It is Thanksgiving week, here in the USA, and it’s 2020. It’s been a weird year to say the least. We had planned to post about traveling in CA but a few days ago the governor announced we are going into Covid-19 lockdown again. Not complaining, we are totally fine with doing our part to help keep everyone safe, but it didn’t feel right to post about traveling when we literally can’t go anywhere. Instead we wanted to focus on gratitude (kinda fitting for this week) so we’ve put together a list of travel content creators who inspired us before we left on our world trip and continue to fuel our wanderlust.

Bloggers

Along Dusty Roads

Not sure when we started following Andrew and Emily but we were smitten by their photography’s beautiful aesthetic, their incredible way with words and their love for sustainability. We quickly proceeded to follow them (or was it more like stalking? anywhoo) on Instagram and we were not disappointed; their handle is alongdustyroads. Not only are they pretty darn funny but they actually liked ONE of our photos!!! (you know, back when we were posting to Instagram and not cooped up at home). No, we didn’t show upon their explorer page, we probably used their hashtag #theconstantlycurious ‘cause who doesn’t want to get bundled with other awesome photos? In all seriousness, these guys create stunning, inspiring content you won’t regret having on your feed. Oh! and if you happen to love their photography as much as we do, they are selling their prints very soon! So yea, you’ll also have to go get more wall space.

Highlands2Hammocks

Screenshot of Highlands to Hammocks webpage

I gotta admit that the Scottish accent was a bit hard for me in the beginning - but all their content is captioned (how nice is that?) and they always have sweetest and most encouraging captions. I think what we love about Gemma & Campbell is their persevering spirit. They are young (‘cause we are old, but not that old, don’t be judgin’!) and they do so many of the things we wish we’d done at their age - think 20s here. They are currently stuck in the little Island of Guernsey but you wouldn’t even think it’s small based on their content. Follow them for Scottish accent laced adventures!

YouTube

Kara & Nate

Fermin found this young couple when we started to seriously plan our trip around the world. They left about a year before we were supposed to leave and they were documenting the whole thing! Their first videos were more imperfect but in a way that made us (and probably a whole bunch of other people, ‘cause you can see they now have 1.9million followers) feel like that could be us. They were traveling on a shoestring budget, getting hangry (hungry + angry), splurging occasionally, sampling coffee everywhere and, behind the scenes, working their butts off. They put so many videos out a week that it literally felt like we were traveling with them. We still follow them and still love their videos. Like us, they’ve grown older and their videos are more polished in that same coming of age way. They’ve been to 100 countries so you’ll have loads of locations to be inspired by and if food is your thing, they have some awesome food tour videos too.

Gabriel Traveler

We can definitely credit Gabriel for giving us the courage to trek in Nepal, for 16 days! Not only did he travel back then on a shoestring, which we thought we’d be doing too (and he still travels very affordably) but he also documents all the little things like what it costs to buy water; a simple meal; a cheap room and our favorite, what it’s like to take public transportation (and if it’s worth it). His video style in the beginning was a little shaky but always honest and full of so much information. If you are on a budget, or just interested in saving a few pennies, and you want info to the point without a lot of rambling, follow Gabriel!

Mari Johnson

One of the first Mari Johnson videos we watched was her missing her flight to Asia. It was funny, honest, unapologetic and we loved her sincere narration of that trip. Many videos later she’s still the same and we love that about her. Of course her edits are more polished and her content more curated (‘cause she doesn’t vlog anymore) but she’s still quirky in her own kind of way. In 2019 she walked the Pacific Crest Trail (basically a REALLY LONG hike from Mexico to Canada on the west coast of the USA - aka PCT) and documented the whole thing. We’ve been watching her for so many years and still enjoy how her genuine personality shines through.

Gone with the Wynns

Nikki & Jason are sailing around the world in a catamaran! How cool is that?!?! We actually found them on YouTube when they were still RVing (that’s Recreational Vehicle and it basically means a motorhome, but this is the generic term). I think we wanted to learn more about RVing and these guys had all the info. In fact, some of their older RV videos are still relevant today. Nowadays we follow them because sailing around the world sounds like a dream and who knows, maybe that’ll be our early-retirement? Or not, but dreaming is free and it’s probably why you are here on this page. So definitely follow them if you are into cool couples, living an alternative lifestyle, I promise, you’ll be inspired.

Finn Snow

Finn is now living permanently in the Philippines and as some of you know, Fermin is Filipino! He’s explored so many amazing islands and his very first videos had amazing drone footage. He still has incredible drone footage but it’s not as unique anymore because so many content creators have drones. This isn’t to take away from his videos, but that’s how we found him and why we initially started following him. He now documents life in the Philippines, diving, and marine conservation efforts. And we love that too! So, if you are into daydreaming of breathtaking beaches, great diving and a little glimpse of what living in the Philippines is like, follow him.

To all the content creators we mentioned (not sure you’ll read this far since most of you are rather famous) we just want to thank you for keeping us inspired and dreaming of travel.

What about you? do you have any inspiring bloggers or YouTubers? Leave a comment below so we can check them out. Until next time, let’s dream of travel!