Skip to Content

1000 Days of Travel: Reflections

1000 Days of Travel: Reflections

Last Updated on February 22, 2021

10 sets of 100 days. 33 months. 95 days shy of three years. 

1,000 days and we’re still making this life of travel work? We never, ever thought more than a year would be possible. Now we know that not only is it possible to maintain such a lifestyle, but we can do it independently. Thank goodness we didn’t quit way back in 2010, when we had a bit of a crisis. Writing for GlobetrotterGirls was taking up quite a bit of time. We both had freelance work for our employers back in England and this website seemed like a bit of a distraction from the traveling. One of us even considered letting it go entirely. Was our travel blog really that important?

Globetrottergirls old screenshot

A look back at the first look of Globetrottergirls.com

Well, GlobetrotterGirls.com has since become our passion and our lives. Rather than give it up, we grew this site, and now we have a lot of dedicated readers who read our posts (some are even brave enough to comment – we wish you’d do that more!), use our advice, also share travel tips with us, and follow along with our journey.  Through our website we have been able to meet other like-minded people we could have never met and we have even inspired readers to believe that this kind of freedom, even if just for a few weeks or months, could also be an option for them. Every time we receive emails from readers who tell us how much our site has helped them plan their trip we are glad that we didn’t call it quits. And over time, this blog has become a pretty big income source for us, which is another reason why are happy that we stuck to it, since it allowed us to cut back on those freelance projects we didn’t truly enjoy.

We never could have imagined this kind of connection with people when we set off on 30 April, flying from London to Las Vegas. But that was a long time ago.

1,000 days ago, Rihanna’s Rude Boy was knocked off the charts by Nothin’ on You by B.o.B. and Bruno Mars. Sex and the City 2 and Iron Man 2 were in theaters. The Help and The Girl Who Kicked the Hornets Nest were on the New York Times Best Sellers list, and it was still world free of 50 Shades of Gray and The Hunger Games. Adele was still in the studio writing her sophomore album, 21, yet to release the goose bump-inducing ‘Someone Like You’. Smartphones hadn’t taken over the whole world yet, there were no iPads and Instagram was just an idea, yet to be launched.

And 1,000 days ago, Dani and I were completely different people. 

2007 Dani & Jess in England

Exploring England before we ever even thought about taking an extended trip.

This much freedom changes you inside. We have traveled to North, Central and now South America, South East Asia, India, Europe, learning lessons and experiencing countless different ways of being human, of viewing the world, of determining what is necessary and what isn’t in life. We have housesat on four continents, allowing us to live as locals and spend time experiencing in an intimate way (we are living in their homes, after all) how people live their lives. Meeting these homeowners and hundreds of others who have taken their lives into their own hands, we now dare to believe we can make our own lives work without sitting at gray desks making phone calls in an open plan office ever again.

In the last one thousand days, we have become self-sufficient, and though we are far from rich, we are also not afraid of seeking out a living doing what we love. In this time, we have become professional bloggers and also became authors, penning our first ever book, Break Free – The Ultimate Guide to Housesitting. A passion project of ours from the start, we want to contribute publicly and thoroughly (hence it being ‘The Ultimate Guide to Housesitting’) to the idea that we are all much more free than we believe.

What happens to your relationship after 1,000 days trapped in small hotel rooms, walking hungrily through cities in search of something to eat, pretty gross sicknesses, cow-rammings and the like?

There is the occasional blow up, as to be expected, but Dani and I are in a better place now than ever before and far better than we could have thought possible. Part of this stems from the fact that we have gotten to know ourselves much better, as constant travel reveals your true nature. Combine that with living the life you really want and there is room for a very happy relationship to blossom.

GlobetrottergirlsWe are both more excited about travel than ever before, mouths constantly watering at every travel photo of places which still remain on our ever-expanding itinerary. Our wanderlust is currently on overdrive, since after over six months of a lot of long stints in Arizona, Mexico, Costa Rica, Buenos Aires and now Santiago, we are more ready than ever to get traveling: next stop Patagonia…which is exactly where we said we would be writing you from today in our 900 Days Reflections post.

We predicted that we would live in Buenos Aires for a month and then travel down through Patagonia and up through Chile. Instead we extended our stay to six weeks in Buenos Aires and accepted a housesit in Santiago for seven weeks, which has been great for us. After spending days 801-900 living exclusively on the beach in Mexico and then Costa Rica, we concluded we are really city people and getting back to our urban lives has meant jam-packed days of culture, food, street art and sculptures.

Thanks to the free accommodation here in Santiago, our bank accounts are now nicely padded for the very expensive journey through the rest of Chile and Argentina in the month to come, allowing us to work less and travel more. As for our future plans, we expect to be writing you from Bolivia the next time we reflect, having traveled Patagonia to the tip of the continent, flying to Montevideo, Uruguay where we plan to travel for three weeks before heading up to Iguazu Falls, over to Salta, Argentina, then up to Lake Titicaca and four incredible days in the salt flats of Salar de Uyuni. In theory, at Day 1,100, we should be gearing up for our hike up the Inca Trail to Machu Picchu.

But who knows. One of our biggest lessons in the last 1,000 days has been that our plans always change, and that going with the flow brings incredible travel experiences every time.

dani & jess la boca caminito

Can you help?

To bring this to a close, we have a huge favor to ask you. Okay, it’s not huge for you, but it will be for us. Heading into 2013, we want to know two things from you guys. First, what do you enjoy about GlobetrotterGirls.com? In other words, what keeps you coming back for more?

Second, what do you wish we did more of? Do you want more detailed travel information, like city guides, or are there topics you wish we would cover that we don’t? Is there something you think we should do here like write more books, make more videos or podcasts, etc?  If you are a bit comment-shy, no worries, you can email us your ideas to info @ globetrottergirls dot com (or just hit reply if you get this post delivered in your inbox).

champagne

To the next 1000 days!

We can’t wait to hear your suggestions and advice for 2013 and the next 1,000 days!

Lawrence Michaels

Thursday 28th of February 2013

Wow! 1,000 days of traveling is quite an accomplishment, congratulations to you guys. You're really living the dream and an inspiration to a lot of wanna be travelers, good on you two.

Brandon Elijah Scott

Tuesday 12th of February 2013

Interesting :) great blog!

deb

Sunday 10th of February 2013

Wonderful post and congratulations. So happy to see you living your dreams and inspiring others to do so as well. Wow, a lot has changed over a thousand days. It's amazing how time flies. Here's to the next 1000!

Dani

Monday 11th of February 2013

Thanks, Deb! You are right - A LOT has changed over the last 1000 days ... we had no idea that it would turn out to be such a journey when we set off in 2010 :-)

Abby

Wednesday 30th of January 2013

Amazing. Congratulations, ladies!!!!!!!!

Jess

Monday 4th of February 2013

Thanks Abby! :)

F.J.

Wednesday 30th of January 2013

So I finally decided to stop being "comment shy." First of all, I would like to thank you ladies for this great blog. I had always wanted to travel to foreign countries and finally at age 21 decided to travel without my family for the first time and went on a trip to Central America with my boyfriend. What inspired me to do so was when I read your posts about how much money you spent in Central America. I realized how affordable traveling could really be so we planned a last minute trip and spent 5 weeks traveling in some of the countries there. What inspired me more was how much you guys are enjoying yourselves and seem to be truly free ( not confined to a desk etc). What keeps me coming back to this blog are the descriptions of your travels. I find them to be very detailed which is helpful. For example, when you are in a specific country, you mention the activities, cafes, places, etc. that you stayed in and at times you mention the costs of these things (which I find pretty helpful). If a place, activity, or whatever else sounds interesting, I take note of it so that if someday I get to visit that country, I know what to look for. Keep up the great work and enjoy your travels :) P.S. my boyfriend absolutely loves your blog too.

Jess

Monday 4th of February 2013

Hey F.J. - possibly one of the most awesome comments we have gotten of all time! So cool that you feel so inspired by the posts and by our lifestyle - we never thought this was possible but just kept plates spinning until suddenly this was just what we were doing day after day, month after month, year after year! :) Thanks for no longer being comment shy - feel free to get in touch any time if you ever want a bit more info than what we posted in an article, too. p.s. say hi to your boyfriend for us :)