Less than a week till Valentine’s! Oh that’s so close. We are rushing to find the best Valentine’s day experiences, but we’ll always find time for our ambassadors!
Here is the lovely second volume of incredible love stories by Tinggly ambassadors.
P.S. A contest is running on our facebook. Check it out here
365 Travel Dates
365traveldates.com
How long have you been traveling together? How did it happen?
Camille and I have been traveling for over 6 years now. While we dated in the Philippines we went on weekend getaways visiting waterfalls, volcanoes, beaches and cities around the island nation. While we lived in Shanghai we took 40 days off and did a trip from Cambodia to the southwest provinces of Yunnan and Guangxi in China. Most recently we finished an over 500 day honeymoon we dubbed 365traveldates thinking we would only be honeymooning for a year! Now we’re settled into El Nido, Palawan building a house and creating a small hotel The Birdhouse. I’ve always had a love for travel. and it made a great deal of sense to combine love and travel!
What was the biggest challenge you faced as a couple?
The biggest challenge we faced as a couple was when we got robbed in Dar Es Salaam a few months into our longest trip. We we’re gutted emotionally and mentally. We learned a lot about ourselves, our view of the world, and our place in it while we reflected what had happened. Being on the road on your honeymoon and having something like this happen to you can turn your world upside down. We considered all our options (ending our Africa trip early, ending our trip completely, or dusting ourselves off and continuing to move forward). We did the latter and don’t regret it. A few weeks later we would have the one of our greatest experiences, climbing and summiting Mount Kilimanjaro!
What was the most romantic moment in your travels?
It’s always so hard to pinpoint just one moment when our entire relationship has been a romantic gesture from the courtship to the marriage and finally to our honeymoon. We believe it’s just the beginning and that better things are to come. There are so many moments to choose from but at the beginning of our honeymoon we took a road trip for just over a month in the United States. We passed through Montana jumping off bridges and floating down rivers, camped in Yellowstone National Park and Redwoods National Park, as well as slept at roadside RV camps, cooking breakfast each morning with a different view of America. We made our way through Texas and up the Pacific Coast.
What would be the quote for your (travel) love story?
During our travels we lived by the motto, Travel in love, love in travel. Our idea was to move through this world knowing we we’re loved by God, this universe or whatever entity you believe in. Knowing, learning, and understanding that love, we were able to reciprocated it with new backpacker friends and locals we met at bus stations, coffee shops, market stands, or in neighboring homes. We continue to live with this motto as we step outside our door each day!
Gypsy Nester
GypsyNester.com
1. How long have you been travelling together? How did it happen?
Like most every couple, we faced a huge “now what?” moment when the last kid moved out of the house. So after sending our youngest out into the big, wide world, we set out to break the empty nest rules by selling everything and hitting the road. We bought a used RV (extremely used actually, it was older than any of our kids) and set out on what we thought would be a short term adventure. That was eight years ago.
Along the way we rediscovered the couple who fell in love years ago, and chronicled the journey on our blog. As the site became more popular, we decided to keep on going. Over time tourism bureaus and travel providers began to contact us about covering their destinations on our website. Since then we have been to over forty countries on six continents.
2. What was the biggest challenge you faced as a couple?
I suppose the biggest thing that we had to adapt to was being together almost all of the time. We lived full time in a 23 ft motorhome. It was pretty close quarters, but we each managed to find our own space. Constantly discovering new places made it much easier too.
3. What was the most romantic moment in your travels?
Wow, that’s hard to pin down to just one. We spent an awesome evening on the porch of our bungalow up in the hinterlands of Queensland Australia. We grilled dinner, took a dip in the hot tub, and spent hours just listening to the sounds of the wildlife.
There have also been several amazing evenings in Italy, with meals to die for.
4. What would be the quote for your (travel) love story?
Now that the kids are raised, celebrate life after kids.
Travelling 9 to 5
traveling9to5.com
1. How long have you been travelling together? How did it happen?
We started traveling together in college during a study abroad program in Maastricht, Netherlands. After graduating we got married and continued to take short 1 – 2 week trips every few months, but it was never enough – we wanted more! After some planning and saving, we quit our jobs to travel full time in order to build location independent businesses and experience new cultures while seeing the world.
2. What was the biggest challenge you faced as a couple?
Learning how to fight was our biggest challenge. Every couple fights, but when you are spending 24/7 with that other person and traveling through unknown, stressful situations you can find yourself arguing more than usual. Learning how each other handles stress and adapting to each others strengths will help you survive as a couple. You learn to fight fair and get over the little things really quickly.
3. What was the most romantic moment in your travels?
The most romantic moments came after some of the longest travel days, biggest hikes and most stressful situations. One that stood out was during our self drive safari, we had spent the day in search of the big 5 with our adrenaline pumping and we finally arrived 7 hours later at our campsite for the night. It was in the middle of Botswana bush with no civilization nearby. We started a fire, set up the tent, poured a glass of wine and sat under a sky of stars. It was just the two of us (and probably hundreds of wild animals!) and it was a perfect night!
4. What would be the quote for your (travel) love story?
Picking one is hard! Here are two that we try to live by and both believe in.
A desk is a dangerous place from which to view the world.” – John le Carr
“Figure out what your purpose is in life, what you really and truly want to do with your time and your life; then be willing to sacrifice everything and then some to achieve it. If you are not willing to make the sacrifice then keep searching” – Quintina Ragnacci
Uncornered Market
uncorneredmarket.com
1. How long have you been travelling together? How did it happen?
Although we are originally from the United States, we were living and working in Prague, Czech Republic for five years until December 2006, at which point we decided to quit our jobs and sell everything to travel the world and launch our travel blog. That journey was originally meant to be a 12-18 month creative sabbatical, but here we are over nine years later. However, travel has always been a part of our relationship since we first met over 18 years ago, completely by coincidence in Monterey, California.
2. What was the biggest challenge you faced as a couple?
One of the consistent challenges involves balancing work and life as we grow and change both personally and professionally. To address this a little further, we elaborate on what it’s like to travel and work together as a couple full-time.
3. What was the most romantic moment in your travels?
There are many. Of the traditional, our wedding in Tuscany delivered beyond expectations and comes out on top or close. Of the less traditional, I think of sharing a bottle of wine in a park behind a train station on the France-Switzerland border, which I refer to at the end of biographical piece referenced in my answer to #2 above.
4. What would be the quote for your (travel) love story?
Applicable both to love and travel, particularly in the long-term, is this quote from Lao Tzu: “The journey of a thousand miles begins with a single step.”
Wandering On
wanderingon.com
1. How long have you been travelling together? How did it happen?
Our travels together started when we left Ireland in 2009 on a one-way ticket to South Korea to teach English. Of course we had both travelled individually before this; Brian had been on a round the world ticket, lived in Hawaii and California, as well as numerous trips around Europe, while Noelle had travelled by train around Europe, lived in New York and England.
After meeting in University, we went on a few short trips to Europe, travelled around France in our own self-converted van and did lots of trips in Ireland in that same van. Once college was finished we found an apartment, moved in together and started saving to travel. Our plan then was to teach for a year, travel around Southeast Asia and move to Oz. Seven years later, we still haven’t made it to Australia but we’ve made travel our life,been to some incredible places, met some great people and had some awesome adventures.
2. What was the biggest challenge you faced as a couple?
We get on extremely well; we’ve pretty much lived in each other’s pockets since we met in 2006 and even more so since we hit the road in 2009. We’re very comfortable together and have been through a lot together; from near-death experiences in Nepal, to climbing volcanoes in crazy conditions in Indonesia, to all the normal couple and family stuff.
In all that time the challenges we’ve faced have been quite rudimentary; being away from friends and family, deciding on where to go next, learning how to make a living on the road and working out how to manage our money. Each of these has been challenging and our lifestyle can be demanding. Balancing travel, work and our personal life on the road can be tough at times, but we wouldn’t change it for anything.
3. What was the most romantic moment in your travels?
There have definitely been a few romantic moments on the road for us. But the most recent standout is probably New Year’s Eve. On our epic three-month New Zealand road trip, we spent New Years Ever at the stunning Lake Tekapo. Sitting out the front of our van, we had a few beers and watched the sun cast the last light of the year on the peak of Mount Cook – that was definitely a memorable moment for us. It was stunning!
4. What would be the quote for your (travel) love story?
“Those who travel together, stay together”. We know it’s not true for everyone but we couldn’t imagine our lives any other way. Everyday is a shared experience and most days it’s just the two of us. It could be a familiar city, a remote mountain, a beautiful beach or a tiny town in the middle of nowhere. But whichever it is, we always have each other and we cherish that, it’s a very special thing. Travel will make or break you as a couple – you are exposed to every element of the other person, good and bad. If you make it through, you’re definitely meant to be.
Experience travels in another way. Experience gifts by Tinggly: