The Aussie Flashpacker
At Travefy, we like to throw the spotlight on travel pros and bloggers that we’re falling in love with.
With that being said, meet Simone and Dan. Two twenty-something world travelers who feast on new adventures.
We had the opportunity to interview the two and hear about their adventures from around the globe.
Photos Courtesy of: TheAussieFlashpacker.com
Travefy: How did you find your way into travel and blogging?
Simone & Dan: Both of us took our first overseas trips when we were around 11/12 years old (Dan to the USA and Simone to New Zealand). We both caught the travel bug big time and haven’t really stopped traveling since and together we ticked our sixth continent (Africa) off our bucket lists last year!
We found ourselves in the blogging world because Simone had always loved writing, sharing her travel stories and photographs and had too many friends and family tell her she should start a blog to share all her worldly knowledge and so she did!
The Aussie Flashpacker is our personal travel blog where we share our adventures, bring you the best in luxury and adventure travel from the places we visit and most importantly aim to inspire others to travel and see the world.
T: What has been the most eye-opening experiences you’ve had while traveling?
S&D: We’ve both had a huge amount of eye-opening experiences whilst traveling and our travels truly have helped us to become the people are now but the most eye-opening would have to have been visiting Cambodia, learning about their recent history & visiting places such as the killing fields. It such an emotional, heart-wrenching experience and we both struggled to comprehend how these events had been able to occur. We think it is important people visit places such as this though, in the hope that the knowledge leads to it never being allowed to happen again. It also truly makes you appreciate every single aspect about our lives in the UK/Australia and make us realize just how lucky we are!
T: What’s your best-kept secret for others planning a trip to a place they don’t know about?
S&D: Our best tip for others planning a trip is to always stay positive & appreciate every experience of your trip from the planning stages right through to the flight home. The things that seem insignificant at the time we guarantee you’ll look back on and they’ll be up there as some of your favorite memories. It’s really important to stay positive whilst traveling because even if you are the most organized person on the planet when you are traveling in a foreign country things won’t always go to plan. For example you may not be able to find an ATM that works, your tummy may not like something you have eaten or your schedule is disrupted by a delayed bus. We try our best to stay positive in all situations whilst traveling and it really does make a difference to your overall trip!
Our best-kept secret/tip is to walk everywhere! Too often in today’s world we are in such a hurry and catch taxis and cars everywhere but miss seeing so much of the environment around us! It’s not always possible to walk EVERYWHERE but one of our favorite things to do is walk around a new city or destination as we find that we see so much more when we and get a whole new perspective on places, in addition to stumbling across incredible spots you’d never find on transport.
A destination-specific tip would be if you are planning to visit Morocco – choose to stay in Riad vs. a hotel! Riads are some of the most wonderful accommodation we have stayed in throughout all our travels and truly allow you to experience Moroccan culture! They are an Oasis in the craziness that is Morocco (we have posted a number of Riad Review on The Aussie Flashpacker).
T: What was one of the most frustrating/terrible experience you have had while traveling?
S&D: Together we’ve been pretty lucky whilst traveling and nothing has really gone majorly wrong (knock on wood)! Before we met, our travels were also generally pretty drama free with probably one exception each…
For Dan, he had his bag and passport stolen when he was backpacking in India a few years ago, but he made the decision to stay positive and look for a solution rather than getting angry and upset, and despite a few days of painful travel, embassy visits, etc. he eventually got it all sorted out!
For Simone, her most terrible experience was when she broke her ankle at a full moon party in Thailand three days into her six-week summer holiday travels! It was a pretty awful experience with almost 48 hours with no painkillers, a transfer to Ko Samui to have surgery and eight days in a Thai hospital before flying home to start the long recovery process. I’m not going to lie it was probably one of the worst experiences of my life but we were planning on hiring motorbikes and driving around the island the next day (which unbeknownst to us wasn’t covered in our travel insurance) & I am sure I probably would have ended up with much worse than a broken leg. So in the theme of positivity whilst traveling… it just wasn’t meant to be at the time and we now are in the process of making plans to return to South East Asia.
T: You fell in love during traveling, and now you go everywhere together. Any tips for other couples or best friends traveling together?
S&D: In 2012 we were both traveling around South America, we met in Brazil and fell in love and we are now engaged, living together and constantly planning new adventures! Our biggest tip for couples or best friends traveling together is to be patient with each other. We always make sure that the other is happy and that our trip is planned around things we both want to do (luckily we generally like the same kinds of things) but it is important that you make the time to visit sights or take part in activities that are important to each person (even if it’s not necessarily your piece of cake)! It’s easy to get frustrated when traveling as you are generally sleep deprived, tired and things don’t always go to plan, but we always do our best to stay patient with each other & find we both enjoy our travels so much more when we do!
T: What is your favorite place you’ve ever traveled to?
S&D: This is always such a tough question! Our favorite place we have visited together would have to be Italy. Simone fell in love with Italy when she visited in 2006 while on a school trip from Australia and we spent a few weeks exploring Rome and The Amalfi Coast in October last year. We had the most incredible time, visited such beautiful destinations and every single aspect of our trip went perfectly (which doesn’t happen often)! Our photo diary from the trip can be seen here!
T: What’s the next trip you’re going on?
S&D: We are heading back to Australia for three weeks in September to see Simone’s friends & family and also visit Sydney, the Gold Coast and everywhere in between! In addition to that, we have a lot of UK travel plans including Cornwall, the Cotswolds and Peak District for hiking, along with potentially a trip to Iceland, Budapest and there’s talk of a White Christmas/New Year’s somewhere in Europe!
Our biggest and most exciting trip will be early next year (March/April) when we take off on an extended trip around Europe, India, Sri Lanka, the Maldives and South East Asia! Our trip is still certainly in the early planning stages and at this stage we’re planning on heading off for 6-12 months and end up in Australia! We’ll be updating our trip plans & excitement on all our social media sites. 🙂 (linked below)
About Simone and Dan
Hello! We’re Simone and Dan, a twenty-something Australia girl and English boy who met and fell in love whilst travelling in South America and currently live together in England. Our favorite thing to do in the whole world is to travel and explore new beautiful destinations. We’re the founders, editors, authors and photographers of The Aussie Flashpacker, a personal travel blog which brings you the best in luxury & adventure travel and aims to inspire you to travel and see the world.
Follow these two lovebirds on their adventures on the blog, Twitter, Facebook, Instagram, Google+, and Bloglovin’ account.