Aneta & Lukas story: „Traveling is not only about experiencing new cultures, it is about learning the true face of the person you are traveling with.“

Their story began with a shared passion for travel and a desire to capture moments that transcend time. Inspired by a well-known Portuguese couple on Instagram, they embarked on a mission to redefine couples’ travel photography in Lithuania.
With determination and dedication, they honed their skills, underwent courses, and set out to create captivating content that inspires others to explore the world with their loved ones. From quaint cobblestone streets to breathtaking landscapes, Aneta & Lukas invite you to join them on their “dates” around the globe.
Today, they stand at the intersection of creativity and wanderlust, with nearly 35k followers joining them on their journey. Through their lens, they share not just destinations, but stories of love, adventure, and breaking stereotypes.

Tell us your story.

We always liked to travel, and when we traveled, we took pictures. However, we didn’t waste a lot of time on them – you find an angle, set up, take a shot, and move on. We also liked to take couple pictures, but we didn’t always like how other people took pictures of us.

One day, I came across a “couple travel” profile on Instagram of a well-known Portuguese couple. Together, we started following them and their journey, and the thought of doing something similar was already forming in our heads. We have always dreamed of traveling. Additionally, the idea of creating memories together by capturing them in photos occurred to us. However, no one in Lithuania had done something similar so far. Yes, there are journalists and other famous travelers, but nobody had ever taken couples’ travel photos. This was an additional motivation to get out of our comfort zone and start doing something Lithuania hadn’t seen before.

We went through several courses: Instagram, editing, posing, branding, etc. We took the task seriously and even set a goal of making our first collaboration by the end of the year. That’s how we started creating so-called “dates” in different corners of the world, encouraging people to travel with their loved ones, to break stereotypes, and to go out of their comfort zones.

After more than a year and a half, we are where we are: we started traveling much more than before (last year we visited 11 different cities). We create content that inspires people around the world and reaches millions of people from different countries. We have almost 35k followers and collaborations with hotels and various brands.

What did your life look like before, and why did you decide to change it?

We were normal people trying somehow to build our lives. We traveled twice a year: once on a vacation to warm destinations, and the second time somewhere for a city break. Well, we were those meme heroes, where people become influencers when they come back once a year on Instagram stories, uploading snapshots of their travels.
Besides, we never liked living according to some socially dictated templates. “At 25 you have to get engaged, at 26 have a wedding, build a house and have a baby at 27.” That’s not for us. As long as we are young, don’t have children, can work, make plans, and travel, we should take advantage of that. We need to try new things, make mistakes, learn from them, and live the way we want to live, not the way society or family expects us to live.

We had a lot of dreams, and one of them we decided to realize.

What were the biggest lessons you learned on the trip, and what did you understand about yourself?

The biggest and best lesson: get up early, with the sunrise. Yes, you may not go to some cool bar or spend the night in a club, but you will get up early and have the opportunity to see the authenticity of the place. Sunrise at the Colosseum in Rome? Yes, please. An empty Montmartre with just you and the birds walking around? Yes, please. The magic of Fisherman’s Bastion while admiring the sunrise over the Hungarian Parliament? Yes, why not? Even if we have to get up at 4:30, we do it. Because that’s the only time you can experience the city at its best, understand its beauty, and romanticize life.

About romanticizing life: everyone needs to go on a trip with their partner. Why? Because on a trip, you get to know your other half best. When you travel, you understand if you can trust the other person in stressful and unusual situations. Do you feel the same vibe when traveling? When you return from a trip, do you feel more in love and rested, or frustrated and saying you will never travel together again? Traveling is not only about experiencing new cultures, it is about learning the true face of the person you are traveling with.

Do you feel your life has turned out differently than you previously thought? Have you found yourself different from what you always thought?

Getting out of your comfort zone is the best thing that could have happened. A lot of people don’t understand you and criticize you. However, it makes you stronger. You gain strength and pursue your goals no matter what.

Our relationship has become stronger. We stopped arguing so often, especially about small things. Is it possible to fall in love with another person more strongly? It is possible. All you have to do is change your environment more often by traveling and working on a project together, which at the same time is your future.

If you could go back to the beginning, what would you do differently?

We would have started earlier. We wasted a lot of time looking for excuses. “We don’t have enough pictures.” “We have to go to some tourist city first.” We wasted quite a lot of time preparing and then making excuses to delay the start time. We were too concerned about what others would say. However, today, we see that we didn’t need to worry so much and bother ourselves with unnecessary thoughts. Because only when we started Instagram did it become clear that everything goes easier and cooler than we thought./p>

If someone is secretly dreaming about the lifestyle you are living now, what would you tell them?

Tomorrow is yours. Believe in yourself. Never stop investing in yourself and your self-development. Don’t listen to what others say. Get rid of stereotypes and social beliefs. It’s your life, and it’s only up to you to live it the way you want to live it.

Get out of your comfort zone. Fall down and get back up. But always reach your goal. Be consistent. In the beginning, focus on quantity, not quality, because you will learn quality over time. It will be hard, but don’t make excuses; keep moving forward. Find a community to support each other, because it’s always easier when you can share your thoughts and experiences with someone.

Invest in yourself and in self-development. Don’t quit your job and start traveling if you are not prepared to do so. First, there must be a plan and some financial cushion, and only then are you ready for action. Spontaneous things are nice, but they don’t work in travel. Otherwise, you might spend a lot of money, not try all the local dishes and activities, and come back home without much satisfaction.

Is it scary to go on the adventure of a lifetime?

Of course. I don’t think there are any people who aren’t afraid of something. We’re afraid, too. Actually, it’s not like you travel, take nice pictures in a second, and then share them on Instagram. In fact, there’s a lot of work behind it: you have to create a whole plan, find places where you’re going to take pictures, choose outfits, find angles, and think of poses. Then you take 200-300 photos in one spot and choose only 2-3. Then you have to edit these photos, write captions for them, pick hashtags, and put them in a grid. Then you answer comments and questions from your followers. Besides, you must not only keep your Instagram in mind but also enjoy the moment and admire different places in the world because, first of all, we travel to see something. We are afraid that due to the fact that we have to create content, we will stop admiring the charm that travel gives. However, for now, we are dealing with it well; we are able to plan our day in such a way that we can create as much content as possible and see as much as we can in a particular city.

Of course, we are afraid that in the end, all this will turn out to be for nothing. That we won’t be interesting to anyone and that no one will want to follow us. However, we took the risk and knew what we were getting into.

Living the way you do, what was the hardest thing in this whole experience?

Not losing yourself and being authentic. There is often a temptation to copy someone else’s lifestyle. However, if we can’t afford an expensive hotel, we don’t stay there when we travel. That’s why it’s important to develop your own style and stick to it.

There is another side of the coin—if something is not right, it is necessary to look for the reason and try to change certain things, which is very difficult. However, if you want to be interesting to other people who are following you, you have to meet their expectations and create the kind of content that they like.

It was difficult not to give up halfway. You travel, take cool pictures, and your reels are viewed by a thousand people at most. Your photo gets 70 likes, and the number of followers is not growing. However, even today, there is a lot of room for travel content creators on social media because there are still many places that are undiscovered. There are still people who dream of the kind of photos we have. And that’s the reason why we didn’t give up (although we had such thoughts sometimes) and continued our journey.

What are the first steps in preparation?

If you’re planning to start a blog, Instagram, TikTok, or appear on another platform: start by learning. Today, it’s not just about uploading a photo and waiting for it to go viral. You need to know how social media works, what appeals to your audience, and how to use it.

Define your niche: are you couple travel, luxury travel, solo travel, budget travel, or something else? Defining your niche will help you reach your target audience.

When you plan to go on a trip and know that you will be creating content during the trip, first look for information from travel niche bloggers on what to visit in the city. Mark it all on a map and buy tickets in advance. Find restaurants and cafes worth going to and make reservations.

Choose places where you will create content. Make a schedule: start by listing the places where you will create content that day, and then complete the day with activities, sightseeing, and restaurants.

Most importantly, always have fun while creating content. Take things easy. Never be sad if something doesn’t work out. Remember that what you do, you do first and foremost for yourself.

What are your next steps? Is there any adventure you are planning?

We started on Instagram and now plan to start a blog where we will share what we are looking for ourselves: practical travel tips. We already have several trips planned this year, and next year we plan to visit Portugal—probably the farthest corner of Europe.

We also plan to help other people who want to travel but don’t have time to make plans. For them, we will offer special maps, a kind of ready-to-use plan, where they will find what to see, where to eat, and where to take pictures in the city they visit.

We dream of traveling to Morocco, Venezuela, Georgia, and Azerbaijan. For now, we are finishing exploring Europe, and later, we plan to travel outside it. Where? You can find out on our Instagram.
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You can follow Aneta & Lukas adventure on :

Instagram: @dreamdaters