We started 2025 by signing up for Duolingo to learn a little French for a summer road trip to Quebec. As usual, we ended up going way farther than expected — covering 9,178 miles (14,770 km) from our home in Florida, all the way through…
As we started planning a 3-week trip to Iceland for our anniversary last year, one of the first things we saw repeated on the internet again and again was, “Iceland is EXPENSIVE.” But as notoriously frugal travelers, we decided to interpret that warning as a…
For the last few years, my Instagram feed has been peppered with beautiful images of Iceland — from its coastline of black sand beaches to its countless cascading waterfalls. Of course, the most alluring images of all were those of the colorful Northern Lights dancing…
This summer, we set our sights on someplace new: Canada! Okay, okay, we’ve definitely been to Canada before, but we’ve never visited its Atlantic coast. As we crossed the border from Maine into New Brunswick, we headed south for Fundy National Park, which lies alongside…
International travel forces you to rethink some things that you’ve probably taken for granted your entire life — from getting money out of an ATM to parking your car or even installing an app on your phone. Just when you think you’ve got it all…
Our first experience with Australia — besides watching Crocodile Hunter when we were kids — was making friends with a classmate from Western Australia at our high school. From the stories he told with a heavy accent in TV production class to the pictures of…
Last year, we picked a country off our wishlist and booked a flight. We weren’t a part of an exchange student program or a research project. We didn’t have a work visa or a job offer. We were just randomly going on vacation…for three months.…
Yesterday, the gorgeous seaside views grew distant as we said goodbye to the South Coast and headed inland to experience the eucalypt forests of Western Australia. From our Airbnb in Albany, it took about an hour and a half to drive across some hilly farmland…
We’re about a month into our three-month trip across Australia, and we’ve been buying iced lattes from McDonald’s (or “Macca’s,” as Aussies call it) almost every day. That’s not exactly one of our best hacks for making long-term travel cheap, but it’s the truth. We’re…
A few weeks ago, I walked into Chase Bank in Florida and asked to withdraw cash from my checking account in the form of Australian dollars for an upcoming trip. The branch manager smiled and quoted me a currency exchange rate that was seven percent…
Last year, we planned to go to as many Canadian National Parks as possible on a summer road trip — and failed miserably. Strict COVID testing requirements combined with an overwhelmed healthcare system at the Montana-Alberta border stopped us dead in our tracks, diverting most…
As we were shutting the door on one chapter of our lives — college — we were opening another without fully realizing it. Our graduation ceremonies were held the first weekend in May of 2012. The following Monday, we buckled into our 2005 Honda Civic…
In a split second, my stomach leapt into my throat as we landed hard in a pothole — KA-DUNK! I looked over at Lauren, whose mouth was agape, then grinned and flashed her a thumbs up. We both burst into laughter as we cursed the…
