Adventure Travel with Alex Veka - Vibe Adventures

Area/Topic
Mexico, Latin America, Business

Alex Veka
Founder
Vibe Adventures

Passionate traveler, entrepreneur, and lifelong learner on a mission to make authentic, responsible, and mind-broadening travel accessible to adventurers and curious souls worldwide.

"Originally from Belarus, I've lived, studied, and worked in seven countries before finding my second home in Mexico. With over 50 countries visited and counting, I'm a perpetual learner, speaking several languages and deeply interested in history, geography, and cultures. Armed with a formal Ph.D. and countless lessons from the "university of life," I'm now channeling my passion into running Vibe Adventures, a travel startup offering a simpler way of booking adventure holidays worldwide."

https://vibeadventures.com/

summary
Alex Veka, founder of Vibe Adventures, shares his journey from being a passionate traveler to starting his own travel company. He was inspired by childhood experiences, including participating in programs for Belarusian kids affected by the Chernobyl disaster and traveling to the Netherlands. Alex's love for geography and his desire to explore the world led him to study tourism and eventually work in the travel industry. He met his Mexican wife in China and they embarked on a road trip from Mexico to Argentina, which laid the foundation for Vibe Adventures. Alex's passion for travel and technology drives his goal of making booking experiences easier. Alex Veka discusses his experiences in travel and tourism, from working in hospitality to starting his own adventure travel company, Vibe Adventures. He shares his love for Mexico and the vibrant life it offers. Alex also talks about his mission to simplify and make it easier for people to book adventure holidays worldwide. He highlights the importance of providing authentic local experiences and the need to cater to the changing preferences of millennial and post-millennial travelers. Alex mentions his future plans to add an agent portal to his platform and create a dynamic packaging feature that combines flights with multi-day adventures.

takeaways

• Childhood experiences, such as participating in programs for Chernobyl-affected kids and traveling to the Netherlands, sparked Alex's passion for travel.
• Alex's love for geography and his desire to explore the world led him to study tourism and work in the travel industry.
• Meeting his Mexican wife in China and embarking on a road trip from Mexico to Argentina inspired the creation of Vibe Adventures.
• Alex's goal is to make booking experiences easier through the use of technology. Traveling to different countries and experiencing different cultures can be a dynamic and exciting adventure.
• The hospitality industry can be limiting in terms of career growth and flexibility.
• Starting your own business in the travel industry allows for more freedom and the opportunity to create unique experiences for travelers.
• There is a need for simplifying the booking process for adventure holidays and providing authentic local experiences.
• Millennial and post-millennial travelers prefer independent and customizable travel experiences.
• The future of travel booking involves combining flights with multi-day adventures through dynamic packaging.

Learn more about the Big World Made Small Podcast and join our private community to get episode updates, special access to our guests, and exclusive adventure travel offers at bigworldmadesmall.com.

Transcript

Jason Elkins (00:01)
Welcome back everybody to another episode of the Big World Made Small podcast for the adventure traveler. Today we've got Alex Veka here with us. He's the founder of Vibe Adventures. It's not so much a Mexican company. He's in Mexico, but I know he does more than just Mexico. So we're going to have an interesting conversation about kind of his business. But Alex, welcome to the show. Happy to have you

Alex Veka (00:24)
Hi, Jensen. Hi, Jason. Thanks a lot for inviting and hi, guys.

Jason Elkins (00:30)
Yeah, we're going to have an interesting conversation. I read your bio and I spoke with you before. you're kind of an interesting character. So I look forward to hearing more about that. And before we start talking too much about Vibe Adventures, let's go back in time a little bit. Let's time travel. I'd really like to get an understanding for how you got from wherever you were to where you are now. And I don't know how far back we need to go. How far back should we go?

Alex Veka (00:57)
I don't know, a lot of things get created in the childhood. yeah, think since I can characterize myself as a passionate traveler, yeah, I travel to over 50 countries right now. I could travel more now, I would say, like I travel slightly less internationally. I travel a lot in Mexico. That's my second home for like the last, you know, six years.

But yeah, as I remember myself, I was always, I would say, impassionate, you know, very maybe even hyperactive kid always like looking for some adventures, you know, to go to see to with the friends and sometimes doing a little bit dangerous things that moms, you know, get worried about, you know, and, and I think there was like, as I remember myself, there were like two moments that kind of like had a big influence on me

I'm originally from Belarus, Eastern Europe. So that's the country which suffered from the nuclear pollution during Chernobyl catastrophe. 80 % of all the pollution actually was settled down on Belarusian territory. And my family come from this part of the area. So when I was a kid, there was a lot of programs.

that when Belarusian kids would go abroad to Europe, Germany, Netherlands, Poland, whatever, kind of like an exchange. So it was like a big, for me it was a big impression. I don't know, was about, I think 10 years old and I went to Netherlands for one month. And the kid from post -socialistic country,

in the 90s struggled, you know, to get stuff in the supermarkets and all this kind of stuff for me was like, wow, there is another world around it. And I want to know more about it, you know, why they didn't tell me this exists, no. So since then I decided, okay, I want to go and travel and get to know the world as much as I can. I want to study my university abroad. And that was kind of like a push for me to go and

and study at least, you know, English, you know, because in Belarus, everybody learns English at school, but not everybody can actually speak. So for me, it was like one of the moments that, okay, that's it. That's what I want to do with my life. And the second moment was in the end of my high school. By coincidence, I always loved geography and like history, all this kind of stuff. I was never like a math, physics, all this kind of like exact sciences guy,

everything that could bring me dreaming about destinations, like all subjects, history, geography, sociology, whatever, it fascinated me. So there was a coincidence in the eights, nines, grade, since ever I was like, devouring all kinds of encyclopedias, my mom was buying me all this kind of stuff, and I would read about all these exotic countries and travel in my mind and so on. So I started, you know, doing geography, but professionally at school and I could

you know, advance and at some point like even participated with some honors in International Geography Olympiad when I was in the 11th grade that hypothetically gave me a chance to even like to go and, you know, study without the entry exams in a lot of European universities. So that was for me also like, what do want to do with my life? It's like, I want to do it with geography. So I had like a chance in Belarus, it would be okay. You can either go and be like a geologist.

Or you can be a science geographer, or can be a teacher. Or you can be geo... There was like, how is it called? Geoscience, know, the maps and this kind of stuff. A little bit more was development and programming. was for me, hey, hey, hey, stop. It's a little bit too exact science for me. And then there was this stuff about tourism. It's like, wow, that's something I love to do and I want to help people travel as much as I can. So let's study tourism. And at some point I was lucky as well to...

get the scholarship from Czech government, from Czech Republic to study there. And there was like an university, Prague Economics University that have like tourism as a major. And that's how I appeared in tourism, like working in the travel industry.

Jason Elkins (05:29)
That's very, very cool. A couple of questions that come to mind. mentioned specifically Chernobyl and radiation fallout, all that stuff from the disaster there. And then immediately followed that with they had programs for kids to go travel to other parts of Europe. Were those two things tied together? Was this an idea like we need to get the kids out of here because it's contaminated? I'm curious why these programs existed and was that tied to?

The Chernobyl?

Alex Veka (06:00)
Yeah, they were tied to Chernobyl because definitely there were a lot of negative consequences for the health of the population. In general, average length of life in these areas, the propensity for some cardio diseases and so on is much higher. So there was a program when thousands of Belarusian kids, especially in the 90s when the political situation

Belarus was slightly more democratic and more pluralism of political opinions there. So a lot of kids would go there. In the the 2000s, it already stopped because also, you know, the government so kind of like a risk in it because kids would get different opinions and would spread it to their families and so on. So at the moment, yeah, if you look at Amnesty International or something, Belarusian, let's say political system,

is not considered very democratic and very with a lot of freedom of speech. Yeah. So yeah, at that point it was like programs to make kids get healthier, know, better nutrition, better access to medical care and so on. So, and I was lucky actually to participate in some of those programs. And that's something that opened my eyes that told the whole world over

Jason Elkins (07:23)
Which is exactly why they stopped some of those programs, because kids like you are going out there, there's a whole world out there. why do I go to the grocery store and other places, and it's full of all kinds of stuff? And then when I go back home, we're having a hard time getting hold of things. And yeah, I could see where the political system like that may want to pull in the reins a little bit. But it was too late for you. You had already gone out and experienced it. What did your family think about you?

Alex Veka (07:26)
Exactly.

Jason Elkins (07:54)
on many levels at the beginning. they excited to see you go have opportunities, but visit other places? It sounded like your mom was buying you encyclopedias. It sounded like she was encouraging you. Tell me more about that, about your parents and your family and how they kind of viewed your wander list.

Alex Veka (08:12)
yeah, my, my, mom, she's a history teacher in school. So maybe partially I was, you know, kind of like my mind was infected by this because I saw all these books and when I was a kid and I was, I would say when I was a kid, I was a little bit more introvert. So I like spending time by myself. I would, I would, I was always in contact with nature, like,

Jason Elkins (08:17)
okay.

Alex Veka (08:35)
All my summers I would spend in the country side with, you know, where my grandparents and my mom come from, you know. So, you know, agriculture, having garden, you know, being able to go in the fields and the core and in the wheat and just like sometimes with friends, sometimes alone. You imagine all this kind of stuff. And of course, my book, the books were my best friends. would just like every day, maybe sometimes I could stay the whole day and literally

read one book and all this kind of stuff. my parents, come from Soviet Union, so they know what's the difference, you know, the to have freedom in all kinds of aspects, political, economic freedom of doing business and not having it. Yeah, of course, the nineties was like a transformative period, very harsh for people when they move from one system to another. But they definitely see much more benefits and in the

in the liberal economy. So they were always incentivizing me and supporting me and like, yeah, sure, study English. yes, go and study abroad. is so much that you can do that we were not given chance to do so. They were supporting me in all situations.

Jason Elkins (09:50)
I'm curious because I've traveled and visited enough places to understand sometimes when parents encourage their kids to learn English, go travel the world, go do something, sometimes, well, on one hand, there could be the fear of losing their kids, their kids might never come back. And then on the other hand, there's maybe that idea that the kids will go out, make money, and send money back.

Alex Veka (10:17)
Mm -hmm.

Jason Elkins (10:17)
to help support the family. But I have never really had a conversation with someone from former Soviet Union about this. So I'm just curious, was there some of that? Was it ever, did you ever feel like, your parent like, go make money, go be successful so you can help us back here? Or was it more, I mean, how would you describe it? Or maybe not you, but maybe other people around you. I just wanna get some insights on

Alex Veka (10:40)
Okay.

Yeah, both of my parents, come from the countryside. So countryside basically, they are my grandparents, they did agriculture. mean, working like in the village, mean, my maybe doing some other stuff, for example, for my parents, I they were both were teachers, know, of music and of the Russian language and literature, my grandparents. But

I think what separates people, at least in Belarus, but I assume also in Ukraine, Russia, all kind of like countries, like countryside of post -Soviet Union is people are very independent. They got used to harsh conditions, so they never expect, let's say, we want our kids to go away and then like support us. So for example, I remember till now my parents or like my granny, the last granny, one of two,

all the way until she never wanted to be dependent. She's like, no, I'm gonna, I walk slow. I want to do my stuff. It is my home. I'm going to stay here, come to visit me, but I don't want to be in the city. I don't want to be limited. I don't want to be dependent on someone and feel like I'm, you know, and my parents are the same. So whenever I, I want to give them money or like, I don't know, give kind of like the expensive gifts, the only expensive gift that

you giving them and not putting them, you know, to know before is buying them tickets to visit me here or, you know, we meet somewhere and we travel because they love traveling as well. And, but yeah, they are these kinds of people like, no, we are independent. This is yours all the way until like my 30s even they wanted to, you know, to support me economically and like, Hey, let's do this. Let's, let's invest here. Like what, what are you going to do with your life? You know, this kind of like situation when people from, you know, generation of my parents, they

Their idea is like, the happiness is stability. It's my home, it's my work, it's maybe my car, my country house. And like, that's the life. Maybe I go to vacations twice, three times per year. That's it. You now with globalization and the world getting smaller, you know, newer generations for them, let's say the value is completely opposite. Being stuck to one place, for example, for me, like having a home.

like investing in home and like actually having there, it's kind of like even impeding me. It's not making me feel safer. It feels me like a little bit limited in my life. I would maybe like, prefer to, okay, I can rent Airbnb for one month, which doesn't cost too much, you know, like stay like one month, half a year in different countries in the world, but feel this freedom. But for my parents, they didn't never understood it. So since till now they were like, Hey, what do you want to do with your life? I mean, okay.

I have a family, I'm living here, I have a company, know, there are people working with me like, what do you mean? Like, but you need to buy a house. And it's like, I don't want to buy a house. mean, I mean, I can afford buying a house, no, but I don't want it. It makes me feel limited, you know, I want to invest in other things, like, so that's the thing. So I think, yeah, there.

Jason Elkins (13:57)
I get it. I get it completely. It's a generational thing, but also not necessarily just generational. It's also a personality thing. I do the Airbnb thing. And quite often, I'll speak with either friends back home or more specifically, the local people that I meet. And I explain. They say, well, where do you live? Where's your house? Well, this week, I live.

in this neighborhood next week and I might live in a different town. And oftentimes the conversation, I don't know why, but oftentimes the conversation comes up and they're like, well, what do you pay? How much do you pay to stay there? A lot of people want to know that. I don't know if they're just trying to judge my financial status or what. And it's usually from my perspective, I always go for the place that I can afford, which means it's usually a small room and a house. anyway, I'll tell them and they're like,

You could buy a house, could rent a house for a year, you could have a house, it'd be much cheaper. You're spending so much money by renting these rooms and these houses. And I've just, but I don't want to. I value that freedom to wake up on a Monday morning and decide, well, do I want to stay another week or do I want to go pick a different place? So I pay a little bit of a premium for that. But in the long run, feel like it's, yeah, I'm the same way. I get that.

I'm curious, Alex, I don't know why I'm going to ask you this, but are you familiar with the term ADD or ADHD, attention deficit disorder? Okay. Because something about you is resonating with me and it's, know, and I have kind of decided I must have ADHD because I like the constant stimulation. And for me, it's met through traveling and having experiences

Alex Veka (15:29)
Yeah, I'm familiar with.

Jason Elkins (15:47)
and all this stuff and I'm not gonna ask you if you have it but I just, I wanted to see a look on your face.

Alex Veka (15:52)
I'm going to investigate more. mean, I might have a bunch of stuff in my head, but this could be, I mean, because it's the same. mean, I feel when I'm in the same place, it's not just being bored. It's just feeling something is missing, you know, these kind of like hormones, they don't appear in your brain and they don't, you you need it. It's just like sometimes you go to work, but you take different route.

No, I'm not doing the same one. like routine it really kills me. But if I can go outside of the city every, I don't know, ideally every week, at least every couple of weeks, you know, that's something that helps a lot, you know, just like going to nearby town in Mexico, there is like a program of magic towns like for tourism. I don't care sometimes like if there's a little town that has a church, a main square and there is a market with, you know, with delicious.

Mexican food, know, homemade food and micheladas, that's the most important, you know. Sometimes good things are simple.

Jason Elkins (16:53)
yeah.

I'm resonating so much with what you're saying. I'm that type as well. It's like, I notice when I'm in a place too long and then I get on a bus to go somewhere, I go to the airport to go somewhere and man, I just get this hit of dopamine. And it's just like this, like, wow, I feel so alive when I'm going on to the next place or when I see something beautiful for the first time, whether it's coming over a mountain pass or.

a small child in a, in one of the Pueblos in the park or in the square or just a family. just like, it's, and I don't think a lot of people in my life can really relate to that. lot of my family is like, they really don't understand what am I doing? Travel around. sounds like you've got the same affliction, whatever you want to call it. And it's not necessarily a bad thing, you know, but it's, there, I don't remember the word, but there's a, it's kind

Alex Veka (17:43)
I do, I do. I get

Jason Elkins (17:51)
It's like wanderlust. It's this desire to explore and to go see new things. And I was reading about it, I think last weekend. And it was, there's an actual, they have an official diagnosis in the diagnostic manual for psychiatric things in the U S and it's that, that.

Diagnosis is actually in there and it's basically this insatiable desire to have new experiences, see new things and travel at the expense of stability, family, finances. I'm like, holy cow, that sounds like me. But anyway.

Alex Veka (18:29)
I think there is also like, I think there is this measure where it's at expense of something, where it basically is aligned with your life, with your family, with your life goals. And especially if some people can do it like as a lifestyle with their families, you know, that's something amazing. For example, for kids, I have a small kid of 10 months. It's so, I mean, there are proofs that, you know, the kids, learn by practice, you know, when they travel.

Jason Elkins (18:35)
Yeah.

Alex Veka (18:59)
not by going to stimulation classes and all this kind of stuff, by going and actually like practicing things themselves. So, and also for adults as well, our brains are trained or are created this way. We learn by the stuff. if one can work distantly and combine benefits of everywhere, why not?

Jason Elkins (19:22)
Well, I think it's just completely, it's when I say at the expense of, let's say example, the expen, you know, I have wanderlust and I have this desire to go travel to the expense of my relationships with other people. Well, it really depends on who those other people are. If you are in a long -term romantic relationship, you have a family with somebody who doesn't like to travel.

and has no desire to travel and wants the house and the dog and the cat and the fence and the cars and all that stuff, then there's an expense to your relationship. If, on the other hand, your partner has the same desire to travel and values it in the same way, then there's no expense to that. It's something that you're sharing and doing together. it's an interesting way to look at that. So you've got one kid.

Right. Okay. And so, so you're, don't know your wife, your partner, the, the other people in your life, are they all on board with this traveling and this, this passion for exploring?

Alex Veka (20:32)
Yeah, yeah, yeah, my wife, she's as well very passionate about traveling and I feel that my son as well, he has this, I don't know, maybe it's because of his age, but you know, this impassioned desire to explore everything around, so

Jason Elkins (20:40)
Yeah.

Those big guys that are just taking it all in, right? Isn't that exciting? That's so cool to see. And I've talked to so many people like, well, when our kids are older, we'll go travel. Yeah, well, when they get to the point where you think they will appreciate it, they will not appreciate it. Because then they're worried about their friends, their family, their friends primarily.

you know, boyfriends, girlfriends back home, whatever. And it's, not nearly as much fun to travel with a 16 year old if it's, if they haven't been raised to, embrace that. So, how did you meet your wife?

Alex Veka (21:25)
here in Mexico City in one of them. Yeah, she's Mexican. Yeah.

Jason Elkins (21:28)
OK. So she's Mexican. She's from there. All right. Very, very cool. All right. Have you had the opportunity to travel with her outside of Mexico very often?

Alex Veka (21:41)
Yeah, two years ago we went for two months in Europe. was participating in... I was like, our team was participating, but I was like the one represented the team. As a startup, always there is a chance for expenses for many people. So I was participating in Finland in a startup accelerators.

called Startup Journey in Turku, actually the oldest startup accelerator in Finland. So we went there and she followed me. There was like a chance, she's like, hey, let's go to live on the beach, because we have been always talking like, hey, let's go to live on the beach for one month. Just get away from Mexico City. Like, yeah, let's do it. I'm bored with my job, she told me. So OK, good. So let's go, because I can.

work remotely, no, like more, that's easier. Like, yeah, let's do it. But then like, there is this chance. Would you like to go to Europe instead? Like for two months, we're going to be on the beach, but it's a Baltic sea. It's not, the color is a little bit different, not like Tulum and Cancun. It's a slightly cafecito, a little bit brownish maybe, but maybe not that salty, but still it's a sea. And yeah, let's do it. I mean, it was like first time in Europe. so we did like for two months, we lived in Finland with, you know,

We traveled around, know, so easy with Ryanair, with Air, all these low -cost companies. So, yeah, actually we have a plan to, now with our son, to go travel to, ideally to Europe, I would say in autumn, for a couple of months, just to see how it works. And ideally, maybe doing it like 50 -50 between two continents, because, you know, my parents

there and I would like my son to see his grandparents and spend quality time with them. But at the same time, her parents are here. But we can do it. Summer is good for Belarus. It's a nice time. Winter is good for Mexico. It's a nice time.

Jason Elkins (23:47)
It sounds like a dream situation set up. So that's very cool. What was it about Mexico that drew you to Mexico? Maybe it was her. Why are you there?

Alex Veka (23:58)
I know. Yeah, I I'm here because my first wife is Mexican. Yeah. I mean, we are not together anymore. But we met in China, actually. She was doing like internship in the Mexican consulate and I was working in like high tech Chinese company. And we met, it has been a long relationship. And at some point, you know, we got married and went to Mexico with an idea to grab

an old Ford Expedition van, up to eight people, make a website, start a blog, do all this kind of like work away volunteering, know, eco farming and doing some freelance just to make it happen, you know, have tents, food, I don't know, drinks and just live the life without thinking, no, we need too much money. you don't need, you just need desire, friends and a little bit of money, no?

So that's where the idea of Vibadventures came from. We bought a website, we wanted to make a blog to actually do a road sharing project. It was never supposed to be a commercial project because for the expedition, I don't know if you ever saw for the expedition of 2024, it consumes quite a lot of gas. So we wanted to share literally like, you know, we were four people, me, my first wife and like two friends of us, like a couple who would like to go there, but

We have four more places. Let's put online on the different platforms like guys This is our plan one month in Belize one month in Guatemala one month here. We go blah blah blah We have work away. Everything is ready. You just join us and you chip in a little bit so in the end everybody's happy because it was not supposed to be a commercial project it was supposed to be a just like a entertainment lifestyle project to go the goal was to go from

Mexico to Argentina, Brazil crossed to Windhoek, Namibia, and then all the way to Belarus and Serbia. Our friends were Serbians. But then there was a migration crisis and it was 2018. And our friends couldn't come and we also had some issues, some financial issues and so on. So and then like, wow, but we had already the routes ready.

So these routes are actually gave basis to some of the multi -day adventures we have in Central America and Mexico because literally, you know, we sat down and we saw what we want to see, what kind of routes we're going to take. And that became a basis for the company actually.

Jason Elkins (26:34)
Mm -hmm.

Very cool. Yeah. No, that's very, cool. that was, 2018 around then. So we're talking about six years or so you've been working on that. Yeah, very cool. And you mentioned that you were working for a high tech company in China.

Alex Veka (26:47)
That's correct.

Jason Elkins (26:54)
So I know from our last conversation, you're really kind of into the tech stuff. We spoke a little bit about some of the digital marketing stuff that you're doing with the website. I know kind of, well, I don't know, but I believe that one of your goals is to make booking experiences easier and all that stuff. So where did the tech stuff come into the mix? Where in your life did you really get into the tech stuff? Because you mentioned earlier you didn't like exact science type of stuff.

Alex Veka (27:21)
Mm -hmm.

Jason Elkins (27:21)
history, sociology, that type of thing.

Alex Veka (27:25)
Yeah, it came all in the last year of my master degree. Again, it was a coincidence and I was dating a Taiwanese girl and I got interested in Asian culture. Like, I took classes of Chinese multicultural communication. And then at some point, you know, we took different roads, but I still had this goal, crazy goal, I want to go to China. And as far as

Preferred travel style was hitchhiking, backpacking, night trains and couchsurfing and hostels. Basically because that's what I could afford at this point. I went, I did the same in China. It wasn't crazily. It was a nice experience. People don't know what is hitchhiking there. made a card where I would say, Hey, I'm a, I'm a poor student from Europe and please don't take me to the bus station. The only reason why I'm here just because I want you to, I'm going this way.

need to turn, just you turn, but leave me where you need to turn and I go further away. Because if you don't, they would bring you to the bus station because they care. Chinese people are very friendly, they want to help you, and especially if you're a foreigner. So I...

Jason Elkins (28:23)
Yeah, yeah.

And once you get once you get to the bus station, it's really hard to attract because everybody looks at you like you're at the bus station. Why would you?

Alex Veka (28:39)
Yeah, and sometimes it just takes you so much time to get back and so on. I went to China and I loved it. It's like, wow, coming from this comfortable, cozy, warm Europe where all this social care and benefits and work and predictability and you come to China, the technology is like the bullet train. And then there is a restaurant, I know, three -star Michelin.

which costs you, I don't know, half of a house. then, and there is this like little stand where they sell you a mian or like rice. Like you can eat for $2 and you cross the road. The taste is more or less the same, but you pay 100. It's like, wow, that's, that's, love it. It's so dynamic. This country is amazing. You know, there is everything, you know? And it's like, I want to stay here. And that's, I came back and I started looking for, for the jobs and everything at that time.

I since I remember myself since my student years, I have been always working mostly it's like, it was like I was working in hospitality and in restaurants and reception. But my last jobs were kind of like marketing sales, BD related, in the Thor operator and the invent agency. So was like, okay, there is high tech, they produce all kinds of stuff.

Let's apply to one of these like brands that I wear that I used to call and let's apply I I'm I speak the language and for and I applied and it was and I got the job and and I came and I was like why not because for me always like it's kind of like a my a life goal is a Yeah,

Jason Elkins (30:19)
That's cool.

Alex Veka (30:32)
Whenever you have a challenge, it's an opportunity to learn. It's just like go across the borders and so on. I ended up there. It was nice. It was a nice experience. And yeah, that's how afterwards I came into like my next job. was in a startup as a like commercial director. And already the next step was like, when I came to Mexico, it

Let's do something by our own. But the idea was, again, was Vibe Adventures, but it was not supposed to be a commercial project at the very beginning.

Jason Elkins (31:15)
Oftentimes, the things that happen that are surprises. Well, it was supposed to be this. It turned into that. mean, those are the great things for probably, I'd speak for myself and probably for someone like you, because I feel like we've got some similarities. Is there anything that happened along the way that you absolutely regret that you'd like to share with our listeners? Maybe somebody's thinking they want to get into tourism. Maybe they're already in tourism. Or just maybe they're just curious.

buying the van or whatever. Were there any moments that you're like, yeah, I kind of wish I could go back and not do

Alex Veka (31:51)
Not really. mean, I feel grateful for all the ups and downs in my life because that's exactly where I am now. I mean, things definitely could be different, but what if doesn't exist, you know, it's what's like conditional mode. It's good. It exists in grammar, but not in life, you know? So at the very beginning, was, I mean, it's not a regret, but it was kind of like a lesson I took.

Jason Elkins (32:00)
Mm -hmm.

Alex Veka (32:22)
I wanted to, I liked the idea of hospitality, mostly hotels, restaurants. So I started working like three, four, five star properties. I was like, hey, I want to experience this world of the hospitality. And it's definitely, it's nice. It's just like about, recently I was reading this book by, I think it's called Unreasonable Hospitality by I think Bill, I forgot the Gandara or like there was this. And then.

took me back to my student years when, you know, this journey. So I was kind of like, I wanted to build a career in hospitality, but at some point I realized, no, it limits me too much. mean, you need to be there in the property. It doesn't really matter what is it like five star luxury hotels of the world, or it's like whatever, but you need to be there. And if you want to take your vacations, it's like you need to ask for it.

Jason Elkins (33:18)
going during the off season when things are when nobody wants to go anyway. Yeah,

Alex Veka (33:22)
Yeah, that's why at some point when I was lucky to start working in a Tor operator, there was a Greek Tor operator kind of opening a regional office in Czech Republic and I was recruited there. And at the very beginning, there was so much stuff to do. You do this and you do that and you do copywriting, you do business development, you do a little bit of marketing. I like, I'm so glad I had this opportunity. And I realized,

That's it. I want to go this way. I want to do the Tor operator stuff. At some point, I want to open it on Tor operator. in my school, in the business school, there was like a subject that would be called management of Tor operators. And we had to make like a seasonal paper about like, what would be the Tor operator? So the idea was actually to build a Tor operator, authentic local small group operator. I didn't like know all about this.

I mean, only then when I came to Vibe Adventures, I saw there are all these kind of big companies over there from who you can learn or you can at least see as a benchmark on the quality and what's being done. But at that point I was like, no, because I want it this way. The idea was like, OK, but the region would be Eastern Europe, like where I come from, because still at that point, there are two regions that are...

kind of like underdeveloped in, you know, incoming tourism so far. One is Latin America is probably 9 % of like international tourism. And another one is exactly these post -Soviet countries. Yeah, and like in Asia, yeah. So that would be like the post -Soviet countries. It's still like terra incognita for a lot of Europeans, Americans, I don't know, people from developed world.

which currently constitute like the biggest proportion of international travelers. But life brought me in Mexico and the project was the same idea was actually executed in Mexico with the same goal.

Jason Elkins (35:31)
All right. Yeah. That's that's that's very cool. And I love that when I ask you the question, are there any regrets or any any of that you you look at? Well, I heard you say the word limit. I felt like hospitality to limiting earlier in the conversation you're talking about buying a house might be too limiting and.

Limits are an interesting thing just psychologically, how people look at them and how much it shapes their lives when they feel like this is the limit and I need to live within this limit. They have one type of life. When you look at the limit and say, ooh, I don't like that limit. I need to get past that limit. You have a totally different type of life. And it is what it is. mean,

I just, I just acknowledging that you've mentioned the word limit a couple of times in the conversation and, I'm not surprised that you've been to 50 countries, 50 plus countries and, have had quite an interesting life because you obviously look at limits differently than, than, than some people do. There's no knock on it either way, so what's, what's your big, like your big mission right now, either personally or with your business, what's kind of on the horizon that

that you're willing to share or that would be appropriate to share.

Alex Veka (36:51)
Our big mission at the moment is to simplify and make it easier booking adventure holidays for more people worldwide. So far we have been doing tours, we have been organizing tours, like small group, private tours, Mexico and the region. And at some point we started...

partnering with local small operators, qualified, vetted, like high quality local operators that basically share our vision, let's say, of printing these local authentic experiences, not like big groups and all this kind of stuff. And right now we are on the track to make it more scalable.

We saw there was an issue that everybody knows around marketplaces. You can make online travel agencies, you can go to Expedia, to Kayak, you book your flight and then the hotel and that's mostly it. Maybe I rent a car. But it's still just logistics. It's not about experiences. It's not about actually tours. I prefer the word experience instead of tour and adventure instead

Multivator. Yeah, but there is nothing about this. It's like a skeleton You don't get like then you need still like to organize a lot of stuff, but not everybody is is Has time skills desire I mean statistically a lot of people are like very tiring and like maybe me and you were you know, we have a little bit more passion and Energy to go and we don't have the fear of going but a lot of people they

they do have, you know, fear to go and explore and they would wait for their friends and then the friends cancel and then they go traveling. They don't see the world. They get stuck in the same place. And I think that's a huge problem. Yeah. And, but there are a lot of companies, you know, that do adventure, adventures all around the world, you know, solo travelers can go there. So, there are tours.

There are flights and sometimes you can go, can search, but then there are no flights for this or the flights are too expensive. Like you go to, I don't know, Torader or Interpeet travel and they like, wow, this is a nice tour, Thailand, boom, 30 % discount. Like, but let's see the flights and like, wow, that's like three times of the tour. No. So our goal, the product that we are actually launching in September, October.

of this year is actually to combine the inventory of flights with the inventory of multi -day adventures from thousands of small group adventure operators around the world and make it easier for the person to book and not only get the best possible adventures in terms of the quality because it's possible to filter it by reviews and to compare it but also

in real time through dynamic packaging, combine it with the flights and to find the best budget friendly possibility. For example, somebody lives in Mexico City and want to go to Venice. That's my goal. But I have time in the end of August only. I put where I fly from, I put the place which I want to visit and I put the dates and it

give me all possible combinations for this exact date, for all adventures, multi -day adventures, maybe run by different operators that visit Venice. Some of them start in Venice, some of them finish somewhere. It's just like somewhere on the way. And you can sort it by price, by reviews, by popularity, and book it as a package. So this

Like this dynamic packaging, they have been always there for I call them boring holidays, like where you get your flight, your five star hotel in Dominicana and Cancun or Los Cabos or like whatever else. And the only thing that you actually see is your restaurant with a buffet, your pool and animation in the evenings. That's all what you know about the country and

But I think that it's so much waste of time in my perspective and more and more people are actually recognizing it right now that there is another way of traveling, a way where you can actually see the country, you can feel it because the people, the nature, not being limited in prison in this high quality nice hotel, but you actually can go outside of the bubble

and feel and live and experience stuff. So that's our big goal.

Jason Elkins (42:07)
No, that makes a lot of sense. basically what I hear you saying is, I've got some time in August. I want to go from here to there. And I want to do something other than just sit in a hotel. So it just comes back and it gives you a bunch of options that you can filter and sort by. I'm curious, from your perspective,

I'm just curious what you think from your perspective, what's the big difference between kind of what you're planning to do and somebody reaching out and speaking with a travel agent and having the travel agent do all that work. I know you've thought this through. So I'm just curious kind of what your thoughts are on

Alex Veka (42:49)
Yeah. Yeah, it's, I would say this is a substitute of the agent somehow. exactly. Nobody can substitute a human. You know, it's different thing. But if we talk about different audiences, would say, pre millennial, population, right. they tend to book maybe

due to traditions, maybe due to habits, they tend to book things more with their agents. Everybody has an agent and the agent have contracts with all kind of like companies or maybe they have account in the marketplaces, online travel agencies, they can book their, and they can book the whole stuff and maybe they get commission from them. That's how the agents work in the end, normally the suppliers of services, that's how they do.

But it's somehow like limits and it appears pretty well for pre -millennial population. It works well. Yeah. But for millennial, post -millennial population, they expect different experience. They expect independent experience where they have no limits of needing to contact something, waiting until this person gives a quote, give them two, three quotes, and then come back and hear they want to book everything now in five minutes, 10 minutes. Give

Jason Elkins (44:15)
Yeah. So they can go on to the next thing in their life. They sit down, want to do it all at once.

Alex Veka (44:19)
He missed 30 options. I want to read the reviews. I want to sort them by A, Z, and B to C if I need. And I want to make my qualified decision, not waiting, not being dependent on anybody. So this is kind of like the first step, of course. Then it's necessary to provide the human support because very often, know, I see these options, good reviews and the price is similar. the airline is like, okay, the check luggage involved, include it and blah, blah.

Hey, I need a human to call, but it's a much quicker decision making process than going with an agent. And it appeals to slightly different demographics.

Jason Elkins (45:02)
And I don't know, I'm going to guess that once your platform's up and rolling the way you just described it, because I believe there's travel agents and definitely tour operators that listen to the show, I suspect if an agent wanted to use your platform, they could do that as well. So if somebody that normally works with a travel agent, I mean, if I was a travel agent.

and could go to a platform like that and do that on behalf of my clients that weren't maybe as comfortable doing it online or whatever. I suspect a travel agent could use that as well, probably make their lives easier.

Alex Veka (45:37)
Yeah, definitely. We have it on the roadmap, I would say, for the next year to add this feature like an agents portal because in the end, whatever, let's say, tendencies and changes, maybe disruption, the whole economy and all, everything is changing, but travel industry has its own rules and distribution structure.

Jason Elkins (45:44)
Yeah.

Alex Veka (46:07)
that will be working, yeah, so for many years. And we are not here to break, we are here to add an extra value and for all possible stakeholders, including travelers directly, but also the agents, yeah, at some point. But yeah, I would say this is the feature we foresee for the next year.

Jason Elkins (46:34)
Very, very cool. What's your favorite thing about Mexico?

Alex Veka (46:41)
Life, it's lively. There is life everywhere. mean, at the night, in the morning, in the evening, sometimes you cannot sleep because of that, but there is life.

Jason Elkins (46:53)
stimulation experiences, right? And sometimes laying in your bed and listening to fireworks or mariachi bands or whatever you've got outside can be quite stimulating as well. mean, it's so many times I'm in Columbia right now and I spend a lot of time in Latin America. And yeah, there's some times I get waking up in the middle of the night by

Alex Veka (46:55)
Exactly.

Jason Elkins (47:14)
The garbage truck, the garbage truck likes to go around in the middle of the night and honk his horn every time he stops. And I just wake up thinking, my gosh, I'm so happy I'm here. It's just so much energy and I very, very, very seldom get upset by the energy. So, and I've spent some time in Mexico as well. What's your favorite type of taco?

Alex Veka (47:39)
That's complicated.

Jason Elkins (47:41)
That's very complicated, I know. That's like, where's your favorite place to visit? What's your favorite taco?

Alex Veka (47:47)
There are so many, I mean, there is hardly any taco I don't like. But I would say that taco arabe, like in Puebla, like the city of Puebla, like two hours away, and Cholula, if somebody can visit, that's where it actually comes from, Puebla, Cholula, some of the places. So there was this migration

Lebanese and Syrians mostly, Syrians, like the Christians from there in the beginning of the 20th century when all this like the First World War, Ottoman Empire being dismantled and so on. So people came over here and they were normally businessmen or like they knew, they started their businesses and or even like before in the end of the 19th century. So they brought this idea of, you know, like kind of like kebab and, you know, and you this meat and there was like a special way how they would prepare it. And as far as they were Christian, they were okay, actually.

using pork for this. then tacos al pastor, very famous ones. They actually, it's tacos arabes with a slightly Mexicanization of this adobe sauce, right? Because original ones, are not so, I really like tacos arabes, but I love tacos de cabeza with, it's a very good cochinita pibil.

Jason Elkins (49:00)
Mm -hmm.

yeah, yeah.

Alex Veka (49:14)
amazing as well, the, you know, the Yucatan style. Very often in the street, they ask you tortilla, flour tortilla or core tortilla, the arena or the maize. And sometimes I would go with the arena, especially when it's, what's the name, there is, you know, suadero, which is like beef, but a little bit more...

fatty, know, and softer because of this, you know, if you're okay about high calorie food, that would be my probably like a way to go. would be a suáqueso. So it's like a Mexican combination of suadero with queso with cheese. And they put it in, it's like gringa, like tortilla, flour tortilla. And it's something really, really nice with guacamole sauce.

Jason Elkins (49:45)
Mm -hmm.

Alex, you mentioned the word gringa, which is my understanding. Yeah, it's the flour tortilla, the light colored flour tortilla that is probably more popular in the US than corn tortillas. Is there a connection between the word gringa and a person of light skin complexion that comes from the US of a feminine nature? Gringa would be a white woman from the US, right?

Alex Veka (50:25)
Mm -hmm.

Exactly. Yeah, it would be like, yeah, like white female American, no, or sometimes any, any North American, no. Yeah. It might have, I'm not 100 % sure about the etymology of this word, but I think there is a connection with, with the North and especially like with, with the States, because for example, if you go to the North of Mexico, this

Jason Elkins (50:48)
Or just from north. Yeah, it be any color, right?

Alex Veka (51:08)
of the states around the border, Sonora, California and so on. People don't really eat that much corn tortilla. if you're actually, they eat flour tortilla. If you're kind of like used to corn tortilla and you live in the center of Mexico in the south or wherever, it's kind of like complicated to find for you that you would call it good tortillas.

It's not the same taste because people don't really do it, you know. So if you go in the street, you actually buy tacos with flour tortilla and North Mexicans, are mostly there is like a say like in the south of Mexico, people are darker and shorter and in the north of Mexico, people are higher and they are whiter and they eat actually flour tortillas, not corn tortillas. I mean, they do as well, but most of people, they, you know, they don't really eat corn tortillas. So yeah, there was like a

Jason Elkins (51:39)
Yeah.

Alex Veka (52:06)
I think that's where the ecomotive comes from.

Jason Elkins (52:06)
I there must because the first time I saw it, I believe was probably in Mexico City, maybe Puerto Vallarta, I'm not sure. And I just remember thinking, that particular option is for the gringos, like tacos de gringa or quesadilla de gringa. I don't remember all of it, but I remember thinking that, that must be for the people from up north. But it's good. It's really good.

Alex Veka (52:31)
Not necessarily. It's just, it's a dish actually. So I mean, a lot of in, if you go in Mexico city, everywhere you can see in like taco place, will be gringa. Gringa is basically two flour tortillas. And inside you have meat with cheese, which is actually something delicious. I like the combination. Exactly. like, -huh. It's basically a synchronizada with like, -huh, in two tortillas from two sides. And inside it's like

Jason Elkins (52:47)
Kind of like a quesadilla, right? Isn't it basically? Yeah, yeah.

Alex Veka (52:59)
It's filled with, yeah, with cheese and the, at least cheese and meat. Maybe you could add some vegetables, whatever. And for me, one of the best as

Jason Elkins (53:04)
Yeah, it's so good. It's so good. We're going into it's about one o 'clock here. So I'm like lunchtime. I'm getting hungry. I guess that's why I asked that question. And now I'm much, much hungrier. And unfortunately here in Batang, where am I? Bucaramanga, Colombia. There's not a lot of taco stands. So I'll have to probably wait till my next trip to Mexico. Alex, we've discussed a bunch of different things covering a bunch of different topics.

I'm curious, is there anything I forgot to ask or should have asked or anything that you want to make sure that our listeners know about either you, your views on travel the world or your business or anything like that that we should touch on before we wrap it up?

Alex Veka (53:50)
No, I think we discussed quite exactly a lot of stuff just like guys if Anytime you want to go to Mexico and Central America. Just yeah, check our website by the ventures calm I hope you could find something nice from there or and if in the end of the year starting from the end of the year you're planning to go somewhere further away and you want to take this adventure holiday actually was like organized adventure when you go with

local guide in a van with a small group of people from around the world actually discover the place the way it is. Check as well by the adventures .com. It's going to be available there.

Jason Elkins (54:30)
Very cool. We've got that. We'll have that in the show notes for anybody that wants to click on it. And as you expand and do some kind of disruptive things in the industry, suspect any other tour operators or travel agents that are listening to this, I would encourage them to reach out to you as well. Just really enjoyed the conversation with you, Alex. Thank you so much for taking some time out of your day to speak about Eastern Europe, Mexico.

Tacos technology China Your your wonderful wife, I know we mentioned a couple other things Maybe you should say how much you love your wife right now before we end the call. So so if she does listen to this No, and and I think you're lucky to have found someone that's willing to to put up with your bullshit Alex Because I know it's it's difficult when you have this affliction of the wanderlust

Sometimes that makes it difficult on other people in our lives. So give her a big hug and thanks Alex, appreciate you.

Alex Veka (55:33)
Yes, thanks a lot Jason for having me here and for everyone who listened to us, thanks for your patience and yeah, to listen in a little bit of everything I would say sometimes call it mental, not mental, but diarrhea of sorts sometimes, know, the thoughts just come and you just... But I hope you guys enjoyed it.

Jason Elkins (55:55)
Yeah, yeah.

Well, you got a lot out. I hope they did as well. I hope they're still listening. And I look forward to collaborating on some projects with you in the future. Thanks, Alex. Have a great day.

Alex Veka (56:08)
Yes, thank you guys. Thank you. Bye.