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Daily Inspiration: Meet Mike & Anne Howard

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Today we’d like to introduce you to Mike & Anne Howard.

Hi Mike & Anne, so excited to have you with us today. What can you tell us about your story?
Anne grew up in Hollywood and, while we are digital nomads without a home base, LA is the city we always return to for family, friends, and a dose of inspiration! When we were planning our honeymoon back in 2011, we realized life is short and the world is big so we better start exploring! A honeymoon around the world was the perfect way to start our life together–it’s the greatest bonding and learning experience. We took a one-way flight to Brazil with the goal of traveling for 1 year, but we quickly realized how much we were gaining from connecting with other cultures and how affordable it could be to travel the world (especially when you go the local way), so we prioritized our goals and finances to make sure we could keep going. Our blog HoneyTrek.com, social media channels @HoneyTrek, and our travel books (Ultimate Journeys for Two and Comfortably Wild) help fund our journey and above all, we have learned to live more simply and spend where it counts–life experiences! We have since traveled to 70 countries across 7 continents and had the full range of experiences from working on farms to reviewing five-star hotels, taking Spanish classes to teaching English, flying first class to hitchhiking on a banana truck. We are full believers that variety is the spice of life. We have a 1985 Toyota Sunradar (aka Buddy The Camper) which we’ve used to road trip from the Arctic Circle to the Baja Peninsula and 50 states in between. We use the camper about half the year to explore the backroads and public lands of North America and the other half to keep exploring the globe. We love storytelling about off-the-track destinations, unique accommodations, big adventures, sustainability successes, and the human stories that make each place so special. We’re presently on a quest for the world’s most romantic and sustainable destinations, and potentially writing a book on the topic. 

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?
Nomadic life is a rollercoaster of highs and lows. Even your basic needs (shelter, food, transportation, etc.) are in flux on the daily. The complex logistics and stresses of making around-the-world, full-time travel a reality are no joke. We’ve slept on bus station floors, hitchhiked with shady characters, and run out of money in the depths of foreign countries. On the financial side, some months we do gang-buster business with our book sales, travel courses, and tourism partnerships, and other months we make zero dollars. It certainly would be easier and probably more lucrative to get a 9-5 job and a house, but, to us, way less rewarding. We know lows, so we savor the highs.

Alright, so let’s switch gears a bit and talk business. What should we know about your work?
Using Anne’s background as a magazine editor and Mike’s as a digital media strategist and photographer, we launched our travel website HoneyTrek.com to chronicle our seven-continent journey and have since written National Geographic’s bestselling book on couples’ adventure travel, Ultimate Journeys for Two: Extraordinary Destinations on Every Continent, as well as the Lowell Thomas award-winning guidebook, Comfortably Wild: The Best Glamping Destinations in North America. Social media has been a constant in our storytelling, with an audience that has grown to 350,000+ followers. We try to use our influence to promote sustainable travel and partner with tourism boards and lifestyle brands that align with that message.

We also have a coaching business for a variety of areas of travel–from glamping camp consulting to long-term travel workshops, including mileage hacking, housesitting, and vanlife.

I think what sets us apart is that we never set out to make money at travel blogging or strived to be influencers, we’re just following a dream, seeking adventures, human connection, and a life on our own terms. Whether we are being paid or not, we keep traveling because we love it.

What matters most to you? Why?
Sustainable Travel. When we saw how much litter was all over the forests, beaches, and waterways on our first country in South America; we gave up single-use water bottles (10 years strong). When we realized how much energy, water, and forest we could save by giving up meat and dairy, we went vegan (7 years and counting). When we started getting paid by destinations, we made a pledge to give back 5% of our earnings to local nonprofits and make volunteering a part of our trips. Travel can have its ills, but when done responsibly you can leave a place better than you found it. We want to show people that there is no education like travel, but we also have to educate ourselves to be more responsible travelers, showing respect for the environment and communities we visit. In our storytelling, we try to show that convergence of doing good and having fun.

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HoneyTrek.com

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