Finding Gina Marie - Travel the World

Ep.216 After nearly four years of full-time travel and staying in more than 90 places, we’ve learned that affordable doesn’t mean much if you don’t actually want to stay. In this episode, we’re sharing 9 affordable cities worth staying in for a month—places where everyday life was comfortable, there was plenty to see and do, and our money went surprisingly far. We’ll share what we actually paid for accommodations, why each place made our list, and what you should know before choosing one yourself. Some we stayed in for a full month or longer. Others left us wishing we had. If you’re planning retirement travel, extended travel, or simply want to spend more time in fewer places, we hope this gives you a few new ideas for your list. ❤️ Watch us on YouTube! Support the show

Ep.215 Traveling together for a week or two is one thing. But when you travel for months at a time, someone still has to manage the planning, transportation, money, meals, laundry—and all the responsibilities of everyday life. After more than 3½ years of full-time travel, we’ve figured out some principles that make the workload easier to manage. We’re sharing what works for us, how our system evolved, the mistakes we’ve made along the way, and the lessons that can help you figure out what might work for you. Whether you’re considering a month away, several months of slow travel, retirement travel, or traveling full time, the goal isn’t to copy our system. It’s to find a way to travel together without either person feeling like they’re carrying the whole load. ❤️ Watch us on YouTube! Support the show

Ep.213 Cape Town’s beauty sits alongside a deeply moving and complex history. Join us as we take the ferry from the V&A Waterfront to Robben Island, where Nelson Mandela was imprisoned for 18 years. While there, two former political prisoners share powerful first-hand stories of injustice, resistance, and choosing healing over hatred. Back on the mainland, we share a traditional South African meal at Jollof Café before exploring Kirstenbosch National Botanical Garden—where an unexpected historical connection reveals how boundaries used to divide people began long before apartheid. This journey transformed how we see Cape Town, and left us reflecting on what it truly takes to face a painful history while choosing a different path forward. ❤️ Watch us on YouTube! Support the show

Ep.212 Cape Town is famous for Table Mountain, ocean views, and a spectacular coastline, but in this episode we show what else you can expect. We followed the Cape Peninsula through soaring cliffs, wild landscapes, unexpected animal encounters, and revealed one surprise after another. This is the day Cape Town beat our expectations. ❤️ Watch us on YouTube! Support the show

Ep.211 Old Town is the Tallinn everyone photographs. Its pastel rooftops, cobblestone lanes, and spires poking into the sky are only part of the story. We share its neighborhoods, what it’s like to celebrate with its locals on the longest day of the year, spent time understanding its maritime history, its waterfront, monuments, and more. We also tell you what it cost us to live, work, and play here for 15 days. ❤️ Watch us on YouTube! Support the show

Ep.209 After four years of hard work, Judy was finally recognized as an Italian citizen, but Italian citizenship doesn’t mean quite what we thought it meant. We captured the real moment the email arrived, and in this episode, we share what this milestone actually changes for our full-time travel life, why Schengen time is still more complicated than people assume, and why this next chapter comes with a catch. It’s wonderful news, emotional news, and life-changing news, but even a dream come true can bring a whole new set of questions. ❤️ Watch us on YouTube! Support the show

Ep.208 Waiting to retire can feel responsible, but it can cost more than you think, and not all of it shows up in your finances. In this episode we talk about why “one more year” can become a trap, what it can cost beyond your bank account, and how to ask a better question about risk. We're not saying everyone should retire tomorrow, but we do think there's a question most retirement plans never ask. ❤️ Watch us on YouTube! Support the show

Ep.207 Riga is one of the European cities people are just starting to discover. It has Prague-level beauty, fewer crowds, and more depth than we expected. After 17 days in Riga, Latvia, we found a Baltic capital that was easy to love, easy to walk, and hard to reduce to just pretty buildings. We also share exactly what our 17 days in Latvia’s capital cost us, so you can decide whether Riga belongs on your own Europe list. ❤️ Watch us on YouTube! Support the show

Ep.206 Ljubljana, Slovenia is not the city we thought it was — and that’s exactly why this trip surprised us. In this episode, we explore its pedestrian and bike friendly historic center, the dragons, the coffee culture, the layers of Roman and Plečnik history, and why Ljubljana may change how you plan a Central Europe trip. We also take an easy day trip to Lake Bled without a car, and at the end we share exactly what we spent during our stay. ❤️ Watch us on YouTube! Support the show

Ep.205 The health insurance question stops more people from leaving the US than almost anything else. This video shows exactly what international health insurance costs, what it covers, what happened when we actually needed emergency surgery abroad, and why healthcare has become one of the things we worry about least after more than three years of living outside the US. ❤️ Watch us on YouTube! Support the show

Ep.204 What if you give up your home to travel full time and regret it? What if you do, and you're priced out of the market when you want to come back? We've been living without a home base for 3.5 years and more than 50 countries. In this video we share our honest thought process, including who should absolutely keep their home and helping you figure out what's right for your situation. We cover the stuff you think you'll miss, the community fear, the housing market question, what your friends and family will say, and what this life actually looks like from the inside long after the honeymoon stage. ❤️ Watch us on YouTube! Support the show

Ep.203 Most people assume the conventional version of life is the financially responsible one. We assumed that too. For over 30 years. Then we put two expense stacks side by side. And what we found made us question what financial security actually means. In this video we compare a conventional lifestyle against the one we're living now, line by line. Some costs transform. Some shrink. And some simply stop existing. We also get into the cost nobody tracks, the question everybody has about healthcare, and the one thing that disappeared without us even trying. ❤️ Watch us on YouTube! Support the show

Ep.202 We ordered goulash in Italy. That's when we knew Trieste was different. 25 days in one of Europe's most overlooked cities — a place that has been claimed by empires, contested by nations, and shaped by cultures from across the Eastern Mediterranean. The result is an Italian city that doesn't quite feel like Italy. And we couldn't get enough of it. From a tradition older than Italy itself to a ghost port being brought back to life on the waterfront, Trieste kept showing us something we didn't expect. Our full cost breakdown is included. ❤️ Watch us on YouTube! Support the show

Ep.201 We thought 16 days in George Town, Penang would be plenty. It wasn't. Most people come for the street art and food, and those are genuinely worth it. But the longer we stayed, the more Penang started to reveal something deeper. One unexpected experience that started with a cup of gelato probably captures it best. This is what 16 days revealed that a quick visit can't. At the end, we share our full cost breakdown. ❤️ Watch us on YouTube! Support the show

Ep.200 Singapore has a reputation. Too expensive. Too controlled. Only worth a layover. We decided to test that for ourselves, so we stayed nine days in Singapore to see what it’s really like beyond the skyline and Marina Bay. We explored neighborhoods like Tiong Bahru, hawker markets, historic parks, and Gardens by the Bay to answer one question: Who is Singapore really for? Is it just a quick stopover city? A hub for young expats? Or is it worth a longer stay? In this episode, we share what surprised us, what didn’t, and our full nine-day Singapore cost breakdown. ❤️ Watch us on YouTube! Support the show

Ep.199 We'd heard Budapest was special. We wanted to see for ourselves. What we found was one of the most layered, surprising, and thought-provoking cities we've ever visited. After 17 days living a short walk from the Hungarian Parliament, we found things most visitors never see: tiny bronze sculptures hiding in plain sight, a protest memorial that keeps coming back no matter how many times it's removed, a cafe that communism tried to erase, iron shoes at the river's edge, and on one particular night, we saw history happening right outside our front door. Budapest rewards anyone willing to look twice. This is what we found. ❤️ Watch us on YouTube! Support the show

Ep.198 We spent 16 days in Bangkok, Thailand, and we're sharing everything we'd do differently, including why where you stay matters more than you think, how to navigate Bangkok's historic temples without the crowds and heat working against you, and how to avoid the most common tourist scam near Wat Pho, which we personally encountered. We also found one of the coolest neighborhoods in Bangkok that most travelers completely skip. It was one of our all-time favorite neighborhoods, and we can't wait to show it to you. We’ll also share the complete cost breakdown for everything we spent. ❤️ Watch us on YouTube! Support the show

Ep.197 We took the Shompoo Cruise upstream from Luang Prabang, Laos to Houay Xay at the Thai border, and we're giving you our honest verdict. Was it worth two days offline? We cover everything: the Pak Ou Caves, our overnight stay at Sanctuary Pakbeng Lodge, logistics on our Laos to Thailand border crossing, and our full cost breakdown. If you're deciding whether the Mekong slow boat is right for you, this is the video we wish we'd had before we booked. ❤️ Watch us on YouTube! Support the show

Ep.196 In three and a half years of full-time travel, we don’t go back to the same cities. We move forward. Until we visited Laos and Luang Prabang made us question that. This is the story of a place that stayed with us from the very first morning, a river journey that may not exist much longer, and the quiet realization that 16 days was never going to be enough. ❤️ Watch us on YouTube! Support the show

Ep.195 Queenstown, New Zealand is famous for adrenaline, epic scenery, and bucket list experiences. We arrived during peak summer season and made some choices that surprised even us. We found a slower, more meaningful version of the city than we ever expected, including a discovery in nearby Arrowtown that made the region's gold rush story feel completely different. ❤️ Watch us on YouTube! Support the show