We caught up with Lina & Dave prior to their Gap Year (actually 2 year) break where they will take on the world! We asked them a few questions about the way they travel as well as countries that have surprised them along their journey thus far. Meet Lina & Dave from Divergent Travelers!
When did the two of you fall in love with traveling together?
We started traveling together in 2003. Our very first trip was to the Riviera Maya in Mexico. We stayed at the all-inclusive resort, Barceló Maya, and had an amazing week exploring the area. That was the start of many years of traveling together. We’ve been all over together and are getting ready to depart on a 2 year RTW trip on February 21!
What advice can you give to other couples who want to start traveling more?
You really have to make travel a priority in your life. There are always things to spend your money on, but if you really want to travel, you need to save. You need to want it bad enough that it outweighs eating out, drinks with friends all the time and new fancy things. We have managed to spend the past 12 years visiting 31 countries while working full time jobs because we made travel a priority in our lives.
What are some of your favorite activities/hobbies you like doing while traveling?
We love getting out to see and do things. We’ve come a long ways from our first trip to Mexico and the all-inclusive resort! We do lots of research and make sure we see all the cool stuff when we travel. We love adventure- snorkeling, helicopters, rock climbing, cliff rappelling, hiking, kayaking, etc. We’re adding skydiving and scuba to the list on our RTW! We also love to visit historical places- ancient ruins, cultural centers, old building, stuff like that.
Which country that you visited surprised you the most, and why?
To date, Cambodia. We knew it was going to be a cool country, but we weren’t prepared to fall in love with it. We planned just a brief amount of time there on our honeymoon in 2010 so we could visit the Angkor temples and literally fell in love with it. I think the history just blew us away and the culture is so rich there. You can’t beat the stunning landscapes and friendly people either. Not to mention the Angkor temples. They are breathtaking. We are really looking forward to taking our time in that country the second time around.
Vacation time is very limited in the United States. Since you have been working full time, how do you manage to find the time off work to travel?
We are both lucky to have a little more vacation time then the average American. We both have 4 weeks of paid time off (PTO). We have been able to run those days up against paid holidays and weekends throughout the years to make for longer vacations. We use our time very wisely when we have traveled in the past. This was sometimes exhausting, but we didn’t have a choice. We have seen A LOT in the past few years while using our PTO time. But again, it comes down to making travel a priority. While people were taking extra days off around the holidays or on summer days to just hang out, we were at work, working, because we were saving our days for travel.
What country are you looking forward to most during your upcoming RTW trip and why?
This is a really hard question. We are travel addicts. We are looking forward to everything! Really hard to look at all the places we are planning to visit and come up with one, so I’ll name a couple and I’ll try to make them different….. Indonesia- we have never been and the country is so amazingly diversified. From jungles, to beaches, to tribes and amazing wildlife- it’s high on the list and we plan to spend a long time exploring that country. India- We’ve heard so many things about how wild India is. This intrigues us. Just the raw culture there is enough to look forward to it. Africa- I know that is a continent, not a country, but we are so stoked to go there we can’t narrow it down to just one country! The landscapes and wildlife are the huge draw for us and of course, the beautiful people and culture isn’t a bad consolation. As I said, we’re just addicts, so we’ll be able to get our fix in a lot of places. 🙂
** All photos were kindly provided by Divergent Travelers
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We would like to thank Lina & Dave from “Divergent Travelers” travel blog for sharing their love of travel with us. We wish them the best and look forward to hearing about their upcoming adventures together as they embark on a round the world trip. Be sure to check out their blog for great travel stories, beautiful photographs, and inspiration at http://www.divergenttravelers.com.
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