ABOUT

What the f••• is Pareto Travel?

Our travel philosophy borrows from the Pareto principle, aka the 80 / 20 rule, which states that 80% of consequences result from 20% of causes (the “vital few”). And so, we believe that the vital few experiences let you soak in 80% of what a country has to offer.

We work for a living and can only travel if our employers permit. Unlike like most travel influencers, we don’t have time for slow, immersive travel. We can typically travel for about 10 days at a time, and often combine multiple countries in our trips.

So if you’re time-constrained like us, and want to know the absolute must do things wherever you go, this is the blog for you!

And who on earth are you?

We’re a millennial couple from India that spent a decade of their lives in the United States, before moving back to the homeland. Experiencing the two ends of the human development index gives us a lot of perspective on our travels.

We acknowledge that Pareto travelling could easily end up being a cliched checklist of touristy things to do, so we compensate for this by being as close to the local culture as possible. To this end, we prefer staying in Airbnbs with a host over hotels (preferably in more residential areas), walking hours on end rather than hopping from one place to another by car, and seeking out the food joints locals throng to.

We currently live in Bengaluru (formerly Bangalore), India. Our ambition is to take two trips a year, visiting 2-4 countries in the process.

What’s your favourite place so far?

This is a tough question to answer, so we’re going to address our favourite cities and countries.

CITIES

Istanbul, Turkey is by far the best city we’ve travelled to as tourists. The historical significance and the modern opulence are a killer combination.

New York and Los Angeles (both United States) are the obvious choices for the other two spots, but we weren’t exactly tourists in either of these places. One of us briefly lived in Los Angeles and the other spent half a decade near New York City (in Philadelphia). Hollywood and the Big Apple are global cities in every sense of the word.

COUNTRIES

Likewise, it’s hard to beat the diversity that the United States has to offer, so it makes the podium for the best countries. Cities, nature, food… you have it all.

For similar reasons to the United States, Brazil is a close second and we’re surprised it’s only the 44th most visited country in the world (which does say something about how hard it is to get to).

The otherworldliness of Iceland gives it the third spot on our list.

The only thing misses in all three countries is a sense of history, but there’s enough culture to keep you interested.

Any places you wouldn’t go back to?

There’s to ways to answer this: 1) we were satisfied with our first visit and weren’t left wanting more, or 2) we had a bad time and wouldn’t go back if even we were paid. We’ll speak to the latter.

Similar to the previous question, we’ll break this down by city and country.

CITIES

San Jose, Costa Rica is the most unsettled we have felt in our travels. Most houses is in the city are boarded up, which is never a good sign. People seem to rush back home before the sun sets. And we don’t blame them, because the vibe changes quickly after dark. There are hardly any restaurants open beyond 8:00 PM! The people that are out and about at night are trying to scam you or worse.

Santiago, Chile was slightly better than San Jose, Costa Rica. The primary reason it’s not at the top of the list is because we were explicitly warned not to wander out after dark by friendly neighbourhood street vendors, and so we didn’t.

Cartagena, Colombia is a textbook example of poverty and tourism not making for the best bedfellows. The hawkers in the town are persistent in their pursuit of your money. It’s clear that the local governments condone such behaviour, which is only going to hurt them, as a bad reputation is hard to shake off.

COUNTRIES

People are good, crowds are not. And so, it breaks our hearts to say this, but India should be near the bottom of anyone’s travel bucket list. The sheer number of people combined with poor urban infrastructure ruins what should be one of the best places on the planet.

There’s frankly no other country that we’d warn against. While Colombia, Costa Rica, and Chile had some unsavoury parts, it was more than compensated by the rest of the countries.

Great, how can I get in touch with you?

Drop us a note at tan@paretotravel.com or DM us on Instagram @pareto_travel.