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Ce’Lene and Erinn are the kind of couple that makes you say “daawwwwwww, they should be in a Hallmark commercial…” They’re from Seattle and started just wrapped up an around the world trip. Don’t worry though, they’ve documented their travels on their blog and Youtube channel so you can still enjoy all their adorably sweet selfies and incredible travel photography.

Tell us a little bit about yourselves and how did you end up traveling so much?

Erinn: We are a lesbian couple from Seattle. We’ve been together for two years and best friends for three. Ce’Lene has always dreamed of traveling the world and I would follow Celene to the ends of the earth, so not long after we started dating, we decided we were going to take this big trip together. It really was as easy as just making the decision. So, we sacrificed indulgences, saved our money, quit our jobs, and bought one-way plane tickets.

What are your favorite destinations in the entire world?

Erinn: It’s so hard to pick a favorite place. How about the ‘Top Three’? For nostalgic reasons, a favorite was the tiny village of Nikia on the small Greek island of Nisyros. Ce’Lene’s grandfather was born in Nikia, and it’s hard to compete with the luck we had in getting to meet her grandfather’s childhood friend, see the school where her great grandfather taught, and sleep in the house her grandfather grew up in. That was the most amazing experience.

Ce’Lene: Santorini, Greece was one of our favorite destinations because we got engaged there about halfway through the trip. Besides Santorini’s natural enchantment, that sliver of the trip was magical for obvious emotional reasons, too. Aside from that, we would both agree that Barcelona was our next favorite destination. Barcelona is a beautiful beach town and there’s so much to see. We spent two weeks there and didn’t see nearly enough. We hope to go back someday soon.

Engaged?!?! I like how you snuck that little tidbit of information in there. Congrats! That’s so exciting! It must be hard to spend 24/7 with each other. How do you navigate traveling together?

Erinn: Navigating as a couple was great! We were a little nervous about how it would go, but we’ve learned that we work really well as a team. Our personalities are very similar and we both have the same level of adventurousness, so that helps. Our interests are mostly aligned, and because we’ve given ourselves a good amount of time, there’s enough time to do and see things on both our wish lists in each destination.

Okay, inquiring minds need to know… How do you guys finance long-term travel?

Ce’Lene: Well, we took several steps to finance our long-term travel goals. The first is budgeting and saving. While planning for this trip, we both worked two jobs to earn extra income and we set up a budget to determine how much we could save each month. In order to meet our goals, we cut our spending by committing to eating more home-cooked meals and taking advantage of local deals to cut our entertainment spending. For example, we ate and drank at happy hour and only once a week. There was definite sacrifice.

Erinn: The second step was doing lots of research on each destination so that we could be aware of ways to save money in those cities. We made ourselves a list of destinations and a rough outline for our travels. Then, we researched Groupon-like websites, researched cost of living and familiarized ourselves with all methods of transportation in each destination to find the best deals. This may have been overkill, but it really helped considering we went to so many different cities. Using websites like Airbnb for accommodation made a huge difference. Being a couple, it didn’t always make sense for us to stay in a hostel, where we would pay per person instead of per bed. Renting hotel rooms would have been too expensive to do every night for long-term of travel, so staying in Airbnb accommodations saved us lots of money. We’ve been in a couple of interesting situations, but that’s the gamble you take. Stay tuned for more budget travel tips on our website, too. One more thing to note is that Ce’Lene is a social media marketer for small businesses. Though she only has one client currently, it’s been enough to let us occasionally treat ourselves, because penny-pinching for long-term travel isn’t always fun.

Have you guys had any unique experiences as a queer couple of color? What advice would you offer to other queer people of color interested in traveling?

Erinn: As far as this trip goes, being people of color hasn’t swayed our experiences as much as being queer. This topic is a burning issue right now as society’s view of gays is shifting greatly. Some places are more evolved in their policy than others and my piece of advice is to be yourself, but be aware of homosexuality’s social standing everywhere you go. This is reality and you have to stay aware to be safe.

It’s always a unique experience to explain to our lodging host or a new friend that we are a couple and plan to get married, but I would say that positive people almost always give us positive vibes and we’ve been lucky enough to gravitate towards positivity.

You are Youtubers, working on a challenge to post a video every single day. Do you have a favorite video you’ve created?

Erinn: Yes! We both agree that, aside from our engagement video (Day 86), our favorites are Celene’s Birthday Roadtrip in Iceland (Day 3!!!) and experiencing Bastille Day at Champs de Mar by watching the amazing firework show over the Eiffel Tower (Day 36).

What would you guys like our readers to take away from your blog? Any tips for those with a strong wanderlust?

Ce’Lene: Lately, we’ve been a lot more active on our YouTube channel than our blog, where we occasionally share things we’ve learned about each city that we thought others could benefit from. On our YouTube channel, we share our daily lives on the road. We view this video blog as a digital scrapbook and a place for community. We hope our viewers are inspired by what they see on our channel; we hope our viewers are not only inspired to travel, but are also inspired to be themselves, fight for what they believe in, and do what makes them happy.

Erinn: The best advice I can give for people with wanderlust is ‘Now is Always the Time.’ There’s no time like the present. Of course, planning needs to come into play if you don’t yet have a savings, but it can be done! You really have to just commit to it. We bought a one-way ticket six months before our departure date and started nailing down our plans. Upon leaving, we felt we had a good plan for being abroad, followed by a good plan for re-entering the US. We quit our jobs and left for an indefinite amount of time. There’s so much to gain from stepping outside of your comfort zone and exploring other parts of the world.

Want to learn more about Erinn and Ce’Lene? Follow them!

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