About ArboursAbroad
Hi there! We’re Jason and Heather, the co-founders of the award-winning ArboursAbroad.com travel blog.
Here at ArboursAbroad, we’re on a mission to get out and explore the beautiful Creation around the world while inspiring our readers to travel too.
We’ve spent the past ten years traveling to nearly 40 countries together, have lived in 5 of those countries, and are currently living full-time on the road with our cat, Georgie.
We left behind our master’s degree in physical therapy and bachelor’s degree in education to pursue a life filled with purpose. Not just to travel, but to live more intentionally.
It could be Jason’s early diagnosis of Crohn’s disease and an altered way of life that’s caused that mindset shift. Or, maybe it’s Heather’s young and atypical skin cancer diagnosis that kicked our butts into gear for living life now.
Either way, we’re doing it – and we want to encourage you to do the same. Because in the end, we only have one life and aren’t guaranteed any bit of it.
So we’re living life differently, making the most of our time now because tomorrow, retirement, and later aren’t promised.
Thanks so much for stopping in. We hope you stick around to get inspired and encouraged.
Get a deeper look into the two behind ArboursAbroad!
Places We’ve Been Featured
Get To Know Us A Little Bit More!
Checkout The Stats
We traveled to over forty countries, covering almost 120k miles flown and driven, and spanning nearly two decades together!
Countries We’ve Traveled
States We’ve Traveled
FAQs
How And When Did You Meet?
We can’t really recall our first time actually meeting each other, but Heather vividly remembers the first time she saw Jason.
Walking into the same room as him at a friend’s house, she had to walk right back out of the house because she got this overwhelming feeling she was going to marry that boy sitting on the couch.
We don’t even think we talked that night, but we can sum up meeting through mutual friends in youth group during 2006/2007.
How Long Have You Been Together?
We started dating in March 2008 (after six months of Heather falling for this boy, while Jay wanted nothing more than to be friends). Jay proposed in December 2012, and we got married shortly after in July 2013.
You can watch highlights of our mountain-top wedding here.
What’s Your Favorite Place You’ve Been?
Heather | My favorite place without a doubt is Patagonia. We traveled there in 2014, and it was truly untouched beauty that not many folks had explored. I also absolutely loved living in Scotland and exploring both Croatia and Norway as well. Oh and shoot.. The Dolomites in Italy too!! It’s hard to choose a favorite!
Jason | Scotland and Patagonia.
How Long Have You Been Traveling?
Aside from family trips and mission trips growing up, Jason did a study abroad program in Finland in 2012, while Heather taught English and math in Africa that same year. We took our first backpacking trip together to Greece and Italy before going our separate ways for our programs.
After getting married in 2013, we traveled locally as often as we could. We didn’t have much money then, and would rent out our rooms in our house to cover gas costs to camp somewhere for the weekend.
In the summer of 2014, we began selling most of our belongings before packing up, moving out, and hitting the road in August.
We traveled through the United States and South America until January 2016 when we moved to Scotland. After moving back to Oregon at the end of 2018, Jay had a major flare-up with his Crohn’s disease, keeping us at home for nearly two years.
We then built out a van and began traveling again in 2020, and are still on the road today.
What Made You Start Traveling?
Growing up we both traveled here and there with family. But in 2011, we traveled to Greece and Italy together before Jason did an Erasmus program in Finland while Heather did a teaching internship in Tanzania.
These programs fueled the traveling desire, and haven’t stopped adventuring together since.
Take a deeper looking into how we began traveling here.
Do You Ever Miss Home?
While we miss our family and friends, we 100% believe that home is where we are together.
Whether that’s back in Oregon, on the road in a new country, or in our van in Scotland, as long as we’re together, that’s home to us.
How Do You Afford To Travel?
We fully 100% believe, it’s not about the money you make, but all about where you choose to spend the money you have.
We choose to travel cheaply and live even cheaper.
Before we packed up and left in 2013, we both worked a ton (I’m talking seven jobs each) and saved everything we had.
We sold a lot of our belongings and again, saved that too, using it all to travel.
Living in a van, we don’t have to pay rent or other utility bills, and we aren’t big spenders, typically buying things used or on clearance! Learn about more ways we cut costs and save for travel here.
When we travel abroad, we use these money-saving tips for finding flights and always keep a flexible travel date, going wherever we can find the cheapest tickets!
How Much Money Did You Save To Travel?
When we were both working our booties off and saved up just over USD 30,000. That money not only initiated our travels, but lasted us for about two years including moving expenses to Scotland.
That number doesn’t really mean anything though, because in the end, whatever amount you save is only as good as how you spend it. There are even a number of ways to travel for free!
What Camera Do You Use?
When we first started traveling we were shooting with a handheld Nikon. We then bought our first DSLR camera. I say bought, but actually mean, we used credit card points from our initial travel expenses to purchase for free our first DSLR camera and camera gear.
Since then, we’ve upped our photography game. We’re now professional photographers, selling and licensing our photography, and we shoot with the mirrorless Canon R5. Find our complete camera kit here.
Where Are You Going To Settle Down?
Honestly, we have NO idea. We’re playing it by ear, waiting for the Lord to open doors and show us where He has us.
We don’t think we’ll “settle down” anytime soon, but who knows?! Our current dream is to continue the life we’re living, and own a van both in the United States and somewhere in Europe, splitting time between the two.
How Do You Get Money Abroad?
When we travel, we use our travel credit card. It has no foreign fees, and allows us to rack up the points to use later! However, there are times we have to pull out cash, and since we still don’t have a Charles Schwab account, we kick ourselves in the butt every time we do so.
Opening a Charles Schwab account allows for pulling out money from an ATM without any fees – we really need to get one of those!
Do You Always Travel Together?
Yes. Maybe it’s the way we’re wired, but we truly don’t want to experience things without each other. We travel together perfectly wanting to see and do the same things, and wouldn’t have it any other way.
How Do You Handle Each Other 24/7?
OH. MY. GOODNESS. We can’t tell you the number of times we’ve had some form of this question asked, and here’s our answer – because we love each other.
Not just an “I love you” kind of love, a love founded within the Lord. Our souls were meant for each other, and we honestly love being around each other ALL. THE. TIME.
We find our happiness in the joy each other has, and that in itself makes it so easy to always be around each other.
When Will You Be Done Traveling?
In short, never. We have traveling souls. We’ll never see all the Creation across the globe or meet people from all different cultures, so we’ll never be done.
Traveling isn’t just a way for us to pass the time, it’s a lifestyle we’ve chosen, and as far as we can see, there’s no stopping anytime soon.
What’s Next?
Our “what’s next” plans are always changing. At one point we were going to start a family and settle down. Then we were going to pursue our careers in physical therapy and education.
We’ve looked deeply into teaching English abroad, and moving around based on House Sits we find around the world.
Every time we have a plan, the Lord changes those plans, showing us something bigger and better than we could have ever imagined before.
For now, we’re both in a place with our health that we need to be in Oregon a couple of times a year… and an amazing camp hosting job has popped up for us that we love and plan to continue returning to in the summers for the time being.
What Do You Pack For A Trip Abroad?
Each of us carries the following…
4 x’s the underwear
2 x’s socks
2 x’s bra – for Heather obviously. One sports bra, one regular bra. I love ones like this (can cross in the back and pack small!)
2 x’s bottoms – two pairs of shorts if we’re in warm weather and one pair of shorts & one pair of pants if traveling somewhere cooler.
3 x’s t-shirt – if it’s warmer weather, it’s 2 x’s tank tops and 1 x’s t-shirt for Heather
1 x’s long sleeve that works as a warm layer
1 x’s rain jacket and/or a down jacket
1 x’s water bottle
3 oz Doctor Bonner’s Soap – this stuff is the shizz!!
Normal toiletries like razor, toothbrush, floss, brush, deodorant, and toothpaste. All of them always carry on friendly.
Find our complete packing list for a trip abroad here + our guide to exact clothes here.
What Bag Do You Use?
When we backpacked in South America, we both had our Osprey Packs, and we love them. (Head to your local outdoor shop to get fitted for one for you.)
We use these when we go places where we’re bringing our camping gear with us.
For all our other trips, anywhere from weekend getaways to month-long journeys, we use this PeakDesign bag. We cannot recommend these bad boys enough.
Learn how to downsize from checked to carry on here.
How Much Do You Spend Traveling?
This honestly depends on where we are traveling to. When we were in South America, we were living off of about 10 USD a day per person, while that wouldn’t even get you a place to stay in most places in Europe.
We will say, that wherever we go, we check the prices of flights/accommodation/food and see if it fits our budget for that time.
Traveling in the off-season significantly cuts the cost of travel! In this post, we share 11 reason to travel in the off-season!
What Travel Gear Do You Recommend For First-Time Travelers?
- Clothes to pack for a trip abroad
- Toiletries to pack that are carry-on friendly
- Our complete backpacker starter kit
- Our Inflight Comfort kit – created after over hundreds of flights
- Travel Safety Kit
What About When Kids Come?
Honestly, right now, children are not in our future. However, we know things can change and maybe one day they will be. IF we have kids, we’ll continue traveling/camping/hiking/adventuring with little ones in tow.
Where Do You Stay When You Travel/How Do You Book Accommodation?
For longer stays, we tend to find places with kitchenettes so we can cook and feel at home. If we’ve been to a place before, we try and connect with the locals and rent directly through them.
Otherwise, we find places on Booking.com and Momondo. Agoda is a popular accommodation booking site for places in Asia.
We also always compare prices with Hotels.com and if they’re cheaper or about the same on there, we book through them, as after you stay for 10 nights, you get the eleventh night for free. Give us all the freebies!
How Do You Pick Where To Go?
Honestly, because we are terrible at planning in advance, we tend to travel to the cheapest place we can find. This includes weighing out costs of flights with cost of living in different places.
When we find good deals, we just can’t pass them up.. Like when we booked last-minute flights to Thailand or bought tickets to surprise our family in Oregon like two days before flying out!
How Do You Travel While In School In Scotland?
We’re lucky enough for Jay to be in a program that isn’t as stressful or demanding as programs in the United States. He has more time off than we ever thought he would, so we took advantage of every long weekend or break he got.
Sometimes our travels look like writing a paper in a public square, or just experiencing places in the evenings around dinner time – so being flexible with where we work has been a huge part of how often we can travel.
Heather would check flights, and compare them with Jay’s schedule, then book a flight while Jay was in class.. Texting him to come straight home after class because we were flying to say, Poland that afternoon.
How Do You Make Money?
We make money with ArboursAbroad a couple different ways. One obvious way is through ads on our website and YouTube channel. When these ads are viewed, we get a (very small) amount of money in our pocket.
We also use affiliate linking programs. So when you click on the affiliate links within our posts, we again make a small commission off those bookings and sales. – This is a huge one for us.
So, if you’re looking at our gear reviews, or want to buy products we recommend, please buy through the links we provide! 🙂 You can read more about our affiliate programs and the full disclosure here.
Do You Vlog?
Yes, we certainly do.. At least we do here and there. We’ve leaned more into travel guide-style videos instead of vlogs, but you can check it all out on our ArboursAbroad YouTube channel.
What Made You Start This Website?
ArboursAbroad started as a place to stay connected to friends and family back home when we first left for South America. We wanted a place to share more than just photos with a small caption, and instead, share deeper meaningful stories and lessons we learned on the road.
After a year of travel, we had too many photos being stored to continue using the free WordPress, and we had to either buy more space or purchase our own domain.
We decided to go with the second one, and now we have ArboursAbroad.com… our little slice of internet heaven.
Where Do You Find Your Flights?
If we’re flying in and around Europe, we use the budget airlines for our flights, booking through their sites.
For travels outside of Europe, we use both Skyscanner and Momondo.
Check out our post on finding the cheapest flights for your next holiday here.
Any Tips For First-Time Travelers?
Don’t try and see it all. Have a few ideas planned out for what you’re going to see and do, but be open to those plans changing!
And, when you get stressed out, remember how blessed you are to be able to see a new part of the world!
Here’s our list of 11 things NOT to do when traveling abroad.
Wow! That’s a lot! We hope you have a better idea of who the two of us are behind ArboursAbroad! Don’t forget to check out our latest posts below!