Travel enthusiasts and their projects

Some dreams mature a long time before becoming a reality, others are born out of impulse. Discover the projects of a globetrotter and a family of great travelers who are impatient at the idea of ​​flying off to new landscapes.

Laila Maalouf
The Press

In Portugal with two friends

Jennifer Doré Dallas used to travel all over the world — an old passion turned profession. The author of the blog Me, my shoes has traveled the winding roads of Tuscany like the gravel roads of Iceland; to write, among other things, travel guides and, above all, to quench his thirst for discovery.

But the pandemic put a halt to all his plans: “I respected the regulations, it was really important to me. I felt that I had a responsibility, with my blog. While waiting for the travel bans to be lifted, she took the opportunity, like so many others, to discover Quebec.

Then recently, when the possibility of flying abroad became real again, she came across an enticing flight offer on the web. Destination: Lisbon. In a few clicks, the 11-day trip in May was booked, with a friend who also jumped at the chance. And time to say it, a third embarked on the project.

“It will be my first time in Portugal. I traveled a lot in Western Europe, but it’s one of the only countries where it never worked. I had like a missed appointment with this country, ”she confides. Nothing is booked on site yet, but the three friends, who are all foodieswant to take advantage of these short holidays to stay in the capital, savor its good restaurants, perhaps sign up for a short cooking class or a culinary tour.

“At 18, when I made my first trip to backpack in Europe, I changed cities every two days to see as many as possible; then, at some point, enough is enough. It’s part of me, slow travelbut the pandemic has amplified that… I love this little feeling to settle down and live like the inhabitants of the place. »

Europe with the family… and in a caravan

“It’s still a long way off for us. Then, with the current context, it seems that we cannot do much to move things forward,” says Valérie Tremblay. Nevertheless, she does not hesitate to dream of this great trip which is looming for 2024, in the company of her husband and their two sons.

In two years, they will fly to Europe, where they plan to buy a caravan (or camper) and criss-cross the continent for a year. You could say that Valérie Tremblay and her family are used to building big projects: in 2015, they crossed America from Alaska to Argentina aboard a caravan.

“We are really a family of projects,” she laughs. Her husband drove while she schooled the children. But this time, their parents wanted to involve them in the development as well as in the planning of the project (they are now 14 and 12 years old) – which led them to agree on this date of trip. “We made a little dream book in which everyone writes down the places they would like to visit. »

The pandemic raises some concerns, especially among their loved ones, but they remain “positive”. “We say to ourselves that there, it is in place, we are starting to revive, so I imagine that it should be correct in two years also in Europe. The situation in Ukraine has also added some “disturbances” to their route, but they have no intention of venturing into Eastern Europe. For the moment, they plan to land in France, where the vehicle will be purchased, then to go to Scandinavia, before the arrival of severe cold.

These seasoned travelers have meanwhile found a cure for their “travel sickness”. Last summer, they finally bought a trailer and went as far as Abitibi-Témiscamingue. The good news is that this trip reassured them for the next one: “The boys were super happy to follow us, even if they’re grown up; it’s really in the family, this side of exploration and vanlife. »