Ernestas Tyminas felt “stuck” in his function as a advertising and marketing supervisor at a newspaper in Colorado Springs, Colorado.
So he requested two months off to backpack by means of Asia, he mentioned, touchdown in Beijing in January 2019.
“On the first day … I meet this one,” he mentioned, gesturing to Darina Karpitskaya, sitting by his facet.
The couple, talking to CNBC through video from Dubai, mentioned they met through the travel app Couchsurfing, which hyperlinks solo vacationers collectively. Karpitskaya, 31, and a flight attendant on the time, had been grounded in Beijing for 2 days due to mechanical issues along with her return flight.
Though extra solo vacationers agreed to meet that day, Tyminas and Karpitskaya had been the one two who confirmed up.
After one day collectively, they deliberate to meet once more in Asia one month later.
A monthlong second date
Karpitskaya returned to Asia, and the couple’s second date was a “crazy one-month adventure” to Singapore, Thailand and the Philippines, mentioned Tyminas, 29.
It was within the Philippines, he mentioned, that he determined he wasn’t going again to his outdated life.
“We were … laying on the beach under the stars,” he mentioned. “We were kind of starting to dream about this lifestyle.”
After returning to Colorado, Tyminas stop his job, bought his belongings and moved to Europe, he mentioned.
Karpitskaya wasn’t fairly there but, saying, “At first it sounded like: Oh my God, you’re quitting your job. You’re moving from America. Maybe it’s too soon. But at the same time, when I came back from that trip I felt like I’m living a life that I’m not enjoying.”
A canine in tow
Tyminas flew from Denver to Paris along with his canine — an 82-pound Borzoi, as soon as often called the “Russian Wolfhound,” named Cosmo, who’s over 6 toes tall on his hind legs.
“They gave me three rows of seats, and the dog was just laying on the floor,” he mentioned.
From there, the couple traveled usually — to locations like Italy and Iceland — however not but full time, they mentioned.
Ernestas Tyminas and Darina Karpitskaya have taken his canine, Cosmo, to 26 of the greater than 40 international locations that they’ve visited collectively, mentioned Tyminas. Cosmo is a superb networking instrument, added Karpitskaya: “We meet a lot of people walking the dog.”
Source: Dream Team Travels
Then Karpitskaya received what she known as her “dream job” — a place with Emirates airline. She moved to Dubai, however the couple continued to meet and travel collectively.
Then Covid hit, and Karpitskaya accepted 4 months of unpaid depart from her job.
“We said: We have four months — we can go explore whatever is open,” mentioned Tyminas.
The trio — together with Cosmo, who traveled in an enormous mattress behind their SUV — traveled first to Croatia, then slowly throughout much of Europe, together with many former Soviet states, mentioned Karpitskaya.
She by no means returned to her job, and couple have been touring ever since, she mentioned.
What it prices to travel the world
In the start, they spent between $1,000 and $2,000 a month — all from financial savings — by staying in low cost lodging, cooking at house and looking for out free actions, mentioned Tyminas.
As cash began to dry up, Tyminas took a number of on-line jobs, which netted between $2,000 and $3,000 a month, which wasn’t removed from his wage of $3,300 in Colorado, he mentioned.
Tyminas mentioned the couple stayed longer in Romania as a result of “we saw how the people are nice … how they how much they have to offer. Sometimes you Google and you’re like: ‘There’s nothing to do here,’ and then you get there and [realize] that’s only because nobody travels here.”
Source: Dream Team Travels
But the work was cumbersome, and it “felt like I still had a job,” he mentioned.
So the couple determined to open a advertising and marketing and graphic design firm, even if “we didn’t know a lot,” mentioned Tyminas.
They reached out to 1000’s of individuals, they mentioned, usually working late into the evening. Potential clients would ask, “Can you design book covers?” “Can you promote music?” Tyminas mentioned his response was at all times the identical, “Of course I can.”
In actuality, he was studying on the job, he mentioned, counting on YouTube, Google and on-line analysis. But shoppers had been very completely happy, he mentioned.
“They paid me half of what they would pay other marketing agencies and the results, they said, were better than they had before,” mentioned Tyminas.
In the primary month, the couple made $6,000, he mentioned. Now, typically they earn a number of thousand {dollars} in a day working with actual property corporations and music labels, he added.
“We write blogs for people — we do everything,” mentioned Tyminas. Plus “we don’t have to report to anybody. We’re our own bosses.”
In the previous six months, the couple mentioned they spent a mean of $4,000 a month. More than half goes to lodging, which range by location — from $3,100 per thirty days in Dubai to $1,500 in Lisbon, Portugal, they mentioned. They restrict stays in costly areas, like Switzerland, to not more than every week, they mentioned.
One means to get monetary savings is reserving monthlong stays on Airbnb, which cuts down common nightly charges and reduces service and cleansing charges, mentioned Tyminas. But even once they bounced from place to place to go to Europe’s Christmas markets final yr, they nonetheless ended up paying about $2,500 that month, he mentioned.
Karpitskaya mentioned she does not need these prices to scare folks as a result of they spent far much less to start with. At the time, they spent about 80-100% of their earnings, however now Tyminas mentioned “we spend about 30% and … save the rest.”
The couple advised CNBC they nonetheless travel modestly — no five-star lodges — and so they nonetheless prepare dinner most meals at house. But they spend extra on actions that they movie for his or her YouTube channel Dream Team Travels — one other “completely self-taught” enterprise, they mentioned.
Hiccups on the street
A lifetime of fixed travel is not all enjoyable and video games, they mentioned.
They encounter soiled Airbnbs and hosts who cancel reservations on the final minute. They’ve additionally had their digital camera tools and clothes stolen twice — as soon as in Mexico, and extra not too long ago in France — plus an tried theft of their belongings from their automobile in Barcelona, whereas they had been sitting in it.
They have additionally considered settling down once they discover a place they actually love, such because the seashores of Portugal or the French Riviera, mentioned Tyminas.
“But then … we drive somewhere else and we’re like this place is also just as good,” he mentioned.
When Russia invaded Ukraine, rapidly occupying the Kherson area the place Karpitskaya’s dad and mom reside, Tyminas emailed CNBC to say that they’d stopped touring in the interim.
Tyminas and Karpitskaya (pictured right here in Abu Dhabi) stopped touring on the outset of the Russian-Ukraine warfare. Karpitskaya’s household is now out of Ukraine, besides her brother, who “has signed up to be in the military to defend his country,” mentioned Tyminas.
Source: Dream Team Travels
“The first few weeks we didn’t even leave our apartment,” he mentioned. “We spent a lot of time arranging transportation for civilians as well as many dogs from shelters to be taken out of dangerous regions for adoption in Europe.”
By the summer time, that they had resumed touring, however had been nonetheless serving to to evacuate Karpitskaya’s household.
“Just a week ago we were able to finally get Darina’s parents out of Ukraine,” mentioned Tyminas, including that they’re at present in his household’s house in Lithuania. “We also did a trip to Romania to pick up Darina’s sister and her five-month-old baby from the border and took her to live in Germany.”
The couple at the moment are in Malaysia, they mentioned, and plan to discover Southeast Asia for the following two months.
