About Us

About Us

We are David & Elaine, an English couple who decided to abandon the UK Rat Race in 1997, take early retirement and move to live in Turkey.  

Holidays had always been important to us and we enjoyed many happy times away with the extended family in Turkey and Bulgaria and a more relaxed lifestyle in the sun seemed a much better option.

We left England with very little capital and had to work in hotels and restaurants during the first few years until we were eligible to receive our state pensions and funds from an endowment insurance policy.

Eventually, having sold our small cottage in England, we put a 30% share in the family purchase of a large detached villa in the coastal village of Çiftlikköy, close to the laid-back resort town of Çeşme in Western Turkey.  

The villa comprised of three self-contained apartments.  We lived in the one-bedroom apartment and rented out the two larger ones for holiday lets, mainly to guests from the UK and Europe.

We lived there for just over 17 years until 2014 when it was decided to sell the property.  We considered renting accommodation in Turkey (we hadn't got sufficient capital to purchase) but after some thought decided not to settle anywhere but simply to travel the world - simply - as ageing nomads on a budget.

And that's what we did, travelling mainly through SE Asia with trips to the UK and Western Australia to visit our extended family.  

It's a big world out there and we decided that collecting stamps in our passports was much more fun, certainly more rewarding, than accumulating possessions.

Since leaving Turkey in 2014, we have stayed in 31 locations in 21 different countries on the continents of Europe, Africa, Asia, Australia and North America.

We have enjoyed extensive, safe, healthy travels to so many interesting and diverse parts of the world, experiencing different cultures and lifestyles.

The vast majority of our travel highlights have been under water!  We have snorkelled with blacktip, whitetip & reef sharks, manta rays, turtles and wild dolphins and admired so many colourful fish and coral reefs in seas and oceans around the world.

And most recently in Mexico, Elaine snorkelled with a whale shark, the world's largest known fish.  A once-in-a-lifetime experience.

Our all time favourite spots for incredible off-beach snorkelling are without doubt the Egyptian Red Sea, The Maldives and Puerto Morelos in Mexico.

There are some runners up, of course.  The Ningaloo Reef at Coral Bay, Western Australia, and Bacong & Dauin on Negros Oriental Island in The Philippines.

But we have also enjoyed many land-based highlights, too:

In Europe, we marvelled at the Musical Fountains in the vast gardens of the Palace of Versailles near Paris; the Flamenco dancers & musicians at the Palau Dalmases, a former 17th Century Palace in the Gothic Quarter of Barcelona; and the stunning Canaletto-style views along Venice's Grand Canal 

And further afield, the 16^th Century Japanese Bridge at the World Heritage Site town of Hoi An in Vietnam; not forgetting the magnificent Grand Palace in Bangkok.

We have visited the world’s smallest country, Vatican City State;  lived in Australia, the world’s largest island continent;  and on a few days side trip during a stay in Egypt, travelled to Jordan where we floated in the Dead Sea, the lowest place on earth

Snorkelling has been our favourite pastime which has drawn us to countless wonderful beaches throughout the world.  Our priority has been quiet areas preferably with superb snorkelling direct from the shore.  

Two beaches stand out for their stunning location.

Tanjung Rhu Beach on the northern tip of Langkawi Island, Malaysia situated between lush jungle and the Andaman Sea.  Maybe not ideal for snorkelling but a little piece of heaven.

Turquoise Bay in the Cape Range National Park, Western Australia.  Often voted not only the best beach in Western Australia but No. 1 on TripAdvisor's list of World's Best Beaches in the South Pacific 2022. 

All this has only been possible by travelling Economy rather than Business or Club Class and staying in self-catering accommodation in preference to suites in four or five star resort hotels.  We have not been on holidays; we have simply been living somewhere else - simply, but comfortably.

Since being grounded during the pandemic (extremely happily in Western Australia) and in view of our increasing ages, we have decided to slow down - a bit!

Since 2022 we have enjoyed several one or two month stays on Bali and decided to base ourselves there, in the coastal town of Sanur, for the six months until May, 2024.

Then we headed to England for six weeks, during which time we joined another 10 members of our family on a one week holiday in Bulgaria.

Yes, we still have itchy feet and we are now in Sri Lanka for three months and after that are considering The Philippines again and a new country, Mauritius.

So, although we shall (probably!) be downloading fewer Boarding Passes in the years ahead, there is still the (strong) possibility of the occasional new travel Blog!  Watch this space.