USA TODAY International Edition
Couple have been honeymooning for 2,500 days
Mike and Anne Howard got married in 2011. On Jan. 22, 2012, they boarded a one-way flight to Brazil for their honeymoon. They haven't stopped honeymooning since.
They have now been on their honeymoon, or “HoneyTrek” as they call it, for more than 2,500 days. They have been to seven continents and 53 countries.
“When we were planning our honeymoon, we realized how many places we wanted to explore, all the experiences we hoped to have in our lives, and that a 10-day trip just wasn't going to cut it,” Mike Howard says. “Life is short, the world is big, and the value of travel is too great to wait until retirement.”
They earn their living by blogging about their adventures on HoneyTrek.com. They have also just published a National Geographic book on couples adventure travel, “Ultimate Journeys for Two.”
When they embarked on their journey, they hit the highlights first: Machu Picchu in Peru, the Great Barrier Reef in Australia, a safari in the Serengeti.
After checking off their bucket list items over six months, they decided to explore more obscure places. At the moment, they are housesitting for two months on the island of Roatan in Honduras.
“By not staying on the hotel strip, having actual neighbors, shopping in local markets and making Honduran friends, we're truly experiencing this destination,” Howard says.
The Howards say it's possible to travel without having a trust fund. They saved and planned for a year before they left. They budgeted for 16 months of travel at $40 per person per day.
They learned how to be “travel hackers.” Now, they spend $20 per person per day. They learned how to fly for free. They read blogs, attended meet-ups and signed up for a course to maximize their miles.
They have figured out how to get free accommodations through the sharing economy.
“There are a lots of ways to get free lodging and, moreover, find truly unique experiences,” Howard says.
In Japan, they volunteered via World Wide Opportunities on Organic Farms, on a farm in Honshu. They harvested vegetables for four hours a day, which left them time to explore the hot springs, volcanoes and villages.
Through Couchsurfing.com, they connected with a couple in Mexico City, who let them spend three nights in their spare bedroom and showed them around during the day.
They've stayed in five-star hotels and zero-star hovels. One time, while hitchhiking from Mozambique to Tanzania, their driver said he would take them only as far as his cousin's village. They stayed in the cousin's hut, crammed on a thatch cot with mice scurrying around.
“It sounds horrible, and it was, but to this day we have some of our best belly laughs about that night,” Howard says.
They've been all over the USA and the world. They've explored the mountains of Nepal, eaten all kinds of food in Thailand, gone scuba diving in Indonesia and visited temples in Myanmar.
Their last official address was in Hoboken, New Jersey, in December 2011. They've been to 823 towns since.
They recently settled down in the only way they know how to these days. They bought a vintage Toyota Sunrader, which has a bed, closet, kitchen and bathroom with a shower.
“Buddy the Camper and a two-person kayak on the roof have enabled us to spontaneously explore 45 states and three Canadian provinces at our own speed,” Howard says.
But they have no plans to stop. “We've owned a home, worked the 9to-5, and started a 401(k),” Howard says. “But it took this trip around the world to realize there are so many more ways to find success and happiness. Every day we travel, we learn something new, create a memory or make a friend.”