Meet Talek Nantes | Travel blogger

We had the good fortune of connecting with Talek Nantes and we’ve shared our conversation below.

Can you give our readers an introduction to your business? Maybe you can share a bit about what you do and what sets you apart from others?

My business is a travel blog where I also offer tours to interesting culturally significant countries like Cuba and China.

My life’s passion has been all things travel. I always loved the exposure to other cultures, languages and countries. Sharing this passion with others is what made me create my travel blog and tour business, Travels with Talek.

As a child I traveled back and forth between Cuba, where my family is from, and New York City where I was born and raised. Our family traveled to Cuba to visit family until that became difficult. Since then, I’ve never stopped traveling.

My mother had a travel agency with large maps that took up an entire wall of her travel agency. I would stare at those maps and imagine what life was like in those exotic places like Japan, Africa, and Patagonia. I told myself I’d visit them someday.

As a teenager I was in an exchange program where I spent a summer in Italy and was able to get a reasonable grasp of the language. In college, I majored in international business because I was determined that whatever I studied would have to lead to the ultimate goal of traveling.

My Spanish language background and love of languages also helped me. Over the years, I learned Italian, Portuguese, and enough French to manage.

My languages, business background and passion led me to a career in international business. This career choice, in turn, gave me the opportunity to feed my passion for travel.

Over the years I’ve travelled to 110 countries and lived in the Dominican Republic, Spain, the UK, Mexico and Colombia. I’ve worked throughout Africa, Asia, Latin America and Europe and done business in markets as diverse as Nigeria, Argentina and China.

I switched gears after my career and founded Travels with Talek, a travel blog created to inspire people to travel more.

When I started my travel blog, I geared it to women over 50 who love to travel and have the time and financial means to do so.

I felt at the time that many women were uncomfortable traveling alone. I wanted to inspire them to travel either alone or with small group tours so that although traveling solo, they are never lonely and had others to share experiences with.

Since most travel blogs are geared toward younger women, Travels with Talek caters to an older group with somewhat different travel wants and needs. Older women are the fastest-growing demographic of travelers, and I hoped my blog could offer travel tips and advice, travel guides and reference material as well as general information.

I’m proud to say my blog has grown consistently over the years. From the feedback I receive, I am glad I’ve been able to help others with their travel plans and offer guests unique travel experiences they are unlikely to discover elsewhere.

My objective is to help people create their own unique travel experiences. In the process, I want to provide them with valuable and actionable information to help travel more and better.

What sets Travels with Talek’s tours apart from other tours is our focus on culturally immersive experiences. As one guest recently explained, “We not only visit the country we KNOW it.”

Along with developing Travels with Talek, I published three travel-related books, two of them Amazon best-sellers. My tours to Europe, The Caribbean, and soon, China have received excellent reviews.

Travel makes people happy and that’s what I want to communicate and share.

Has it been easy?

I don’t think anyone can say that developing a new business is “easy.” There have been many challenges along the way.

One of the greatest opportunities the United States offers is a real shot at the proverbial American dream. If you work hard and play by the rules you really do have a chance.

Perhaps not surprisingly, my most difficult challenge in switching from international business in the corporate world to travel blogging is learning new technology.

It’s also been challenging to learn all the little details of promoting on social media, mastering search engine optimization, designing web sites and other unfamiliar tasks.  But there is nothing like the feeling of accomplishment you feel after a notable success.

Any places to eat or things to do that you can share with our readers? If they have a friend visiting town, what are some spots they could take them to?
I currently live in Miami. I have often had visitors to the city and have planned many activities.

For a weeklong trip I would suggest:

Day 1 and 2: drive to Key West from Miami stopping at interesting restaurants and beaches along the way.

Day 3 and 4: Explore some of Miami’s coolest neighborhoods like Wynwood, Coconut Grove, The Design District and others.

Day 5: Beach day at South Beach and other Miami Beach beaches. Daytime at the beach and night time at the local restaurants, clubs and bars.

Day 6: Culture day at some of Miami’s finest museums like the Perez Art Museum, the Frost Museum of Science. Perhaps an evening at the Adrienne Arsht Center for Performing arts if you like opera, theater and symphonies.

Day 7: Check out the Miami Zoo and round up everything you missed in the previous days.

Shoutout is all about shouting out others who you feel deserve additional recognition and exposure. Who would you like to shoutout?

I dedicate this shoutout to my mother, Dr. Marcela Garay. Her support and encouragement have been invaluable. She instilled in me the values of hard work and persistence.

My husband has also been supportive and encouraging.

My most successful book, “Cuban Exile Memories: Journeys of Courage and Persistence in Pursuit of Freedom” is dedicated to both my mother and husband.

Website: https://travelswithtalek.com/

Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/travelswithtalek/

Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/in/ena-garay-3362911/

Twitter: https://twitter.com/travelstalek

Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/travelswithtalek/

Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCTTYo_GbkcS4ioLZ5XQUPEg

Other: My Facebook group for women travelers over 50. https://www.facebook.com/groups/Over50womentravelerscommunity/members

Image Credits
All photos were taken and owned by Talek Nantes