Daia Larie is a fashion and travel enthusiast from Los Angeles. The free spirit began her travel journey with a limited amount of cash but a limitless desire to follow her passion. After traveling to 21 countries, meeting dozens of new people and embracing several different cultures, Larie started a blog to share her experiences with others. The millennial globetrotter created her own travel retreat company, Discover Life Retreats to encourage her peers to see the world and never to let fear hold them back from reaching their goals.
How did you get your start as a blogger?
In 2017, when I was 20 years old, I decided I wanted to travel the world for one year. I decided to quit my job, give away my car, move out of my place and sell all of my belongings. After three months, I bought a camera and started taking pictures and sharing my experiences to help others who wanted to travel but didn’t know where to start. I wrote about my relatable experiences, running out of money and staying in hostels, and how even though I was a solo traveler I never felt alone.
How did you start your travel retreat company?
While I spent my time traveling, people on social media would always tell me they wanted to travel with me or wanted to learn how I did it. They sparked this idea that I could bring my followers with me on one-week trips around the world. I would be able to share my experiences firsthand, teach them how to become bloggers, teach them photography and how to travel affordably.
What sets your travel retreat company aside from travel agencies?
Discover Life Retreats is a community of aspiring travelers or bloggers that all come together to create new friendships and experiences. During the retreats, you learn how to accomplish your travel and business goals, travel planning skills, Instagram marketing, and photography. It is like a networking conference while immersing yourself in nature, visiting beautiful beaches and exploring different countries. Discover Life Retreats is so much more than just another travel agency trip. I want to help people to see the world and grow in their passion.
Why do you feel that millennials should experience travel?
The world is a big and beautiful place filled with incredible experiences, fantastic views and amazing people. It makes you fall in love with the world around you and gives you a new appreciation for life because you see the different ways other people live. It’s so important to travel, and I think if you have anywhere in the world you want to go, you should buy the ticket. Many people use time and money as an excuse not to travel, but there are so many ways to travel for free. You will never have enough time, so I would recommend [that you] go for it and never let fear get in the way of doing what you want.
What has been your favorite travel destination and why?
My favorite destination is Bali. Bali gives you everything you would want from a trip. Of course, you go there and see volcanoes, waterfalls, oceans, and rice fields, but when you look outside the tourist hubs there is so much more. You can see the pure and untouched parts of the island. You see local people with colorful bands on their waist and rice and flowers in hand as they gather together for a traditional ceremony. You can see kids playing with kites in the fields, offerings on every doorstep, chickens roaming the streets, and genuine people that treat strangers like family. I appreciate the simple life that people live there. They don’t have luxurious lives with expensive cars, designer clothes, or a big fancy house, but what a lot of people have in common is happiness, simplicity and pure gratitude for their lives.
What has traveling the world taught you about yourself?
Traveling has saved my life in ways that I could never admit. Traveling has taught me how to be fearless and how to find joy in the unknown. It’s forced me to push myself to face my fears, feel uncomfortable, lonely, and do things I’m scared of. I love the feeling of jumping on a flight that I just booked the day before, without a plan, money or excuse.
Traveling has helped me understand that different things happen in your life to help you grow. Life won’t always go as planned. Why waste so much of your life planning when change is such a beautiful thing?
