Travel Dave’s F.A.Q: Most Frequently Asked email Questions

Each week I receive awesome emails from my readers and I’ve enjoyed receiving them over the years. It’s ok to ask questions and I’m happy to help those in search of travel advice.

The internet can be a robotic place, hearing directly from people is a great encouragement for me to keep going and I appreciate and give each and every one my individual time.

If you have a question for me (Travel Dave), Please feel free to send me an email and get in contact, always happy to help.

As I’ve noticed a trend in being asked the same questions, I thought it would be fun to do an F.A.Q post, So here we go:

What is your favourite place?

Iceland! I had a massive desire to visit and when I finally got around to it, I fell in love with Iceland instantly. The people and culture, both unique and bizarre, the landscape is jaw droppingly beautiful and there are endless amounts of ways to get lost in this place, Adventure paradise. I hope to visit again very soon and live there for a set period of time.

Why haven’t you visited South America or Antartica yet?

My last two continents and to be honest, I’ve never found the time….. Yet.

I hope to visit very soon and looking forward to exploring South America. An Antarctica cruise is a traveller’s dream, but I hope to get around to walking with penguins in the very close future!

Have you ever been in danger?

Touch wood, I’ve been lucky, I’ve never been in any extreme danger, there is a fear that surrounds travel, but as long as you read up on good travel advice before going, travelling dangers can easily be avoided.

Once I did have my locker broken into at a hostel in Vancouver, Canada. Everything I owned was stolen and I was left standing there with what was in my pockets.

Lucky for me, I had Travel Insurance. They covered everything and in a few days after running around sorting out a new passport everything was back to normal again and I kept travelling.

Don’t let these moments brake you, learn from them and move on, that’s what travelling is all about, discovering yourself and it’s these moments that make you into who you are.

How do you know what to pack?

I can pack now with my eyes closed, I only travel with hand luggage and with a limited set of items. I depend on each piece of gear in my backpack so much that I know if it’s not there or not.

This is a system that I’ve built up over the years and it’s a system that you can create for your own needs very easily. I’m a bit of a minimalist and I’m even selective down to the exact one pen I use, a bit extreme, but this is the lifestyle I’ve chosen for myself, it works and its great.

How do you pay for this?

I’ve looked at life and my outgoings (costs to live) and tried to keep it down to a bare minimum, I hardly spend a lot. By cutting out general spending, using couchsurfing, booking flights with budget airlines, RTW flight tickets, eating street food and sticking to low cost destinations I’m able to support my lifestyle with less spending.

It’s more about the experience for me than buying physical goods and that’s how I’m able to live my lifestyle.

Where do you stay?

In set locations I seek student forums and Facebook groups to try and find cheap student rents, they are very cheap and sharing a house with others is a great way of creating a social circle.

Whilst I travel I use a mixture of Couchsurfing and Hostels. More frequently I’ve started to use AirBnb.

Did you buy a round the world ticket?

Yes! I love round the world tickets (RTW), I think they are a great way of seeing a lot of the world for one set price, allows you to explore multiple continents and saves a lot of travel cash in the process, wonderful concept and I will use them more frequently in the future.

How long will you keep travelling?

I plan on stopping full time travel around 2019 when I want to set up a coffee business (another passion of mine) in Sweden and start looking into settling down. Will I ever stop travelling all together? I highly doubt it.

Do you get lonely?

Travelling solo can get lonely, over the years I’ve learned to adapt to it and enjoy the experience of travelling solo. I find now that I have to force myself into social situations when I get lonely and this has created many great friendships. It can be difficult at times, but you learn to enjoy your own company and become more independent through the process.

How many languages do you know?

English. Yes extremely bad of me after visiting and living in so many countries, but English is a global language, I’ve been very lucky over the years that I’ve been able to get by.

I always learn the basic 10 or so words in every country I go to and that’s enough to make the locals smile and for me to show some sign of gratitude towards their language.

The reason? I’m terrible at learning languages, I hope to master Swedish in the very close future to add at least one to my list.

What did you do with all your stuff?

I got rid of pretty much all of it, now I never have to worry about stuff I don’t need.

Are you qualified?

Graduated in International Travel and Tourism Management from the university of Wales and have a post Masters in Social Media and business communications at Tilburg University.

However I do feel you don’t need to go to university to travel the world and run an online business, you can learn loads of stuff on video course platforms such as Udemy for example.

Proudest achievement?

Apart from writing my first book and going on my first travel adventure to Finland that kick started my travel bug, it has to be earning my Queen Scout and Gold Duke of Edinburgh award.

Scouting has played such an important part of my youth development I have a lot to Thank it for.

I have endless friendships and great memories of scouting, I’m happy I can be apart of this amazing association that has taught me so much about life skills from a young age, I’m very thankful.