Blog

Triptych of hotel room details with a blue chair, travel bag and bed

How I Domesticate My Hotel Roo...

I don’t want to come back from dinner and still have to arrive. So I take 13 minutes of my arrival time and work on the room. 13 minutes A hotel room becomes my room. I arrive. Before settling in, I check that everything is there and then do the most annoying thing immediately: I open the suitcase. After that, domestication can start: I take my cosmetics into the bathroom (I enjoy handling my cosmetic bottles). I prepare the slippers waiting...

by Alja

Sunset over palm trees in Marrakech, Morocco

Travel

What Helps Me With Jet Lag Aft...

After 25 years and 200+ flights, I’ve learned to make a few choices around arrival that make the transition easier. Did I resolve my jet lag? It depends. But one of my superpowers is pattern recognition. After investing a ton of self-observation and plenty of flights, I am now on a good track to resolving it. Here are some of the things I’ve found that help so far… CHOOSE THE FLIGHT ACCORDING TO WHEN IT ARRIVES I arrive in Havana. It...

by Alja

Woman sitting beside an airplane window on a long-haul flight

Travel

How I Put Myself to Sleep on a...

After 25 years and more than 200 flights, I started paying attention to what my body is doing and how it feels across all stages of travel. My all-time most hated part has always been long-haul flights, so I had to invent and find ways to survive them that help me not only leave with less anxiety, but also travel more comfortably and arrive in one piece. As a human being. I want to share them here, hoping they might help...

by alja.admin

Traditional Moroccan riad courtyard viewed from above in Marrakech medina

Morocco

What is a Moroccan Riad?

This is my closer look at a Moroccan riad, and why staying in one is unlike staying anywhere else. Behind the old wooden doors of Morocco’s medinas hides one of the country’s most beautiful architectural traditions. The riad. Not just a house or a hotel, a riad is a story of privacy, beauty, craftsmanship, hospitality, and a way of living that has been shaped by centuries of culture. Moroccan Riad is a Garden Many of us today live in apartment blocks...

by Alja

Full marble figure holding a water vessel on Robba Fountain in Ljubljana

Observations Slovenia

Touching Robba Fountain

The other day I was sitting and watching the most famous fountain in Ljubljana, the Robba fountain. You can’t really miss it, even if you wanted to. The main part of it is snow white, and all the main streets seem to lead towards it. It glitters in the sun like snow on the nearby Alps, except it stands in the middle of the old town. For me, this fountain had always been a point of many interests. I return to...

by Alja

Traditional Moroccan earthen wall with repeating architectural details against a clear blue sky, symbolizing rhythm, beauty, and meaningful travel.

About ECT Travel

What Makes a Journey Feel Deep...

People usually describe a successful tour in much the same way: The weather. The hotels. The food. If they saw everything. If the guide was okay. Extra plus, if the guide was excellent. If the program was fulfilled. If they had no stomach issues. Photographs. Souvenirs. One beautiful sunrise. Perhaps a camel ride. Perhaps one new friend. After almost 25 years of guiding, I started looking for what more there is. Because I noticed that many people are exhausted on their...

by Alja

About ECT Travel

What travel means to me

Travel has become a tired word. Modern travel revolves around airports, packing lists, productive programs, dense content, much movement, beautiful photos and checking sightseeing lists. For me, travel was never about sightseeing. Sightseeing is what lures people into travel, but to me it is the most surface-level part of it. Yet it is the main content we see on social media. Sightseeing and hotels. Don’t misunderstand me. Sightseeing is a necessary part of my job. Travel needs to have the sightseeing...

by Alja

Morocco

What Really Happens in a Moroc...

What really happens inside a Moroccan hammam? In Morocco when you walk among the Roman ruins of Volubilis, the stones still remember the heat of the old Roman public and private baths. Romans carried their love for water, for cleansing and communal ritual, wherever their empire reached. Meaning even into the dust of North Africa. Centuries later, soon after the Arabs brought Islam, they brought the Arabic ritual of hammam with them. In a desert world where stubborn dust clings to...

by Alja

Tours to Cuba

Unexpected Cuba: Crocodiles, C...

Cuba Is Not What You Think She’s jazz on a baroque square, a $450 Cohiba cigar that carries revolution in its smoke. She’s shaped like a crocodile—coiled, alert, ancient. And once, in a whisper of history, there was a plan to sell her to the United States for $120 million. Some even dreamed she would become a U.S. state. But Cuba said no. She chose poetry, contradiction, and pride. And somehow—despite everything—she chose hope, too. This is not a place that...

by Alja

Tours to Cuba

5 Things To Know, Cuba Travel

Cuba isn’t only a destination—it’s a dance between past and present, rum and rhythm, beauty and mystery. Before you pack your linen shirts and dreams of mojitos, here are 5 important truths that can make you fall in love before you even land in Havana. 1. WiFi Isn’t Always a Given… and That’s a real Gift Let’s start with the truth: Cuba has its own rhythm. And it’s gloriously offline. While internet access exists, it’s limited, slow, and occasionally elusive. But...

by Alja