July Travel Blogger Interview Series

Welcome to our July interview featuring Naomi from Eat Love Explore. Her blog talks how her and her husband saved $30k in one year, quit their jobs, and have been traveling ever since. Want to be featured next? Contact us today by clicking here.

DITS: Who is Eat Love Explore? Tell us about you, your blog and your mission.

Naomi: Hi, I’m Naomi a budget travel and finance expert who has traveled to over 40 countries for WAY less than you would think. I don’t come from a rich family, and never even went on a trip until I was 21 years old, but that trip changed my life.

I believe that anyone can travel, even if they don’t have a lot of money. My blog Eat Love Explore is all about teaching others how they can escape the 9-5, start earning income online and how to budget/save so they can travel as much as they want!

DITS: It is so inspiring to meet other couples who travel on a budget, let alone traveling full time! Are there any tips you can offer to our readers how you saved $30k in one year and how they can do the same?

Naomi: I explain all the steps in more detail in this post on how we saved $30,000 to travel, but in a nutsell the steps I took are:

Determine your “why” – What are you saving for and WHY are you doing it?
Figure out your financial goals – How much do you need to save?
Create a budget to determine how much you can realistically save to reach that goal
Change your spending habits and behavior to start saving more money
Find ways to increase your income so you can save more even faster. You can start by selling things you don’t use, you can move somewhere further to pay cheaper rent, you can stop going out as much. Then you can also try to make money in other ways like monetizing a blog, teaching English online or even freelancing using sites like upwork.com or fiverr.com.
Stick to your budget even when it gets tough, and remember your why.

To increase my income I started doing online surveys, focus groups, teaching English online with VIPKID and babysitting. I also changed my spending habits by eating out and drinking less, but all within a realistic balance so I didn’t feel deprived.

Here are some more ideas on how you can make an extra $500/month.

DITS: How do you make money while you are on the road?

Naomi: I currently make money by teaching English online with VIPKID. I love teaching online because I can do it from anywhere and it’s a really reliable source of income. I choose to work as much or as little as I want and teaching is really fun! Find out how you can become a VIPKID teacher in less than one week in this post.

I’ve also started making some money through my blog – not enough to quit my job, but it’s nice seeing my income grow from something that was just a hobby at first.

DITS: This is somewhat of a personal question, but I feel you are the right person to answer! I’m currently trying to build my online business to work remotely and Shane is going to school online. We don’t have much income to mention at the moment, but still want to travel like we were when we had jobs! Do you have any tips on how we can still travel?

Naomi: Definitely! Since airfare is typically the most expensive part of travel, if you can’t afford a flight, then try doing road trips to nearby cities! Hostels are the best for finding cheap accommodation, but you can also find cheap ones on booking.com or agoda.com!

If paying for accommodations is too expensive, you can also do day trips from your city and explore someplace you’ve never been – there are so many places in our home towns that we often overlook because we feel like they’ll always be there.

Try being tourists in your own city for a day and visit all the touristy places.

Lastly, you can also try some of these ways to get FREE accommodation on your trips!

DITS: We see you have written a few articles discussing how to pack with just a carry-on and various other tips that revolve around packing. If you had to pick 5 important items (besides clothes and essentials) that you make sure to pack every time, what would they be?

Naomi: My 5 essential items that I never travel without:

Packing cubes – literally never travel without them. THEY ARE THE BEST.
Sarong – You can use these for everything!
Travel Converter – while adapters are good they don’t convert the electrical voltage. I always travel with my travel converter so my electronics don’t burn out from the voltage difference. I’ve lost many hair straighteners by not using a converter.
Tweezers/Nail clipper – you’d be surprised how much you need these!
My camera the Sony a6500.

DITS: What was your worst travel experience and how did you handle it?

Naomi: Hmmm… This is a tough one because I’ve had many, but I can look back and laugh at them now.

I would have to say my worst travel experience must be when I almost died white water rafting in Colombia just two weeks into our year-long adventure.

We were rafting down the river on class 4/5 rapids (the highest levels) and our raft flipped over and everyone was knocked out. I was trapped under the raft and couldn’t breathe.

I finally got free and was floating down the river, trying to catch my breath and finally saw the rescue kayaker which had another person on it. We almost flipped him over but somehow got balanced.

I was hanging on to the kayak with everything I had and as we continued down the river, I hit my back against some rocks. The raft finally got to us and I was pulled in with an aching back and a black eye that I got when someone’s raft knocked me in the face before flipping over.

It was one of the scariest experiences I’ve ever had but thank God I was okay and had no serious injuries! You can read about that experience in more detail here.

DITS: What was your latest trip/vacation?

Naomi: My last trip/vacation was just a few days ago! We went to Tanzania for a Safari and it was incredible! After the safari, we flew to the small island of Zanzibar and had an amazing time exploring the island, relaxing on the beach and doing boat trips on the bluest waters I’ve ever seen in my life!

DITS: What is next on your list? Where will you be traveling to next?

Naomi: Since I’m now based in Abu Dhabi, there are so many places just a short flight away. Since moving here in November, I’ve already been to Sri Lanka, Bangkok, Malaysia and Tanzania.

I think the next place will either be Turkey or Greece – but it all depends on the price of the flight and if it’s high season or not because you know, I’m all about the budget travel!

DITS: If you had to pick anywhere in the world that you would travel to again, where would it be?

Naomi: I would go back to Guatemala. I absolutely fell in love with this beautiful small country when I backpacked there back in 2012, my second big backpacking trip. The people, food, culture and beautiful landscapes are incredible and it’s a very affordable place to visit.

DITS: We love what you’re doing and sharing with the world on your blog, tell us how we can support you!