Welcome to Two Travel Turtles!

Hello! We are Mark and Rhonda of Two Travel Turtles. This blog is our travel journal, documenting our budget slow-travel adventures around the world.

Our style of travel is different, following three strategies to make it possible:

Travel slowly – living at least 1 month in lower cost-of-living locations.
Travel affordably – maintaining an average monthly budget of $2500 or less.
Travel continuously – for years at a time.

And we want to show you how we do it!

Why are we doing this? Sounds crazy.

At 52 years old, we left our high-stress careers in academic leadership (Mark) and nursing (Rhonda) to travel full-time while we were still healthy. We learned long ago that we are the best versions of ourselves when exploring new habitats, countries, and cultures as a couple. And the friendships we have made while traveling have been some of our most enduring.

This was a planned decision – we spent the previous 12 years aggressively saving, passively investing, living frugally, and travel hacking to make this financially possible. There were no financial windfalls or six-figure salaries that magically made this happen.

How are we doing this? Won’t we go broke?

Truth be told, our monthly travel budget is lower than if we rode a couch all day at our former home in upstate New York.

And we know how to travel on the cheap.

We’ve explored North America, Europe, Central America, South America, and Oceania, all on a budget. For example, during pre-COVID times we flew to pricey New Zealand and Australia for 2 weeks. Using credit card travel hacks on flights and lodging, we spent under $1000 total for the trip.

The big difference now is how much time we spend abroad and how long we stay in one place.

By living a month or more in each location we can:

Take advantage of monthly AirBnB and apartment rental rates.
Grocery shop locally and cook in our own kitchen to reduce meal expenses.
Buy fewer expensive plane tickets, using cheap local transportation options whenever possible.
Better immerse ourselves in the local culture.

Travel costs go way down when you slow down. Like turtles.

So welcome aboard!

We hope you enjoy reading about the places we go and the tricks we use to slow travel the world on the cheap.

Thanks for reading!

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