Dartboard Adventures Talk Spontaneous Travel

Episode #34

A Podcast for Travel Couples

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Spontaneous Travel with Dartboard Adventures

About This Episode

In this episode, we are joined by Ben and Jo of Dartboard Adventures. They are a travel couple with a very unique way to wander the world. They want to let you decide where they go next and leave a little up to chance as they travel spontaneously across the world. We talk with them about how their unique idea led to them moving on from their careers and booking that first ticket and what led them into spontaneous travel.

Introduction:

We talk with Ben and Jo about their backgrounds, Ben in sales and marketing and Jo in nursing. They had met at a gig in London, Jo having approached Ben and everything began from there when they went on their first date, flipped a coin, and landed in Nice, France not long after.

Ben talks about how striving for spontaneous travel comes from laziness, but more importantly from the best experiences coming from the flexibility that comes from the spontaneity. What they do is ask their audience where they want them to go. Their audience then sends them some suggestions, Ben and Jo take those suggestions and paste them on a dartboard that spins, Ben throws a dart at it, and they travel to that destination.

Part One: Travel

The discussion moves towards travel as we ask them, why travel? Expanding your mindset and immersing yourself in another culture is the reason why Ben travels. For Jo, it is more of a visual and sensory as she loves to see new things and try new food.

At the moment of this interview, Ben and Jo had just come from China, they were in Hong Kong at the moment, and are going to Singapore after that. From their travels through China, we ask them about the most culturally shocking experiences from pooping in a bin to spitting in the streets. They also talk about the lesser known spots to visit while in China to experience the rural areas and adventure activities including hiking spots.

The most rewarding travel experience for them came from a time in Rio when they helped feed the homeless after a chance meeting with a guy from the exact same street they had lived on back home in London. Whereas their most hilarious / embarrassing moment came from a long bus ride in Costa Rica when one of them really needed to use the bathroom. Their worst traveling experience comes from a time when they needed to travel from the Caribbean to Brazil after a dartboard throw sent them there, but the flight tickets were ridiculously high. They then went on a crazy adventure to get their without flying. This included the worst car ride with the smell of burnt rubber, oil leaks, rough rides, and the worry of breaking down in the middle of the night.

Part Two: Relationships

Traveling can really put a relationship to the task, let alone adding the last minute planning that comes with traveling spontaneously. Ben and Jo completely agree with this based on their experiences traveling with one another. They also state that traveling has really accelerated their relationship forward, especially compared to where they would be if they were just back at home and not traveling.

A concept that comes up often in our interviews with travel couples is that taking time off from each other can be extremely beneficial. Especially considering when you are traveling together, you are always together. Taking that time for yourself can really help you to refresh on a personal level. Ben and Jo talk about this and also state that after having a break from one another, they cannot wait to see each other again. I think this is extremely beneficial for relationships when traveling.

Who takes care of what when you travel without plans? Ben and Jo talk with us about how they start to make plans once they arrive at a destination from researching online to, most importantly, talking with the locals and other travelers at the same location.

As far as recommendations based on similar interests of Dartboard Adventures, Ben and Jo recommend Fernando de Noronha, an island off the east coast of Brazil. With hiking, climbing, diving, and beaches voted the most beautiful beaches in the world.

Jo brings up an extremely interesting point that when traveling as a couple, you need to be the one taking the initiative to talk to others if you want to interact with people. This is because when other travelers see couples, they tend to think that they are on a couples vacation and want to be left alone. However not every couple is like that when they travel.

Part Three: Making Travel a Lifestyle

Ben and Jo talk to us about how they began this travel lifestyle. Ben tells the tale of how Dartboard Adventures began from an idea at a wedding. From Ben’s part of the story, he quit his job before knowing what he was going to do next in his life. He discusses his journey during this time period before finding that he wanted to start Dartboard Adventures, including reading What Color Is Your Parachute? 2019: A Practical Manual for Job-Hunters and Career-Changers that helped him decide that this is what he wanted in his life.

We then dive really deep into their process of how to find out what to do including talking to locals and networking on Instagram to find others in the same area to collaborate. Including all the work that goes into this, as well as managing Instagram posts and YouTube videos, we talk with them about how they manage all of this work. For Ben and Jo, it starts with early in the morning getting up, answering emails, getting a small workout in, go out exploring, and come back in the evenings to more work.

The biggest thing I hear about Instagrammers is the amount of hours they invest into their account. This includes at least two hours a day engaging and creating a quality post. The best piece of advice came at the end when both talk about their research in their market. From creating and really understanding their unique selling point, researching what competitors are doing right and wrong, and knowing your place in the market is crucial in success online when creating this travel lifestyle.

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A post shared by Ben + Jo (@dartboardadventures) on Nov 3, 2018 at 6:35am PDT