About

Last Updated on August 22, 2021

Hi there! I am Dani, the girl behind GlobetrotterGirls.com.

As the name indicates, Globetrottergirls was started by two girls – me and my partner Jessica. We set off on this incredible journey in 2010 as a couple, but as our planned one-year trip turned into a voyage without an end date, our life paths moved into different directions and in 2014, we separated. This was in no way an easy decision, and you can read the full story here.

After four years of traveling the world as a couple and running this website together, I have been globetrotting on my own since early 2014 and made the decision to continue to share my travel stories here on Globetrottergirls.com, and keep the precious memories of our amazing travels together alive at the same time.

How it all began…

Our passion for travel was a thirst that could not be quenched by just a few holidays a year. That’s why, in the middle of a long, gray British winter in January 2010, Jess and I decided to break free and fly to Las Vegas on the first leg of what we thought would be a year-long trip around the world. I looked back on how I quit my job to travel the world in February 2015, exactly five years after walking out of my office.

We didn’t have much in the way of savings and had limited experience with long-term travel. Jess was working as a copywriter / ‘content creator’ and I was a recruitment consultant in the financial sector. Our plan was to take our jobs on the road and see where it all would lead.

Before we met each other, back in Germany in 2006, we had both lived abroad for years: Jess in Guatemala, Costa Rica, Germany and England; Dani in Austria, Spain and England.

But until I met Jess, I used to be one of those people with a giant suitcase. If I was going on vacation for 14 days, I would have 14 outfits and almost as many pairs of shoes. Now, pretty much everything I own fits into a 65-liter backpack (I know, it’s way too big – but hey, I’ve come a long way from my suitcase travel days, no?) I’ve been traveling non-stop since the end of April 2010 – the same time Jess and I started this website. As GlobetrotterGirls, we’ve traveled throughout North America, Europe, India, South East Asia, Mexico, Central America and South America. We have climbed volcanoes, swum with sharks, gone caving deep into sacred Mayan caves, spent time with Buddhist monks, hiked in Patagonia and lived in some of the world’s most exciting cities.

With absolutely no home base to speak of, I combine months of rapid travel with longer stays living as locals in places around the world. Sometimes, I research hotels and hostels like crazy before settling on one, other times I wing it once I get into town. In cities like Berlin or Buenos Aires, I rent vacation apartments for five or six weeks at a time, but my favorite long-term option is housesitting. I have done that more than 20 times across four continents in the last 5.5 years, both by myself and together with Jess, we even wrote a book about it. I 2014, I did eight housesits  in New York City, which allowed me to spend five months in my favorite city in the world, and I absolutely loved it – especially the summer. I love to adapt to the local lifestyle and develop habits in each place, whether that means finding a regular bakery to visit in the morning, stopping at my favorite market or meeting with local friends I make in the evenings. Long-term travel means having the opportunity to experiencing what life is really like in each place I visit.

From full-time traveler to part-time nomad..

On 1 March 2018, after eight years of vagabonding without a permanent address, I finally signed a lease. Spending that summer in New York in 2014 affirmed my love for this incredible city, and I decided to make it my home. It took me almost another four years after making that decision to finally sign a lease, but I now call Brooklyn home – at least for part of the year. The nomad in me can’t stop traveling, of course, and I am trying to spend the warmer months in New York and travel during the winter. So far, this has been the perfect solution: I get to spend the summers in my favorite city in the world, and I get to escape the brutally cold East Coast winters.

You can read my most recent annual updates here:

Globetrottergirls is turning 11

If you’re wondering why there is no “Globetrottergirls is turning 10” post: …well, we were in the middle of a global pandemic when this milestone rolled around, and instead of celebrating with the special anniversary trip I’d long planned and looked forward to, I was mourning the loss of 90% of my income, my businesses, and scared I’d never see my family again. I wrote What it’s like to live in NYC during COVID-19 in April 2020.

Globetrottergirls is turning 9

Globetrottergirls is turning 8

My mission is to inspire curiosity about the world and provide the tips and tools to help you see as much of the world as you can for yourself.

I do this through all of the different articles here on Globetrottergirls.com, plus our housesitting book. At its core, however, GlobetrotterGirls.com remains the first-hand account of one girl exploring the world.

I know not everyone wants to be nomadic like I am, which is why this site is for globetrotters at heart – independent travelers who are curious about the world around them.

I believe that travel is a state of mind, requiring only curiosity and exploration wherever you are.

On a two week vacation, you don’t hide away in a resort, and the thought of never seeing what’s beyond it is suffocating. You’re the one booking tours out every day or even hopping the local bus to head into town and eat at a hole in the wall and soak up local life wherever you are.

When you consider buying an expensive item, do you first have to calculate how many nights in [insert your favorite travel destination] it would cost just to buy it?

Have you ever hopped on a bus in your own city and just taken it to last stop, to see where it goes and what it looks like out there? Or have you had three days free and rather than taken a much-needed rest, you booked a last minute trip instead?

If you’re like me, you travel independently, researching and making plans on your own based on reviews and recommendations, and travel according to your own taste.

I make mistakes so you don’t have to!

I am here to help you make traveling easier for you, sharing what I’ve learned on my journey, the good, the bad and the ugly. I am sharing the mistakes I’ve made so you don’t have to make the same ones. I am sharing my money-saving tips, travel hacks, and places I loved. I strive to make GlobetrotterGirls.com your go-to travel resource you can trust, from inspirational articles like

• My journey through the Philippines in pictures
• The day we hitchhiked to the end of the world
• A Taste Of Italy… Our first impressions
• Ice, ice baby… the amazing Perito Moreno Glacier
• Icebergs, waterfalls, geysers and lava fields: Highlights from an Iceland Road Trip

to practical facts like

• How to book cheap flights
• How to start travel hacking
• How to travel around Europe on the cheap
• How much does it cost to travel in Vietnam
• Things you shouldn’t miss in Buenos Aires

and the mistakes I have made along the way.

• Getting scammed in Bangkok
• Travel fail: How not to visit Hong Kong
• I got rammed by a buffalo.. allegedly.
• When travel dreams die.. our disappointing trip to ‘The Beach’

Some of my more personal stories:

• Searching for my inner demons in the Colombian jungle: A date with Ayahuasca
• It’s a dog’s life for animal lovers on the road
• The Day I cycled down Bolivia’s Death Road
• The Evolution Of A Nomad
• Hijacked by a Buddhist Monk in Sukothai

and I’ve shared my best and worst travel moments of my first five years of travel here:

• The 5 best moments of 5 years of travel
• The 5 worst moments of 5 years of travel

What you find on Globetrottergirls.com:

I share travel stories related to what it’s like to be a gay or lesbian traveler, and also publish guest posts by fellow LGBT travelers who share their travel stories and experiences as well: LGBT posts on Globetrottergirls.com.

Things I love about… This series sees me list, in no particular order, things I have loved about each country or city. Places where I spend a long time have thirty three things, and for places I spend less time in, I choose one thing for each day we are in the country.

I am a hotel enthusiast and have stayed in over 300 hotels through to today and give shout outs to my favorites in our Where To Stay In… series.

I regularly put together photo essays of places I love and also publish a Polaroid of the Week every week which gives you an idea of what I’ve been up to in the past seven days, since most of my articles are a few weeks behind my actual travels. I also summarized every month in my Life Lately… round-ups while I was still traveling full-time.

The Go Beyond series covers what is just beyond the tourist attractions in popular travel destinations, while Please Don’t Go is a series where I ask you, quite seriously (but also not seriously at all), NOT to go to certain destinations that are so precious I don’t ever want to see them overrun with tourists.

In 2013, our GlobetrotterGirl of the Month interview series highlighted 12 women who successfully incorporate travel into their work lives.

In her What I Wonder When I wander column, Jess examined topics like plastic waste (Bottled Up Guilt), the art of bargaining, what makes a song a global hit, weight gain and weight loss while traveling, Indian TV, and what exactly is “The West”.

One Globe. No Regrets.

When I look back on life I know I won’t regret the risks I took and things I did, but all those things I did not do. I live by the motto “One Globe. No Regrets” as a reminder, everyday, to follow our passion for travel, wherever it may lead.

Keep up with me on Facebook, Twitter, Pinterest, Instagram, and Flickr. Sign up here to receive the Beyond the Blog newsletter and contact me through the website or email me directly at dani at globetrottergirls dot com.