Just to get it out there up front, to contact us just use either of our email addresses: Jyoti’s is agarwaljy (at) gmail (dot) com and Damian’s address is dengen (at) gmail (dot) com
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We are a 30-something couple that loves to travel! We take regular trips both near and far and currently are in the middle of an 8-month around-the-world adventure – a dream come true. The short story on us as a couple is that we started dating on New Year’s Even 2013/2014, got engaged in August 2017, got married in February 2018 and since April 2018 have been traveling the globe!
I like to call us travel “in-betweeners”. We aren’t backpacking on the road trying to do our trips as cheap as possible, but we also aren’t staying at luxury resorts everywhere we go.
Here’s a little bit about our travel style:
- Who: Jyoti, aka wifey, and Damian, aka hubby. Established 2014, married 2018. Navigating a travel partnership and a life partnership. Takes a lot of work, but it’s worth it to be madly in love.
- What: We like to create our own travel adventures. We consult plenty of travel guides and read lots of travel blogs and advice for forums but then we let all that information swirl and mush up in our heads and spit out a new and unique itinerary that works for us. We’ve been able to research and discover some real gems this way (like glamping at Paperbark Camp in Jervis Bay Australia) while also leaving open space to follow where the wind takes us (like a random stop on our Great Ocean Road where travelers had made thousands upon thousands of seaside cairns).
- Where: We pretty much can find adventures and have fun anywhere we go. We’ve had some epic trips to places like Australia, Greece and Trinidad, but have had just as much fun spending a long weekend in Bethlehem, PA. They key to us is finding unique, fun things to do and those really exist in every corner of the world. When we aren’t traveling we are based in New York City.
- Why: Because life is short and travel is one of the things that makes it fulfilling. We are a multicultural couple – Jyoti’s parents grew up in India and she has been immersed in Indian culture since she was born (including 10+ trips to the homeland), Damian’s parents are from the US but they raised the family in Sao Paulo, Brasil (and Damian can speak Portuguese like a native). Having so much exposure to different cultures at such an early age showed us both that there is so much world to see and experience and learn from and enjoy. Now, as adults, we feel not only a desire but a need to continue exploring all the corners of this planet.
- When: Well, right now we have the luxury of being on our around-the-world trip (yay!). But, in general we travel quite a bit in our regular lives as well. I’d say we do 1-2 “big” trips a year – around 15-20 days in a far locale and then 8-10 “small” trips a year – some of which are to visit family and some of which are just for fun (like when we created our own US Northeast tour of waterfalls you can swim in/under!).
- How: We don’t enjoy travel when we are trying to be super frugal about everything (it makes us feel like we are missing out on things, especially since we don’t really spend our salaries on other things – fancy clothes, food, etc.) and also don’t enjoy travel when we are splurging without thought (it makes us feel like we are wasting money that could be used to to fuel future travel adventures). So, we find things that are “in between” – instead of hostels we do AirBnBs or reasonable hotels, instead of taking a 24 hour bus we take local airlines or rent a car and create our own road trip, instead of taking helicopters to the top of a vista we hike up to the top of a mountain, etc. etc.
If you want to learn even more about us you can go here: