The couple who travelled to 13 countries in one year!

January 17, 2017
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Yes! You read that right.

You may wonder if that is even possible. How does anyone find the will and energy to pull off this amazing feat? This is what we call passion. When passion meets perseverance, great things happen. 

Meet Jeff and Anne, founders of  "What Doesn't Suck?". They are two employed people who work full time, yet find the time, money and energy to travel extensively. They have even travelled to some countries and covered many major tourist attractions in… (hold your breath!)… 48 hours.We had a chat with them to find out how they pulled off this near-to-impossible feat. We hope this interview inspires and give practical tips to people who would love to travel more, but do not know how to fit it into their busy lives. We take you through their amazing experience - the challenges and the triumphs.We hope that this gives you enough motivation to book a ticket to your favourite vacation spot. 

Your travel adventures need incredible team work. How do you divide the pre-travel work between the two of you?

We do hardly any pre travel work at all. Aside from booking flights (which we usually do months ahead of time) and reserving a couple hotel rooms, we do very little research or planning until we arrive. We like to have the most genuine and honest reaction to a place as possible, almost as if you just drop us into a place and watch us discover it bit by bit.

What was it like to rent out your apartments on Airbnb to strangers?

We haven't rented our place much, but the few times we have they have been fantastic. We always invite anyone staying over before we leave, so we can show them the place and answer any questions they have - and make sure we like their vibe :)

Europe

We understand  that you scrimp to save enough money for your travelling. And you keep a tab on your weekend expenses by not indulging much. So how do you make your non-travelling weekends fun?

Ha! My first thought is "any weekend we aren't traveling we are editing our videos and writing article!". However, in actuality, while most of our followers assume we travel full-time and are on the road constantly, the vast majority of the time we are home in Dubai. Our weekends are spent much like everyone else in Dubai - going to the movies, cooking together, lounging with friends. We just tend to cut back on a few brunches and try to cook at home as much as possible, as well as take the tram and metro to work.

How do you complement each other as travel partners?

They say if you want to get to know someone, travel with them. After pinky swearing on our first date that I would take Anne to Thailand, and going 3 months later, we've tested our relationship thousands of ways while on the road and have gotten to the place where we're extremely comfortable traveling with each other. We pick up each other's slack when one of us isn't feeling well, tired or out of it and get us from point A to B.

For your 48-hour series, you mostly head out on a Thursday evening and get back on a Sunday morning, and head straight to work. This can be stressful. So do you have a pre-travel regimen that helps you stay fit while you are traveling?

We definitely try and be as healthy and active as we can when in Dubai, both before and after a big trip. However, the last four months of 2016 were tough, with six different international trips from Nepal to California to Iceland, without missing a day of work. We're still getting back on a rhythm after that.

Northen Lights

48 hours is sometimes too little to see a new country. How do you plan the trip? Please take us through the process.

48 hours is an insanely short amount of time to see any city, let alone a country - and we know that. But we really try to go overboard to prove to people just how easy travel can be, even to some of the world's most famous destinations. In December we went to the Taj Mahal one weekend and were at the Great Pyramids the next, almost to prove a point.

We use TripVerse the most to plan our trips, map out where we want to go and store important information like off-line maps, links, addresses and phone numbers. As for ways to save costs, leave Dubai! A full 4 day weekend in Zanzibar last March cost us each $2,000 all in - including flights, hotels, transport, food, drinks and tours - some expats spend that during a Friday brunch.

Do you guys agree almost all the time on your travel itinerary? Or like every other couple do you argue?

Well, convincing Anne that 48 Hours in Tajikistan would make a fun weekend was a bit tough, but we have a bucket list of places we want to see that are fairly close to the UAE and are ticking them off one by one. For 2017, our goals are Armenia, Singapore, Georgia, Serbia, Kenya and going back to Thailand, where we first traveled together.

Taj Mahal

The long weekends are the most expensive in terms of ticket fares. Though it is possible to book tickets in advance, in some cases, the holidays are not declared till a few days before. How do you tackle that?

We take a chance - and have been correct 100% of the time. Sure, the official announcement isn't made until sometimes a few hours before the long weekends begin, but in the nearly 3 years that I have been here, every single holiday has been moved to make it part of a long weekend, which makes them fairly predictable. However, we do many times pay a small additional cost if there is an option to purchase a ticket where we can easily change the departure or return date.


By Neetu George