Today we’d like to introduce you to Nick and Rachel W.
Hi Nick and Rachel, so excited to have you with us today. What can you tell us about your story?
We are Nick and Rachel. Nick is 34, from England, and Rachel is 35, from Canada.
We met on Bumble, about 3 years ago during the pandemic. We dated for a few months and realized that things were going in a really good direction (when you know, you know, you know?), so we then moved into our Toronto condo together 7 months into our relationship.
When we fully moved into our condo, we decided to have a date night (pandemic-style, so it consisted of one delivery from a pizza place and another delivery from a cookie place). It was a beautiful summer evening, so we had a lovely evening outside, discussing our hopes, dreams, and everything in between. At that point, we came up with the crazy idea to quit our jobs and travel the world for a year (maybe longer).
There is this ancient Persian philosophy that, if an idea sounds good when you’ve had some drinks, and then sounds just as good the next morning, then you should pursue it. At first, it seemed like a pipe dream, but the more we talked about it, the more realistic it all started to sound.
Through researching via YouTube and blog posts, we then worked out how to ensure that we could take care of a lot of the largest costs (i.e. flights) through airline loyalty points, which could be earned rapidly through credit card sign-up bonuses. We decided that we wanted more local experiences when it came to accommodation and food/drink, as that would provide us with beautiful memories, as well as better value for money. With that, we then spent 2 years saving money alongside said points.
We then needed to settle on a start date. Thankfully, one of Nick’s very good friends from back home in England had set a wedding date for the end of April 2023. Once we had earmarked that, we started to put the word out to our friends and family, which made everything seem a lot more real.
Once the world started opening back up, we were desperate to see a new country, so we booked a vacation to Morocco in May 2022. We decided that this would be a good time to test run and see how we wanted to document our future travels. We watch several travel YouTubers and thought that that would be a great way to capture memories the most effectively, as well as best illustrate our journey to our friends and family, so they could follow along. However, the issue was that we had no filming or post-production experience, so we needed to work it out between us.
On our trip to Morocco, we took turns filming a day at a time and quickly discovered that it detracted from Nick’s travel experience, whereas it didn’t for Rachel. We saved all of our footage, so we could learn to edit when we got home. We both know how to edit, but we both agreed that Nick is more adept at it, so roles started to carve out from there. Meanwhile, Nick has always been used to taking photos while traveling, and Rachel is much more familiar with Instagram. We then quickly fell into the pattern of going out on day trips, taking our respective photos and footage, and then swapping equipment to turn it all into something for our followers to enjoy.
The next part was our respective jobs. Rachel was a self-employed physiotherapist and had been talking about our plans with her patients for 2 years. They were all very supportive and understood that they would need to find a new physiotherapist, which, since plenty of notice had been given, was no problem. Nick worked for a 500-strong technology company which, due to their size, did not have a sabbatical option. Therefore, while everything was left on very good terms, he did have to resign to pursue this amazing adventure.
After renting out our condo, we moved all of our belongings into Rachel’s Mom’s basement for storage. We knew we didn’t want to check luggage on any of our flights to save costs and potential issues with lost bags, so we opted for carry-ons and personal items only. This limited us to 62L storage space each, which had to take all of our electronics, clothes, and toiletries for one year (we have videos about our condo and packing that up, as well as what we then packed in our bags).
And so began our journey! We went to England first for the aforementioned wedding, as well as to catch up with our respective families, before starting the journey to Italy.
At the time of writing (about 3 months after we set off), we have gone to 10 other countries – Slovenia, Croatia, Turkey, Jordan, Egypt, UAE, Oman, India, and Sri Lanka – and we intend on hitting another 20 before our first round of travel is completed. We hope to continue with as many travel plans as we can think of and make it our life for the foreseeable future. We are trying to maintain an average budget of CA$100 (US$75) every day for ALL costs, which can be a challenge in some countries, but very easy in others.
We post regular photos and videos on our Instagram account and YouTube channel respectively (both with the @nickandrachelrecommend handle), and we encourage anyone interested in travel to join us on our journey.
People are welcome to contact us via any means for cross-promotional purposes. We are open to working with anyone who aligns with our interests (tours, accommodation, food, experiences, etc.)!
Alright, so let’s dig a little deeper into the story – has it been an easy path overall, and if not, what were the challenges you’ve had to overcome?
For the most part, it has been relatively straightforward. Generally speaking, due to how good technology is nowadays, researching and arranging transport and accommodation is so much easier, and it’s a lot harder to get lost. Language hasn’t been that much of a barrier up to now, which, in some ways, is a bit of a shame, but in other ways, does make our lives a lot easier!
We are anticipating that, at some point, there will be a major snafu, but we generally do try and stay as well-informed/researched as possible ahead of our trips so that this doesn’t happen. That all said, aside from the occasional creative difference between us when it comes to our content, we have come up against some minor obstacles.
The first one was in Florence where, despite us having told our accommodation that we were coming in on a late bus, there was no one there to greet us upon arrival. They had sent us instructions for “self-check-in”, but it turned out that these were completely incorrect, so there we were, for the best part of an hour, way past midnight, having to use Google translate to explain what we meant so that we could get in. Thankfully, we did, but it could have been an interesting way to get acquainted with a local park!
We have had a couple of bus cancellations. Depending on the country that you’re in, you may or may not be able to rebook it all online. The worst situation was in Istanbul, where the main bus terminal is about 45 minutes outside of the city center. We had got up early to catch our bus, but the instant we got on the metro to verify that our bus was still going, we were told that it had been canceled, with no way to rebook online. We therefore had to continue our journey to the bus station and get it all rebooked at the ticket desk. Fortunately, we only had to wait 4 hours until the next one, but the waiting lounges did not have the most comfortable seats or WiFi, so it wasn’t the best time!
We also had one connection on a flight booking (made with points) get canceled as well, which then meant that we had to phone Aeroplan (Air Canada’s loyalty scheme) internationally to resolve the situation. Their solutions, which included flying from Ankara to Istanbul, then out to Frankfurt, Germany to then going back to Amman, Jordan, seemed a little protracted, so we opted for the only other option, which was to get 3 different flights, this time from Ankara to Istanbul to Cairo to Amman. Needless to say, after 30+ hours of travel for a flight for a journey that should have been no more than 2 hours under normal circumstances, we were very happy to have had a bed!
Speaking of hotels, then, even if you try and be as careful as possible when booking, you can still find yourself in an uncomfortable situation. The first truly uncomfortable experience we had was in our hotel in New Delhi, India. The room we had booked had black mold on the walls, a broken toilet seat and bathroom counter, and so much limescale on the shower head that we couldn’t even use it. After discussing with the manager, we were then moved into another room, this time without mold, which had all of the same bathroom issues, including a toilet that wouldn’t flush! We had booked for 5 nights, so we grinned and bore it, but needless to say, we keep a very close eye on bathroom photos and ensure there is working air conditioning in hot/humid countries!
Due to our budget, then it has meant that we have sometimes had to say no to doing certain things that people have recommended and to eat/drink a lot more sparingly. It’s strange to say because we have the privilege of not working and traveling for as long as are, but now and then, you go past a restaurant, see a couple enjoying a 3-course meal and a bottle of wine together and you get a bit jealous. We often choose to go grocery shopping as opposed to eating out, too. We never thought we would say this before traveling, but, at one point, we got SO sick of eating Nutella on bread! Even now, we still try and avoid it where possible. Thankfully, the further East we’ve traveled, though, the more affordable everything has become, so we’re now able to enjoy the occasional meals out.
Thanks – So what else should our readers know about your work and what you’re currently focused on?
Rachel was a self-employed physiotherapist and Nick worked for a 500-strong technology company.
We are now working on our YouTube channel and Instagram account, which both have the @nickandrachelrecommend handle. Nick also got bored one day and built us a website, too:
YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/@nickandrachelrecommend
Insta: https://www.instagram.com/nickandrachelrecommend/
Site: https://nickandrachelrecommend.com/
During the day, when we’re touring, Rachel films for the vlog, while Nick takes photos. Then, when the day is done and we get home, we swap phones so that we can turn all of our content into something we can publish to our audience, Nick edits all of the videos, which then get posted on YouTube, while Rachel works through the photos to create Instagram posts and stories.
Rachel’s other job is booking all of our travel and answering business emails (such as the one we got from this lovely publication!).
What sort of changes are you expecting over the next 5-10 years?
Due to the advent of TikTok, short-form content seems to be the major trend in content creation nowadays.
However, depending on what you’ve grown up with, how you’re used to digesting your content, or just how you like to follow people’s everyday lives, we still think that there is space for longer-form content. On a personal note, neither of us has TikTok and we both prefer long-form content (which, admittedly, maybe an age thing on our part).
Like with Facebook, though, the audience that has been used to using it for a long time will continue to be the audience that props up longer-form content. Therefore, we don’t anticipate that YouTube is going to disappear or die out anytime soon.
We may adapt to some of these trends eventually, but, for now, this is the type of content that we enjoy making, and it serves the right purpose for us, which is memorializing our travels and sharing it with our friends and family in a way that means they can truly feel like they’re part of our journey (which we would love to happen for real in future travel plans!).
Contact Info:
- Website: https://nickandrachelrecommend.com/
- Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/nickandrachelrecommend/
- Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/@nickandrachelrecommend
Image Credits
Nick Williams (2023)
