About Me

 

Bonjour! Buenos dias! Ohayou gozaimasu!

Hello and welcome to my blog. I know you have a lot of options when reading travel blogs, and I appreciate you choosing mine.

If you’ve made it to this page, you probably want to know a bit about me and why I created this blog. For as long as I can remember, I have wanted to travel the world. As young as five years old, I’d ask my mom to teach me French words, dreaming about visiting Paris and seeing the Eiffel Tower. I learned about the Wonders of the World and longed to visit the Pyramids of Giza, Machu Picchu and other famous cultural sites. Every time I watched or read something that taught me about a new place in the world, I put it on my list. The Lizzie McGuire Movie made me want to throw a coin in the Trevi Fountain. The Magic Treehouse books introduced me to the Terra Cotta Warriors. History lessons in school put Berlin on my must-see list.

Though I dreamt of travel so often, it seemed mostly out of reach for me for about the first quarter-century of my life. My family didn’t take many vacations growing up. When we did, we mainly stuck close to home, not really having the means to travel far from our home state of Florida. Travel was something that seemed reserved for people outside my circle. I thought I would always have to be content with traveling mainly through books and movies, though I longed to see these places with my own eyes.

Then, when I was 24, something changed. I started meeting more people like me who were making their own travel dreams come true. When you have the opportunity to meet and talk to people living your lifelong dreams, it empowers you to seek it for yourself.

At 25, I decided it was time to follow my dreams. I spent six weeks traveling Europe, checking a ton of experiences off my bucket list. Back then, I thought a couple months in Europe would mostly curb my travel desires, but it really just whetted my appetite.

After that trip, I really craved traveling and seeing new places in a way that I never had before. I decided I’d take at least one big international trip per year. Then covid happened.

During quarantine, I began wanderlusting harder than I ever had before. I sought out so much travel content and endlessly planned trips that I wasn’t sure would ever happen. That’s when I got the idea that I’d prioritize travel and maybe even go travel long-term once the world opened up.

In 2024, after a lot of saving and surprisingly little serious planning, my partner and I left Silicon Valley to travel around the world for a year. Once we hit the year mark, we figured – why not keep going? We had come in under budget and still had a lot of the world to see.

That’s where you’re joining me on my journey. A little over a year into my world trip, over 50 countries and six continents visited, and an ever-growing bucket list and never-sated wanderlust.

A few things to know about me and my travel style:

• I prefer to travel light – just with my 40L backpack + 20L personal item. Hence the “backpack” in “Well-Traveled Backpack.”
• I try to travel relatively sustainably and embrace regenerative travel when possible. Most of my recommendations for tours, restaurants and stays are locally owned/operated because it’s important to me that my travel dollars benefit locals as much as possible.
• Being active is a source of joy for me, so a lot of my itineraries and recommendations include things like hiking, cycling and walking tours.
• I am not an all-inclusive resort or tour person. While I enjoy beaches, they’re rarely the focal point of my vacations. My travel style is eclectic – I like museums, cultural & historical sites, walking tours, nature, local food & drinks and quirky/unusual experiences.
• My bucket list reaches all continents – I don’t believe historical importance is reserved for Europe, or that Southeast Asia is the only place to be a backpacker.

I started this blog to share my travel tips and experiences, and to help inspire and connect with fellow wanderlusters. The “Well-Traveled” part of my name is aspirational – something I’ll hopefully be working towards for the rest of my life.

If you have any recommendations for these types of things around the world, or if you want recommendations from places I’ve been, please feel free to contact me!

XXX

WTB