Our Travel, Eat, Explore Podcast Episode

By Alex Kallimanis: Alex Benikov of Travel, Eat, Explore recently reached out to us on Twitter and asked if we wanted to chat on his podcast. He was fresh off a visit to Portugal where he interviewed the Director of Lisbon Tourism. So we said yes, let’s talk travel!

We answer questions on a range of travel topics on Travel, Eat, Explore, including great travel hacks. We also discuss living abroad for many years during our 15 year relationship.

Travel Inspiration

The first 20 minutes mostly deals with Bell and I’s backgrounds. We both grew up in traveling households, that also had our share of financial struggles at times. My father is an immigrant from Greece who ran Air Terminal Services at Washington National Airport (DCA) in the 1970’s. Growing up in Australia, Bell took a 3 month camping trip with her family as a child before her father passed away at the age of 12.

Living Abroad

I moved to Australia for a year on a one year working holiday visa in 2004. The purpose of a working holiday visa is to provide limited working rights to supplement travelers under 30. So there are restrictions, like not being able to stay at the same job for more than 3 months.

Bell did her PhD at the University of Amsterdam. The position is considered an apprenticeship in the Netherlands and pays a livable salary that increases each year. They even give two bonuses a year and being the Netherlands, everyone has health care. We spent 3 and 1/2 years living in Amsterdam before moving to Dublin for 2 and 1/2 years.

Landscape of the cliffs with the ocean, Ireland travel tips

Travel Hacking

We chat about travel rewards credit cards and their large bonus point offers. This is one of the biggest travel hacks for amazing value. There are pros and cons of loyalty to airline miles and hotel points programs so for many people it’s good to mix things up.

You can listen to our episode of Travel, Eat, Explore here. Thanks to Alex Benikov for having us on!

Author

  • Alex&Bell

    Alex and Bell originally met while solo traveling after finishing university in 2002, in Brugge, Belgium. Alex grew up in the USA and Bell hails from Australia. During our nearly 20 year marriage we've lived around the world, including spending six years living in the Netherlands and Ireland. We have traveled to nearly 70 countries and enjoy giving readers authentic and quality travel tips. Alex is an award winning travel journalist and travel planner, who also freelances for other outlets. Bell is an award winning PhD scientist who currently works for a non-profit lung cancer advocacy research organization called Lungevity. Happy travels and if you have any questions leave a comment or drop an email!

2 thoughts on “Our Travel, Eat, Explore Podcast Episode

    1. Thanks so much for the compliment, Agness! We’re so glad you enjoyed it and it helped kill some travel time. Happiest of travels and adventures to you! 😀

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