Meet the Creators Dropping the Filter on Beyond the Grid 2.0
Travel Looks Perfect on Instagram. Real Travel Doesn’t.
Golden sunsets. Perfect outfits. Dream itineraries. Swipe after swipe, travel content has become a highlight reel so polished it barely resembles reality. Missed connections, wrong turns, budget disasters, the moments that actually make a trip – these rarely make the grid.
That is exactly why Beyond the Grid exists.
BTG 2.0 by Alike is back – bigger, more honest, and more essential than ever. This is the show where travel creators come on board, drop the filter, and talk about the stories that never make it to their feed. The chaos, the lessons, the laughter, and the raw, unscripted truth behind a life built around travel.
In this episode, we bring together three creators from three different corners of the world – each with a completely different way of seeing travel, storytelling, and the world itself. Here is who they are, and why you will not want to miss what they have to say.
Watch recorded LIVE here.
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The Creators
This episode of Beyond the Grid brings together a fashion-forward traveller from Dubai, a slow travel advocate based in Germany who has visited 68 countries, and a Nigerian creator rewriting the rules of what African passport travel looks like. Three stories. One conversation. Nothing filtered.
Amaka Amaku – The Creator Redefining What Travel Looks Like on an African Passport
| Amaka Amaku@the_Amaka · Lagos, Nigeria · Barcelona, Spain“I have visited 30 countries on a Nigerian passport – I keep adding that detail because it is super difficult to travel from Nigeria.”Amaka is a travel and lifestyle content creator based between Lagos and Barcelona, where she is currently completing an executive MBA. She leads social media at Flutterwave, one of Africa's largest fintech unicorns – which means she knows a thing or two about doing more with less. Thirty countries visited. More in the pipeline. And every single one of them reached with a passport that most of the world makes harder to use. |
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What makes Amaka’s perspective genuinely different is not just where she has been. It is how she gets there. Visa denials. Complex applications. Elevated scrutiny at every border. Things that never show up in the typical travel creator’s content. Amaka talks about them openly – and in doing so, she has built a community that finally feels seen.
She describes herself as a value traveller. When she goes to Europe, she strings together six or seven countries in one trip – because the visa, the cost, and the logistics demand a certain kind of efficiency that turns every journey into a masterclass in planning.
What to expect from Amaka on BTG 2.0: The honest story of getting her first Schengen visa. Why travelling on an African passport is a different sport entirely. And the one thing she has learned that every traveller – regardless of passport – needs to hear.
Inna Weyrauch – The Slow Traveller Who Has Been to 68 Countries and Still Says She’s Just Getting Started
| Inna Weyrauch@petitefilleenvoyage · Wiesbaden, Germany“My husband would say I’ve learned to slow down – because left to myself, I want to see everything.”Inna is the creator behind Petite Fille en Voyage – a travel platform built on beautiful stays, cultural depth, and the honest reality behind every trip. Based in Germany and working full-time in corporate, she has visited 68 countries, with a focus on Europe. Her content blends elegant photography with a sharp, self-aware sense of humour – and a perspective on travel that has genuinely evolved over the years. |
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Sixty-eight countries. Full-time corporate job. A husband who will confirm she has only recently learned the meaning of the word ‘slow’. Inna is the kind of traveller who wakes up at sunrise to walk St. Mark’s Square before the crowds arrive, then quietly observes how the rest of the world rushes through it in two hours on their way to the next destination.
She is not judgmental about how other people travel – she is honest about what gets lost when we treat countries like checkboxes. She has visited Italy more than twenty times and says there is still so much she has not seen. That is the lens she brings to every conversation about travel.
What to expect from Inna on BTG 2.0: Why Venice deserves more than a day trip. The one habit that immediately tells her someone is travelling for Instagram rather than experience. And her best tips for European travel – including destinations most people overlook entirely.
Mahmoud Gamal (Kiko) – Dubai’s Best Fashion Influencer Is Coming to Tell You the Truth About Travel Content
| Mahmoud Gamal – known as Kiko@kikodubai · Dubai, UAE“Every city has a different mood, a different vibe. You can't wear the same thing everywhere.”Mahmoud – better known as Kiko – is a Dubai-based content creator, marketing manager for an automotive brand, and the winner of Dubai’s Best Fashion Influencer 2024. Born in Egypt, living in Dubai for eight years, and currently in the middle of booking five new countries on top of the eleven he has already visited, Kiko brings fashion, lifestyle, and travel storytelling together in a way that is entirely his own. |
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Kiko’s approach to travel content starts before he even lands. Each destination gets its own mood board, its own colour palette, its own wardrobe. For Kiko, fashion is not separate from travel storytelling – it is the language through which he tells it. The outfits change because the stories change.
He is also the most practically honest voice in the room when it comes to travel planning. His advice is simple, direct, and something most travel accounts will never tell you: stop asking ChatGPT for restaurant recommendations and start asking the locals. It will cost you nothing. The alternative might cost you the trip.
What to expect from Kiko on BTG 2.0: The secret behind turning travel into fashion storytelling. Why every destination deserves its own wardrobe. And the one piece of advice that will immediately make your next trip better.
Travel has better stories than your feed shows.
Explore creators who tell them honestly — and plan your next trip with the people who've actually been there.
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Why this episode of BTG matters
Travel content has a sameness problem. The same destinations. The same angles. The same golden-hour shot in front of the same landmark. It is beautiful, and it is everywhere, and it tells you almost nothing about what it actually feels like to travel.
Beyond the Grid 2.0 is a correction to that. Amaka brings the perspective of a traveller who has had to fight for every stamp in her passport. Inna brings the perspective of someone who has seen 68 countries and still believes we are all moving too fast. Kiko brings the perspective of a creator who understands that the way you show up to a destination is part of the story.
Three very different journeys. One shared belief: the best travel stories are the ones that never make the grid.
About Beyond the Grid
Beyond the Grid is Alike’s creator series where real travellers talk about real travel – the missed flights, the wrong turns, the visa nightmares, and the moments that never made the feed. Hosted by Akash and Sneha, BTG brings together voices from across the world to have the conversations that travel content usually avoids.
