Can travel break you away from shyness and naiveté? I think I know the answer to this, and so does today’s guest — who spent a year on the road searching for purpose and personal growth. Nithin Coca is a freelance writer and social activist, as well as the author of the book Traveling Softly and Quietly, a young man’s journey for meaning on and off the beaten path - which you can pick up now. Nithin is an Indian American from Southern California with a lifelong travel bug — and his works...

Get the Paradise Pack here and let me know! We'll sit down for an hour long trip planning consultation or help setting up a location independent business. The Paradise Pack is a collection of tools and resources designed to help you break down the barriers between where you are and where you want to be. Whether that's traveling more or building a location independent lifestyle business, this pack contains items made by 11 guests from The Daily Travel Podcast AND more! In short, it's over...

"Good people greatly outnumber nasty people, worldwide. There is a network that existed long before facebook, and it is the network of persons of good will, who will introduce and pass you to other persons of good will, such that you can take a friendly look around a town, a nation or the world, as you like. There is no similar network among nasty people, they are on their own, and if you know what is good for you, leave them alone." – Mike Spencer Bown 23 years of adventures spent wandering...

Jacqueline Kehoe is a travel writer and the author behind The Strange and New, a name taken from a poem that ends with a couplet which I grabbed from her website: "...But they're always tired of the things that are and they want the strange and new." I believe those two lines describe people like us, certainly me and perhaps you. In Jacqueline's words, those lines are meant "for those who have their traveling paint set in hand, who globe-trot to become, and who yearn for experiences that...

Beth Whitman is the editor and mind behind Wanderlust and Lipstick, where she bills herself as a contemporary wanderer and women’s travel expert, leading women-only and coed adventure tours that go from places like Santa Fe to Bhutan and New Guinea. Once upon a time, Beth took a 3 month trip around the US at age 20, an experience that would catalyze her career in travel and a desire to venture further into the world. Today, she is no stranger to adventure having completed the Snowman Trek...

After nine years as a celebrity gossip columnist in New York City, Kelly Will sold everything she owned to cross all 50 of the United States for one year — a social experiment she undertook to try to find more connection and build community into her life. Today, she’s gearing up to launch her book, Willful, and a new company to help others find connection and purpose from the things they do. I’m excited to explore Kelly’s reasons for taking such a trip — and broadcasting it in the way that...

In 2013, Mike Margolies had all the things you’re supposed to want to make you happy, but it wasn’t enough. He left his corporate job as an engineer to see if the world had something else to offer that might fulfill him. The risks were minimal - to take a career break in your 20s is not completely unheard of. I did it and it changed me. What Mike found did change the direction of his life, his definition of a career, the limits of his curiosity, and creativity, and today’s he’s exploring...

“I remember thinking, ‘What am I doing?’ I had a great husband, I had a great house, I had all this safety — this big safety net — and I’ve just taken myself out of it. Am I doing the right thing? What is this going to lead to? It was really difficult. And there were moments on the road when I was just distraught and confused but I think once you take that giant leap of faith, the only way is forward. And it’s only natural to want to go back to something that’s really safe. To go back to your...

Jonny Blair is the Northern Irishman behind the site Don't Stop Living, a blog "covering the lifestyle of travel," which he defines as being always on the move - even when employed. Jonny's backpacked to 99 countries and on the cusp of hitting #100 - while studying in England, China, Australia and Uruguay.  In this episode, we get into how Jonny defines the travel lifestyle for himself, what motivates that, and how he makes this work for himself. Credits Music credit: Intrepid Journey, by...

Mark van der Heijden is a creative copywriter from Amsterdam who just last year, left his job to travel the world with an unique goal. He calls himself The Backpacker Intern and is leveraging his talents as a creative copywriter to land internships around the world in the fields of content marketing, advertising, and production in exchange for (get this) only food and somewhere to sleep. This quest has led him to the TEDx stage in New York, The White House where we met, among the top 100...

Marina Janeiko is a digital nomad with a particular skill-set with which she’s been supporting a lifestyle of travel and creative wandering, while building a career for herself that allows her to live and work from anywhere. As a User Experience Designer, she’s been working on What’s It Like — a web platform that focuses on travel by asking when should you go, rather than where — which is an idea I absolutely love. And for the past 5 years, Marina’s been living the digital nomad lifestyle...

"For every alleyway out there, there's an alleyway inside of you." This is part 2 of my conversation with Don George. Listen to part 1. Don George is the Editor at Large for National Geographic Traveler, as well as a Special Features Editor for Gadling. He’s the former editor of the San Francisco Examiner and Chronicle. the founder and former editor of the Wanderlust section of Salon.com, and the Global Travel Editor at Lonely Planet. He’s the author of the lonely planet guide to travel...

Don George is the Editor at Large for National Geographic Traveler, as well as a Special Features Editor for Gadling. He's the former editor of the San Francisco Examiner and Chronicle. the founder and former editor of the Wanderlust section of Salon.com, and the Global Travel Editor at Lonely Planet. He’s the author of the lonely planet guide to travel writing and most recently the editor of An Innocent Abroad, Lonely Planet’s most recent collection of travel stories from some amazing...

In 2006, today’s guest first appeared way back in episode 86 and 87, where we talked about how to travel longterm in a financially sustainable way and how to find free accommodation anywhere. Nora Dunn left a career in financial planning to embrace the desire of perpetual travel, which she has been doing for the past 8 years — and since then has been helping others accomplish the same through her blog, The Professional Hobo. She’s released two books, How to Get Free Accommodation Around the...

This is part 2 of my conversation with John Marshall, author of Wide Open World. Listen to part 1. Wide Open World is a new memoir by John Marshall, a 9-time Emmy Award winning producer from Portland, Maine. This book is more of an opus to experience and a richly told account of likely the most beautiful thing John Marshall has ever done for himself, his family, and everyone they helped and were helped by along the way to finding whatever it was that they found waiting for them out there on...

Wide Open World is a new memoir by John Marshall, a 9-time Emmy Award winning producer from Portland, Maine. This book is more of an opus to experience and a richly told account of likely the most beautiful thing John Marshall has ever done for himself, his family, and everyone they helped and were helped by along the way to finding whatever it was that they found waiting for them out there on the road. And we’ll hear all about what that was. Before the trip, John’s marriage was struggling...

This is part 2 of my conversation with Erik Paquet from The Abroaders. Listen to part 1. As just a hobbyist, today's guest has redeemed over one million points and frequent flyer miles for at least $30,000 in free travel. Nowadays, Erik Paquet runs the international travel consultancy The Abroaders, helping people around the world travel for as close to free as it gets. As a result, Erik’s created a location independent business for himself and his partners, coaching friends, family and his...

As just a hobbyist, today's guest has redeemed over one million points and frequent flyer miles for at least $30,000 in free travel. Nowadays, Erik Paquet runs the international travel consultancy The Abroaders, helping people around the world travel for as close to free as it gets. As a result, Erik’s created a location independent business for himself and his partners, coaching friends, family and his clients on how to leverage their credit to dramatically reduce the cost of...

Hey Explorers! Danny was kind enough to give us all a free audio version of his new book, Buy Your Own Island: The Ultimate Guide to Breaking Free and Making Your Dreams Reality. You can download the audiobook here. After struggling to find employment out of college, Danny Flood instead decided to travel the world - and pursue a list of dreams that he’d written down on a piece of paper. Five years later he’s still traveling and living overseas and Danny’s ready to tell his story — and I’m...

Max Breckbill is an American in Germany, and together with his partner, Marcus Meurer, they’ve been embedding themselves into the entrepreneurial scene there in Berlin. Marcus founded DNX Global - The Digital Nomad Conference, which is happening on July 31st 2015, featuring a number of digital nomad speakers who have been on this show. In Berlin, Max runs series entrepreneurial community activities among aspiring and successful independent people in Berlin seeking support, help, and to spend...

Megan Jerrard is the mind behind the award winning travel blog and extremely helpful resource Mapping Megan. Meg and her husband Mike have been covering their own adrenalin-fueled travels for 8 years — since way back in 2007. Together they seek to let their own dreams inspire others to pursue their own — to get out there and explore, and become a better version of yourself. Adventure is the departure from your comfort zone, and in this episode we get into what it is that compels Megan to...

Jenna Davis is a travel blogger and freelance writer from Ontario who, since 2012, has been choosing a life of travel over the status quo. I’m going to quote something she wrote about herself that I can entirely relate to: “To be honest, I had no idea where I wanted to be in the future, I just knew I couldn’t be average. I couldn’t put myself into a position where I would go to bed every day unsatisfied with my life and worrying about the problems I have on my plate for the next day at the...

I met Alex Montoya in December of 2014 at The White House Travel Blogger Summit on Study Abroad and Global Citizenship. He was the only student we heard from at the event. All being participants of study abroad and travel programs ourselves, this was okay but the reason was obvious: He was a recipient of the Gilman Scholarship, which helps connect underserved populations that might not have the opportunity to afford or find programs to study abroad with the ability to actually go and...

"Losing everything, as shocking as it was at the time, kind of sets you free because suddenly you know what it is to lose everything. So you don't fear failure and loss quite as much because you've already experienced it." Justin Tyers and his wife Linda lost everything they had in the middle of the night. But instead of letting this devestate their lives, they chose to see this as an opportunity to pursue the life they'd always dreamed of. Without any experience, they set sail to live on a...

Life Out of the Box, according to founders Jonathan and Quinn, started with a dream to travel the world, live their ideal lives and make the world a better place. Of all the many things that we talk about on this show, this is the story I’m most interested in: How to see the world and make a lasting impact? Quinn and Jonathon left California for Nicaragua with nothing but a bag on their back and a desire to make something. While there, they worked with local educational non-profits and...