and guess what? It’s still an experiment sometimes! That being said, remember to give yourself patience.

Here’s the general breakdown you’ll need in order to start.

1. Find your niche

Some bloggers blog about fashion. Others food. Some talk about DIY while others obsess over travel, like me! But what is it about your platform that is going to make you stand out? How are you going to be different than the travel blogger before you? What is YOUR point of difference? I started my blog with two main parts – luxury and adventure. Both of these subjects are still quite broad, but I try and elevate them through beautiful photos that make viewers want to book a plane ticket. As I’ve evolved, I’ve incorporated various buckets into The Road Les Traveled including health, yoga, and my LimitLes travel series.

2. Come up with a name

This one may take some time, but that’s okay. Be patient and be creative. I thought long and hard about the name of my blog, and I finally called my family and best friend for a brainstorm sesh. The first thing out of my best friend’s mouth was, “Of course, it’s got to be The Road Les Traveled.” Sometimes I wonder how she does it, how she can just blurt stuff out so effortlessly! That’s what best friends are for, to be your second brain. Little does she know, that idea of hers was a huge gift.

3. Buy a domain

I wanted to secure theroadlestraveled.com ASAP. I checked this website to make sure it was available, and it wasn’t. Waawaaaa. I had to have it, so I found out who owned it at the time through Go Daddy’s registry. Turns out, another ‘Leslie’ owned the domain, and she was an avid cyclist – hence why she’d come up with The Road Les Traveled herself. Great minds, y’all. I found her email address and asked her if she’d be willing to part with it because she’d owned it since 2001 and hadn’t created anything yet. I told her I was creating a travel blog, and that I reallyyyyyy really really needed it. Begging isn’t becoming, but sometimes it’s imperative. It was my lucky day. She happily obliged to give me the domain name!

4. Pick a platform

In the beginning of my blogging career, I chose Squarespace. It’s simple, pretty and user friendly. I worked on WordPress at a previous job and liked it, but I was drawn towards Squarespace’s clean designs and templates. All Squarespace plans include fully-managed cloud hosting, ensuring websites remain available at all times. I’ve since made the switch to WordPress because it’s more customizable with a massive amount of themes, plugins and features.

5. Design it

Ohhh. Ahhh. Aesthetics are important as you want visitors to have a great user experience when they visit your blog. Is it eye-catching? Is it user-friendly? Is it clustered with ads or obstructive headings? I’ve received many compliments on my design because it’s clean and streamlined while providing useful content and beautiful imagery. I designed my first website by myself. I said if it was successful after a couple years, I’d hire a developer for a more professional look. That’s what you see now!

6. Build a brand, build an audience

Branding is everything these days. You’ve already started with creating a name and an overall look to your site, but branding goes beyond a blog. Take Chrissy Teigen for example. She’s a supermodel, wife to John Legend, an author, all the while keeping a spunky presence on social media (but seriously does anyone remember when she posted her bare boob on Instagram (#freethenipple) four different times while Instagram retaliated by deleting each one? Censorship is just the worst.) Anywho, yeah. Her personality is her brand. You can elevate yours by injecting personality in your writing style, creating a logo, even doing product extensions of your brand – such as writing a cookbook.

7. Write, write, write, write, write (werk, werk, werk, werk, werk)

Well, duh. Content, content, content. And compelling content will drive you. This is uber important in blogging as creating useful and shareable content is what will up your traffic numbers and overall clout as a blogger. Don’t worry, it will get better as you go along! Oh also, you’ve got to be passionate about this stuff or it will show in your writing. Do what you love, love what you do. (I actually really hate that quote, but it seemed fitting here.)

8. Travel

To get that content, you’ll need to travel…or need to do whatever it is that you’re actually writing about. Beauty, fashion, food, DIY, lifestyle, etc. You’ll need to gain a credible position in the industry to talk about something that people are interested in. Nothing does this more than getting out and exploring the world, creating partnerships with big players in the industry as you go. Note: When you travel, you can’t forget step #7. Multitasking is key.

9. Never give up

NEVER. If you want something bad enough, you’ll find ways to make it happen. Blogging requires hard work and many hours of dedication each day, each week, each month. Build on it, and you will do great things. Keep on going!

Over to you! Do you have a successful blog? Tell me about it. How did you get started?

Yoga for Beginners: Sun Salutation A

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Maybe it’s your partner, your bedroom, or your phone. Whatever it is, the one thing that actually allows for this is LIGHT! The history of practicing a sun salutation goes back thousands of years to honor the source of energy and light for the world – hence a sun salute!

A Sun Salutation, or Surya Namaskar in Sanskrit, is a series of postures that warms, strengthens, and aligns the entire body. It serves as an all-purpose yoga tool. You can make it more challenging by moving through the poses quickly or more calming by moving through them slowly…almost like a moving meditation. You can either make a whole practice out of many sun salutation repetitions or place them into a larger yoga class. Yogi’s choice!

Check out LimitLes Movement to move with me through Surya Namasakar, beginner yoga tutorials, mastectomy stretches, targeted healing, abs, meditations and beyond!

Anjali Mudra

Start with hands at heart center, or Anjali mudra, which is meant to serve as an offering, greeting or initiation of something.

Tadasana (Mountain Pose) with arms lifted

Inhale your arms above the head while standing with your feet a few inches apart with equal weight distributed in each. Palms face one another, shoulder blades are away from your ears and down your back, pelvis is neutral, upper abs are tucked in. Greet the sun!

Forward Fold

Exhale and hinge at the hips, moving your arms in prayer position down your center line towards the mat. Slightly bend your knees if you feel pressure on your lower back. Hands move towards the floor, behind your ankles for a deeper stretch or towards blocks for added support.

Halfway Lift

Inhale and place your palms on your shins as you lift your t

orso away from your thighs creating a long spine.

Plank Pose

Exhale and either step or hop back into plank pose. Shoulders are directly above your palms and feet are hip-width distance behind you. Inhale and ground into the earth with all 10 fingers.

Chaturanga Dandasana (High to low push-up)

Exhale as you lower from a high to a low push up with your arms bent at a 90 degree angle. Careful not to dip into the shoulders here. Option to drop the knees to the floor as you lower down.

Upward-Facing Dog

Inhale as you shine your chest forward and pull your shoulders back and away from your ears, flipping your toes to where the tops of your feet push into the floor. Your thighs are off the mat, legs are engaged and glutes are relaxed.

Downward-Facing Dog

Exhale and either roll over the toes or come down on your knees before flipping your toes, coming into downward dog as your press your hips towards the back of the room and press the heels down. If your heels don’t reach the mat (completely okay!), add a bend to your knees – whatever you do, don’t compromise a long spine. Ground down through your hands and feet as you lengthen your spine.

Halfway Lift

Inhale and either step or hop towards your hands at the front of the mat placing your palms on your shins and lifting your torso to lengthen your spine.

Forward Fold

Exhale and hinge at your hips keeping a slight bend your knees if you feel pressure on your lower back. Hands move towards the floor, behind your ankles for a deeper stretch or towards blocks for added support.

Tadasana (Mountain Pose)

Inhale and begin to move your torso up to form a straight spine, lifting your arms and returning to Tadasana.

Anjali Mudra

Exhale to Anjali mudra, prayer hands, exactly where we started 🙂 Repeat 5x.

The Best Banana Nut Bread Recipe

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It’s something you’ve probably seen multiple times on Instagram during COVID-19. People trying their hand at one of the most feel-good comfort foods of all time. #BananaBread is currently at 1.2 Million and growing.

the best banana bread recipe

Maybe it’s the low-risk high-reward nature of it all? Maybe it’s the fact that bananas are easy to hoard until a week later when you’re left staring at brown bananas wondering WTF to do with them. It’s a trying time for everyone, so the thought of attempting a meticulous recipe and absolutely failing could really tip us over the edge into even darker times. NO THANKS. What we need, really need, is a fool proof, simplistic list full of sugar, flour, bananas and nuts that will send us off to the couch fat, happy and accomplished. Thanks for the recipe, momma.

the best banana bread recipe

Ingredients

1 1/4 cups unbleached all-purpose flour

1 teaspoon baking soda

1/2 teaspoon fine salt

2 large eggs at room temperature (vegan option: use 1/4 cup unsweetened apple sauce per egg)

1/2 teaspoon vanilla extract

1/2 cup unsalted butter, at room temperature, (+ more for preparing the pan, option to use vegan butter)

1 cup sugar

4 very ripe bananas, peeled, and mashed with a fork (about 1 cup)

1/2 cup walnut pieces (or chocolate chips…bakers choice here!)

the best banana bread recipe
the best banana bread recipe
the best banana bread recipe

  1. Sift the flour, baking soda, and salt into a medium bowl, set aside.
  2. Whisk the eggs and vanilla together in a small bowl, set aside.
  3. Lightly coat a 9 x 5 x 3-inch loaf pan with butter, set aside.
  4. Preheat oven to 350 degrees F.
  5. In a mixer OR by hand like me, cream the butter and sugar until light, fluffy and lumpy 🙂
  6. Gradually pour the egg mixture into the butter while mixing.
  7. Mash and add the bananas.
  8. With a rubber spatula, mix in the flour mixture until just incorporated.
  9. Fold in the nuts and transfer the batter to the pan.
  10. Lick the bowl.
  11. Bake for 1 hour or until a toothpick comes out clean.
  12. Cool the bread in the pan on a wire rack for 5 minutes. Turn the bread out of the pan and let cool completely on the rack. Wrap in cling wrap. Devour.

the best banana bread recipe

COVID-19: How to Cancel or Reschedule Travel Plans

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I have to be honest. This is the least excited I’ve ever been to write a blog post. How to cancel or reschedule travel?! I’m sorry, I truly am, but this needs to be addressed. Obviously, if your trip was supposed to take place in March or April of 2020, more than likely it’s done for due to travel bans, flight cancellations and shelter in place orders. My heart goes out to all the brides out there as well. In the end, it’s about the love you have for your partner. I know, I know. It still doesn’t take away the pain of a postponed wedding.

As I write this, there are more than 1 million coronavirus cases around the world. So far, 51,485 people have died from the virus. It’s completely devastating and a shock to everyone’s system and life as we all knew it…including anything having to do with travel. This is a massive part of my business, especially as it relates to LimitLes, the retreat arm of The Road Les Traveled. After spending hours on the phone and on email rescheduling various trips, I’ve learned a thing or two about how the industry is operating in such a pandemic.

The good news? Numerous travel companies have considerably relaxed their change and cancellation policies at least through the end of April or May. The bad news? If it’s a full refund you’re hoping for (unless the supplier canceled your trip, and even then it’s not a guarantee), you’re not likely going to get one although it’s complicated. If you have travel plans further into the year, there’s no reason to cancel right now…especially knowing the travel industry is on its knees and needs our patience and funds to continue operating.

Note: For the latest information, pay attention to alerts from the World Health Organization and the embassy of the country where you intend to travel.

Do I need to cancel my trip abroad?

WHO travel advice continues to go against traveling to countries experiencing COVID-19 outbreaks. The CDC recommends that travelers avoid all nonessential international travel. In countries where commercial travel options remain available, U.S. citizens should arrange for immediate return to the United States, unless prepared to remain abroad for an indefinite length of time. I know people trapped in Peru and Mexico due to the closing of borders. The question that remains is what to do about traveling in May, June, July and beyond? Many people are holding out hope that we’ll flatten the curve by then, but only time will tell.

Will my airline refund my ticket due to coronavirus?

Delta, American, JetBlue, United, and Alaska airlines have waived change fees for upcoming flights, no matter the destination. Southwest Airlines already allows travelers to change or cancel their reservations without penalty. For more information on rebooking upcoming travel, contact your airline directly.

Will Airbnb give me a refund?

It depends. The current message on Airbnb’s website states the following: Reservations for stays and Airbnb Experiences made on or before March 14, 2020, with a check-in date between March 14, 2020 and May 31, 2020, are covered by the policy and may be canceled before check-in. Guests who cancel will have a variety of cancellation and refund options, and hosts can cancel without charge or impact to their Superhost status. Airbnb will either refund, or issue travel credit that includes, all service fees for covered cancellations. 

For hotels, other vacations rentals and online agencies like booking.com, many are allowing travelers to cancel without penalty and receive a credit to use for future travels.

What should I do if I booked a cruise?

CDC recommends that travelers defer all cruise travel worldwide. Like the airline, hotel, tour and rental industries, the poor cruise industry is really feeling the effects. Many cruise lines have canceled all itineraries through May or even further out. Because of this, many lines are offering a choice of a full refund (cash back) or a credit for a future travel while offering great incentives like onboard spending money and bonuses. Crazy stories are coming out of this industry such as The Zaandam ship sailing from Buenos Aires, Argentina, on March 7 and originally supposed to end in San Antonio, Chile, on March 21st. They are currently disembarking in Florida after being turned away from port after port. A handful of other ships are trying to negotiate disembarkation as well. 

Will travel insurance cover my cancellation costs?

The thing about travel insurance is that you need to secure it immediately after you book a trip. If you wait, you may miss out on a lot of benefits. Anyone concerned about upcoming trips should purchase a travel insurance plan that includes “cancel for any reason” coverage. Allianz Travel Insurance states the following on their site: We are currently accommodating claims for:

  1. Under Emergency Medical Care Benefit: Emergency medical care for a customer who becomes ill with COVID-19 while on their trip.
  2. Under Trip Cancellation or Trip Interruption Benefits: Trip cancellation and trip interruption if a customer becomes ill with COVID-19 either before or during their trip.

Customers may change their plan’s effective dates to cover a new or rescheduled trip. We are offering refunds for the cost of your travel protection plan to customers who wish to cancel their travel protection plan if the customer’s travel supplier canceled the customer’s trip due to COVID-19. That’s just one example. Contact your plan for more info.

What if I didn’t get travel insurance?

Considering the global pandemic, contact your airline or hotel directly to see if they have policies for cancellations that are specifically accommodating travelers during the outbreak. Obviously, there is no one-size-fits-all policy in the travel industry. Everything is a mess, a mess we will soon leave behind as the world heals and we find a vaccine.

Tips

Credit card concierge is key right now. If you have a premium credit card, the concierge service should be able to let you know your options within a matter of minutes…or maybe hours considering their lines are probably swamped.

If the supplier cancels, you should be entitled to a full refund. Don’t accept the voucher.

Check all channels. If the phone wait time is astronomical, try twitter, Facebook or Instagram DM.

The U.S. government has delayed the Oct. 1, 2020, deadline for Real ID, one of the accepted forms of identification travelers will need to use in place of a regular driver’s license to get through airport security under the federal Real ID law. The new deadline is Oct. 1, 2021.

WHO has launched a dedicated messaging service in Arabic, English, French and Spanish. Send “hi” to +41 79 893 18 92 on WhatsApp for English texts.

Criminals are disguising themselves as WHO to steal money or sensitive information. If you are contacted by a person or organization that appears to be from WHO, verify their authenticity before responding. The only donations WHO has issued is the COVID-19 Solidarity Response Fund.

If your travel has been affected by COVID-19, let us know your story here. Any tips? We’re all ears.

My 9 Favorite Props for Home Workout Equipment

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This goes for many little corners being transformed into a new home gym. Some of my favorite moments during this crazy time are spent in my home office/gym with the music blasting as I drop into my body and out of my head…if only for a moment to escape. Here are my current home workout faves.

Yoga mat

home workout equipment

My 4mm of yoga mat cushion is like home to me. It’s been on many worldly adventures, it has crossed the globe, and it always comes right back to California ready to hold me when I need a good yoga practice, a meditation session or even a good cry. HOME, I tell you. If you don’t know what kind of mat you’re after, I wrote a guide to yoga mats here.

Yoga blocks

home workout equipment

I was always that yogi who never wanted a block in class as if I was too advanced or something. HA. Ego, step down. Yoga blocks allow for correct alignment, for deepening your practice and for an all around more comfortable session. You can place them on one of three different height settings (pictured above is the middle height). A few different options present themselves here such as cork blocks or foam blocks – I choose foam 🙂

Yoga strap

home workout equipment

Talk about deepening a stretch! Yoga straps are an extremely useful tool when it comes to flexibility. *SO* often I hear from people who want to get into yoga but can’t because they “aren’t flexible enough.” Excuse me for raising the volume but THIS IS WHAT THE PRACTICE WILL GIVE YOU. Say hello to flexibility. Straps are so versatile from stretching tight hamstrings after a long run, assisting in finding the length in a difficult yoga pose, and helping to keep your arms together in a handstand.

DumbBells

home workout equipment

I’m always looking to increase my upper body strength and tone my arms. On a normal day, lifting bags into an overhead bin + the high to low push up during yoga is about all I get! I love these little 3 lb weights, and I’ve come to learn that you don’t need heavy dumbbells to tone, build and strengthen. Instead, the number of reps and pace are what matter. To each their own.

Resistance tube

home workout equipment

Talk about versatility and easy ability to throw in a suitcase. This single resistance tube can work many parts of the body such as the biceps by standing on one end of the resistance band and pulling upwards, the triceps by securing the tube to the upper frame of a door, or even the back by performing delt raises.

Booty bands

home workout equipment

These booty bands hurt so good. What I like about them (on most days lol) is that the resistance is constant, which forces me to use more muscle groups and helps to improve my coordination and balance while building strength. They also weight next to nothing, making for the perfect travel buddy.

Stability ball

home workout equipment

I love this thing so much. So many exercises can be done with the exercise ball such as placing it between the legs for leg lifts, propping yourself on top for abdominal work, placing both feet on the ball in and out of full extension for full body workout, the list goes on. Even if you don’t want to exercise on it, try using it as an alternative office chair. It’ll work your core as you work from home. I have the 65 cm ball.

Jump rope

home workout equipment

If you don’t want to leave the comfort of your own home for cardio, the jump rope is a perfect exercise that allows you to stay in one spot 🙂 It gets the heart rate going and the sweat dripping.

Muscle roller

home workout equipment

If you’re into deep tissue massages, this one’s for you. I have the RumbleRoller which is a tool designed to mimic a thumb-like, deep tissue massage pressure. This effect helps to break up knotted muscle fibers, decrease muscle tension and diminish tightness. This roller is more aggressive than most conventional foam rollers and is able to get deeper in the muscle fascia to reach the toughest trigger points.

How To Edit Photos Using Lightroom

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Enter Lightroom.

I figured out that while the correct settings are important and while lighting is imperative in controlling the image, there’s this other incredibly useful tool to make my photos pop. Lightroom is the only editing tool I’ve ever used to showcase the crazy beautiful places I’m able to visit. It’s become fun to me…an art form if you will. No, truly – it makes for the best plane activity! Give me a glass of wine, headphones and a full SD card at 30,000 feet, and I’m happy. It’s so user friendly both on my laptop and mobile so I’ve never found it to be this scary, intimidating platform. My current subscription gets me Lightroom Classic, Lightroom CC and Photoshop with 1Tb of storage for$19.99/month, completely worth it to me with all the editing I do.

Lightroom Classic vs. Lightroom CC (Creative Cloud)

how to edit photos using lightroom

Lightroom Classic is just that – the classical version of Lightroom that seasoned users are familiar with as it relates to desktop-based (file/folder) workflows. It’s the one we all know and love with local file storage.  The sheer scope of what this version can do at the speed it can do it in is beyond impressive. Lightroom CC is the photography service designed to be a cloud-based ecosystem of apps that are deeply integrated and work together seamlessly across desktop, mobile, and web (cloud-based storage). I don’t use the CC version on too many occasions, but I’m happy to have it on my phone when I can’t get to a computer!

Inside the Camera

First, let’s go inside the camera – an important place to begin! Before working inside the actual editing platform, you have to first take the photos.

My advice:

  1. Shoot in RAW – an image format that allows for the highest level of photo manipulation. They’re massive files which means you’ll probably want a bigger SD card to accommodate them. You can easily make the switch from JPEG to RAW inside your camera.
  2. When in doubt, underexpose rather than overexpose – this allows the image to retain more detail and edit with a bigger range inside Lightroom.

My Equipment:

  1. My first ever DSLR was a Nikon D3200. After a few years, I upgraded to the D7200. Now, I’m crushing on the Sony a7 III 🙂

Tips & Tricks

how to edit photos using lightroom1. Import: From the File menu, I click on Import Photos and Videos and go to the tab that shows my external hard drive (where I’ve already transferred all photos from the camera SD card). I then begin the selection process and hit Import once done. Inside the Develop Module is where the real fun begins.

2. Lighting: First things first: I start with exposure, highlights, shadows and whites/blacks. If the image is underexposed, I typically increase the exposure slider, decrease the highlights, and brighten the shadows. The whites/blacks slider can be extremely useful as well in brightening and darkening an image. For example, sliding the blacks to the left can help an image that looks a bit washed out. And then there’s the Tone Curve, almost like a contrast slider on steroids. A few adjustments here can really pack a powerful punch to an image.

3. Color: I’m anything but black and white – I’m pretty much everything in between 🙂 I LOVE color as ever apparent in my Instagram feed. Vibrance and saturation are my friends (found under the Basic panel) but I also love shifting individual color saturation in the HSL panel. I’m careful to not make photos look too fake by blowing up all colors of the rainbow or making anyone look like they had a cameo in Willy Wonka and the Chocolate Factory (shout out Oompa Loompas). Without delving into the Color Theory, the Split Toning panel enables editors to completely change the feel and vibe of an image without necessarily affecting the skin tones and other specific features, yet another powerful tool.

4. Details/Texture: I love a good clarity slider. It makes everything look a bit more 3D. The contrast slider can punch up an image as well, and both of these tools located in the Basic Panel can impact the mid-tones of an image (but careful not to g overboard and make the overall look too harsh). You can sharpening your image, of course, by going into the Detail panel (careful not to oversharpen).

5. Temperature: Increasing the amount of orange introduces warmth to your image while increasing the amount of blue introduces coolness to your image.

6. Undo/Reset: Command Z is my BFF as it’s the ever popular ‘Undo’ button. You can also find it by going to Edit –> Undo. The Reset button on the bottom right corner will set your image back to its original settings.

7. Experiment! I truly love getting lost inside Lightroom because at the end of the day, the above information is different for every single person. This is my style – perhaps yours is completely different! Photography editing is an art form and to each their very own as they create 🙂

Presets

Presets are, in their most broken down form, adjustment recipes or a combination of slider settings that you can apply to one or multiple photos at a time. I tend to edit on an individual basis based on that certain photo’s needs, but presets can certainly help in a time crunch as well as in certain destinations for batch editing. They will most likely look different on every image taking into account the different lighting, colors, subjects and settings. Adjustments will most likely need to be made after the preset is applied. You can create your own or buy files from someone else and easily import them into Lightroom. Here’s my collection based off of various locations around the world and their colors, textures and lighting. Let me know if you’d like the option to purchase them!

The Road Les Traveled: me doing what I do best – taking the road Les traveled down a very, very colorful road..

how to edit photos using lightroom

Location: Fitz Roy, Argentine Patagonia

Here Comes The Sun: all about those sunny, daytime vibes

how to edit photos using lightroom

Location: Lake Tahoe, California

Tropical Getaway: features turquoise water and white sands a la the Maldives, the Bahamas, or whatever paradise I’m visiting

how to edit photos using lightroom

Location: Kuda Huraa, Maldives

Desert Dreams: beautifully dramatic preset showcasing desert sand bathed in sunlight

how to edit photos using lightroom

Location: Abu Dhabi, UAE

Jungle Fever: moody, lush landscapes and greenery for days

how to edit photos using lightroom

Location: Bali, Indonesia

Sunrise Sunset: because obviously.

how to edit photos using lightroom
Location: Sumba Island, Indonesia

Adobe Customer Care

If you have questions, one of the best customer service lines I’ve ever known is with Adobe. They’ve been beyond patient with my incessant questions through the years and can help answer anything down to categorization inside the platform.

Happy editing, y’all!

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