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Welcome. If you found your way here, you’re probably wondering how a regular midlife couple ended up living abroad. Pour a coffee and we’ll show you around.

Why we are here

We swapped the rush for the long way around.

Slow travel, to us, means staying longer in fewer places and letting a spot become familiar over a few weeks instead of a few hours.

Todd and I left the US in 2016 with a couple of backpacks and a loose plan. Ten years later we’ve house-sat in eight countries, learned to cook in a handful of them, and these days spend most of our time in Thailand between housesits. We’re not experts. We’re two people in midlife who figured out a slower way to see the world and kept going.

This site is for travelers in the second half of life who want depth over speed. If you’d rather linger over a long lunch than sprint through ten cities, you’re in the right place. The four threads below are where everything we write lives.

Find your way around

Four threads to pull on

Everything we write falls under one of these. Pick whichever one sounds like you and dig in.

Slow Travel

The mindset and the logistics: how to stay longer, plan less, and travel deeper.

Food & Culture

Markets, long lunches, museums, and the local history behind the meal.

Housesitting

How we've stayed in eight countries for free by caring for homes and pets.

Destinations

The corners of the world we keep coming back to, from Spain to Southeast Asia.

Where to start reading

Our best reads to begin with

A few stories that tell you who we are and how we travel. Start with one of these.

Slow Travel

What ten years abroad taught us

Less is more. Stay put. The lessons we wish we’d known before we ever left home.

Housesitting

How we travel for (almost) free

Six summers in Spain without paying for a room. Here’s how housesitting actually works.

Food & Culture

Eating our way around the world

Street food, long markets, and cooking classes. Food is how we get to know a place.

Mairin pausing to look out over a wide mountain valley on a back-road ride in Andalusia, Spain
Meet Mairin & Todd

Two people, one slow life abroad

We’re an American couple who left in 2016 and never quite came back. Since then we’ve taught English in Vietnam, put 14,000 kilometers on a campervan around Europe, and house-sat our way across eight countries.

We write this together. Mairin tells most of the stories; Todd bakes the bread and keeps us fed. Come read the longer version of how we got here.

The Slow Traveler's Starter Kit
Before you wander off

Get the free Slow Traveler's Starter Kit

Our short, practical guide to planning a slower trip: how to pick a base, how long to stay, and how to travel deeper without the overwhelm.

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