The TravFessionals: Gabe & Birdy

The TravFessionals is back and I’m so excited to bring you the next traveling professionals. If you’re new here, read this first feature to catch up on what it’s about. These two (a couple) are so full of adventure, and you’re about to find out a bit more about their journey and how they travel while building their careers. I wrote their names down when I had first the idea for this series over a year ago and I’m glad they said yes!

Our TravFessionals are Gabe and Birdy (Mariel)! Gabe was born and raised in Lagos Nigeria until he moved into the US at the age of 13. He met his wife, Birdy, while living in San Francisco. This couple shares a passion for remote and adventurous travel. This passion has led them through six continents and most recently allowed them to relocate to The Netherlands. Let’s hear from them:

What kicked off your wanderlust individually?

My then-girlfriend, now wife was definitely my inspiration to get out and see the world.  She was an avid traveler and had lived in the U.S., South Africa, Australia, and the Netherlands before we met.  I think it may have been during our second date when she told me about her passion for travel, extreme sports, and exploring remote destinations.  I recall telling her that I loved traveling too, citing my recent cruises to the Bahamas and Mexico.  As tactfully as she could, she quickly let me know that we had a lot more ground to cover.

Between the two of you:

• Who is the travel planner? 70% Mariel 30% Gabe
• Who manages the budget? Gabe
• Who has the craziest ideas? Mariel
• Who takes the best photos/footage? I take the best videos and Mariel has a better eye for photos
• (Did you both agree on those answers?) Yep

You’ve gone from living in California to the Netherlands, why did you make the move?

We made the move because Mariel received an offer to work as a Senior attorney for an international organization.  We always discussed living abroad so this opportunity was very timely. The Netherlands made us both feel incredibly welcomed and comfortable—it’s centrally located, beautiful, and it immediately felt like home. Working in a Dutch environment has quickly exposed me to the day-to-day lifestyle differences compared to California.  Of course not having family and friends nearby (yet), or learning new food brands or the slight language barrier has been challenging, the best part is that in 15 months, we have been able to travel to over 20 new countries across Europe, Africa and the Middle East.

How long did it take for both of you to be employed in Netherlands and what would you say to couples in planning for this realistically?

Since Birdy already had a job before we relocated, it was up to me to find one. I gave myself 6 months to find something and ended up getting a job within the first 6 weeks of our move. The key is to be flexible with your job function and aggressively contact local recruiters to help in your job search. Honestly, this experience has made us more comfortable with living abroad as we have met many other couples that have taken the leap out of the USA.

If there’s one tip you’d share with couples making a move abroad, what would that be?

Umm… be prepared for continuous changes and remember you are both on the same team on the ride.

Back to Travelling: How Do You Decide on Destinations Each Year?

At least 70% of our selection process is based on cost, while 30% is based on our previous interest in the location.  We prefer to travel to “off the beaten path” locations, but I would never turn down a glitch fare to a popular location either.  For example, we found a glitch fare to Jordan on Christmas morning one year for $400 roundtrip, which we immediately purchased. 

Glitch fares are amazing (we usually find ours on The Flight Deal and Scotts Cheap Flights ) but you have to book quickly.  My advice: book right away, and then take the next 24 hours to think about it.  If you decide that you can’t actually take the trip, you can cancel the flight for a full refund within 24 hours of purchase.

In addition, we try to make the most of our vacation time by visiting multiple countries on a single trip.  To do so, we often buy multi-city flights, which tend to reduce the price it would cost to book all of the flights separately, and saves us travel time.  For example, when we went to the Maldives we did some research on the most popular layovers when flying from San Francisco. We saw that many flights stopped in Sri Lanka, and decided to build in a few days to tour that country as well. The total price for the entire itinerary ended up being slightly less than a round-trip flight to the Maldives alone would have been.  Other trips that we’ve combined include: Albania – Greece, Singapore-Indonesia, UAE-Oman, South Africa-Swaziland, Spain-Portugal, and Guatemala-Honduras-El Salvador.

How has traveling or living abroad made you better professionals?

It has exposed us to working amongst more international industries and professionals from different cultures across Europe. I currently work as the only American amongst a team of 50 other consultants from 22 other countries.

You have one of the best (in thoughtfulness and execution) proposal stories I know of, and it involved travel. How did you pull it off?

With a lot of patience, planning and over planning, catch up on the story here (Editor’s note: really, check it out)

You had a fun destination wedding. What tips do you have for people looking to have a non-cookie cutter destination wedding?

Find a great photographer ,Make it a convenient, fun party for attendees. (Editor’s note: plus plan activities for guests travelling all the way, they did this!)

How do you balance spending holiday with family/friends in the USA and Nigeria vs. traveling to new places?

Since we both have families all around the world, we try our best to consolidate family visits. Also, since we moved to the Netherlands, we have had 21 visitors.

Our Travel Pace/Personality is:

We enjoy the entire process of traveling from start to finish, including planning detailed itineraries, airport grinds, and even the long flights.  The whole process of traveling has become a sort of personal challenge for us to track and lock in the best flight and hotel prices, scour travel blogs to put together the most jam-packed itinerary, and to then see as much as possible in every place that I visit.  I can almost envision myself on the trip while doing the research, and putting in that work on the front end usually allows me to spend my travel time stress-free.  

Also, as a new travel vlogger, I love documenting my travel experiences.  I’m the guy who pores over all my videos post-vacation not just to reminisce, but to make compilation videos for my Youtube channel.  It is amazing going back and catching visuals I may have otherwise missed or quickly forgotten, but the Gopro strapped to my backpack was able to capture. 

My travel personality is fast paced and adventurous. I prefer 3,4, 5 day trips to long 2,3 week travel vacations.  I would rather plan to wake up to catch the 6am sunrise, map out the days itinerary, be the first in line visiting a tourist attraction, beat the traffic to get to the neighboring villages, meet with the locals at happy hour, and still have time to go for a swim out on the beach with some margaritas.

What are your favourite travel memories together (funny, romantic, crazy)?

We’ve had a bunch of truly memorable travel experiences, the most exciting of which was our wedding in Antigua, Guatemala.  Swaziland was also a very uniquely interesting experience. The main reason for the visit was to experience the Umuhlanga reed festival, a traditional ceremony where 40,000+ maidens gather together to sing and dance for the queen in nude. The event is performed as a tribute to the royal family and dates back centuries. By far, one of the most culturally rich experiences I have had, watching large communities come together to celebrate a very cultural tradition.  However, our favorite countries are Srilanka and Seychelles.

Our best tip for traveling as a couple is: 

It’s never too late to start traveling, and you don’t have to be rich to do it.  You just have to make travel a top priority (after the essentials, of course), and then cut down on other discretionary expenses, like shopping, eating out, etc.  Planning is also key to keeping travel costs low, so track flights, set up travel alerts, join frequent flyer programs, and hunt down those deals (even if its offseason). 

Stalking a few Instagram pages, travel blogs or vlogs is also crucial to staying inspired to go somewhere new or directly reach out to fellow travelers for tips and advice.  Travel constantly forces me out of my comfort zone, which has in turn made me a more confident and self-sufficient person.  And also you don’t want to regret never doing it!

The one trip we’re most looking forward to in 2019 is:

Namibia and Japan

If you could pick any place in the world to live next, where would that be?

Sydney, Australia

In one word or phrase, how do you keep bossing it at your careers, and other ventures while making travel a part of your life as a couple?

Change Management (

Editor’s Notes: A MASSIVE THANK YOU to Gabe & Birdy for sharing their story to 60 countries together, and so many great tips. I met Gabe when we were in mutual friends’ wedding party in 2014 and have been following their travels and trading travel tips since then. They were the first (non filipino) that I know to have been to Palawan in the Philippines before I went so I have definitely been inspired by them. I loved watching their Sri Lanka adventures and I definitely plan to copy bits of their Seychelles itinerary soon.

Keep up with their adventures by subscribing to their Youtube channel here . Follow along and be inspired by their adventures and amazing images on the ‘gram here and here

Please share your thoughts in the comments section below. As always, if you’ve enjoyed this post, please share, and then click here to subscribe to receive notification of new posts weekly (+ a bonus insider monthly personal newsletter from yours truly).

Till Next Week,

Ms. Heels