How it all began…
We met at Colorado State University in 2018, but didn’t start dating until we left college a few years later. Drew moved to Denver in 2020 and began his career as a car salesman, and Isabelle followed a year later, working as a tech recruiter. We were at this point in our careers, where we started to ask ourselves seriously,
“What’s the next step? Move in together? Get married? Buy a house?”
These questions were so normal, but we were never interested in normal. Instead, we had a longing to travel. We watched some of the most inspiring YouTubers do it – so why couldn’t we try?
One morning in Spring 2023, Drew woke up and said,
“Why don’t we just save our money, rack up credit card points, & go travel for a year?”
And so we did just that. But, of course, life happens.
Just as we were saving, planning and just mentally preparing for this epic year abroad; Isabelle’s grandma suddenly passed away in Germany which complicated the plans just a bit...
We still continued on with most of the plan; in Fall 2023 we said goodbye to our friends and family, sold our cars and most of our belongings, and then packed our bags bound for… Stuttgart, Germany! We had a new condo we’d be calling our home base in between our world travels. I’ll spare you the international inheritance details.
To my Oma: we are forever grateful for the parting gift ♡
This kind-of put us in to a REALLY bizarre situation because originally, we had planned to travel for 1 year based on the budget we had created for ourselves.
But, having a home base in Germany, actually allowed us to break up our travels between multiple different continents, while also getting to come ‘home’ in between our South East Asia adventures… so instead of living out of backpacker hostels and homestays for 365 days straight, we could go to Germany in-between, see Isabelle’s family in Europe, do some of our own Europe travels and edit videos in the comforts of our little condo.
Honestly, not a bad gig.
Obviously, the past 3 years have been busy. And I’ll never be able to explain every detail of this crazy adventure we’ve been on. But I’m going to do my best to put it in to a little timeline.
Our First Round of Shenanigans in Southeast Asia 2/24-6/24
Thailand (1 week)
Vietnam (5 weeks)
Malaysia (2 weeks)
The Philippines (4 weeks)
Bali (6 weeks)
Euro Summer 6/24-9/24
Drew at the Paris Olympics (1 month)
Isabelle stays in Germany (1 month)
Scotland and the Highlands (2 weeks)
Our first time in Wales, UK (2 weeks)
Fall in Asia 10/24 - 12/24
Istanbul (3 days)
India: Delhi, Jaipur, Varanasi, Pushkar, Jaisalmer (1 month)
Northern Thailand: Chiang Mai and Chiang Rai (1 month)
Northern Vietnam: Cao Bang Provence (2 weeks)
Winter in Europe 12/24-2/25
France: Paris and Lyon for the Holidays (2 weeks)
Eastern Europe: Prague, Vienna, Bratislava, Budapest (2 weeks)
Spain: Granada, Frigiliana, Ronda, Madrid (2 weeks)
Germany: Recouping at home for a few weeks
Our First YouTube Video EVER.
We filmed it after arriving in Germany at the end of 2023. It feels wild to look back on it now, but it shares our background and offers a bit more detail about how we reached this point in our journey.
