About Me

Hi, I’m Taru Aalto, a 40+ year old Finn splitting my time between Finland and the rest of the world.

As long as I can remember, I’ve always loved to travel and felt too restless to stay in one city or one country for more than a month without any travels.
All in all, I’ve so far visited more than 60 countries and while I have no exact plans, I’m trying to visit at least 2 new countries every year. There are very few places to which I return regularly and instead always want to go somewhere new, if not a new country, at least a new part of the country. Travel for me is about discovery of something new and exciting.

Where & Why I travel

The choice of my next travel destination is driven by the things I like: warm weather, possibilities for hiking, amazing scenery, good food, and often also beaches and possibilities to snorkel. In my home country of Finland, I love exploring different nature destinations, boating, cycling and just relaxing at summer cottage.

I also prefer to travel to less touristic places, or at least during less touristic times and truly experience the local culture and meet the local people.

My Professional Background

Professionally I have M.Sc in Industrial Engineering and Management, meaning for the last 20 years I’ve spent my days working in product development and sales for international technology companies. I have always been lucky to be able to combine my love for travel with my job which has taken me anywhere from Zambia to Kazakhstan, Russia, India and Philippines. When all my colleagues were complaining how they wanted to travel less I never really understood them. And I still don’t – how could you ever say “No” to a possibility to travel?

Few years ago I also started a travel tech startup Wowanders together with my old university friend Maija. By creating world’s smartest and most social travel diary app we want to make sure you always have all your best travel moments recorded and can easily share hotel, sight and restaurant tips with your friends. Since that, we’ve also launched a new website focused on discovering the best destinations in Finland: Matkaile Suomessa.

Story of this website

This website has been a long time plan. I first started writing blog posts on Blogger platform for my family and closest friends some 15 years ago to keep them updated on my travels and let them know I was safe. After people started hearing how many blog posts I’d written, I started getting more and more questions on why I’m not sharing my experiences more widely. After several years, I eventually decided to do so. This site is a collection of my travels which I’m publishing gradually along with my new adventures.