Who are Ilse & Atiba from Digital Travel Couple?

Hi! We are Atiba and Ilse, the creative duo behind Digital Travel Couple. 

Let’s tell you a bit about our back ground and how we started our location independent lifestyle so you’ll get to know us better. 

In 2018 we changed our lives drastically from being ex- topsporters with full time jobs to world travelers building our own business after leaving the corporate 9-5 jobs.

We sold everything we owned in the Netherlands, including our own house, which was quite a jump! But the freedom and flexibility we felt as nomads and travel bloggers was everything we were looking for.

One of the reasons why we took this huge leap, was because we both experienced painful losses in our family and realised that life can only be lived once.

Ever since we’re in pursue of a fulfilled and adventurous life, inspired by nature, different cultures and new experiences that challenge us to get out of our comfort zone. 

However, after 4 years of full time travel it was time to have a base again which we found in 2022. From our own home in Bali we keep exploring the world. But coming back to our own office and bed was necessary to find a balance between traveling, working and having a healthy routine. 

buying-villa-in-bali
OUR VILLA IN BALI

“Create a life you don’t need vacation from”

Our full time job is our travel blog and besides that we do photo and video productions for tourism boards, luxury resorts and outdoor brands. 

We love to create dreamy concepts with our photography to show the magic of certain landscapes and moments we encounter during traveling. Our travel videos are cinematic stories that capture the beauty of a country through our heart.

Gertrude Hike-Sunset

While Ilse writes most of the blog posts, you’ll find Atiba more behind the camera and in the edit room. Of course we do much more than only this, as running our own travel content creation business is way more comprehensive than these tasks. But the most important thing is that we both have found our strengths and passion in what we do. 

Everyday we feel grateful and fulfilled that we can work on our passion which combines traveling, unforgettable experiences and most important, being able to work whenever and wherever we want! 

best-camera-for-filmmaking-filmmaker

Thanks for reading the summary of our story! We hope to inspire you through our travel blogs and films to explore more of this beautiful earth. 

FAQ

We were both born and raised in the west of The Netherlands, nearby Rotterdam in small villages.

We think our name says everything about what we do and who we are. We work online, using digital tools, we travel, and we are a couple. DigitalTravelCouple! When we were brainstorming about our website and social media name we wanted to keep it personal and a name which is easy to remember. We started our Instagram at the beginning of 2018 and this website and blog in January 2019.

On 8-8-2018 we got on a flight to Bali without a return ticket. We didn’t realize this while booking the flight on this specific date, but the three numbers eight in this date mean a lot to us. If you turn the 8 to 180 degrees, you see the sign of infinity. And that is exactly how this adventure feels to us, as an infinite journey 🙂

Having our fulltime jobs, owning a house, and having the ability to practice our sports on top level, people would say we have ‘everything’. But we felt that we didn’t want to be ‘stuck’ in one place. The adventure was calling us. We had the urge to develop our creative and entrepreneurial side. We felt that we want to tell a story through visuals, explore the world as content creators. Becoming the best photo and videographers we can be.

Also we realized the value of time and how important it is to use it wisely. We didn’t want to be stuck in a weekly race of office work, training etc. We wanted to have the time to develop ourselves as better persons, entrepreneurs and as a couple. This would give us the opportunity to build on our own dreams and create a life we don’t need a vacation from. And that’s exactly the position where we are in now. We love our work so much, and we are living our lives in the most beautiful parts of the world. So we don’t need ‘vacation’ from this life anymore! 🙂

We started our own business, developed ourselves as photo and videographers, quit our jobs, sold our house and all our belongings and packed all we needed in our backpacks. Of course these steps took time. From the start of this plan to the implementation and the date on which we left for Bali, months of preparation have preceded it.

We are the so called “slowmads”, Digital Nomads – travelers that like to stay in one place for a longer term and explore everything a country has to offer. That always gives us the opportunity to connect with the local people, culture and country in the best way. But besides that, slow travel also gives us the opportunity to sit down and work on our business. Maybe you would think we are exploring and capturing photos for the blog everyday. But the articles also have to be written and photos and videos have to be edited for social media. So there is always a balance for us of being outdoors and creating content, or working from home to process the content. Since 2022 we are officially based in Bali since we bought a house there. That means we will come back to our home in Bali after traveling and rent it out when we are on the road.

Besides blogging we also have our own small production company with which we specialise in video & photo shoots for Travel companies, Luxury Resorts, Real Estate and brand shoots. This is also a huge part of our business and sometimes determines how our days and weeks look like. But we love these jobs from time to time and are always open to discuss your needs if you are looking for video & photographers to work with!

Have a look HERE for all our gear 🙂