Hello and welcome! I am Elena, the creator of the Travel Captures blog. I love travelling with my family (my husband and our two boys), taking lots of photos, sharing our travel stories, and inspiring others to travel more.
About Travel Captures
The Travel Captures blog was created to share our travel experiences and inspire others to travel more. It was originally known as ‘Travel by Example’ until 2025, when I renamed it Travel Captures. I love taking photos during our travels, and in my posts, you will always find plenty of travel pictures.
My family and I have visited many places, and for most of our trips, we created the plans and itineraries ourselves. When you’re limited by the duration of your holiday or a weekend, it’s even more important to plan the trip carefully and make the most of your time. From experience, I know that planning a good trip is a time-consuming task. Through Travel Captures, I hope to make it easier for you.
I am happy to share sample itineraries, guides, and travel tips with my readers.
I work hard to expand the blog by regularly adding more trip examples and travel inspirations. Please stay tuned and follow me on Twitter, Facebook, Instagram or Pinterest 🙂
A Little About Me and My Family
My husband, Yuriy, and I were born in Ukraine and lived there for the first 27 years of our lives. We have met in my home city of Odessa, and got married in 2001.
The following year we have moved to Kiyv – the capital of Ukraine – to chase a career in Information Technology industry (we both have degrees in computer science and work in IT).
We lived in Kiyv for about five years, focused on our IT careers, and traveled mainly within Ukraine.
‘Pryvit’ from Ukraine:
In 2006 we decided to slow down with work and our careers, and instead move to another country to get some overseas experience.
We sent out our resumes to a few companies in Europe, went through a couple of interviews, and both of us were offered jobs at an IT company in Dublin. So, in 2006, we moved to Ireland.
‘Hello’ from Ireland:
We liked the experience, we liked the adventure, we liked to live overseas and we started to travel more. Much more than before. We didn’t quit our jobs and we didn’t become full time nomads 🙂 But we started to use every opportunity and every holiday to go explore new places. And we still continue doing so!
In 2007, we moved to New Zealand and made it our home.
We lived in Auckland for ten years, travelling a lot around New Zealand – one of the most beautiful countries in the world. We became a Kiwi family (did you know – ‘Kiwi’ is a nickname for people from New Zealand?).
Our boys were born in New Zealand, three years apart. They enjoy travelling with us, exploring new places, and experiencing new things. We think travelling as a family is great!
‘Kia Ora’ from New Zealand:
In 2017, we moved to the Netherlands, mostly by family reasons, as all our close relatives and many friends lived in Ukraine and other European countries. We lived in the Dutch city of Utrecht for three years. During this time, we travelled extensively around Europe.
‘Hallo’ from the Netherlands:
In 2020, we have moved back to New Zealand, where we have been living since.
We hope to lead by example and inspire others to travel more often and see the world. All that without giving up their jobs and becoming full-time nomads.
Places we have visited so far
Africa: Egypt
Asia: Turkey, South Korea, Vietnam, China (Hong Kong), Thailand, Singapore
Australasia and Oceania: New Zealand, Australia, Cook Islands, Fiji
Eastern Europe: Ukraine, Belarus, Russia
Europe: Austria, Belgium, Czechia, France, Germany, Iceland, Ireland, Italy, Luxembourg, Monaco, Netherlands, Norway, Portugal, Spain, Switzerland, United Kingdom
USA: Texas, California, Utah, Arizona, Nevada.
We hope to replace the majority of the list with actual links to the blog posts. This is still a work in progress, please subscribe to email notifications for our new posts.