First-Time Travels is now in http://firsttimetravels.com

About me

I’ve transferred my site to a new domain http://firsttimetravels.com. I’ll be posting my new articles there from now on (April 2, 2011). Thanks for visiting my site. -Claire

Enter into my world.

I love to travel. Part of that passion is to take snap shots of places I visit, including the things that catch my eye. I also like to preserve these memories through the articles and essays I write.

I’m also a postcrosser. I joined this online community swapping postcards with others around the globe. Ever since, I have collected postcards from my travels. Even my friends bring me postcards from their travels…so my collection is growing by the minute.

I’m a Filipina living in the Philippines and traveling within my country and outside of it. I also lived in Indonesia for less than a year.I might say that the traveling bug bit me while I was still a kid, as I was always spending school breaks going for a vacation with relatives. But the itch became more insistent when I worked for an international non-profit and had the opportunity to go to various countries.

I have covered a small percentage in my travels. The good thing about that is that I have more opportunities to do a lot of first-time travels, may they be in a new continent, country, province, city, town, village, hotel, restaurant, landmark, museum, or mode of transportation. It’s a way for me to connect to the whole world and enjoy new learnings and discoveries. Along with seeing various culture, I also enjoy taking pictures, and writing about my adventures.

This travel blog was created to help first-time travelers as they embark on something different. It is an assurance for every tourist and traveler that even the most seasoned one has started out as a neophyte. The articles here are my experiences and observations when I set foot on a place for the first time.

You may e-mail me at firsttimetravel@hotmail.com or direct message me at http://twitter.com/firsttimetravel. You can also visit my Facebook fan page at http://www.facebook.com/firsttimetravel.

Some of my write-ups that saw print:

Smile Magazine Aug/Sept. 07

Bayang Magiliw Magazine Aug-Sept. 2009

Roam Magazine Issue 3, 2010

40 Comments »

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hey claire! i really admire how much you’ve done with your blog! i could spend hours just checking out what you’ve written here. i am definitely interested in a link exchange! in the meantime, thanks for checking out “Beyond Backpacking,” http://beyondbackpacking.com!

Comment by Lauren— February 23, 2010 #

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- Thanks Lauren! I like your blog as well. 🙂
  
  Comment by firsttimetravel— February 23, 2010 #
  
  Reply
- By the way, I included your site in my blog roll. Thanks so much!
  
  Comment by firsttimetravel— February 23, 2010 #
  
  Reply
- Hello Dear,
  
  I just came across your Blog.I liked your blog very much and found that we could exchange links. I hope you will exchange links.
  
  If you are interested then reply me and send your links details.
  
  Waiting for reply.
  
  Thanks
  Alice
  
  Comment by Alice— March 12, 2010 #
  
  Reply
  - Hi! You can link this blog to your site. Let me know when it’s up. Thanks!
    
    Comment by firsttimetravel— March 12, 2010 #
I will be interested for a business association with Blogs to be interlinked with our blogs and we start to promote india and similarly in next 6 months arrange your travel to india

Comment by Subrato Mukherjee— February 23, 2010 #

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- That will be great! I checked your site but I couldn’t find any links page. Let me know when you have set this up. I’ll gladly exchange links with you. Thanks for dropping by.
  
  Comment by firsttimetravel— February 23, 2010 #
  
  Reply
Hello,

My name is Lidia Nyiri, I work as a PR consultant for travel deals search engine called http://www.travelgrove.com . We’ve recently started a blog for our site at http://www.travelgrove.com/blog and we’re trying to slowly bring it forward in the travel blog community.

I was wondering if you would be interested in exchanging a blogroll link with us. We would put your link into our blog’s blogroll, which would, of course appear on all the pages of our blog and you might do a similar thing for us.

Please let me know your thoughts. Thank you in advance.

Kind regards,
Lidia Nyiri
Travelgrove PR Consultant

Comment by Lidia Nyiri— March 10, 2010 #

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- Hi Lidia,
  
  I visited your blog and I must say that I found it informative. Yes, I’m interested in exchanging links with you. I’ll add your link to my blogroll. Let me know when you have placed mine in your site.
  
  Thanks,
  Claire
  
  Comment by firsttimetravel— March 11, 2010 #
  
  Reply
I sure do this blog will be an inspiration to other people as I do, thanks for posting, More Power and GB

Comment by Marie— March 17, 2010 #

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Hi,
Excellent blog, very informative. When I was reading your LA blog post, I really enjoyed the part about Universal Studios. It make me think of the movie snap shots. I noticed on that blog you have a Ravable badge. I work for Uptake.com and we have a program that is similar to Ravable, called Travel Gems. I would love to tell you all about it.

Feel free to drop me a line. I think you would be a great fit for our program.

Michelle Hackett

Comment by Michelle— March 23, 2010 #

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- Hi Michelle,
  
  It’s nice to hear from you. I have visited your site and I’d be interested to know about your travel gems. I’ll send you a note on this one. Thanks!
  
  Comment by firsttimetravel— March 24, 2010 #
  
  Reply
Hi,
invite you to join our top with traveling , vacation sites: http://www.alltravelingsites.com
Our top have a friendly interface and it offers free web promotion for your site.
You can find:
-title and description;
– screenshot of your website
-statistics about the number of your visitors(unique/pageviews);
-comments about your site;
-the ranking is by sites unique visitors in a week;
-first 5 sites are scrolling in the right side of the site on all site pages;
-7 sites are selected random and showed on the header slideshow of the site;
-statistics with the visitors you got from our top;
After you join our top take the voting code and put in your site
to be accepted to our site.

We’ll be expecting you at http://www.alltravelingsites.com/ to subscribe your
site. If you have any question don’t hesitate to contact us.

Thank you for your time.

Comment by Ana— March 26, 2010 #

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i remember first setting off! wish i had the foresight to check out the travelin comminity online :S 3 1/2 years and still on the road, i feel as if it’s good to give something back, after all we wouldnt have made it so far for so long without some help along the way 🙂

Comment by johnny - onestep4ward.com— March 31, 2010 #

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i didn’t know you have a wp account too! care to exchange links? happy travelin’!

Comment by happysole— April 12, 2010 #

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- Sure! I like your blog. 🙂 Thanks for visiting.
  
  Comment by firsttimetravel— April 12, 2010 #
  
  Reply
Hey,

I work with the onetravel travel blog and we’re interested in having you guest blog for us.

Please contact me if you’re interested.

Thanks,

Aldo

Comment by aldo— May 18, 2010 #

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i remember first setting off! wish i had the foresight to check out the travelin comminity online :S 3 1/2 years and still on the road, i feel as if it’s good to give something back, after all we wouldnt have made it so far for so long without some help along the way
+1

Comment by Paulie— May 20, 2010 #

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Have added your great Blog to ours, here in the UK. http://www.philippinetrails.com/blog.html

Comment by Nigel Sutherland— May 27, 2010 #

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- I checked your blog. It’s cool! I’ll add this in my travel links page. 🙂
  
  Comment by firsttimetravel— May 28, 2010 #
  
  Reply
Claire,
Your site is great! It’s nice to have some blogsherpa representation from the Philippines.
Jason (AlpacaSuitcase)

Comment by Jason— June 1, 2010 #

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- Thanks Jason! I’m happy to represent the Philippines in our blogsherpa group. It’s good to have bloggers from different parts of the world come together through their passion on traveling and travel writing. 🙂
  
  Comment by firsttimetravel— June 2, 2010 #
  
  Reply
Claire,

I wanted to say that I’m inspired by your blog. You show a lot of in depth information about travel within the Philippines and abroad. I’ve personally added your link to the list of Individual travelers at our links page http://globenavigation.com/external-links/

I hope you can keep inspiring me, and our surfers in the future. Best luck and wishes on your journeys, keep safe!

With best regards,
Dave from Globenavigation.com

Comment by Dave— June 10, 2010 #

Reply
- I have added your link to my Travel Links page already. You are under the Travel Resources category. 🙂 Thanks Dave!
  
  Comment by firsttimetravel— June 11, 2010 #
  
  Reply
Great site, really good content here.
Im currently recruiting top travel bloggers to take part in our beta launch. Thetravelpad.com uses social media to promote the best travel content from around the web (i.e. you blog).
If you would like to take a look, provide some feedback in return for some great promotion of your blog, please check here http://www.thetravelpad.com/betalaunch.

Good luck and I look forward to hearing from you.

Josh

Comment by Joshua Woodham— July 28, 2010 #

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Hi, stopping by from SITS (and I am a postcrosser as well). I have collected postcards since I was 13 – ummm, 44 years now! Your blog is very nice and I too would love to travel…but since you are and I can read about it, maybe it will wait for me!

Comment by Donna— August 18, 2010 #

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Really awesome blog. Congrats on your SITS Day!

Comment by trininista— August 20, 2010 #

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Hey Claire,

Thanks so much for writing about Kiss the Sunset Pig! I didn’t know Americans knew about my second book very much. (I’m Canadian and I’ve noticed that Americans are way more familiar with my first book, Kite Strings of the Southern Cross, for some reason.) I read your review on Lonely Planet. I love your blog!

Laurie Gough

Comment by Laurie Gough— November 7, 2010 #

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- Hi Laurie,
  
  Great of you to find my blog. 🙂 Welcome to my site and hope you drop by here once in awhile.
  
  Claire
  
  Comment by firsttimetravel— November 8, 2010 #
  
  Reply
To Claire

Hi my name is Mike,

I was looking through your website and thoroughly enjoyed what I saw and read.

I am writing to you because I have a request; do you accept guest blogging? If you do, am I allowed to post professional travel related articles on you website which have links embedded within the text. If this is something you do allow, please let me know the terms and conditions that must be followed and applied.

I work with a number of travel clients and we are encouraging them to develop their own blogs as well as looking for quality sites like yours to post guest articles on. Our emphasis when creating content is on quality, so we would make sure that whatever content we sent your way would be of actual interest and relevance to your readers.

Sites we would be linking to include Travelzoo.com, Fly.com, TravelIndoChina.com, co.uk and .com.au and SelectiveAsia.com

An example is here: http://www.travelwithamate.com/vietnam-cambodia-tours-best

Hope to hear from you soon,

Mike
http://twitter.com/#!/MikeZimShaw
http://www.linkedin.com/in/mjshaw

Comment by Mike S— November 10, 2010 #

Reply
Hi there

My name is Li-Anne, and I find your blog rather entertaining and insightful.

Accordingly, I was wondering if you would like to make a mention of a competition we are running – which I think your readers, and you might find very intriguing: A free holiday into Africa – who wouldn’t want? I sure could do with a little getaway – all expenses paid – know what I’m saying?

The details are all in the link below:
http://www.overlandingafrica.com/win

Should you have any other queries – please don’t hesitate to ask me.

thanks for your time – have an awesome day further!

Safe travels!

Comment by Li-Anne— March 16, 2011 #

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This is indeed a nice blog. Lots of cool stuff and exiting ones. Cruise Picture

Comment by Sailor— April 19, 2011 #

Reply
Looks great! Thanks for sharing the post.

Comment by BWI— July 14, 2011 #

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Fantastic layout, you will be going in my blog roll:)

Comment by Elijah— August 7, 2011 #

Reply
Well done travel site-very interesting/informative..nice photos.

Travel Safe- WORLD TRAVEL UPDATES-FOREIGN TRAVEL GUIDE:

http://www.travelaskthelocals.yolasite.com

(Feel free to post on our forum)

Comment by David Burlison (@dburlison)— August 11, 2011 #

Reply
Hello Dear Friend,

My name is Juhi Scott. I’ve just visited your site https://firsttimetravel.wordpress.com/ and read all your posts. It was interesting and informative. I just wanted to request you to allow me for a guest post in your site/blog.

All we request in return is a credit to our site washny.com, which deals with Washington Deluxe Bus. Online ticket booking or buying ticket from DC-NYC.

Your link is up at http://bahai.htmlplanet.com/Rarotonga-tour-sites-for-travelers.html

In this way we can add some highly relevant content to your blog/site readers will find valuable. Kindly mail us your decision so that we can immediately send you our article.

Thanks & Regards
Juhi Scott

Comment by Juhi Scott— August 26, 2011 #

Reply
I really admire what you’ve done and continue to do! Great work and I look forward to the site progressing with the new domain. Keep up the good ‘work’ 🙂

Comment by Volunteer Forum— November 9, 2011 #

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Hi kababayan! So glad to have come across your site! And just after returning from a visit to the Philippines, too! Looking forward to following you. And thanks for the link on postcrossing! I love postcards as well, and will have to look into that!

Comment by elysejulianne— January 12, 2012 #

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Great to see that you have your own domain name now — looking forward to reading more of your adventures at the new location!

Comment by Patty— March 13, 2012 #

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Great Blog love it. I wish you all the luck with your new site….. Am going to try to come to the philippines in Jan, so will look your travel site up.

Comment by paul easton— April 7, 2012 #

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