Have A Question For Us? Here Are Some Of Our Most Popular
About Cameron & Natasha
Who Are You And Where Are You From?
We are Natasha and Cameron. We are an American couple who fell in love with travel at a young age and now have it in our veins. Cameron is from North Carolina, while Natasha is from Michigan.
How Old Are You?
The next question is usually about our ages. Currently, Cameron is 33, and Natasha is 34. Natasha’s first trip abroad was when she was 20 years old. She traveled to Australia to study abroad for six months and took multiple trips to Indonesia, New Zealand, and around Australia from that base. Cameron’s first trip abroad was to Amsterdam when he was 21, after that he also knew he wanted to travel more.
How Long Have You Two Been Together?
We have been together for almost 10 years now! More than five of those years have been traveling internationally together, which to us seems like an eternity with each other. We got engaged in 2020 and recently said “I do” in Greece in 2022.
Did You Meet On The Road?
Sort of. We met at a university party right before Tasha was about to graduate from the University of North Carolina Wilmington. She was about to take off on her first backpacking trip around Europe. The plans were to go alone, so Cameron figured he might as well fly to Europe, too, for a summer adventure. Our second date was in Norway. We pretty much got to know each other on the road. We traveled for three months together from there, and Cameron returned to North Carolina to finish university while Tasha kept traveling.
How Long Have You Been Traveling?
Our first long-term travel stint together off and on for a year. Then we moved to NYC for a little and decided it wasn’t for us. We sold our belongings again and left indefinitely for a life of travel. That nomadic lifestyle lasted almost four years before we called the Canadian Rockies home. Now, we travel six months out of the year and work on our other website, The Banff Blog, for the remainder of the year. You could say we’ve owned this travel lifestyle for 10+ years.
About The Travels
01.
Where Have You Traveled So Far?
You can see the full extent of our travels here. So far we have visited 85+ countries, across seven continents. With the least amount of time spent in South America.
02.
What Is Your Favorite Country?
This is such a tough question because obviously, every country is different. It’s hard to compare apples and oranges. We like to answer this by being asked: “where could you see yourself living?” Tasha thinks she could easily live in Japan, Italy, Greece, Turkey, South Africa, and New Zealand. Cameron could easily see himself staying in Canada or Costa Rica. Sorry, that answer wasn’t too specific but it’s an unfair question! (Update – we moved to Canada after visiting and falling in love with Alberta)
03.
Do You Two Have A Certain Travel Goal?
Well, it used to be to travel to every country in the world. Then it changed to seeing 100 countries before we turned 30. Now we have abandoned these goals and just strive to see new places and actually spend as much or as little time as we want in them. Forget goals related to travel, going where the wind blows us and where we actually really want to go is a much better style for us. (Although I do hope to hit 100 countries someday soon!)
04.
What Is Your Least Favorite Country?
Also, a hard question as there are usually things we love and hate about many places. There is beauty in every destination; however, Tasha is in no rush to get back to Morocco and Cameron could give a skip to Latvia.
05.
What Destination Have You Been Most Surprised By?
Both of us fell in love with Mozambique. Before we went we had heard many negatives things involving travel in the country, but only came back with beautiful memories of our time. GO TO MOZAMBIQUE!
06.
Why Haven’t You Been To XYZ Country Yet?
Believe me it’s probably on the list. However, we are just two people with a limited amount of resources. We also prefer to travel slower through destinations rather than race through a country just to tick it off the list.
07.
What Is On Your Travel Wish List?
We both have dreams of traveling to Bhutan (finally made that happen!), Nepal, Tibet, India (made that happen too), Ethiopia, Raja Ampat, the Pacific Islands – pretty much anywhere we haven’t been and then a few repeats!
Tell Me More
08.
Where Would You Recommend We Take A Honeymoon?
Although we aren’t married and have never been on a honeymoon we still get asked this question a lot by friends as it’s very relevant to our age group. It’s a very vague question that requires more info. What is your budget? What’s your time frame? Are you a beach person? Do you prefer activity or relaxation? Despite all these questions, one place you can’t go wrong with visiting, are the Seychelles. They really are paradise on earth! Check out our latest recommendations for the best honeymoon destinations for more ideas!
09.
Where Do You Stay When You Travel?
When we were younger we actually stayed in a lot of hostels. Now that we are a bit older and further into our travels we stay in private rooms, hotel rooms, or full apartments. A good nights sleep and comfort now outweigh the cheaper cost of a hostel. Actually, since we travel as a couple most of the time, it is sometimes cheaper for us to get a private hotel room somewhere than two single beds in a hostel. For anything longer than five days we try to rent out an Airbnb and base ourselves in our own apartment so that we can cook and relax. In Europe, we like to use Booking.com to find hotel rooms, while in Asia we use Agoda. Hostels are still great for travelers.
10.
Do You Guys Ever Get Homesick?
We wouldn’t necessarily say homesick, but we do miss our friends, family, and comforts of having a home. We frequently find ourselves missing the “normal life.” You know, things like going to the gym, having hobbies (other than traveling and working on a blog), owning a pet, hanging with family, dinner with friends, cooking for ourselves, and not living out of a suitcase. Traveling isn’t always easy, but we consider ourselves very fortunate that we are able to see so much at a young age.
11.
What’s Your Budget Per Day?
We aren’t on a “backpackers” budget, but we don’t have an endless amount of money, so we do watch what we spend. If we spend over $75 a day per person then it’s a pretty bad day for us. In saying that we do try to stay somewhere that is under $100 per night, prefer to cook meals in when we can, and travel during the off-season. We do have a weakness, though, and it’s healthy vegan food (you know the overpriced hipster stuff) and a nice cup of coffee. Both usually come at a higher price than junk food and a crappy cup of coffee. We like to think we do very well with saving money for traveling and we save money when we travel, but of course, there are always ways to save more and spend less.
12.
How Much Did You Save Up Before Leaving For Full Time Travel?
We saved up $50,000 between the two of us to travel with the goal to travel for a year and work on this website. We would see where that would take us. Almost nine years later, we’re still here chugging away! Read more about that here!
13.
How Long Did It Take You To Save That Much And How Did You Save?
It took us both a little over a year to save that much. We both had full-time entry-level jobs in New York City, but believe us, that was not enough to save much in one of the most expensive cities in the world. Tasha had picked up a job as a waitress, and Cameron worked weekends. On top of that, we lived below our means, cooked all of our meals, and rarely went out. We sold all our belongings and made saving a priority, with traveling the world the end goal. Was it easy? Surprisingly yes, when you know what an amazing thing you are saving for, a night out at the bar doesn’t seem so great anymore.
14.
How Can You Afford All This Travel?
This is a question that we get asked almost daily. We aren’t rich, and no, our parents do not fund our travels. Besides our personal savings, we work anywhere there is a stable internet connection on this blog. Yes, a large portion of our income comes from this website. Any product/hotel/insurance that we love and recommend we write about and if a reader goes on to buy the product, we get a small commission at no extra cost to the purchaser. We also work as freelance writers, social media managers, and have even sold some of our photography and video to different clients around the world. Tourism boards often contact us to help push a destination in which we will agree to for a fee. However, most places we travel to are on our own dime because we want to travel there and talk about it as much or as little as we want. This is also the reason you may have noticed some ads around our site. We are really sorry about them as we understand they can affect reader experience. We hate them ourselves when we browse the internet, but it does help us keep the lights on here and provide up to date travel info, so thank you for understanding! You can see all the details about how travel bloggers make money here.
15.
How Much Do You Spend On Traveling?
A lot less than you would think actually. Depending on where in the world we are, we can sometimes spend half of what we spent living in New York. We try to set ourselves to a budget when we travel. Somedays we spend more than $75 a day and some days we spend less – but it all balances out in the end. Everything depends on which area of the world we are traveling in. Western Europe, Africa, North America, and Australia cost more than traveling in Southeast Asia and Eastern Europe so we try to split our time evenly among expensive countries and more affordable ones. Occasionally, we work with lodges, restaurants, and tourism boards in exchange for providing information on our site. That way when we recommend something we are always giving first hand, up-to-date, and honest information and it helps us keep our costs down while traveling.
16.
Do You Have Any Hacks For Free Travel?
We have opened countless credit cards with big sign-up bonuses over the years. We now have a pretty hefty little bank of airline miles all gained by just doing our normal spending on a credit card. Our favorite credit card that we have stuck with over the years is the Capital One® Venture Rewards Credit Card and the Chase Sapphire Reserve Card.
In addition to racking in airline miles. We have become involved in the travel-sharing community. That is websites like Couchsurfing, Bla Bla Car, and Workaway.
17.
How Do You Access Your Money Abroad?
We do all of our travel banking online. We consistently check all of our credit card bills and always pay in full and on time to avoid any additional charges from them. We try to pay for most expenses on our credit cards to get more air miles. We get pretty upset when we have to pay for big purchases in cash. Unfortunately, in parts of Asia and Africa, a credit card is just not possible. For almost 10 years and counting, we have been using the Charles Schwab debit card (for Americans) to access our cash abroad. Charles Schwab reimburses any and all ATM fees from anywhere in the world so we never have to worry about getting charged to go to the ATM.
18.
How In The World Do You Pack For A Life Full Of Travel?
Well, first we got rid of almost everything we owned. Packing is never fun, but we manage to fit everything we travel in our suitcase and backpacks. The most important items are our computers, cameras, and a nice pair of flip flops. We detail what is in Natasha‘s and Cameron’s pack in separate posts.
19.
Do You Both Travel With Backpacks Or Suitcases?
We prefer to travel with backpacks when we are backpacking, and suitcases when we are on business trips. It all depends on where in the world we are traveling and the type of trip it is and how long we are gone for. In general, traveling with a backpack is so much easier for us to get to and around a destination. We both have Ospreys and swear by them. We’ve done a ton of research and testing to find a good backpack, and have written all about that. We’re particularly proud of our post on the backpacks for Europe, as it’s where most travelers start.
20.
How Do I Get Around The Schengen Zone?
The dreaded Schengen Zone dilemma faces many people trying to backpack Europe for an extended amount of time. Since we have spent years of our lives in Europe, we have come to know the Schengen very well.
21.
Do You Two Ever Travel Apart?
We do! It’s always liberating to travel solo and also helps us meet new people. We find that when we travel as a couple we meet fewer people as we don’t try as hard to make friends. It’s a terrible excuse, we know, and we work on putting ourselves out there every day. Traveling apart also keeps us from killing each other and makes up for the 24/7 time we get together on our other adventures.
22.
How Do You Determine Where You Are Traveling?
Most of the time we see where we can find the cheapest flight to. We determine what area of the world we are interested in going to and then scour search engines for weeks or months in advance to work out the most affordable deals. This has led us to travel to Latvia as we scored a one-way ticket from the US for $250. On one adventure, we found a great layover deal to the Seychelles for cheaper than it would cost us to fly direct. Of course, we couldn’t say no! We gather a lot of travel ideas from travel books and movies. The movies please the eye, and the books please the soul.
23.
What Kind Of Photography Gear Do You Travel With?
We are Fujifilm people and have all their lenses. We also shoot all videos on our iPhones and carry a GoPro for the adventure stuff.
24.
Do You Have Any Tips For Packing And Travel Gear?
This site is loaded with packing advice for travel.
25.
Do You Take Medicine While Traveling?
Depends on where! In Europe, we don’t need any medicine. Through parts of Africa, Asia, and South America we may stock up on doxycycline (for malaria) and other medicines. We are also up to date on all of our shots. I know medicine is expensive, but we have found that if you wait and get your vaccinations and pills abroad they are significantly cheaper than in the US, and most don’t require a prescription. We are NOT doctors, but here are the vaccinations we got before traveling full time.
26.
Do You Have Travel Insurance?
We both travel with travel insurance with HeyMondo, depending on the trip. We used to travel with World Nomads, and recommend them all over this site. They are great for short term trips, but when your life is travel we literally had to take out full time travelers insurance. Thankfully we have never had to make a claim on medical insurance, but you never know when you could need it. We also have property insurance for all of our electronics through Clements Worldwide. We’ve made one claim with them against a stolen item and were pleasantly surprised when they insured it fully.
27.
Are You Both Sustainable World Travelers?
We do our best to have a minimal impact on our earth. We travel with a range of environmental friendly accessories as well as give strong preference to lodges and hotels that are dedicated to conservation. We also always choose local vendors and food from markets instead of supermarkets when we can. We are also very conscious of our plastic consumption, and you’ll probably find Tasha lecturing you how terrible your plastic bag and straw are for our earth. We’re picky eaters and are 90% vegan (but aren’t 100% there yet), and travel slowly so we don’t have to travel by plane often.
28.
How Do You Go About Banking Abroad?
Good question! We get that one a lot, so we wrote more in-depth information on travel banking, here.
29.
Can You Promote My Business For Free?
No. And if you email us asking us to link to your page, shout out your new product, or write a “guest post” on our site we will either mark your email as spam or send you over to this page and ask that you read the last bullet point of our FAQ. But most likely the spam route, because we run multiple websites, a YouTube channel, and our social channels all ourselves, so we are swamped. Every day we get tons of emails from companies asking something of us for free. We wouldn’t expect you to get up and go to work every day for nothing, so don’t ask us to. The grocery store only accepts payment in cold hard cash, so that is the only method of payment we accept too. (Although we were offered a bag of clementines as payment one time and it was hard to turn down – no joke). If you’re interested in working with us, please head over to Work With Us page, and we will be happy to send you our rates.
How Can I Contact You?
We run all of our social pages. No bots, no assistants – it’s all us. If you write us a message on there we will answer as quickly as possible. We also try to respond to every comment left on this site, so if you have a particular question related to something we wrote, leave it in the comments. Feel free to email us if you want to ask about specific destinations and we will try our best to get back to you as soon as possible, but please make sure you have dug through the site first. We have over 1200 free travel articles between The World Pursuit and The Banff Blog, and I’m sure you’ll be able to find what you’re looking for!