Twenty-five years of media experience behind it, and the search rankings to prove it — that’s most of what you need to know about this site before you start reading.

I built ElysPlanet on the archive and audience of two blogs — ElysPlanet, which goes back to 2005, and TravelMore, which came after — fused back into one home. What you’ll find here splits into three lanes:

Elsewhere — travel stories based on actual, lived experience. Narrative essays anchored in a place and its socio-economic trade-offs, rather than a straight itinerary, paired with the Economist Traveler video series on YouTube, where the same trips get told again in a different medium. I call it Elsewhere instead of Travel on purpose — the point was never the packing list, it’s what the place is actually about.

Culture — entertainment for people who still read magazines, not just scroll past them. Real stories, given the space and the angle they deserve. Pageant profiles, personality pieces, entertainment news, arts, food culture, internet phenomena, and financial behavior coverage — the people side of things, not the objects.

Lifestyle — the things and tools in between. Phones and gadgets, home appliances, cars, clothing and fashion, and the everyday objects that don’t quite belong to a person’s story or a place’s story but shape both anyway. Same standard as the rest of the site: real experience, real opinion, no spec-sheet filler.

Elsewhere looks outward — place, geography, going somewhere else. Culture looks inward — people, identity, what everyone’s watching and talking about. Lifestyle sits in between — the things that make both possible. Three words, three directions, one site.

One story gets the spotlight on the homepage at a time.

Who’s Behind It

I’m Ely Valendez — journalist since 2001, blogger since 2005, and back to pairing the written word with video again after a decade spent in financial consultancy and wealth planning. If you’ve followed ElysPlanet from the beginning, welcome back — and if this is your first time here, welcome in.

Work With Us

ElysPlanet is open to brand partnerships across all three lanes: review units for phones, gadgets, and appliances, loaner vehicles, product launches, travel collaborations, and event invites. Anything a brand provides is disclosed in the piece itself, and the verdict stays mine.

Media and Talent Agency

Twenty-five years in media builds more than an archive. It builds a network. Through ElysPlanet’s media and talent arm, we help brands take a campaign beyond our own pages:

• Media lists: curated press contacts across entertainment, lifestyle, travel, tech, and business, matched to what you’re launching and who you need to reach.
• KOL campaigns: a roster of key opinion leaders (KOLs), the creators and personalities whose audiences actually listen to them, cast to fit your brand, briefed on your message, and coordinated from launch to the last post.

Whether it’s a product launch, a press event, or a full influencer push, we can put the right people in the room and the right voices online.

Agency work runs separately from ElysPlanet’s editorial coverage. A campaign doesn’t buy a review, and anything on these pages that involves a brand is still disclosed.

Get in Touch

For partnerships, campaigns, media lists, KOL bookings, collaborations, and event invites: elyvalendez[at]gmail[dot]com. Watch the companion video series: youtube.com/@elyvalendez.