Hi, welcome to Freedom Voyagers!
We’re Esmee & Jelmer, a couple in their twenties from The Netherlands. We’ve been travelling together for several years now and have been enjoying everything this beautiful world has to offer. When we came back from our first backpacking trip to Indonesia, we had so many stories to tell. Instantly, we felt like we wanted to share that with a bigger audience. Esmee loves to write and Jelmer is a photo- and videographer – a perfect combination that enables us to share our travel experiences. We sincerely hope they inspire you to go out there and explore as well. At the same time, we want to make sure you do so in a responsible and sustainable way, so we can all enjoy travelling on our beautiful planet for years to come.
“We don’t need a handful of people doing sustainability perfectly. We need millions of people doing it imperfectly.” – Anne Marie Bonneau.
Why would you want to travel sustainable?
Before we went on our first backpacking trip, we weren’t fully aware of the harm our travelling style may inflict. Sure, in the back of our heads we knew that flying wasn’t exactly the most green form of transportation. But when we arrived in Indonesia, we quickly realised there was more going on. We saw the citizens of Jakarta being in constant fear of the rising water, which could flood their city at any time. The streets, beaches and national parks were polluted with plastic and other rubbish. And then there’s still the possible social destruction that mass tourism can cause. In some parts of Bali, which is visited by millions of tourists every year, we were shocked to witness the loss of authenticity and cultural unicity.
But how can you travel sustainable?
We believe making small changes in the way you travel can definitely make a positive impact on our planet, especially when we do it collectively. But still, changing your ways can be difficult and daunting at first. Where do you even begin? Well, that’s where we come in: we designed Freedom Voyagers to hand you inspirational ideas and practical information on how to travel more sustainable and responsible. Do you want to know how and where you can best compensate your carbon footprint? How you can find the best vegetarian or vegan restaurants? Or maybe you need some ideas on how to ban plastic from your toiletries? We’ve got you covered.
Besides useful information and tips on how to travel in a sustainable way, we’ll also share travel guides of the places we visit with you. They’re packed with information: where to go, what to do, where to eat, where to sleep and how to get around. On top of that, we’ll tell you all about the special people we meet and our exciting experiences and adventures in our travel stories.