Hi! I'm Elena! Welcome to my travel blog Creativelena.com.
For me, it is all about “life-seeing instead of sightseeing”: Join me as I create, eat & live my way around the world. Curious?
*Check out my book, “The Creative Traveler’s Handbook”, for learning more about what we mean by creative travel. Travelling means the world to me, makes me fit for everday life and sometimes, I trust, also calmer on the inside. Read this blog with a smile, share what you love and remember to check back regularly: After all, when was the last time you did something for the first time?
“Dear Elena, we have read about your many trips involving farm stays in Lower Austria back in 2017… would you like to come and visit our farm, too?” This is Birgit Gruber reaching out to me earlier this year, Birgit who with her family runs Ofnerhof farm, a member of the Austrian Farm Holidays association. Like a […]
It’s early in the year. Georg mentions to me, rather casually: “I’ve taken some days off over a long weekend in June to walk the Camino from Vienna to Linz.” If there’s something I’ve felt, it’s not just approval, but also a certain kind of longing, even jealousy for his adventure. Especially as I’ve already […]
Following the immediate aftermath of the corona crisis, Austria has once again eased its travel restrictions and I have promptly jumped at the opportunity to give in to my itchy feet again. Graz it is, and what used to be only a two-hour-journey from Vienna suddenly bore the almost same excitement as a round the […]
Our son Liam turns one today. One incredible year, likely as intense (or even more so) than many of my wild travel years before his birth. And what an exciting road it has been! So much that we’ve learned from and through him. For one, it’s that clichés (don’t) hold true. Some do, yes. But […]
I am full of what the Portuguese people call “saudades” right now. Saudades, a term deemed to describe the indescribable: A feeling of nostalgia, melancholy, a feeling of far-away-ness. The way it is, pictures like these won’t become reality quite so soon again, as it still was the case earlier this year, in January 2020, at […]
Times like these, it feels a little strange to be writing a travel blog about Madrid. And yet, there are certain activities we can already recommend for your next visit of the Spanish capital city, based on our recent trip there. We spent our days exploring downtown Madrid with #BabyTraveller Liam, and all the while I’ve […]
We continue our trip with #BabyTraveller Liam: Heading out from the Andalusian capital city, Sevilla, we have now booked a rental car for nine days in order to cover the in my opinion most beautiful spots of the largest province of Spain. Starting with Ronda, which is a truly magical place of a kind north of Málaga […]
“Devour Seville”: Nomen est omen. As such is the name of our food tour experience set right inside the central Barrio of Seville, right between its modern “Setas” as well as its magnificent cathedral. It is the middle of January, and we have just taken a bus in order to reach Seville from Portugal together with […]
The Algarve in Portugal. What comes to your mind? Summer, sun, beaches, golf and likely, mass tourism? Luckily, I can assure you that the Algarve is far better than its beach tourism reputation, and that you may also find some quiet corners and precious gems of nature (and culture) here. First of all, it’s definitely easier if, […]
“Évora is, in my eyes, the most beautiful town in Portugal”, says Beatriz, as we meet her and her husband André in Lisbon. Évora, haven’t I been there before, I’m thinking. And remembering that yes: Back in spring 2015, I have been hosted on a foodie trip through Portugal’s Alentejo region, including a stop in Évora. […]