About Us

Welcome to Two for the World! We’re Danielle and John: a couple of incurable travellers on a journey together through life and the world.

An Aussie (Dan) and a Brit (John) who call Sydney, Australia our ‘mostly-home’, we’ve spent a good part of the last two decades making our way together across all seven continents and a bucket list of experiences that never gets any shorter.

For us, there’s nothing quite like throwing off the bowlines, to paraphrase Mark Twain, and setting off to explore new destinations and experiences. One of the greatest ways we’ve found to do this is by road – and over the years, road tripping has become a cornerstone of our travels around the world.

“Nothing behind me, everything ahead of me, as is ever so on the road.”Jack Kerouac, On The Road

In fact, one of our most treasured travel keepsakes is a big, old-school AA road atlas of Britain (our ‘sometimes-home’). It lives in a cupboard with family in London, and we’re always stoked when we get back to get reacquainted with it. We usually pick a page, pack the car, and head off on a road trip to discover the historic sites, nature destinations, tourist spots, and of course, the pubs, along the way.

On the search for amazing road trips and epic adventures

Adventure-lovers, history buffs, foodies…our travel style is ultimately defined by the experiences we seek, whether that be pitching a tent in the mud in Uganda, diving a WWII wreck in Vanuatu, overlanding through the vast expanses of Patagonia, or cruising up the Nile aboard a luxury old-world dahabiya boat.

We’re avid scuba divers and amateur photography enthusiasts. For me, wandering an ancient site, spotting a rare bird or seeking out the local vine tipple are pursuits worth going to extremes for. For John, it’s the call of epic nature, the local football scene and craft beer. We’re always on the lookout for the offbeat and off-the-beaten-track.

For us, travel by road offers the very best opportunity to do just that: leave the tourist trail and the population centres behind and search out sites, places and experiences we might otherwise not get to see.

Road tripping also means we can travel independently and, most importantly, at our own pace. We can move quickly when time is tight, or slow right down and take the time to immerse and explore a place in depth.

Roads have been connecting people and places since time immemorial. It’s a concept that has major appeal to the history nerd in both of us – we particularly love searching out ancient thoroughfares and routes, whether paved roads, like the Appian Way in Rome, non-traditional ‘roads’ like the Nile river, or more symbolic routes, like the Silk Road.

For us, road tripping can be by car, by bus, or by whatever means we might use to overland through and around a place. We try to road trip wherever we go, even if it’s just for a day trip to explore the nearby countryside.

Most of the time, we hire cars and drive ourselves. In some places though, we hire a local to drive and introduce us to their country – this is always an amazing way to gain insights into local culture and place, and make lifelong friends – we’re still in touch with many of the awesome driver guides we’ve met along the way.

Our story

We’re not understating the matter when we say travel has had a profound influence on us and our life together.

Travel brought John to Australia as a backpacker in his late teens. Had he not fallen in love with the place and decided to come back and, after a time, apply to stay, we’d have never met.

Ironically, when we did meet, I was planning to move to the UK, having been bitten by the travel bug on my own travels in France, Egypt and the US (where I also spent my early teens as a middle and high school student).

18 months later, we moved to London together (via a long overland trip through Vietnam) and our passion for travel kicked into the next gear.

In the years since, we’ve split our time between London and Sydney, setting off every so often for extended travel stints. We got engaged during a road trip of Ireland. Our honeymoon was a road trip up the East Coast of Australia. To date, our travels have taken us to and through more than 70 countries and territories across all seven continents. When we’re not travelling, we’re busy working and saving for the times when we are.

Making every travel moment count

Plan it, live it, love it.

It’s a bit of a travel mantra for us. We want to see as much as we can and we like to plan ahead. So whether we’re going somewhere for a weekend, a week or a month, we research it and plan it.

That said, planning doesn’t mean we lock ourselves into itineraries and can’t be spontaneous. Plans change, especially when you’re in new and unfamiliar places.

That’s another beauty of independent road tripping – you can adjust your plans quickly as you need to.

The real joys of travel happen in finding that hidden beach by accident, meeting those awesome people and staying an extra day, or learning about an amazing new local experience. Planning just means we can make more informed choices about what we do and don’t do along the way.

That includes making decisions about destinations, experiences, operators and stays that help us to travel responsibly and sustainably wherever we can, with awareness, care and a conscience.

We want to make every travel moment count: to make the most of the time we have for travel, and to do right by the beautiful planet we’re privileged to explore.

Thanks for stopping by!

We hope you find on our site the inspiration, tips and itinerary suggestions that help you dream, plan and then experience that unforgettable road trip, magic holiday or incredible adventure.

If you have any questions at all, or if you’re in the same corner of the world as us and you’re up for a coffee or a beer, send us an email or drop a comment in the box below!

We’re also on Facebook and Instagram – pop by and say hi!

Happy travels!

Danielle & John

12 thoughts on “About Us”

    • Thanks very much Jan. We have to say that while we can be partial to the occasional green beer, it does tend to be a St Patrick’s day phenomena that we save for drinking with our special Dutch friends 🙂 As for the buses, well, we’d love to travel CarChallenge style, but alas, our meagre travel budget doesn’t stretch that far. Of course, the offer of co-pilot duties will stand in perpetuity.

      Reply
  1. Really loving the read guys. It certainly makes me want to pack up everything and go on an adventure! Keep them posts coming so I don’t get too caught up in the ebb and flow of everyday working life in the City!

    Reply
  2. Awesome site. Love the quote about Mark Twain. The temptation to give up work and sail away from the safe harbour is hard to resist!

    Reply

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