Charlott Tornow of Travel Pleasure
Charlott Tornow heads the online magazine Reisevergnügen, where she and her team present exciting destinations in Europe – far away from mass tourism. Reisevergnügen helps with holiday preparations, entertains with exciting travel stories and takes a critical look behind the scenes of the tourism industry. Charlott and her team write about everything that interests and inspires them, with a focus on sustainability, outdoor adventure, exceptional accommodation and dining experiences. If they can't travel, they bring the holiday feeling home for their readers: they recommend the best micro-adventures, create the tastiest drinks from Europe or learn new languages.
1. WHAT was or is your motivation behind “Travel Pleasure”? How did it come about that ReiseVergnügen came into existence with pleasure?
There were several reasons for this. I was editor-in-chief of Mit Freude Berlin from 2014 to 2019 and took a three-month break in 2018 after writing my master's thesis alongside my job. During the sabbatical I traveled around Southeast Asia and when I came back I really wanted to pursue my career in travel journalism. In the past we had occasionally published travel reports on Mit Freude and they went so well that it made sense to expand this area. We started planning for the 2018 travel fun and then went online in 2019 for the European election year. It was therefore immediately clear to us that we wanted to make a travel magazine for Europe to show how diverse our continent is in terms of landscape and culture and that you don't have to travel far to see great places and have a great holiday. Reisevergnügen has been around for four years now and we are still amazed. I have to say that I also see myself as European and I am an advocate of the European idea of a continent without borders. Jetting around the world for a story is out of the question for me.
2. WHAT IS YOUR ADVICE TO OUR READERS: WHAT CAN YOU CONCRETELY DO FOR A BETTER FUTURE?
Always be aware of your own actions, question yourself and your motives and desires and not let others influence you too much. Specifically related to travel: When you are on Instagram or Tiktok, you quickly get the impression that other people's lives are so much better than your own and that everyone else is on the road 365 days a year. You quickly feel uncomfortable in your own four walls and suddenly feel the need to jet through the world. But does that really make you happier? Ticking off destinations on the world map just so you can say that you were there... I say that quite self-critically, because on the one hand we certainly evoke this feeling in people with the magazine and on the other hand I have to protect myself from it again and again. I recently read about the influencer Lexie Alford, who has already seen every country in the world at the age of 21, and above all I ask myself: What did she really take away from the countries, the culture and their people? Were those lasting experiences and memories?
I believe that a holiday can never be fully sustainable unless you hike or bike and camp in a tent every day. But you can definitely make a holiday (more) sustainable if you focus on a few factors such as the type of arrival and accommodation, food and local transport. Travel has somehow gotten such a bad image in recent years that all holidaymakers in the world are solely responsible for climate change. And of course it is true that the tourism industry contributes to this with its infrastructure. But in general, very few of us sit in planes or old, converted VW buses that blow massive amounts of exhaust fumes into the air. Most people have vacation once or twice a year and then treat themselves to a long-distance trip. And despite all the criticism, I find that incredibly important because it broadens horizons and, at best, contributes to international understanding.
Together with Reisevergnügen we present exciting Good Travel hosts in the “Meet the Host” series who have emigrated and/or have fulfilled their dream of their own sustainable accommodation:
SAVERIO SICURO FROM THE AGIA ATELIERS IN CRETE
MELCHIOR ZEIDLER OF THE JAIMA TESEGUITE IN LANZAROTE
TOBIAS PREMAUER FROM THE CHÂTEAU D'ORION
MARTINA SCHRIEVER FROM CHÂTEAU PLAGNE IN FRANCE
© Photos: Photo no. 1, 3, 4, 5 by Björn Wisnewsk, no. 2 by Charlott Tornow
Cecile Meier
Cécile is a freelance author and sustainability strategist. She enjoys traveling to the fullest: getting to know different cultures, listening to other languages and discovering new things either by the sea or in a (big) city always fascinates her. The stories and intentions of the Good Travel hosts are particularly important to her.
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