About FTT
Enter my world.
I love to travel. Part of that passion is to take snapshots 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 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 Wikipedian. I am a certified volunteer of the Cultural Heritage Mapping project of Wikimedia Foundation, supported by the National Commission for Culture and the Arts.
I’m an advocate. I have served as a full-time staff to organizations like Habitat for Humanity Philippines (I was also assigned to Indonesia for seven months!) and Hands On Manila (where I had the opportunity to participate in the 2009 National Conference on Volunteering and Service held in San Francisco, California, USA). Then, I became the Executive Director of the Dr Pablo O. Torre Foundation, Inc. (DPOTFI) based in Bacolod City, Philippines.
I’m a PR practitioner. My public relations stints were in one of the leading PR agencies in the country, in a five-star hotel, and in a major publishing company. I love to promote good things, such as the beauty of my country.
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 organization and had the opportunity to go to various countries.
I have covered only a small part of our planet. 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 cultures, I also enjoy taking pictures and writing about my adventures.
This travel blog was created to share with first-time travelers my own experiences. 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 own thoughts, experiences and observations. No article or part of my articles may be copied, reprinted, republished or used without prior permission from the blog owner. Credits have to be provided if, and only if, permission is granted. The phrase [Source: https://firsttimetravels.com] must appear after the quoted part.
Photos in this site (which includes all my pages and blog posts) are owned by this author. Photos may not be used without prior permission from the blog owner. Once permission is obtained, proper credits should be provided [Photo by Claire Algarme of https://firsttimetravels.com].
You may e-mail me at firsttimetravel@hotmail.com or direct message me at http://twitter.com/firsttimetravel for inquiries or offers for collaboration or sponsored branded content. You can also visit my Facebook fan page at http://www.facebook.com/firsttimetravel. Check my photos at http://instagram.com/firsttimetravelsblog.
I was part of the now-defunct Lonely Planet Blogsherpa program in 2009, 2010 and 2011.
I was one of the 12 finalists in the Medical Tourism Blog Contest of the Tourism Authority of Thailand in 2010. I was one of the three bloggers who won an all-expense trip to Auckland, New Zealand through Globe Telecom’s #Wonderful Blog Contest in 2016. I was one of the 30 bloggers who made it to the cast of the Kerala Blog Express Season 4 of the Kerala Tourism Office in India in 2017.
I do freelance writing (yes, you can e-mail me for projects). I was a Senior Writer in Biz Events Asia and a columnist of Sun.Star Bacolod. Some of my write-ups that saw print:
Smile Magazine Aug/Sept. 07
Bayang Magiliw Magazine Aug-Sept. 2009
Roam Magazine Issue 3, 2010
Pilipinas Magazine maiden issue 2014. This is distributed in Bahrain.
My story was on our volunteer trip to Tacloban.
A warm welcome from my editors in micenet Asia. Thank you for getting me as your Senior Writer.
My first article in micenet Asia (now Biz Events Asia).
My first article in my Sun Star Bacolod column.
44 thoughts on “About FTT”
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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!
Thanks Lauren! I like your blog as well. 🙂
By the way, I included your site in my blog roll. Thanks so much!
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
Hi! You can link this blog to your site. Let me know when it’s up. Thanks!
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
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
I sure do this blog will be an inspiration to other people as I do, thanks for posting, More Power and GB
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
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!
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.
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 🙂
i didn’t know you have a wp account too! care to exchange links? happy travelin’!
Sure! I like your blog. 🙂 Thanks for visiting.
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
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
Have added your great Blog to ours, here in the UK. http://www.philippinetrails.com/blog.html
I checked your blog. It’s cool! I’ll add this in my travel links page. 🙂
Claire,
Your site is great! It’s nice to have some blogsherpa representation from the Philippines.
Jason (AlpacaSuitcase)
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. 🙂
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
I have added your link to my Travel Links page already. You are under the Travel Resources category. 🙂 Thanks Dave!
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
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!
Really awesome blog. Congrats on your SITS Day!
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
Hi Laurie,
Great of you to find my blog. 🙂 Welcome to my site and hope you drop by here once in awhile.
Claire
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
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!
Hi Claire,
I just want to congratulate you for your fantastic site.
Enjoy where it may bring you as you make others enjoy
where you bring them!!!
Hugs!
Koleen
Thanks Ko for visiting my site. 🙂
Hi Claire,
Really nice read, enjoy talaga basahin. May you have more journeys to come, not just in other lands, but inner voyages as well.
Thanks Gerald! How are you doing now?
Hi there,
I’m working for the online accommodation company Wimdu and we are looking for some additional online exposure. Let me know if this sounds appealing, and we can discuss the exact details of a possible mutually cooperative project.
All the best,
Daniel.
Ate Claire! 🙂 I love your blog!!! 🙂 I enjoy reading it a lot! Such a great help! 🙂
Thanks Mury! I have more stories to post1 Watch out for them. 🙂
hi po, ask ko lang po if tunay or legit ung calamian island tours? friendly and accomodating ba?
ok po ba ang calamian island travel and tours?
Yes, we booked through them & their service is good.
Hello Claire,
So proud to have known this site you’ve made, 🙂 awesome .
By going through this, i hope to share some of my travels as well, even some important experiences for those visiting the country, thank you so much once more.
jdl
Thank you for visiting my site. I look forward to your travel stories, too!
You created a niche w/in a niche… it set your blog apart bec. first time travellers will be able to relate. Enjoy your journey!
“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 had set foot on a place for the first time.”
It’s nice to see another amazing travel blog to follow 🙂 sent you a twitter message ma’am claire.. hope you saw it.