Dutch Monkeys Abroad: Michael and Kayleigh

Michael, 26, and Kayleigh, 25, are both living in the southern region of the Netherlands. They met when they where doing an internship in the incredible city of Barcelona. After their adventure in Barcelona, they lived in the big capital of the Netherlands, Amsterdam, for a while. It didn’t stop there. They made big plans to travel through South America after graduating from school, which happened in October 2017. They travelled for 4.5 months in South America, which was an unforgettable experience!

What inspired you to live a life of travel and adventure?

With having experiences in living in other cities and taking the most out of our small vacations, we have always been adventurous and love to discover new places. In every city we have been, we rent a bike to see a lot of the city in a short time. Also we like to hike to not-easy-reachable-beaches and to do some really challenging hikes. At the moment we don’t have a house, kids, dogs or any other restrictions. We want to see as much as we can of the world, as long as we can.

Where have your travels taken you? What are some of the most memorable places you have been to so far?

We like to explore undiscovered places, meeting locals and get to know more about their background. Together we have travelled to Sardinia, Barcelona, Paris, New York, Panama, Colombia, Peru, Bolivia, Brazil and one of the Balearic Islands (Menorca). We have been to crazy mountains, hot deserts, beautiful cities and so on.

The places that are the most impressive to us are Valle della Luna (Sardinia), Huaraz (Peru), Salt Flats (Bolivia) and New York.

What are some of your “bucket list” adventure travel destinations?

Philippines, Pig island in the Bahamas, Australia, New Zealand and Iceland.

How do you think travel and adventure can improve the quality of one’s life?

By traveling you gain new experiences that you take with you for the rest of your life. You are going to appreciate the small things in life more, because when you travel the adventurous way, you definitely going to visit countries where you also get to see the poor people and stay in less luxury places.

When you travel as a couple, it is also a great test for your relationship. By being together for 24 hours every day, you really get to know each other. The best part of this is that you can share all the special moments with each other.

How has travel changed your life?

After our big trip in South America we realized there is much more to see of all the beauty in the world. So for us it’s not difficult to keep the focus on this by keep saving money. We really want to travel again as soon as possible. During our last travel, we also discovered that you could save a lot of money (in most of the countries) on cooking for your own and it’s also (most of the time) healthier. In this way, you can travel longer or choose to do more activities.

How do you want to use your adventures to inspire others to get out and live their dream life?

Just before our big trip to South America, we started an Instagram page together, called dutchmonkeysabroad. On this account we post big highlights from every country we have visited in South America.

During the travel a lot of people asked questions like how we arranged some activities or with which camera we took the pictures. But also we received a lot of positive reactions on our photos and videos, which motivated us to keep our followers posted about our travel, even when we got back in the Netherlands.

Where is your next big adventure?

This year we are saving money for a small apartment and having some small vacations like going to a destination in Europe for one week (family holiday), the Formule 1 in Budapest (Michael) and a small weekend away with friends (Kayleigh).

For sure we are going to make a list with the possibilities for next year and save some money for that!