About Us

About myself

Hi, I am Austin Whittall; I have had my fair share of travel over the years, visiting scores of countries around the world, and I love it. There is still so much to see out there.

For the last twenty years (it all began in 2000!) I have been helping people to travel.

My Vision

Roman philosopher Seneca summed it up very clearly: "Travel and change of place impart new vigor to the mind".

Travel whether for work or leisure; solo, with your partner, or as a group is always a mind changing experience.

I have a passion for travel and I love sharing it, to encourage others to embark on journeys of discovery, new experiences and adventure.

My love for Traveling

I guess it began when I was four years old and my parents decided to migrate from Argentina to Australia. In those days it was a long voyage by sea crossing the Atlantic Ocean, changing ocean liners in Europe and then heading Down Under via the Suez Canal and the Indian Ocean.

Mom would mark our route across the vast seas on a colorful world map. It put the size of Earth into perspective and also made me wonder about all those countries on the map... my love traveling began back then and so did my love affair with maps.

My websites and my passion

It began as a hobby in 2000, to help others trek in Patagonia. My first website was www.rotrek.com, and it was a great resource for planning a trekking expedition in Argentina's Patagonia region.

In 2010 I created a blog on Ruta 40, an epic highway in Argentina, giving useful tips and info for those who wanted to take a road trip along it, like I have done, several times. A year later it became my www.turismoruta40.com.ar website, which has been visited over 6.5 Million times since then.

After doing Road trips with my wife in Southern Europe in 2011, South Africa in 2012, Western US in 2013, and Eastern Europe in 2014 I created www.theroute-66.com. And it has grown far more than I ever expected (6 Million visitors and growing).

I enjoy writing and updating my websites, and also finding and cross-checking facts and entertaining information.

By reading about Route 66 and Ruta 40 not only do I learn something new every day, I also travel, in my mind!

To create my websites, back in the late 1990s I learned how to write in html, and then added javascript and basic PHP. SEO is fun too (due to my marketing orientation).

About Travel

I really love a phrase written by Ralph Waldo Emerson back in 1841, which is always misquoted as follows: "Life is a Journey not a destination;" actually Emerson's thought was far deeper than that; he wrote:

To finish the moment, to find the journey’s end in every step of the road, to live the greatest number of good hours, is wisdom. Ralph Waldo Emerson

A Road Trip is a not only a trip by car along a highway, it is also an internal journey of self discovery. A joyful experience, a mind opening event. You can find wonders hidden beyond the next curve. It always inspires awe, new flavors, new songs, laughs...

A trip that is full of surprises and positive experiences, memory making events happen during road trips!

Savoring every step of the road is what it is all about.

My partner Perla and I have embarked on many trips all over the world and we have grown closer with our shared memories and experiences, and also stronger, and, why not, wiser, in the sense of wisdom as conceived by Emerson.

Human vs. AI writing website content

All of the content in my website has been written by me. There has been no artificial intelligence or AI (I call it "alien intelligence") involved in preparing the content, researching, analyzing, reviewing and writing my website's content.

AI has serious shortcomings when it comes to copywriting:

1. It does not research. It just combs the web, finds information and writes an essay based on an algorithm. Gathering information isn't the same as human researching. The Internet is full of outdated, false, mistaken and fake information. Human mind curating this during research is a must!.
2. Lack of fact-checking. I read, and I read a lot. I cross check information, use different sources, validate the data. I look at photos, images from different angles, aerial photos, postcards, Google street views, old newspaper articles, and then reach a conclusion based on human analysis. This adds value to your experience.
3. Zero creativity. AI is still a coarse writer. It sounds like Wikipedia, dry, formal, no originality. It lacks the human feel. I add that to my posts, trivia, creativity, emotion. I am dislexic too so I sometimes jumble letters (sorry for that!). And I also write stuff that may be wrong, and when later research teaches me better, I correct.
4. Details make a story. AI doesn't tell stories. It writes essays but lacks the human touch and sensitivity.

About Me

Austin Whittall

Travel is my hobby but I do work for a living, and I really enjoy my job.

For 39 years I worked in international sales and marketing of specialty and commodity chemicals. I retired on December 31st, 2024.

I am an industrial engineer from the University of Buenos Aires, which gives me a solid background in physics, chemistry, maths, industrial planning, and business administration.

I have traveled extensively around the world both on business trips and on personal vacations.

Among my many interests (apart from traveling) I'd like to highlight History, Geography, and Science in general, which are pros when it comes to traveling.

I am a member of International Travel Writers Alliance, IPPA (Internet Professional Publishers Association), IWA (International Web Association), and SLTC (Sociedad Latinoamericana de Tecnología del Caucho) among many others.

And as I enjoy reading reviews posted by other travelers -I find them very helpful- I also post my own: I am a top contributor in TripAdvisor.

Some pictures of our trips around the world

Many years of travel and road trips in good company!

All photos are © Austin Whittall and cannot be used without my written permission.

I did learn some lessons: after driving stick shift in South Africa on the "other" side of the road and shifting gears with my left hand I rented an automatic transmisison car when I did my 2024 Road Trip in the UK. That way I only had to listen to Google Maps or Waze give me directions and focus on keeping on the right side of the road and didn't have to worry about shifting gears.

My count of countries that I have driven a car in is twenty, and this is the list: Argentina, Austria, Brazil, Canada, Colombia, Czech Republic, France, Germany, Greece, Hungary, Italy, Mexico, Poland, Slovakia, Spain, South Africa, Switzerland, United Kingdom, United States, and Uruguay.

Credits

Banner image: Hackberry General Store, Hackberry, Arizona by Perla Eichenblat

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