A website dedicated to sharing my travel tips and answering all your questions regarding how I solo-traveled to over 20 countries in 3 years with a full time, in-person office job! (No remote jobs here)

My mission

Why this website?  To show women everywhere, and from every economic background that travel is possible, even alone, and even on a low budget!  My hope is that I provide enough travel tips and resources to encourage women everywhere to start traveling.  

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About me

Hi, I'm Stephanie!  I'm 32 years old, proud Latina (half Mexican, half Ecuadorian).  I work as a full time Program Manager at a tech company in California. 

 

Before becoming a Program Manager I was serving as a U.S. Army Soldier.  I started college while I was still enlisted and finished college a few years after I left the service.  I did a little bit of traveling while I was in the military, but not to many fun places...

 

It wasn't until I got to college that I discovered the beauty of travel.  I saw students who studied abroad, and students who took "Euro Trips" after graduation.  And of course, after seeing all their travels on Instagram and Snapchat, I had to give it a try too!  I told myself, "if these 18-20 year olds can do it, so can I!"  I picked  up a second part time job, saved up that money, and went to Europe for 6 weeks after my graduation.  It was incredibly scary at first, but I had an amazing time!  From that trip, I learned the things I do and don't like about travel, and I've been traveling ever since.

 

To date, I have traveled to 34 countries, mostly on my own, and very much on a low budget.  I'm here to share all my travel secrets!

 

How I made Travel Possible for Me

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Like many people, I always thought travel wasn't possible for me.  I made excuses such as "I don't make a lot of money" and "I don't really have any friends that can travel with me".

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I got really tired of seeing everyone else traveling while I was sitting at home alone every weekend, so I decided to take action.  I turned my excuse of "I don't make that much money" to a vow of "I'm going to pay off my debt so I can travel".  And I turned my excuse of "I don't really have any friends to travel with" to a vow of "I will start traveling on my own because life is too short and I don't have time to be waiting around for other people"! 

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I set out to tackle the money problem first.  I had no money in my savings account and a hefty student loan and Credit Card bill to pay off.  To rapidly pay off that debt, I spent one full year on an EXTREMELY low budget.  I said "no" to going out for drinks, cooked all my meals at home, did not purchase any new clothes, skipped buying Christmas and birthday gifts for others, and didn't take a single trip to Starbucks.  Instead, I focused on putting all the money left after paying rent and bills into paying off my smaller debt first (the evil credit card).  Once I paid that card off, I did the same thing to my second and larger debt (the evil Student loan).  By focusing on one debt at a time, I was able to pay them both off faster.  The trick is to add the largest amount of money possible to the smaller debt first (while paying the bare minimum to the larger loan), just to get it paid and out of the way.  Before you know it, you'll be able to take that same approach with the second debt.  And after one full year of applying this technique, I was completely out of debt (minus rent and my car of course).  It wasn't an easy year, but it was one that set me up for travel success. 

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Now, for the second problem...  not having friends to travel with.  I found two solutions to this: 1) Travel alone, or 2) Find travel companies that focus on bringing solo travelers together.  I did both and loved them both!  I recommend both! You will find all my travel tips as you navigate my site, happy exploring!