Love in the Workplace

Here at Under30Experiences HQ, we've been reminiscing about how we fell in love with travel. Each of us has different stories but our love for travel has led us all to make careers out of our passions. We're grateful we get to pay that love forward to our travelers each and every day.

In honor of our Fall in Love with Travel Sale we're sharing what sparked our love affairs with travel:

Marion Bres

I started traveling abroad when I was 5 years-old and later had opportunities to study, work, and live in different countries around the world. I’ve always loved experiencing new cultures, new foods, and learning the local language but the destination that made me realize how much I loved travel was Iceland. I discovered this amazing and beautiful island when I started working with Under30Experiences in 2016 and since then, I’ve been going back every year! Just like a relationship with someone, it is hard sometimes to explain why Iceland has such a big place in my heart but I think that its incredible beauty, its natural elements, and the values people have about community and preserving the environment have connected me to this country. Ísland er heimili. Iceland is home.

Kobe Masuoka

I fell in love with traveling when it helped me rediscover myself and grow into an even better, more interesting version of me. I had been in a very unhealthy, codependent relationship, and was afraid to do anything alone. When things ended I was completely crushed and totally lost, but an opportunity to travel presented itself and I took it. Traveling the world with no one to rely on but myself has given me a sense of strength and self-reliance that I’d never had before.

Robert Molina

I fell in love with travel while backpacking for a month and a half through the Balkans after I left high school. When I started mountaineering 5 years ago everything came full circle and I pursued a traveling lifestyle!

Tete Torres

I developed my love for travel when I was a kid. Being surrounded by nature here in Costa Rica gave me the curiosity to go out and explore Central America, Europe, and Canada.

Cesar Romero

I fell in love with travel for its power to teach me empathy, kindness, and compassion. After 8 years of consistent travel, I have learned to appreciate rather than criticize; embrace rather than reject; endure rather than give up. But the biggest lesson of them all is that almost everyone around the world just wants to be happy and fulfilled doing what they love.

Lindsey Dukes

Without a doubt, my first international trip to Bali made me realize how much I love travel, and how big of a role it would play in my life moving forward. That first trip (which was also my first trip as a U30X traveler) changed everything for me - it changed my outlook on life, my values, my religious framework, my perspectives, my heart, my mind, the way I approach relationships, EVERYTHING. I knew from the moment I returned that exploring new places and new cultures is what I wanted my life to revolve around. Travel is THE best way to learn more about yourself.

Lea Bouvier

When I was 19, I went to Cuba for a month with three of my friends. It was a life changing experience. We saw the tourist side of Cuba but we also got to stay with locals. I got proper cultural shock! I admired the family spirit and the sharing of the few things they had. For example, the house we stayed in was the phone house. This means it held the only phone on the street!

Jenne Nelson

My “ah crap, I’m in love” moment hit me while I was sitting in a meadow atop a waterfall in Iceland…. Like most loves, it’s hard to put into words just how it felt in the moment, but it was exhilarating, yet calm; new, yet surprisingly familiar; loud [literally…did i mention the waterfall?] yet peacefully quiet. There was something about that moment that made me feel really, truly, happy and it was at that point that I KNEW that I had to keep travel in my life. Whether it be via multi-week international trips by myself or simple day trips in my own city, I hope to keep my love affair with travel hot and heavy (ayeeeee) for years and years to come.

Eric Aguirre

My semester abroad in Barcelona, Spain was a breakthrough moment in my life. It not only made me realize how much I loved to travel, but also made me realize that the world was a huge place with many different people, cultures, and lifestyles. I took full advantage of my 5 months in Spain to travel to as many European countries as possible. After those 5 months I knew I had so much more to see. That semester abroad directly influenced my decision to leave my corporate job and travel the world for 3.5 years. It was one of the best decisions I ever made.

Cat Sullivan

As a kid I was so fascinated with the world. I asked for an Atlas for Christmas and spent hours looking at maps. I was hooked on "Where in the World is Carmen San Diego", and I caught her more times than I'd care to admit. That fascination with the world became a reality once I traveled outside of the States to Costa Rica with U30X. I fell in love with the culture and knew I had caught the travel bug once and for all.

Tom Deasy

Although I'd already traveled and lived abroad for a few years it was during my second visit to Australia when I fell in love with travel. I was on a diving trip in the Great Barrier Reef when I realized that travel was the life I wanted.

Paul Moreno

My love for traveling began in 2007 on my first backpacking trip through Central and South America. When I had no money left and wanted to continue traveling, I stopped eating just so I could continue moving! Today my adventures are much more budgeted, however, I would not refuse a small fast in order to discover a new destination.

Matt Wilson

My first trip after college was to Iceland. After working long hours in New York, I took off for a magical land of volcanoes, glaciers, waterfalls, and rainbows. I met people from all over the world, saw new cultures, and heard viking sagas first hand from my new Icelandic friends. I fell head over heels for travel and went on to travel nearly full time for the next seven years, co-founding Under30Experiences in the process.