This week, WSGT is interviewing Jeff and Anne of What Doesn’t Suck? WDS is a video blog based in Dubai aimed at highlighting the best travel destinations around the world!
1.)Where was the first place that you traveled that made you think WOW—travel is amazing (think history book come to life or …..)
I think the most impressive place we’ve ever been has to be Iceland. While it doesn’t sound like the most exotic place on Earth and is not the most far reaching destination we have been to, we were blown away. Iceland is truly a gem and the mix of natural beauty and excitement around every turn is enough to have us dreaming of returning over and over again – so much so that we’re planning a trip back in December after just being there in July.
2.)If you had unlimited resources, where would you go and what would you do?
Unlimited resources wouldn’t change much as we already travel every chance we get. I’m sure we’d travel a bit more comfortably (we’ve never flown first class) but in general we’d stick to adventure travel and hop around the globe – we just wouldn’t be bound to fit in our adventures around our full time office jobs which fuel our adventures now.
3.)What were you afraid to do and how did you find the courage to overcome it?
I think for Anne and I, we’ve taken a log of pride in jumping on planes to not only exotic destinations, but completely off the map destinations that few have even heard of. Just a couple months ago we took the chance and hopped on a plane for 4 days in Tajikistan, a country our bank hadn’t even heard of when we informed them of our travels. What we were rewarded with was an incredible adventure full of beautiful landscapes, people, food and memories – and while we might have felt a bit out of our comfort zone at the start, taking the leap paid off huge.
48 Hours in Iceland: The Ultimate Insane Road Trip
4.)What apps do you use regularly that make your life easier?
We’ve been using the GrupTrip app a lot recently which has helped us plan trips, share photos and track money a lot easier when traveling just the two of us or with friends. Currency converters are always handy as is an app likemaps.me, which let you download an entire city or countries map you can use offline when you land. Download Wordlens, which is not always perfect but a ton of fun to play with.
5.)What place do you wish more people have seen?
There are so many places in the world that not enough people discover, mostly because they are scared, which is such a shame. Especially Americans tend to stay close to home and don’t travel too far. After living in the Middle East for the last few years we have discovered to many amazing places in the UAE, Oman and Lebanon and wish more people would explore them.
6.)Best advice you have been given and by whom?
“If you have someone that you think is The One, don’t do… don’t just sort of think in your ordinary mind, ‘Okay, let’s make a date. Let’s plan this and make a party and get married.’ Take that person and travel around the world. Buy a plane ticket for the two of you to travel all around the world, and go to places that are hard to go to and hard to get out of. And if when you come back to JFK, when you land in JFK, and you’re still in love with that person, get married at the airport.” – Bill Murray
7.)When were you surprised by the kindness of strangers on a trip?
Every. Single. Time. We. Travel. We are billions of people on this planet and there is simply not a single day that goes by while we are traveling that we don’t meet someone and think to ourselves how amazing humans are.
8.)What inspired you to travel for extended periods of time or live in a new country?
Travel is addicting, more than any drug, and with much better side effects! Anne is French and I am America, and we live in Dubai – so its safe to say we both felt compelled to move abroad and explore what living in other countries was like. Luckily we both share the same desire to explore, explore, explore and we do it every chance we get. Living in Dubai gives us the best of both worlds while allowing us to live in an interesting part of the world and explore some pretty unique destinations whenever we have the free time.
9.)We travel because….
We have to, we simply can’t stop. But we also travel to show people what is possible. By the time December comes around, we will have done 10 international trips this year on four continents and all while working full-time office jobs with the standard holiday time everyone receives. We travel to motivate others to get out and see the world, to highlight the amazing things that can be done, places visited and experiences had.
What Doesn’t Suck? is a top travel video blog based in Dubai aimed at highlighting the best travel destinations around the world through fun and unique video content. With over 3 million video views in 2016 we are thrilled so many people love to come along on our adventures and we have no plan to stop anytime soon.
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