Back in January I wrote about how our lives had changed in a year and a half since moving from Los Angeles to Amsterdam. The post covered how we got to where we are now, with a month-by-month progression of how we turned travel into our full-time job. Since you all loved the timeline (it turned out to be one of our most popular blog posts!) I thought I’d continue with the same format as we approach the 2-year mark.
Since officially becoming a full-time travel blogger in January, my schedule has definitely shifted. I’ve freed up a lot more time to focus on writing for our blog and creating more photos and videos. I no longer have conflicts because of another job, so we don’t have to turn down travel opportunities (yay!). On the other hand, we travel so much that our schedule lacks any consistent structure.
It’s difficult to get work done when in reality, our “longer gaps” between jobs are one week. During these gaps we basically hole up in our apartment in Amsterdam and only look at our laptops. There have been days where we’ve ordered online food delivery for breakfast, lunch and dinner. I wish I was exaggerating (but I’m not).
Which brings me to a decision we made last month, that will turn our lives upside down again. In addition to being full-time travel bloggers — we’ve decided to become full-time travelers.
Here’s what that really means:
- We have no home base. We’re saying goodbye to Amsterdam (for now!).
- Gone are the days of round-trip flights. Any gaps in travel, we fill with wherever we want to go. Maybe that’s a hotel in London one week, or a cheap Airbnb in Croatia the next. We find Airbnb to be more cost-effective. Here’s our link for $40 off if you’ve never used it before.
- Everything we travel with is packed into 3 suitcases and 2 backpacks. I wish it was even less, but we have a fair amount of camera gear. All our other belongings are in a storage unit.
- We don’t pay rent. It’s actually amazing how life-changing this is. For instance – in August we have 2 weeks of photo and video shoots already booked, and 2 weeks of ‘free time’. We’ll either fill that time with another job, or hole up in a new destination to edit and blog.
Since I promised a new timeline — here’s what we’ve been up to the last 6 months. And what led us to make the full-time travel decision:
FEBRUARY — After officially going full-time with our blog, I enlisted some help. I now pay a monthly fee to a company, Chloedigital, for help with website requests that range from small design tweaks to data monitoring.
Jacob and I took a weekend trip with friends in Lech, Austria for some skiing, fondue, and all-around great vibes. We still shot photos while there and I also put together a guide from the trip. Though we did some of our own work for the blog, it was so relaxed and felt like the perfect way to reset and refresh before another shoot we had the following week in Davos, Switzerland.
MARCH — We visited London and Manchester with the UK tourism boards and other bloggers and photographers. We also brought someone on to help us with contracts and answering select emails so we could spend time on the creative aspect of our jobs. I coded and sent out my first ever email newsletter this month through Mailchimp. Being a perfectionist, this took me waaay too long! In our email newsletter I share unique destinations and new travel guides. If you aren’t signed up yet, click here to subscribe. We ended this month in Paris.
APRIL — We shared our first blog post about photography and camera tips this month, a topic we’ve been wanting to cover for awhile. Jacob has more knowledge about photography equipment than anyone I know (he even ran his own equipment rental company in Los Angeles before we moved!), so we co-wrote this one. We’ve since written another post talking about how we shoot and edit photos. By the way, send us a message if there’s a topic you want us to cover! We hit 150k followers on Instagram at the very end of this month.
MAY — We spontaneously booked a trip to Israel after craving warmer weather. Whenever we book trips on our own we always prefer to go somewhere a little less ‘trendy’. While there we shot photos for an accessories company and a luggage brand by bringing the products along. I dove into our Pinterest page to promote our travel guides and boost our blog traffic this month too.
Then, we flew to Nassau, Bahamas for a job with the tourism board. We shared a lot from this trip, including a video on our Youtube page. Afterwards we went straight to California to visit our family for the first time since our wedding! We also talked about creating a career in travel through our friend Ryan’s podcast series (who also happens to write an amazing series on starting your own blog). Finally, we received our first-ever blog nomination via Blogosphere UK. Unfortunately we couldn’t attend the awards ceremony, but it meant so much to us to be recognized. This oftentimes still feels like a dream to me.
JUNE — While in Southern California we flew to the Cook Islands with the tourism board, and completely fell in love with it. I’d highly recommend it to anyone looking for the ultimate vacation in paradise.
We spent less than a week back in Amsterdam before heading to the Faroe Islands. We’ve been wanting to go to the Faroes since visiting Iceland a few years ago, so it’s been on our bucket list for quite awhile and did not disappoint. It was on this trip that we made the decision to move out of our apartment in Amsterdam (eek!) and travel full-time.
JULY — We arrived back in Amsterdam early July, and subsequently packed and moved all our things into storage in a matter of 12 days. Honestly, it was pretty hectic. We had to find a way to bring our photo and video projects with us on the go (we always take these solid state hard drives with us). We also used this time to say goodbye to our friends in Amsterdam.
These last few months have shown us how little time we were really spending in Amsterdam and how doable it is to travel full-time if you have a base schedule to work with. We’re still young, and lucky enough to have the freedom to make up our own lifestyle. I’m looking forward to sharing our experience of traveling full-time here — ups and downs included.
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Questions for us? Comment below, excited to share this news with you!
Adi Says
Hi Selena,
Like you did once, I currently work at full time 8-5 job (USA-West coast). I never seem to have enough vacation hours available or be able to save up enough $$ to travel, although I desire to move in that direction…
Would you be willing to point me in the direction to any of your posts that share your experience with this, especially in the early days? I’m often mystified when I hear others enjoying exciting, lengthy, and elaborate trips – and wonder – how do they manage this without going into debt and/or losing (or being replaced) at their full-time jobs?
Selena Says
Post authorHi Adi, you might find these posts helpful:
https://finduslost.com/traveling-living-abroad-our-1-5-year-update/
https://finduslost.com/from-9-to-5-jobs-to-travel-bloggers-our-2-year-update/
And I did a series of Q&A’s as well, you can find these here:
https://finduslost.com/category/discussions/blogging/
Hope that helps! x
Planet Fiesta Says
Respected Team
During my research for the article 20 Best Travel Sites of 2019 That Gives a Feel of Travel While Reading We came across your website and find that really helpful for my article as well as the reader we are targeting. In order to provide the best available information over the internet,.
Regards,
Team FDS
Selena Says
Post authorGlad you found us. You can email with any questions if needed – finduslost@gmail.com.
Thanks!
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Elizabeth Higgins Says
Selena and Jacob, this post is truly inspiring! We love the photos and the story behind them speak a lot! It definitely gives off a happier vibe when you make your passion your professio; it’s still difficult but the hardships are worth it. Thanks for such an inspiration!
Selena Says
Post authorYou’re so welcome Elizabeth thank you for the kind words!
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Manon Says
I am so exciting for you guys! You are on such a great adventure and it only makes sense to start travel full-time That way, you have much more freedom and no rent, like you said! Can’t wait to follow where you’re going next!
Selena Says
Post authorThank you Manon! That means a lot to us! We can’t wait either
Stephanie Says
I’ve been wondering how the heck y’all stay in such good shape while traveling so much!
Selena Says
Post authorHa! I wish I had a better answer but — both of us are terrible about working out. The one upside of non-stop travel is that we do SO much walking when we’re exploring a city. We recently started getting better about tracking our steps on the health app (we typically walk around 4-6 miles/day). Other than that, we both try to go to workout classes when we’re settled in one area for a bit. Pilates is my favorite workout, so I’ll always look up nearby spots to go!
Ana Mafalda Says
I am so excited for you guys!! I love following your unique adventures! Hope you have a fantastic time <3
Selena Says
Post authorThanks Ana! We’re excited too.
Caitlin Says
This is so exciting- I love watching all your travels. Are you guys coming out with your own presets? I found the Instagram page & got super happy!
Selena Says
Post authorThanks Caitlin! We’re thinking about it…
Heather Says
Hi Selena & Jacob! I’ve been following you guys since you were posting your trip from Slovenia (on Instagram) and it has been an absolute joy to watch you grow as travelers/writers/photographers/content creators etc! Thank you for sharing your life and being so transparent about the fact that for a long time you had a safety net – this is something people need to hear otherwise a “travel blogger” career seems unattainable (which of course for many it may still be). I’ve been documenting my travels with a few different Sony cameras and Mavic Pro for a couple years now and just recently launched a site. I haven’t been able to find a way to let go of my safety net but I’m working on it. Your story continues to inspire me and this post gives me further hope that I too will get there. Keep up the amazing work and best wishes on your new adventure!
Selena Says
Post authorHeather thank you SO much! And thank you for following along with all our ups and downs! You definitely caught us at the most interesting time of our lives…ha ha. Please shoot me an email (finduslost@gmail.com), I’d love to check out your site. xx