We Quit Our Jobs and Traveled the World for a Year (Here's What Happened)

If you have been thinking of traveling differently this year, I'm talking about long-term travel or just different culturally, this is the episode for you because I sit down with my friend Alexis Delulio, who has just gotten back from one year travel around the whole world. I mean, she went through Costa Rica, Asia, South America, Europe, all over the place and really soaked up every little bit of culture that she could. And talking about this long-term travel opened up my eyes on what's possible, but it also opened up my eyes on not only the strategic parts of it, but also how it changes you as a human. So listen up and strap in for an adventure. Okay, I'm so excited to hear all about your story. And I know we've talked a little bit, but like pretend like I know nothing and you're capturing me up for the first time because I want to hear everything.

You've traveled across the entire world. I mean, insane.

And where did you start?

You started in.

So we started in Costa Rica.

And so, yeah, so Nick, my husband and I planned like 2 years ago to basically quit our job, well, 3 years ago now. Quit our jobs and travel the world for 12 months. And so we are just getting back, like literally got back to Denver on Monday and it's now Thursday. And it was a wild ride.

So yeah, we started in Costa Rica. We did our first month there. And that was kind of an odd one because my husband had gotten an offer from his job to stay another month and get a bonus. And so essentially they were paying for us to go to Costa Rica. And we had to be in the same time zone. He had to have reliable Wi-Fi, all of these things. And so, And I told him, I was like, I need to have a pool at a beach if I'm going to be somewhere for a month because I wasn't working. I already left my job.

So we started there.

It was kind of like a funny start, but it was like a great period where like he actually didn't end up working that much. I was just kind of chilling and it was like a perfect decompress from working and just coming off of our jobs. I love Costa Rica and I feel like that's like such a great area to start too because, yeah, you're right. Same time zone. And the the culture there is so amazing. The food there is so amazing. Oh my gosh, the food.

And I want to hear about the whole travel, but like, I know you've traveled to Southeast Asia, and you went to Europe and, all parts of the world. Literally, I don't, is there anywhere that you didn't touch on the map? I don't think so.

In this trip, we didn't go to Africa. Okay.

India and China would be 2 big ones that we did not do on this trip. Well, you know, I'm married to an Indian, so we can go to India together. I honestly would love that. Dying to go. So, first of all, let's back up before even talking about the story of what you did on this trip because I think it's totally epic that you just decided to, not only plan for it, you made the budget for it, you, you, you, you, you, your husband to do it. And you also like, from our last time talking, you kind of just leapt into it. Like, you had a plan, but it wasn't insanely mapped out. So, talk, give us all the details on what you thought it would cost at the beginning, like put us in the mindset of how you were before you even started the trip. Like, Were you excited?

Were you nervous?

How much did you prepare for it? How much money did you prepare for it? What were you willing to go through? Yeah. During this whole travel? Yeah.

No, I mean, they're great questions. And so, essentially how it started out was someone along the way made a comment or shared a story about someone who had done something like this and quit their jobs and traveled for a year and not just planted the seed in my head where I was like, I must do that because I felt immediately envious and I was like, that I need to do that. And so, I don't remember exactly what happened, but I feel like I probably headed home and told my husband, Nick, immediately that we're going to do this and he was like, what are you talking about? But then, you know, I looked into it more and I was like, what would something like this cost to do realistically because, you know, you and I have done travel together that was pretty low budget.

I had done that with my husband before, and it's amazing, all of the things you can see and do with not that much money. So it was like, hmm, let's just like look into it and see. And so, I started looking online, like literally a blog post of people who had done something similar before. And as you can imagine, the ranges are super wide. But what I was seeing was like $60,000 for 2 people to go around the world for a year, living on a budget but not doing everything the cheapest possible. Seemed like an okay amount. To me, that seemed low.

And I was like, the last thing I want to do is we're on the trip and we feel like we can't do the stuff we want to do or we feel like we have to come home early. And so we decided that we wanted to save $100,000 to do this for a year. That felt like that would give us cushion. We could do the stuff we wanted to do. We could stay at budget places, but not anywhere that's like scary. And have flexibility around like the agenda and how we travel from place to place and things like that. So, In order to save up that money, we couldn't go right away. Like, we didn't have 100,000 in cash just lying around. And so we saved up for 2 years and essentially every single month, put more money into a high yield savings account. And had that money sit there for right around 24 months, which was about the time we're ready to go.

And the timing also was not just financial. It was also thinking about our careers and where we wanted to be and then when we left was a really important piece. I had been at the bank I was working at for about 3 years. That would put me at 5 years when we left, which felt like a really good time from like a professional sort of growth perspective. It felt like if I left, I might still have a place there. Or I could go and have like real valuable experience, to get hired somewhere else, similar situation for my husband. So the stars were kind of aligning with the timing and the need to save up. And that's how we kind of determine, you know, when we were gonna leave. As far as the planning goes.

We are not big planners.

Well, that's like, like, let's just pause on that for a while too, because like, I think it's like, you know, It's so epic that you just decided to look up these blog posts and we're like, okay, this is doable. I've traveled before.

Like you said, you and I have traveled. We traveled to Australia together for a month and it was literally so epic. We drove in a van.

And we were staying in hostels, but you know, we also had that same mentality and Australia is also quite nice in a lot of hostels too. Yeah, but more on the expensive side and in terms of countries, but we had the best time ever. We were like camping a lot of the time and. Did you do a lot of camping on your trip too? Here and there or not really? We did.

So we had a month and a half in vans back in Australia and then also New Zealand. Yes.

And where?

In New Zealand.

So they ended up being back to back where it was like 10 days in Tasmania in a van and then the next month all around New Zealand in a van. And so we were staying at a lot of campsites and both those places have a ton of recamping. So you just pay for the van and then we committed to sleeping in the van every single night. And then you stay at free sites or it'd be like you stay in the back of a pub. It's so funny because like anyone who's done this like knows this is very much a thing. You stay in the back of like a pub or like a hotel and then it's free and then you have to just go like get a beer or like eat dinner there or something and that's how you pay for it. Yeah, I think I do.

I feel like we saw places like that where like maybe one time or something. Yeah, yeah.

So like van life, hostile life. And, you know, that's the budget we're, we're speaking of, but like, as far as, Most people, do you think they would be able to handle van life, hostile life, or do you feel like you have to be in a certain period of time? Like, do you feel like you could still go and live in hostels? Do you feel like you could still go and live in bands? Or is that kind of, you do it while you're willing to be uncomfortable? And, that, that may not be, possible for like people who, or maybe at a certain age that they expect higher standards, like, do you think it's like time independent that, that, you guys were able to do it that way, and can you see yourself doing that in the future? Yeah, I mean, honestly, it's a great question, right?

Like, we stayed at our last hostel dorm, probably 2 weeks ago now, and we're like, all right, see you never. But the thing is, the thing is, it's like, I think the question is, like, it's not like, so to be transparent, I'm 33 and so is my husband, and the thing is, you see people, like, of all ages staying at these places, right? Of course, in a hostel, it's going to be mostly younger people, but there are people in their 60s staying there. There are people in their 40s, 50s. And it's also, it's like, is it worth it to you to maybe sacrifice some comforts and stay in places that you maybe wouldn't normally stay in on a standard 2 week vacation in order to get to do something like this, like to travel long term, because for most people, there's a trade-off.

You can't stay at, you know, I don't know, the Ritz Carlton and then travel for a year at the same time, right? Like some people will spend $20,000 on a 2 week vacation. For us, I mean, $20,000 was like 2.5 3 months. Yeah, and we were doing, you know, we're eating out all the time. We're doing all the activities we want to do. It's just some of the other stuff like accommodation and where you might eat out are going to be different. Totally.

And I remember being at hostels. I mean, I've stayed, I've stayed in hostels in Australia. I've stayed in hospitals in all over Europe. I've stayed in hostels more so like village, homes in in Asia. Yeah, which is kind of their version of hostels. And there's definitely some pros to it too. And there can be some really nice ones too, because you get to know your community. Like, I think that was the biggest one for me. I remember going to parties that the hostel would put on. And it was just nice because you immediately had friends, and especially when you're traveling just to be able to hang out in your backyard, especially if you're like in that time where you're open to hang out with a lot of people, and it'll open to socialize with a lot of people, like that's also a huge benefit beyond just the cost.

A lot of the time these hostels are in central locations too. I don't know if that's your experience too, but so there's more than just the cost. And then also they have, separate, individual rooms and hostels as well. So you can stay in a group room where there's sometimes 8 bunk beds in one room and, you know, you have a co-ed dorm with a huge man and like 3 annoying people in the middle of the night. And that's like the typical hostel range, but then there's also individual rooms every now and then. I mean depending on the hostel that you go to. So, That's super cool to see, and so, okay. It's kind of, you're not sure if you're going to do it in the future, you'll see. You know, the plan is too.

Like, we want to do something like this again. The thing is that, like, you know, kids complicate things and that's in our future and, like, who knows where life takes us, but Nick and I have said that we want to do this again. And 100% would.

Now, when we do it the next time, it'll look different than this time. And I don't know how we probably won't stay in hostels the next time around because I imagine that'll be at least 15, 20 years from now. But you never know, like if that's what we need to do in order to make this work and have these types of experiences. Like, that's fine.

Well, whoa, okay, I want to.

Like, yeah, I kind of want to, my, my coaching brain is coming on right now and I'm like, Alexis, 15 to 20 years from now and you're having kids and. Why would it look like?

To run a company that you're about to start in for Nick to be in his career and still be able to do a version of this? Do you think that's possible? Like, what did you guys experience with? You know, you said you had to be in Costa Rica for Wi-Fi in time zone, but yeah. Do you think that's possible for people to travel the world? And build a company and build, a family too? Like, why?

Why are you shutting that off as an option as someone who just traveled the whole world and saw what was possible? I think it feels like.

It feels like maybe you couldn't do any of them super well, if you were trying to do all three. With the exception of maybe the family, because I think your kids have any experience like that and growing up like that is pretty like epic. But I think like, Part of the reason we didn't want to work and do this because we met plenty of people who were working and doing similar sort of trips. Is it felt like you had like one foot in and one foot out of both things, right? The people who were working were usually working like at night till maybe early in the morning and kind of like maximizing how much they were pretending to work versus actually like doing the job. And then during the day, they're tired in the morning, they wake up and your brain is already thinking about, oh, shoot, I've got that meeting at 6 PM.

Okay, I can like do these specific things and then I have to get back. Like, you're not fully in travel mode, you're not fully in work mode. You kind of somewhere in between and that to me, I think works for some people, but for me was like just not something that was interesting. And so like with your question of like building a business, traveling and having a family, to me, that feels like it's too much. Like, like that to me is like sounds stressful. Like, it sounds like it could be great for some people that maybe can find that balance, but like, For me, I'm like, I think I'm someone who has to just like focus on like the one or 2 things that are like the big things in my life right then and then I can like shut those off, change seasons, do something else completely.

That's totally fair.

And I think there's like, you know, especially if you're gonna have be pregnant and like there's certain things that you need to change there. But I'm just saying, you know, 15 to 20 years from now, it's a long time. I know.

I know.

It seems too long.

So maybe it'll be sooner.

I mean, we've talked about too, like, I mean, one thing that really, we really open our eyes with is the amount of people that do significant travel and international children or trips with small children. And to me, like when we were going on this trip, I was kind of thinking, oh, this is like our last like big international trip, hurrah before we have kids and then that'll kind of be not a thing we do in our lives for a long time. But like our perspectives have completely shifted on that based on how many people we saw they were doing it. We talked to some people too, and it was interesting to hear, like, what they said about how it was different because you can still go to all the same places, but just what you do in those places. It's gonna be different than when it was just you and your spouse, your partner.

And then also the pace is a lot slower. You can't be moving every 2 or 3 days with kids. So it's a lot of like hanging in places for a few weeks at a time. I've definitely seen a lot of stories of it, especially like on sailboats too. Yeah. Families on sailboats.

And I mean, I'm sure vans too. I just, that maybe isn't on my, on my, for you page or whatever. Yeah.

But yeah, I love I love hearing that too. So, Okay.

You decided not to work on this trip so that you could have full focus on your adventure. Yes.

What did that look like?

Like, Were you just allowing yourself to intuitively flow with the day? Like you said, in the beginning, you did not have a plan. I think you told me you only had like 2 nights booked. Yes.

So, like, what did you just follow intuitively what your adventure was telling you to do? And were you always just looking for new kind of unique experiences in the towns that you go went to? Yeah.

So, yeah, I mean, the idea was our whole lives are like so scheduled and planned out usually when we're not doing a year long trip around the world. And so we wanted basically unscheduled free time for the entire year. And so Costa Rica, we did plan that out more. We just booked a place for the whole month and so that was planned because it had to be for next work. But after that, we went to Japan and that was kind of the beginning of the rest of the trip and all we had booked, like you said, was 2 nights at a hostel and our flight to Tokyo. And so from there, we basically planned it all on the fly. We booked most places a day in advance, sometimes same day for accommodation. A lot of like multi-day trips that we did, you know, like multi-day on a boat or hiking or whatever it was.

We book like no more than 3 days in advance. We booked one the day before. And it was just like, we wanted to do it that way because all of the good stuff we found when we were there. Talking to people, talking to local people, talking to fellow travelers, just literally seeing signs in the street. I mean, we were in Buenos Aires and I saw a sign for a Rufus Du Sol show in Mendoza the next week and I was like, let's go. Literally, Rufus Du Sol is like one of my core memories from being in Denver. I love Rufus DeSoul.

Me too.

Me too. and so walked around and looked for things. We just were like there.

Like, you're just present.

You're just, you're there, you're there to see it, to feel it, to like, understand a little bit more what it's like. And I mean, after Tokyo, the first place we went, we'd never heard of before, and someone at our hostel had said, oh, you should go there. At school. And so we went.

We stayed for a few days, met some amazing people, this Dutch couple that we ended up overlapping with in a ton of different cities. And it's just like everything felt like a little bit more like serendipitous and just like by chance and like, I don't know what else you can really live like that where you're just like, I truly don't know what tomorrow or next week is going to bring or where I'm going to be sleeping. That's so amazing.

Okay, so bring me through some of the highlights and maybe bring me through some of the picks, peaks and pits of your of your trip. Like, what were your some of your favorite places? I love that you were finding places from locals because I feel like that's, you're so, you're so right on the nose with that and, I know for me too. When I was in Bali, I would always want to book a place right before and then check it out. So like sometimes I would book for like 2 days to make sure. That it was a good villa and then I would book it out for the, you know, however long I wanted a week or a month or whatever. So I think that's really actually not just about, like, not having a plan. It's also strategic when you're working with those lower budget things because sometimes you can show up and be like, 0 gosh, this place smells or like, I don't love the leaking water in my room at night, you know, so.

Yeah, not ideal.

Yeah.

And, and like, they're like, even those places that I'm talking about that have leaking water, they look, look really nice too. They're just sometimes, places that have been rented out for a while have things that aren't the best. So, Talk to me about some of your some of your peaks first. Like, what were your, what were your favorite? Places that you went, And maybe you have so many that you can't even think of any. But, but just like, talk to me through some of your trip. I feel like this is crazy and again, like tell me the exact dates that you went. So we left April first, 2025 and we got back April 13th, 2026. A full year around the world. A full year.

Yeah.

And so, I mean, you're right. There were a 100 places we absolutely loved. But obviously, I mean, we get this question a lot of like where are the best places where should I go? What are your favorite spots? Yeah.

And I think like if I had to choose, I would say as far as countries go, Sri Lanka, Albania, and Indonesia were my top three. And I think like Sri Lanka, amazing food, first of all, so many unique things to see there and different sort of varied landscapes, like there's incredible mountains in the middle of the country. And then there's like this massive rock with a 4th century fortress on it. Then there's amazing beaches with like beautiful like surfing for beginners and then like intermediate beaches and like any type of surfing you never want. And there's just like the people there we found to be very, very kind and welcoming. We had an odd experience of multiple people saying they've never met an American before, which was kind of wild.

I was like, okay, we're somewhere far, far away from home at this point. That's when you know and it was just a spot that we really liked and we end up getting really lucky with. We had this driver who we just met by hiring like a cab company and they assigned us to him and then he was a fantastic human being. He spoke English.

We ended up touring us around for like 5 days straight. Like we probably spent, I don't know, 40 hours with this man and he would come in to like any, he would take us to all these places we didn't know about and then he would come in and like give us some background history, all of that and just a great overall. On tour guide. Yes, and just completely by chance, but like that was kind of how the people there were, just super friendly and welcoming and happy to have tourists there. So that was a place we really enjoyed. That's amazing.

I honestly, Sri Lanka, I've heard a bit about it and I feel like it's the landscape there. It's like super green there, right? Yes, yeah.

But then you also have like more desert areas as well. So, like, there's just a ton of stuff to see. I mean the mountains are incredibly green. And just very dramatic landscapes, and then you've got like wild cultural stuff, like getting on a public bus there is truly an experience you will never forget. Tell me about that.

It's just like packed or what? So there's like no rules on the bus. There's no schedule, really.

And you, the bus just like whips up. They're all painted like super crazy and vibrant. There's absolutely blasting Sri Lankan music happening in the bus. So like you have to, yeah.

And there's like, they don't shut the door, so there'd be like a guy who works on the bus, not the driver, and you go up to him and you tell him where you're going. So you're just like, hopefully he knows where this place is. You hop on.

They don't ever really stop the bus. It kind of just keeps rolling as you hop onto the bus. You get on and we were taking the bus like on this mountain road. And I am telling you, this guy was like literally whipping around every corner. He had to be going like 70 miles per hour on this mountain road. Not a care in the world.

I couldn't even stand up.

I was like flying around the bus trying to hold on with 2 hands. This man like passed me on the shoulder. He's like, take my seat.

I was like, thank you, sir.

And meanwhile, the guy who works on the bus is literally just standing on the outside stairs, holding on with one hand, chilling on his phone as we're whipping around every corner and it was just like. And there's a mountain on the other side that you could fall off. Oh, a cliff.

Yeah.

Yeah, not a care in the world. So that was wild.

Just, yeah, a lot of interesting stuff like that. We went to like this sacred temple that's known for having Buddha's tooth. It's called the Temple of the Sacred Tooth and just like a lot of really cool cultural stuff there. People are very, very devout Buddhists there. So that was where I was just like everywhere we went. Yeah.

That's so the, that is so beautiful. I'm looking at Sri Lanka up on Pinterest and there's just like so many ornate, like Buddhist monasteries and green, and Indonesia, which I've, I've spent a lot of time in. Yeah, is literally my one of my favorite places ever is also devoutly religious, devoutly Hindu. Yep.

So where did you guys go in Indonesia? Were you in Bali or were you in other parts of Indonesia? So both.

So we started in Bali?

We met my brother and his girlfriend who flew out from LA and met us there, which was super fun. And then went around there in like the southern part of the island, like Uluwatu and kind of the more touristy area. And then went up north and saw some of the volcanoes up there. We were in like Kintamani area. And really liked up there.

It was a lot more chill.

Uluwatu was like, it was cool. You see why a ton of people go there, but it was like a little bit too touristy for us, but I was glad we got to see it. I mean, there's like great food, beautiful beaches and all that there too. Yeah.

Yeah, it's, it's, I, I think it's also changed a lot too. Like, There, there's been a huge, I just saw on social media now that there's just like too many tourists and in the, in the, that area now and they're, they're like overloaded. And so the places up north, like Kintamani and, still have so much beauty. And Uluwatu will always have its charm. Canggu will have its charm.

Ubud will always have its charm, but if you want to have that sacred, like really Zen, Bali off the beaten road experience. The north is is it.

Like I said, they also are very devoutly religious there. And something that's so cool is they have these little roadside temples all over the place where every morning there will be some woman bringing incense to this temple and putting flowers on the temple and all these different things. So, It's so, it's so cool that some of your favorite places where these more influenced by religion. What was the last one?

You said.

The last one I'll be on.

Yeah, yeah.

So, that's that's kind of, it looks like more Grecian tones. Yes.

Yeah, Albania.

I mean, so I think it was like, we had this realization when we were there in that, I think it would have been like in Italy, Croatia, Greece sort of destination hadn't had it been communist until, I think the mid 90s. So it's essentially just like behind from a tourism perspective because people weren't going there until, you know, the last 10, 15 years. And even now, I think Americans are just starting to go, but it's largely been European tourists. And it's crazy because it's an unbelievably gorgeous country. The food is essentially Greek food. And all of it is at like a significant discount to any of the countries that you would go to around there. And so it felt like this sort of like little like magic place that we had found maybe just before it starts to get really popular because I will say that is the number one place people have asked us about and say they're planning to go.

So if you're going to go, probably now is the time. But yeah, the beach is there unbelievable. It's like crystal blue water. They're actually like sand beaches and like where you get in like a lot of Italy. In Croatia versus like, you know, little rocks that they have on the beach there. And yeah, the food was great. People were super friendly.

Everyone spoke some English and Yeah, there's just also like castles everywhere, like old castle towns that you can explore and not nearly as many tourists as you'd seen a lot of other European countries either. And so you've got a little bit more space to yourself. And yeah, it was just a really cool place. I, like, anywhere with blue water will have my heart, to be honest. I'm lame.

I'm lovely.

Every time I go to Miami or Florida, because I go there a lot. I'm so close by and I'm like, oh, I just love it. And, Sri Lanka has blue water too, right? Yeah, they had nice water as well. I mean, it's just like crazy how many places in the world do have that. I grew up in Southern California and I'm like, why don't we have nice ones? Yeah, we don't have that here. It's like table steaks in a lot of places. Yeah, exactly.

.

So Albania, Sri Lanka, the, and Indonesia were your faves. Yeah.

And, Is, is there any like, okay, let's, let's ask you, okay, was this man your, tell me one more favorite character that was involved in your story. You loved the cab driver.

Yes.

What's up with this Dutch couple? Maybe tell me about them.

How you, how you saw the same Dutch couple at multiple different... See them throughout.

Where did you like end up becoming friends with them or were you just like, Hey. Yeah, so no, we did become friends with them. And so we hung out with them a little bit when we were at this hostel there, which was this kind of like wild place. It was an old like Johnson that was converted to a hostel. What was it?

It was an onsen, which is like a Japanese like Turkish bath, right? So it's like a public bath situation. And it was a very old one that was converted to a hostel. So the bathroom was like, I don't know, absolutely massive. It was like basically just an empty bath. That was like meant for probably 30 people. It was just a very good life. And anyways, we met them there. We hung up them for like one night and then they left and then we saw them in, where did we go next? Oh, we went to Kanazawa, which that was a fantastic city, but we didn't even know they were going to go there and we're just walking along this road and I hear the Dutch guy go, oh, hello. And so we go and chat with them. Go our separate ways.

We're walking back to the hostel later that day, who's sitting in the lobby besides the Dear Dutch people. So then we're like, okay, well, let's go get dinner. And so we go get dinner together, hang out that night. The next place we go is Kyoto. I'm not joking when I say we're again walking, and I just look up, and first of all, these people are like, the guy had to be like 6'8 and the woman's like 6'5. So just classic, like massively tall Dutch people, you're not going to miss them. I just look up and they're sitting on a park bench and the guy's just like. And so we kept running into them and then they were going to Taiwan next and so were we. But it ended up like we were missing each other by a week and where we were going, but we texted like the whole time and shared travel tips because we were going to be doing the same drive down the east coast of the country.

And it was just like a funny thing and they were on a 3 month trip right at the beginning. So we were kind of at the same time together. But you, you get that a lot when you're traveling long term because a lot of people are kind of going the same direction and then you all of a sudden or you're not even planning to and like a month and a half later, like, oh, there's that person I saw 2 countries ago. Hello again.

That's crazy.

That's that's truly crazy.

And like, it's, it's confirmation that so many more people are doing this type of travel, like, long-term adventure travel. Yeah.

No, it's true.

I mean, I will say we did not meet many people doing a year. I think most girls are doing 3 to 6 months. We met a few people doing a year though, which was always fun, especially at the end when we could all like talk about all the stuff that had happened and the things we were sick of or the things we wanted to do when we got home. But yeah, tell me those.

They're doing similar stuff.

What?

Yeah.

Tell me those what the things you're sick of. Tell me the, tell me the pets. What are some things that you like? Is there anything that you wish you would have brought with you before? Is there anything that you wish you would have, done differently? Is there any, like, really bad experience that you, like, that won't traumatize us? Yeah, we don't want to be sure. Yeah, there's definitely a few. I would say, like we had so many highs and lows, right? And Nick and I got really good at calling each other out when we were about to like kind of spiral down into a low point that just didn't need to happen. And so, I think one of those recent lows was we were staying at this place. We were doing a 3 day hiking trek. And it was pretty intense.

The hiking was like, it was very, it was in Peru. Okay.

And so we were going to be hiking into a canyon, and the canyon, I think it was about, yeah, it was 4000 feet straight down over like 4 miles, and then the next day you hiked in the canyon, and you did like 6 miles just up and down the last day, you got it at 4 a.m. And you go 4000 feet up over. I think it was 4 miles.

It might have been a little shorter. That's a lot.

And so it was a lot.

And so the one of the nights, you don't get to choose where you're going to stay. You just sign up.

You have no idea what you're signing up for and they just put you in a room. And one of the nights we walk into the room. And it's just a bed, like the most basic bed you've ever seen. There's one little light bulb in the ceiling that's just like a fluorescent light. And then there's no bathroom at all and you just have this like scary little curtain that's probably been there for 25 years and a tiny window and it's like, oh, it's like a little jail cell. Okay, that's fine.

We go to check out the shared bathroom. And the shared bathroom has no toilet seat. There is also a large window facing the outside. So if you're going to the bathroom, everyone can see you that walks by. There's no lock on the door.

It's not even broken.

There was just never a lot put on there, no toilet paper and the soap is like this scary use bar of soap. And I was just like, I just want something nice. You're better off going out in the woods in that point. And it's just like, so we had plenty of bathrooms that were like that in situations like that, but you get into this like, you're like, I just worked my ass off on this hike. Like I want a good meal.

I want a good shower.

Like, I don't want to use this like outdoor shared shower situation. Like, I don't want to like eat whatever they serve me because I don't get to choose, you know, so you have like a lot of that, but it's also like, you have these moments where you're upset about it, but most of the time you're just like, it is what it is. Like, that's just how it goes. Yeah, the the food thing, what you just said is like, you don't get to choose what you eat a lot of the time. How do you think someone who would have dietary restrictions would be in certain places, like would you worry about someone with the dietary restrictions going through this? Yeah, so I will say that like for the 10 years before we left on this trip, I was vegetarian or pescatarian and hadn't touched a piece of pork, beef, whatever, chicken.

I changed that for this year because I just didn't want to have to be like finding vegetarian and vegan restaurants or finding like fish in places where maybe that's not really what they serve. And I wanted to try all the local foods and experience it. For me, it's easy.

I can like switch it on and off, right? Like if someone is gluten free, dairy free has real allergies, like, I think most places seem to accommodating because we definitely heard people mentioning that stuff, but I think you're going to have to look a little bit harder and maybe bring your own snacks. Yeah, which if you have dietary restrictions is like normal. Yeah, but yeah, like there's most of these places around the world, like, as far, you know, like, especially like places like Spain, you know, which is very meat heavy and, Even Indonesia is like extremely pork heavy. And, There's there's just all these different areas around the world that have their own way of eating and, You, you have to try them and and it's, it's hard to, it's hard to, to say, That I want to accommodate my own experience based off of, you know, where I am culturally.

But yeah, like you said, I think it is possible, but I definitely agree that if you have dietary restrictions. There's definitely some places and and maybe you will avoid the extreme meat eating areas or, you know, the extreme gluten areas or if you are having some issues with that. But yeah, it's kind of on you a little bit, right? Like, I don't think you could go into some of these places and just expect them to have things that cater to you because in a lot of cultures, like gluten-free, dairy-free is not something that people do. Yeah, they don't know what it is. Yeah, I mean, there's plenty of places we went, like, no one speaks any English. And so, like, there's also that barrier, right, of like trying to communicate, oh, I need this. Exception or this dietary restriction and like they might just not understand.

And so, or understand even exactly what that stuff is all in because they're not used to like cooking around it, right? It's like, oh, shoot, I didn't realize like this ingredient that's part of this thing might have that in it. And so, I think you have to just like look out for yourself a little bit more, especially if it's some sort of extreme situation where you can get really sick. Yeah, and especially if you're traveling for long periods of time. It's it's nice to go to the grocery store too. Sometimes and like especially if you do have something that you're looking out for that you're allergic to or something. Yeah, you know, I loved cooking when I was traveling. Like, it's not that bad.

Of course, you're gonna try some foods out, but, and I heard, I heard that you earlier saying that you guys mostly ate out, which I love. Mm-hmm.

.

So, keeping on the pits, tell us about some of the worst meals that you had and some of the best meals that you had. Yeah, so some of the worst.

Oh man, I have to think.

Okay.

Did you have really bad meals? No, we definitely did.

Yeah, in Montenegro.

Oh boy.

Food is not their strong suit. Let me do it.

Yeah, we went, we were in the old town in Kotor, and beautiful location. It's like this old castle town from, I don't remember, probably the 1200s, right on the water in this massive bay and they film movies there. It's kind of just like this fantastic landscape where just like, wow, how did I get here? And this is so gorgeous.

And so we were like, oh, let's get like a nice dinner in the old town. And it really wasn't above Albania just above Greece, which you just told me have epic food. But not Montenegro.

Okay, keep going.

So Montenegro.

We, we're like, let's go into Old Town and have like a nice dinner. We had just gotten there and had a long travel day and there weren't many restaurants outside because usually we're trying to avoid like areas that are more touristy when we're going to eat. But that was kind of the only place to eat there. And so we went, I ordered this pasta with shrimp. Nick got, I have no idea, something scary. And it comes out and it was like they put like Chef Boyardee on overcooked pasta with frozen shrimp and then charge $25 for it. And the guy, I mean, I had 2 bites of it. I was like, I literally can't eat this. And the server comes out and asks how it was. And I was like, good.

Like, And he was like, you didn't eat any, and I was like, yeah, I don't really want it. And it's just like, yeah, so you have some of those and like in Europe, it's especially tough, right? Because the food's expensive and if you get something that's bad, you're like, man, I just spent $25 on that. And so, and like cooking in is so nice, but you don't always have a kitchen. Yeah.

So it's like, you know, we had some really rough food in Montenegro, and that's not like a, you, people should still go to Montenegro. It was amazing country.

There's so much to see, but like the food is not. Their strong soup. Yeah.

Yeah.

Maybe you just like kind of bad restaurants. Who knows?

Yeah, I know.

Yeah, we had a lot of pizza there that seemed to be the strong. Lava pizza.

Yeah.

And we even asked one of the locals, we're like, what is Montenegro and food and he like couldn't really give us anything and we're like, huh, okay. And we soon found out why.

Fosta with shrimp.

Okay, okay. Meals, though.

We have to do best meals.

Okay, tell us best meals.

Yeah.

I already said.

I already said I'm not a big meat eater, but in Argentina, the steak is truly incredible. Like, we did this lunch at a winery that, Oh my gosh, the price of it. Okay, so the whole day cost $50, went to 3 wineries, rented bikes, like all the tastings included plus lunch. This much Napa would have been $450. And it was unbelievable.

Like the steak was so good.

All the sides and everything's so incredibly fresh. We're like in the middle of this winery in a garden with like great wine and like that was like peak. I was like, wow, we're living right now. Oh.

But as you were telling a story earlier, I was like, You were so spoiled now. Like, you can't have bad travel now. No, I know, I know, I know, I know. But also, but at the same time, we're spoiled, but also our standards are kind of low. Yeah.

Yeah.

But like, now you know what such good, you're such good, experiences, you're like, I don't want to be around the tourist. I want to be in Argentina drinking my wine, eating the delicious sides. Okay, keep on going.

What else?

What else were some peaks meal wise? Oh, that was a top one.

But also the food in Korea, the Korean barbecue next level. We did almost light a Korean barbecue restaurant on fire. But the food is fantastic and wow, I mean, it was just like, I mean, it's a lot of pork. So you kind of, if you're not a pork eater, you have to get past that like me, but I could get past it because they give you like rice, they give you kimchi, they give you all these little pickled vegetables on the side. They give you fresh vegetables to cook. You cook it all right in front of you yourself, hence the near fire. And you make it however you want, you add in a bunch of spicy sauces. It's an incredible amount of food on top of all that, and it's just like so fresh and so good, and just like the environment is so fun because you go to like, I don't even, I'm sure there's touristy places in South Korea to go if you're a foreigner, but like, You mostly go to local places.

It's a bunch of local Korean people, you look at them, you watch them, you see what they're doing, then you try and emulate it on your side or else you have no idea what's happening because most of the time the server's not going to speak any English. And you just kind of go with it. Everyone's like having beers and drinks. It's like a good vibe and we loved the food there. It's also like everywhere you go is a massive portion because they require every person sitting at the table to order an entrée and a drink. That was a little overwhelming, but the food was like so amazing everywhere we went, but it was, it was fine. That's so awesome.

I honestly haven't thought about going to Korea, but now it's like definitely on my list. Yeah.

I've been thinking about, you know, I would love to go to China. I would love to go to Japan, even like Vietnam, did you spend any time in like Thailand, Cambodia, Vietnam? Yes.

So we did not go to Cambodia because of a time constraint. What's that?

We didn't get Laos or Cambodia because we were on a time constraint, but we did go to Thailand and Vietnam and spent about 2.5 weeks in each. Vietnam and Thailand.

I think Thailand had maybe the best food we've ever had. I think Thailand was peak cuisine. Oh my gosh.

And it was like $3 for a meal and you're just you're having the best pad Thai, the best khao soi, the best whatever that you've ever had. Where were you in Thailand?

In Thailand, we started out in the north in Chiang Mai. Chiang Mai.

And spent about 5 days there, and then we flew to Bangkok and spent about 4 days there, and Bangkok was fine. I will say Bangkok, we were a little bit underwhelmed by. It just was like a big Asian city and I think part of it was we had been to a lot of big Asian cities at that and so it didn't feel like super new. But Bangkok was fine.

Yeah, you hear it all the time like Bangkok's crazy and I've actually been to Bangkok. And I have been to their, like, what they call their ping pong shows. Oh, you know, it's.. Gosh, we did not do that. I, yeah, there, there are definitely, I, I mean, I'm assuming that they're still going down, but I think it's probably like, there are districts, but, you know, one of my friends has like a jewel jewelry company there and she goes to like the jewelry district. And so like, I think there's probably little pockets that are super cool. Okay, so what else did you do bothides Bangkok in Thailand? And then we went south.

And we went to a couple islands. And we went to Koh Lanta in Koh Phayam. And Koh Phayam was very off the beaten path. We did not see many tourists there. We had, we stayed right on the beach with this like beautiful place. And there was this place called stick bar that was like a 10 minute walk away, and it was quite literally a bar built out of sticks. And it was run by the cutest Thai couple. They were probably a little bit younger than us. Maybe our age.

They had a baby.

They didn't speak any English, but we hung out with them for the entire night. And we were the only customers and they were like wanting us to show them American drinks so they could put those on their menu. And just like telling us about their life there and essentially like their whole house was like attached to this bar. Everything was made out of like sticks on this cliff over the ocean. And the wildest part was that neither one of them knew how to swim. Which was like kind of like an eye opening cultural moment where you're like, holy crap, like, They literally live on the ocean, like over the ocean. If their house fell apart, they would fall into the water. They right on the beach.

They have like a private beach, don't know how to swim. And the guy's telling, sick, I just go to waist high. And it's just like those sorts of moments are drawing, right? Because to me, it speaks to like poverty and not having the resources and no one to teach them and like it's a real danger, right? They have little kids that are living there. They don't know how to swim.

And it's like the thought of that to us is absolutely crazy, but to them, they were kind of like, they thought it was funny that we would think they knew how to swim. Yeah.

And so, and then we were showing them American music and country music and they were loving it and it was just like such a fun night and like a very unique experience for sure. Oh my gosh.

It's really those little characters that you meet that make it. Yeah.

Really?

Know.

That couple, the cab driver, the Thai couple. You just, and you never know, right, when you're gonna meet them. It was like the owner of the hotel just said, oh, you should go check out this place at the end of the beach. And get a drink there for sunset. And I'm like, okay, sure, I'll go check it out. And then it turns into this whole night. Yeah.

And then we went to Koh Lanta there too. And that's like a big scuba dive spot and it was, it was pretty amazing for diving. Oh my gosh.

Yeah.

You guys were literally just professional adventurers. I, you know, I, I actually like thought about that for a little bit. I was like, I want this to be my job to just be like a professional fund manager. I can just tell someone, oh, this is what you should do. Today. You should go here.

I guess that's a travel agent in a way, but... In a way, but you want to be doing it yourself. I'm like, I don't want to be sitting at a desk telling others that I want to do it. Well, book it in person for you. Yeah exactly.

.

Okay, so, how should we finish this off? Were there any like places that you would want to go back to that were like, Oh my gosh, I need to go to that again or like, oh, I feel like I really wanted to go to this area and I didn't get to. Yeah.

Yeah. Places that we did not get to go to. Really?

Yeah, the first year.

I know, it's never enough.

I mean, it's crazy with a year you still have to pick and choose. Like you just don't have time to see it all. Well, you know, like Rome, Italy is a great example of that because you can go and experience it for 2 days and you won't even have touch. Yep. .001% of it.

You could spend 3 years exploring every single day and you still would barely make a dent. So yeah, I feel.

Yeah, it's so true.

I mean, it's like, a lot of the places we went, even if we stay, we tried to stay most places at least 3 days. For our sanity and also to get like a better feel of places. But I mean, I felt like when we stayed places longer, like Taipei, I think, was a good example, that was, that's the capital of Taiwan. And that's actually where the climber, I'm blanking on his name, just climbed the Taipei 101. It's in that city.

Oh, okay.

Yeah, that just happened like a couple of weeks. Alex something.

Yeah.

We should know, but, yeah, or something. Yeah.

Donald.

Alex Honnold.

Yes.

So we were there.

We'd have been there for like 6 days. Our plan was to be there for two, but we needed international driver's licenses to rent a car in the next place we were going and my parents had to ship them to us. Long story.

And so we were kind of like, quote unquote, stuck there. And we were like, oh, gosh, we don't want to be like stuck in the city. Like we're not big city people. We like more like landscapes, outdoor stuff, things like that. And we ended up loving the city. Like the first few days, we didn't really like get any sort of feel for it and we didn't realize in the moment until we were there like 4 or 5 days and we're like, this is actually a really cool city. And it was because we had the time to actually like explore a lot of different areas and like, take our time and not rush through everything and like you're not on like some sort of like checklist where you got to see this, this, and this, and then we leave. It's like you're just there.

And so that was, it was nice because it happened really early on in the trip and we realized that, that like sometimes it just takes a little bit longer to really start to like, like a place or understand it. Like, you just can't do it in 2 days. Yeah.

Did you feel like you were like, Like, I know I go on some trips and I feel like I have to be moving all day, every day. Yeah, because I have things to go visit. Did you naturally move most of the day or were you having days where you did nothing where or mornings and evenings where you did nothing? Or was it kind of in a mix?

It was a mix.

We started out like that, though. I mean, in Japan, that was like our first real stop and we were walking like 30, 35000 steps a day. Yeah, you were ready.

Like, day four, five.

I was like, I can't keep up the space. And so we had to build, build in like rest times really. I felt like, like we had been like, okay, this morning we're going to go to a cafe and we're going to sit there and we're going to do some admin staff because admin stuff is like a big part of long-term travel where you're always like booking things, you're like looking at places, you're trying to decide where to go next. There's stuff at home, you got to deal with. And so we would use that as like a built-in sort of rest time. And then I think like certain locations, like when you're by beaches, naturally, you're just going to be like hanging out more at the beach, right? You're not going to like cruising around all day. Other places, you're there, like a big city and you're like, the thing to do is walk around and see as much as we can.

So, When we were doing that for a long time, we'd build in rest days if we're like in a beach area. It kind of came naturally.

So it was kind of a mix, but you just get into a flow with it. I am obsessed.

Okay.

Okay. In this off with just, like, I want you to speak freely to someone who is thinking about doing this in their own way and maybe not the exact way that you did it or. Like, what would you?

Would you encourage it?

What would you say to prepare for? What would you say?

Yeah, just, just talk to me about, if, if there was someone, because I think there was a lot of people, and they're all at different stages too. Like, I think, like you said, like, yes, when you have family or kids, things complicate. But I, I, like I was kind of interjecting there as like, Just because you don't do one year long doesn't mean that you can't go for it one month with your whole family, to even place like Costa Rica, where it's on the same time zone as America, or, You know, there's a lot of places, even like I've been wanting to go to Canada. Like, you know, you can be outside in traveling and adventuring. So talk to, talk to someone who, is, Yeah, has multiple different scenarios going on. Either they're, they've got family or they're totally free.

What do you recommend?

What do you what would you suggest? Yeah.

I mean, okay, I would say first of all, like, my number one goal from all this is that I inspire like at least one person to do something like this. And like you said, it does not need to be a year. It can be a month.

It can be 2 months.

It can be 6 months.

Whatever you can do, like it will be worth it. I think.

Like if it's something that's like even plausible, like in your financial situation, living situation. Like make it happen because these are the sorts of things, right, that actually do change your life and the trajectory of your life, in a good way, in that, it gives you time to step away from the day to day and all the routines and all the stuff that we have that makes time fly by so fast. And it genuinely slows down time. Like, that was a big eye opening experience and something that, like, I hope other people will do this and feel as well. Where it's just like this special time in your life where it's like, The day of the week doesn't matter. It doesn't matter if you are having lunch at 4 PM and then you have dinner at 10 PM and you wake up at 9 the next day.

Like that's okay.

There's no guilt there, right? Like, your whole life is just kind of like you're just like present and you're living it and you're meeting all of these people from other places in the world that have totally different perspectives. And that in itself is incredibly eye-opening. I mean, I enjoyed even like hearing other people's perspectives on like Americans and like, you know, you're not always going to agree, right? But it's interesting to hear nonetheless. And I think it's just one of those things where like there's certain things in life. If like you're feeling jealous or you're feeling envious and like you have a path to make it happen, just like do it. Because, like, we did this, we had no idea what we were doing. We're not like some sort of professional travelers.

Nick and I have legit jobs.

I worked in finance and Nick's an attorney and we left those and look at that. They wanted to hire us right back. I'm not going back, but he is right when we returned. That worked out and you know, we had friends who jumped in and cared for our dog and that was a huge help that we're going to be forever grateful for. We had people rent out our house. Like, you just kind of figure out one step at a time and then all of a sudden it just comes together. And when you're out there doing it, you're just like, wow, I can't believe this is my life right now. And like it's so worth all of the work ahead of it. And maybe at the end of it as well to get back to your life because it's like, it's just such an incredible experience that not a lot of people get to do.

Yeah, you have definitely inspired me. To travel more in general, and this has always been my preferred way of travel too, is to go to a place and live there for even, even if you're there for 2 weeks, make it your own and and do things like you were talking about like listen to what the locals say. Don't try, don't plan everything, allow yourself to be present. And I just have to ask one follow-up question to that is like, you said, this is life changing. What has this?

Has this changed your character at all? Has this made you kinder?

Has this made you more patient? Like, what has this changed you in? Yes, like, I think I just, like, I feel different. I think.

I think more understanding would be one for sure. I think, I mean, you just, you learn a lot about a lot of different types of people and cultures around the world and you don't realize how much that actually just like filters into your day to day as well. I think confidence wise, 100% have gotten more confident. I mean, you're, you're in places where like, you're like, we don't know anyone, even I went with my partner, right? I didn't go by myself.

Like some people do, but We're there. We don't know anyone.

It's just us.

No one speaks English.

We're not really sure how to navigate the situation and you just like figure it out, right? Or, you know, it's it's many months on the road living out of a backpack with uncertainty all around you. And you learned that just like things will work out. And usually having like a good attitude is going to help that situation, right? And like being able to like laugh at stuff that sucks. Like, it's okay, shitty things will happen. You're gonna be upset and if you just kind of like see the bright side of it, it's like gonna be okay. And I think like I'm bringing a lot of that back with me. I think before this trip, I was, I know, I shouldn't say a thing, I know I was too scared to launch my own business. I just like could not take that leaf of faith.

And now I'm like pumped, excited, have been looking forward to it. Like during the trip had to be like, no, be present. You're not working on that.

You're not thinking about that. And so that's been huge.

And Yeah, I think it's just like, I mean, geography skills massively improved. I'm like, looking up, where's, where's typo? Oh my god. A well-rounding kind of experience, right? And then it's like you have like, I think about too, but we're gonna go do another job. It's like, you have more stories to tell, more things to talk about, more context if, you know, we're at a comedy show last night. They're talking about Vietnamese culture and it's like, it's even funnier because we know we've been there, we've experienced it. We've had like a little taste of it. We don't know it all by any means of any place, but at least you have that little sampling. And so, I think it's just like life enriching in general too. Ugh.

I am so obsessed with all of that. Like, yeah, the, the, it's the understanding is so powerful too, because you could just look at people differently and that's, that's worth so much of, of just being able to see more human in people, being able to understand what real presence is. A lot of the time, in my company, when we're talking about our nervous system baseline and always being stressed about what's next. You know, what do I have to build, what's next, and this really allowed you to actually get into this baseline where you were totally present, where, you know, it's possible at home, but to the degree that you really took yourself out of your environment, it's completely changed. How you interact on a day-to-day basis from your baseline level.

Yeah, 100%.

I mean you're fully off the treadmill, right? Like, of the world of work, of the news and all of that if you want. And so it's like you have time to like really think and get clear on some of this stuff, but it would have been hard to do when you're at home. So cool.

Well, I can't wait to hear more about your business. And do you want to, do you want to give yourself a plug right now or do you, are you not ready for that? No, yeah, let's do it.

Let's do it.

Let talk to us about your business. You're opening a finance company, correct? Yes, yeah.

So, so I'll give some context. So essentially, so I graduated with a masters in finance in 2020. And immediately after graduating from that, like, I was getting a lot of surprising questions from the women in my life. And these were a lot of the most successful people I knew, like lawyers, doctors, financial profession, professionals like whoever. And they had so many questions about investing, personal finance, all sorts of things like that. And a lot of them had a financial advisor, but the trust just wasn't really there or they didn't know like what questions to ask. Or they just felt like they didn't want to seem like dumb in front of their financial advisor. So I was a safer person to ask. And so that made me realize like there's a huge gap.

Like if these women who are very successful, how big careers are asking these questions. A lot of people have them.

And so on the side of my W2 banking job, I created this company that was essentially a financial education platform for women. And I loved it.

It like really lit me up and I was like, I want to do this bigger, but like going back to what I said earlier, I was like too afraid to quit my finance job and then like take a bet on myself and start this company. And I didn't quite know what I wanted it to look like either. And so I did take the last 12 months to like really think about that. And essentially, what I'm gonna be doing is the company is going to be called driven wealth. Talking in the future because I still have some work to do, it's pre-launched for sure now, hoping to go live by like July or August. But essentially like your, your launching pad, like this will be the, the, just like you had a deadline to get today to the... Exactly.

I've now given myself a deadline. Yeah, so in in July, you said, right? Yes, July.

And so it's a financial advisory firm, but very different than the traditional ones that are out there today. So essentially the focus is going to be on having jargon-free judgment-free conversations with clients. Having very transparent pricing structures, so flat fee, subscription base, no AUM, pricing, which is pretty standard for traditional advisors and eats in 2 people's net worth, pretty significantly over time. It's a lot more beneficial for the client. And then on top of that, building out very effective portfolios that are actually simple because one of the biggest money myths is that you need complexity to be a successful investor, and that's just not true. And I want people to understand where their money is and what the strategy is and why it's not strategy and have their buy in as well.

So, I'm super excited about it of the investment management, financial planning, and then just generally having someone in your corner that is there to answer any and all money questions. So driven wealth, yeah, is going to be the name and I set it on here. So July, we're going live.

I'm so excited for you and we'll make sure to put your email in the description if you don't have any newsletter sign up or anything. Yeah, yeah.

Yeah, I think I'm going to build a landing page probably today or tomorrow and I'll send that over to you just for like a wait list or like any. Yes.

Perfect.

You can you can give me until Monday and also... But I'm like, this was literally so exciting to hear about. And I definitely think that you at least inspired me and anyone who listens to this podcast, I know, will be inspired just to travel differently, I think, too. And so thank you so much for sharing that. I am wishing you so much, so many blessings on your business journey, and I can't wait to hear about what your next adventure is. No, thanks for having me on.

This is awesome.

It's good to see you.

Good to see you too.

Okay, talk to you soon, Alexis. All right.

Bye.

Bye.