I’m back, I’m back! After moving from London to Amsterdam, things got a bit hectic in the past two months, but I’m finally up and running again, creating lots of new articles and videos for The Travel Tester. Are you ready to see some of the adventures I had in the past few weeks?
When I was browsing my video files, there was one experience that brought back the best memories and so that’s the one I’ll tell you about first… my INSANE helicopter ride above the city of Trento in the Trentino region of Italy!
If you want to know more about this and see the video I made, keep on reading…
BUCKET LIST EXPERIENCE: HELICOPTER RIDE ITALY
WHY FLYING A HELICOPTER?
Me and a bunch of my blogger friends were invited during the Traverse blogging conference in Trento, Italy to go on a helicopter ride over the city. That alone sounded amazing, so I was incredibly lucky to get onto this tour, as there were only 10 seats in total up for grabs to almost 400 attending / speaking bloggers!
Some of us had done a helicopter flight before, including me (once over the Great Ocean Road in Australia back in 2006 on my first ever solo trip and one in Innsbruck, Austria during another blogging conference in 2017), so we were all excited, but not particularly scared or anything like that because usually, these rides are super chilled and smooth.
Usually.
Well… Not this time!
WELL, THAT ESCALATED QUICKLY…
It seemed our pilot soon realized that we arrived at the small airport to get some good shots of the experience for our blog and social media channels, so seconds after take-off, he lifted the helicopter straight into the air, only to have it plummet nose down first back to the ground.
OH MY GOD.
We screamed so hard and it really felt like we were flying all around the cabin.
You know that feeling you get at the top of a roller coaster, just before you go down again, where it feels you’re being lifted out of your seat into the air and all your organs are floating around? Yup – it was like this several times during the flight, haha.
The video you can see below doesn’t quite show you just how steep we flew, but I hope you get a bit of an impression of how unreal my job sometimes is and what this flight was like.
These are the moments I absolutely love being a full-time travel blogger and getting these opportunities. Very rewarding and definitely also a bit humbling, as I know many people wanted to do this flight and only a few people got selected.
>> SUBSCRIBE TO MY YOUTUBE CHANNEL >>
WATCH THE VIDEO
>> Watch the video on YouTube >>
Keep on reading to find out who all the other bloggers on this flight were!
WOULD I DO THIS AGAIN?
This was so much fun!
Definitely a bucket list item ticked off the list again and I can highly recommend doing a helicopter ride yourself one day if you get the chance (you’ll probably get a smoother ride than we did, but don’t quote me on that).
What I would say is to be smart and don’t drink the night before, like someone on our trip (see the video to know what I mean), so you can go into the experience as fresh as possible.
If you are looking to film or photograph the experience, I would recommend to keep things simple and to pick one camera with one lens to work with. The entire flight was just 10 minutes, and you want to look and take things in as well, so don’t waste it having to change lenses or anything like that.
I regretted that I also took some footage on my phone to share on social media (the crappy looking bits in the video), as I should have just shot everything on my good camera and work with that. Lesson learned!
I have many more videos and stories from my travels to Italy, but also from Antigua, Portugal and Spain coming up, so stay tuned for more!
If you’re also interested to hear more about my move to Amsterdam, get a further glimpse into the behind-the-scenes of life as a full-time travel blogger and are a bit of a space geek perhaps, make sure to check out my YouTube channel, where I post weekly videos. They usually come out on Thursday (if usually means: I think about making a video on Thursday and then actually post it on Fridays – I’m working on that, haha!)
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MY VIDEO GEAR LIST
If you are curious about what gear I use to shoot and edit my videos and if you would like to check out all the channels of the bloggers / videomakers that were on this little adventure with me, please check out the links below:
Camera: Sony A5100 – https://amzn.to/2HY6wqj*
Microphone: Rode SmartLav+ – https://amzn.to/2UIPrCc*
Lighting: Rotolight RL48 Interview Kit – https://amzn.to/2Gwg4GQ*
Lighton: Rotolight Portable Stand – https://amzn.to/2TBpyUQ*
Tripod: Manfrotto Compact Advanced – https://amzn.to/2SuQQir*
Handheld Tripod: JOBY GorillaPod – https://amzn.to/2SgE1sE*
Editing Software: Adobe Premiere Pro – https://amzn.to/2tjzGpT*
*These are affiliate links. I get a small commission if you order anything through these links, but this will cost you nothing extra
TRENTINO ITALY HELICOPTER TOURS
The website of the company of this helicopter tour Italy can be found here:
OTHER BLOGGERS IN THIS VIDEO
HELICOPTER 1
Nellie – www.youtube.com/channel/UC3dMzJwDjj8npFK06ruXppQ
(check her helicopter video – 02:44)
Greg – www.youtube.com/user/Gregorsnell
Cailin – www.youtube.com/user/TravelYourself
Brendan – www.youtube.com/user/bvans890
(check his helicopter video – 02:02)
Jodie – www.youtube.com/user/alajode
HELICOPTER 2
Karl – www.youtube.com/user/karlwatson18
Shu – www.youtube.com/user/shulikesclothes
(check her helicopter video – 07:08)
Phil – www.instagram.com/photoammon
Michael – www.youtube.com/channel/UCLi0tnnxNwrs2dpMT0s07Mw
and myself of course!
TRENTINO TOUR SUGGESTIONS
- Discovering The Moon-like Landscape Of Piramidi Di Segonzano Trento, Italy
- Discover The Hidden Mines In Trentino, Italy
DISCLAIMER
I was a guest of Visit Trentino as part of the #Traverse19 Blogging Conference. All opinions and screams were 100% my own!
Footage of that last epic clip was shot and edited by Michael from London Viewpoints, go check his work out on Instagram & YouTube – he is an incredible creator!
