about we12travel

Welcome to We12Travel

Hi! I’m Antonette, an active 40-something outdoor enthusiast from The Netherlands. Since 2011 I’m sharing my personal travel and hiking stories on We12travel with the aim to make my readers and followers enthusiastic about an active way of traveling.
 
From childhood I knew that I wanted to travel. After I walked my first multi-day trek, the Inca Trail in Peru in 2006, I knew that this way of traveling suits me. Since then I have made more than 50 treks on 5 different continents, mostly solo. After graduating in tourism management, I worked behind a desk in the travel industry for 17 years. In the summer of 2017 I quit my office job and I started to focus completely on We12travel and my life as a travel writer. I have made various other travel related websites (in Dutch only) for Sweden and New Zealand as well.


I started my website in my early thirties. I’m now a happy woman in her early forties without children, who shows that life can still be fun and, above all, very adventurous from the age of forty.
 
Although I have a passion for nordic destinations, you can always invite me for a nice hike or other outdoor related activity in nature. Some of my favorite nature destinations are Sweden, Norway, Iceland, New Zealand, Germany, Austria and the western United States and Alaska.
 
In the summer of 2023 I bought a house in Swedish Lapland (also on my own), where I spend a large portion of my time. When here I enjoy taking walks, fishing, berry picking and all other outdoor activities that belong with living up north. At the same time I also really enjoy good food, sitting on the couch reading a book and of course observing the northern lights from my veranda.

When I’m not at my home in the far north, I travel around the world while writing and inspiring my (mostly female) followers about my adventurous life and how they can enjoy a life like this, too. Every year I also solo travel to a sunny destination for further self development, yoga and soaking up the sun, such as Mexico or Indonesia.
 
I’m also the host of the Dutch Podcast for Adventurous Women, a podcast full of inspiration for women who want to live a more adventurous life.
 
Last but not least I’m the author of two Dutch travel guidebooks, one about travel in New Zealand and one about travel in Sweden.

Where does the name We12travel come from?

You pronounce We12travel as “we want to travel.” My former partner and I came up with this name in 2004 and for a long time We12travel was an online photo gallery. In 2011 I started blogging after a six-week trip to New Zealand and in 2013 I decided to become a professional travel and outdoor blogger. Although I now make most of my trips solo, traveling remains a big part of life for me and the people around me (partner, friends, family). We always want to keep on traveling!
 
Are you interested in collaborating with me? Check the possibilities here!