We define Wanderlust Marriage as “a love of exploring the world with your partner in life.”
Alex Kallimanis and Bell King-Kallimanis co-founded Wanderlust Marriage Travel in 2012 while living in Dublin, Ireland. They enjoy helping travelers plan amazing trips based on over 25 years of adult travel experiences. A goal is to inspire travelers to mix up their adventures, by exploring amazing destinations off the popular tourist routes and traveling off-season when possible. This helps make travel more sustainable for the industry as well as popular destinations that become overwhelmed with tourists in high season.
Alex Kallimanis has contributed to publications like Ireland’s largest newspaper, the Irish Independent. He received a bronze medal in the 31st Annual NATJA Awards Competition (North American Travel Journalists Association) last year. He has also previously been named NATJA’s featured journalist of the month. Among other publications, Alex also contributes to Travel World Magazine.
Our story appeared in the book The Trip that Changed Our Lives, which helped raise over $10,000 for the charities Save the Children and Unbound. Over the years we’ve shared our story in many publications, and have been happy to interview others about their “Wanderlust Marriages”, including 2 time Irish journalist of the year Conor O’Clery. We’re proud that our story and this website has helped inspire thousands of travelers, including others to launch their own travel websites.
Bell is a PhD scientist who previously worked in cancer research at the Food and Drug Administration for 4 years. She currently works in lung patient advocacy for LUNGevity Foundation. We were previously based in Washington, D.C. for 4 years and recently bought a house in the Tampa, Florida area. We’ve also previously resided in Dublin, Amsterdam, Melbourne, Australia and Boston. For inquiries email alex(at)wanderlustmarriage.com
What the United Kingdom’s second largest newspaper, the Daily Mail, wrote about Alex’s article on Athens, Greece:
What Pennsylvania State Senator Kristin Phillips-Hill Wrote About Our Article on York, Pennsylvania:
What the historic Hotel Le Bretonerie & Hotel Chopin in Paris, France wrote about our article on their Marais district hotel on their website:
We were named a local expert on ApartmentGuide
Read the full article here: https://www.apartmentguide.com/blog/romantic-things-to-do-in-washington-dc-a-love-affair-with-the-capita
ApartmentGuide is a subsidiary of Redfin.com
Wanderlust Marriage Travel
Google Analytics: wanderlustmarriage.com receives upwards of 14,000 visitors and 35,000 page views per month.
You can see our Google Analytics report for the past month here: Analytics Wanderlust Marriage Audience Overview 20180716-20180816 and the past year here: Analytics Wanderlust Marriage Audience Overview 20170816-20180816
Social Media: 70,000+ followers
Instagram followers: 31,000+ followers with good authentic engagement. 16,500 followers on our Wanderlust Marriage Instagram account and 13,900 followers on Alex’s travelguide_alex account. Our photos have received upwards of 3,000 likes.
Twitter followers: 26,000+
Pinterest 20,000 monthly viewers
Facebook likes: 2,200+
LinkedIn 3700+ connections for Alex Kallimanis
400+ followers on the TravMedia platform connecting international media and public relations representatives. Their International Media Marketplace conference is the biggest event in the USA for travel journalists, destinations and PR professionals. Alex has attended the past four years.
Partnerships:
Our mission is to help travelers experience more of the world while highlighting great destinations and brands. We partner with official tourism boards and quality brands on this quest. Wanderlust Marriage launched in 2012 and since then we’ve covered fantastic lesser known destinations, in addition to many of the world’s most popular places.
Tourism Boards: Visit Europe, Andros (Cyclades, Greece), Tempe Tourism, Frankfurt Tourism, Quebec Tourism, Visit Southeast Montana, Tourism Montreal, Visit Milwaukee, Destination Gettysburg, Hershey & Harrisburg, Massachusetts Tourism, Taiwan Tourism, Visit Scotland, Visit Britain, Visit Baltimore, Sabah Tourism (Malaysian Borneo), Visit London, Barcelona Tourism, Pioneer Valley, York, PA.
Brands: Emerald Cruises, UnCruise, European Historic Thermal Towns Association (EHTTA), Disney, Premier Inn (Britain’s largest hotel company), Hotel De La Brettonerie (Paris, France), Esterel Resort (Luxurious Quebec Resort & Spa), Le St. Sulpice (luxury hotel in Montreal), Sutera Harbour Resort (one of Borneo’s finest luxury resorts), Jefferson Hotel (a unique diamond rated property in Richmond, Virginia), Sukau Rainforest Lodge (a multi-award winning Borneo eco resort), Borneo Eco Tours (a multi-award winning Borneo tour company), Capon Springs Resort (West Virginia), Prospect Hill Inn (Virginia), Italian Days Food & Wine Tours, Norwegian Cruise Line, Sourced Adventures, Silverfox Travel and Outdoors, Athens One Day Cruise, Maine Brew Bus, Chew Philly, On Location Tours, Zipcar (the world’s largest car sharing company), Walks of Italy, only-apartments (one of the world’s biggest holiday apartment rental sites), Paddywagon Tours (Ireland’s largest tour company) & more.
Articles We’ve Written Based on Partnerships with Tourism Boards and Brands
Greek Spa Towns for a Fantastic Thermal Vacation – Visit Europe and European Historic Thermal Towns Association (EHTTA)
What to Expect on a Danube River Cruise with Emerald Cruises – Emerald Cruises
UnCruise! Alaska Fjords and Glaciers Cruise – UnCruise
Baden bei Wien: Austria’s Great Spa Town of Europe – Baden Tourism
Andros: An Authentic Cyclades Island – Andros Tourism
Tempe, Things to Do While Exploring Arizona – Tempe Tourism
Frankfurt, Germany: 2 Day Itinerary – Frankfurt Tourism
Gettysburg: Things to Do on a Visit – Destination Gettysburg
Tips on Visiting Disney World Over the Holidays – Disney
Romantic Getaway Ideas for Montreal, Celebrating an Anniversary at the Esterel Resort in Quebec and Tips for Visiting Montreal – Quebec Tourism and Visit Montreal
Great Experiences in Southeast Montana – Visit Southeast Montana
Great Things to Do in Florence, Italy – Walks of Italy
Venice, Italy: Tips to Have a Great Experience – Walks of Italy
Modena Food Tour: An Italian Culinary Mecca – Italian Days Food & Wine Tours
Hershey & Harrisburg Pennsylvania: 2 Day Itinerary – Visit Hershey & Harrisburg
Prospect Hill Inn, A Historic Virginia B&B – Select Registry
Virginia Winery Tour from DC with Sourced Adventures – Sourced Adventures
A Review of the Norwegian Getaway – Norwegian Cruise Line
10 Great Things to Do in Milwaukee – Visit Milwaukee
Family Run Hotels You Should Support and Romantic Lakeside Hotels Around the World – Expedia
A Couples Guide to Having Fun in Baltimore – Visit Baltimore
Taiwanese Night Markets: Sites, Smells and History – Taiwan Tourism
Cool Reasons to Visit Western Massachusetts – Massachusetts Office of Tourism and Pioneer Valley Tourism
An Adventurous Borneo Honeymoon in Sabah – Sabah Tourism Board, Borneo Eco Tours, Sukau Rainforest Lodge and Sutera Harbour Resort
Tips on Visiting the Great Wall of China – Wild Great Wall Adventure Tours
Athens One Day Cruise: 3 Greek Island in 12 Hours! – Athens One Day Cruise
A Wonderful Stay in Central London with Premier Inn – Premier Inn (Britain’s largest hotel chain)
Highlights of Northern Ireland Day Tour and Touring Ireland’s Most Breathtaking Scenery in County Kerry – Paddywagon Tours
One of Europe’s Great Castles- Edinburgh Castle and How Not to Climb Arthur’s Seat – Visit Scotland
International recipe contest submissions for voting! and Tips on Areas to Stay in Krakow – only-apartments
Toot! Toot! The North Borneo Railway Conjures British Colonial Past – Sabah Tourism and Sutera Harbour Resort
Hiking the Wicklow Mountains Provides a Compelling View of Dublin – Silverfox Travel and Outdoors
Exploring Craft Beer with Maine Brew Bus – Maine Brew Bus
Driving the Scenic New Hampshire and Maine Coast and Mount Vernon, George Washington’s Beautiful Estate – Zipcar
An Authentic Food Tour in Philadelphia – Chew Philly
Touring Famous Movie Sites in Boston – On Location Tours
A Wealth of Attractions to Conveniently Explore in Barcelona – Barcelona Tourism
Testimonials
I have had the pleasure to work with Alex and Bell on two occasions so far. On a professional and a personal level, it has been an absolute pleasure and I’m hoping for other opportunities in the future.
Maike Mocikat, Marketing and Social Media – Only-apartments
Wanderlust Marriage was a joy to work with. After coming on our tour, Alex & Bell shared their experience with their Twitter, Instagram, and Facebook followers through authentic and personal posts. They also included us in a blog, which benefited our SEO and helped other travelers to find our tour. We highly recommend working with WM!
Elyse, Founder of Chew Philly Tours
Media Coverage
Alex Kallimanis has written articles for mainstream publications such as Ireland’s largest newspaper, the Irish Independent, along with other outlets and magazines. His work has been shared or featured by major official tourism boards like Tasmania, Copenhagen, Milwaukee and Washington, DC. We’ve also participated in many interviews on couples travel on popular blogs, podcasts like TBEX’s Travel Matters Podcast and websites.
Alex has attended International Media Marketplace (IMM) in New York City three times – 2018, 2019, 2020. It is an industry-leading event connecting travel media with tourism board and public relations representatives from around the world.
Alex conducted a lengthy one-on-one interview with two time Irish Journalist of the Year Conor O’Clery about life on the road for 20 years as a foreign correspondent and his own Wanderlust Marriage for this website.
Our story was included in the new book, The Trip That Changed my Life, now available for sale on Amazon. Over $10,000 US from the proceeds have been donated to two wonderful charities, Unbound and Save the Children.
We were recently included in Tour Radar’s Valentine’s Day story, titled Couple’s Who Travel Together Stay Together. Traveler’s Universe interviewed us for How Traveling Couples Survive on the Road. And as we met in a hostel nearly 14 years ago, Hostel Geeks featured our story We Met in a Hostel in Bruges. The popular couple’s blog 1000 fights, who was voted by USA Today as one of the nation’s best couples blogs, featured us in an interview discussing travel and living abroad.
We’ve written for the People’s History Museum in Manchester, England. One of Dublin’s most popular websites for food, Cheapeats.ie featured an article on one of our favorite restaurants in Dublin. And we were the featured travel couple of the month on Notes of Nomads. We’ve also contributed a guest post on Dutch tulip fields to Chronicle of a Travel Addict.
More About Us and Wanderlust Marriage:
Alex Kallimanis earned a bachelor’s degree in history from the University of Central Florida (UCF). He was president of the honors history society during his senior year (Phi Alpha Theta). He also worked on an MBA at UCF. Today he works as a writer, social media influencer and travel consultant. You can contact him regarding travel writing assignments, speaking engagements and assistance with personally tailoring a great vacation.
Bell earned a PhD in statistics from the University of Amsterdam. She then did her post-doctoral fellowship at Trinity College Dublin, where she received a prestigious Marie Curie grant from the European Union. She works as a scientist by day, and edits many of the photos featured on Wanderlust Marriage.
We’ve both attended the largest travel trade show in the United States with press passes several times, including the 2015 New York Times Travel Show , 2016 NY Times Travel Show, and 2018 NY Times Travel Show, which has provided us the opportunity to network and learn from some of the biggest names in the industry.
We’ve attended the world’s largest travel trade show, World Travel Market (WTM) several times, including recent virtual editions in 2021 and 2020. I attended World Travel Market 2013 and World Travel Market 2014 in London in person. We’ve also attended the world’s largest conference for Travel Bloggers many times – TBEX Europe 2022 in Marbella, Spain, TBEX Europe 2020 in Catania, Italy (when Italy became the first western nation to lock down and attendees had to evacuate during the coronavirus pandemic), TBEX North America in Billings, Montana, TBEX North America in the Finger Lakes (2018), TBEX Europe 2013 in Dublin, Ireland and TBEX Europe 2014 in Athens, Greece.
After over six years living in Europe between Amsterdam and Dublin, we relocated back to the United States in 2014. We know the east coast of the USA extremely well having lived in Tampa, Orlando, Boston and Washington, DC. In 2016, we celebrated our 11 year wedding anniversary in Montreal, partnering with Quebec Tourism and Tourism Montreal to promote an anniversary trip in Quebec.
We originally met in Bruges, Belgium in 2002. Alex grew up in Florida and Bell is from Melbourne, Australia. Together we’ve grown from being budget backpackers in our 20’s to professionals who appreciate luxury travel in our 40’s. During trips, we’re most passionate about culture, beautiful scenery, delicious food & drinks and history. We enjoy sharing inspiring photos, stories and tips with readers and followers. We’ve lived and worked together in four countries and traveled to 60+ different nations total.
For all inquiries email [email protected]
