For a guy with all of the trappings of middle class life and the responsibility that entails, I’ve traveled a lot! I’ve managed this within the constraints of limited vacation days and a reasonably tight budget through travel hacking. As of January 2019, I’m traveling with a young kid. A lot of friends have suggested that now that I have a daughter my adventurous travel ways are behind me. I aim to pack the kid and prove them wrong. The goal of this blog is to share my travel stories and encourage others to think outside the box and find ways to explore the world on the cheap.
To date I have visited 100 countries and territories along with 90% of the US states. By my late 20’s I had traveled to all six inhabited continents, studied abroad in Italy, worked in Japan and Mongolia, and undertaken a master’s program in Canada. Following graduate school, I landed a job as a remote contractor which allowed me to travel the world while living out of hostels and working from my computer. At 29, I decided that it was time to set some roots so I settled in Nashville. I traded in the life of a digital nomad for a desk job, met and married the girl of my dreams, and became domesticated. Kind of.
In reality I’ve just adapted by using travel hacking techniques. Today I visit an expanding array of exotic locations on trips that are brief enough to avoid inconveniencing my employer. Heck, my wife and I got engaged while camping in the Namibian desert, celebrated our honeymoon with mountain gorillas and a lava lake in the war-torn Democratic Republic of the Congo, and kicked off our second year of marriage on the extremely remote island of Pohnpei in the Federated States of Micronesia. While we are always careful with our travel budget, we do get a taste of luxury from time to time. In 2018 we used the points from a single credit card signup to fly to Croatia for a friend’s wedding. We returned, champagne glasses in hand, via “Delta One” on an award ticket.
In 2019 and beyond we aim to pack the kid and keep up the momentum. It’s all about adapting, this time to the logistics of traveling with a child in tow. Follow along and find inspiration and logistical advice on expanding your world through travel hacking. No mass tourism or dorm bunks required.