Hey there,
Welcome to my little corner of the web!
My name is Vanda Mendonça and I’m a journalist turned yoga teacher turned travel blogger.
My story
Born and raised in Terceira, a small island of the Azores archipelago, Portugal, I dream about exploring the world since I was a little girl.
After finishing high school, I finally moved to Lisbon to study journalism and live in a big city.
Four years later, I completed my bachelor’s degree and, after a short internship in Porto, found a job as a journalist back in my homeland.
Everything seemed to be going according to plan: I was working in my chosen career, I had a paycheck at the end of the month, and I even got to travel a couple of times a year.
Except I wasn’t happy.
I remember sitting on my work desk, looking out of the window and thinking: “There’s a whole world out there to explore! What the heck am I doing here?”
It may sound like a cliché, but I felt I was dying on the inside, trapped in a job and a place that didn’t feed my soul.
It was around this time that I found yoga and started attending regular classes.
I continued working as a journalist for several years, in print publications and radio, before I finally decided to change my life: I moved to Lisbon for the second time, started a yoga teacher training program, and became a full-time yoga teacher.
Fast forward to June 2013, I left Lisbon for Zurich to follow love and my own dreams: discovering the world and my true self.
Since moving to Switzerland, I have traveled extensively around Europe and the world and continued my yoga journey of self-discovery, which led me to reinvent my life once again and create my dream career as a travel blogger.
And that, kids, is how The Yogi Wanderer was born!
After 10 years as an expat in Switzerland, I now travel the world full-time as a digital nomad, with 26 countries and 4 continents under my belt and counting.
The Yogi Wanderer
Combining my passions for writing, traveling, and yoga, The Yogi Wanderer is a wellness travel website offering yoga-friendly travel advice for the mindful traveler.
Here, and across my social media channels, you can find detailed travel guides and itineraries + free yoga resources that will help you explore the world and your true self one mindful experience at a time.
Check out my yoga page for the best yoga and wellness destinations, retreats, experiences, gear, and tips.
Or explore by destination and let me inspire your wanderlust!