Gang interview: Vagabond3
As part of our Gang Of Travelers survey, discover our favorite American (group) travel bloggers Vagabond3!
- Soundtrack of the report
- Somebody Told Me
- The Killers
When we started planning this survey we immediately had our twitter friends from Vagabond3 in mind. We always enjoy tweeting with them during #TNI and when we miss it we can always find the best tweets of the night on their great recap the next day! We are very pleased that they accepted to be featured here and answered our questions. Discover this awesome gang of travelers (and follow them on Twitter)!
This article is part of the Gangs of Travelers survey. Read all the other articles here!
Identity of the gang
Name of the gang? Vagabond3
Members? Bob’s specialty is video, Jade’s specialty is trip planning, and Rob’s specialty is that he wins a lot of things on Twitter!
Established since? We started Vagabond3 in January 2010 after winning a RTW trip on VAustralia and Virgin airlines with the 4320SYD contest. Currently we live in Los Angeles, but are constantly traveling around the US and have plans for trips to Mexico, Vancouver, and the UK coming up this summer.
Hometown/base? LA
Age of younger and older gang members? We are all 28 years old, but Bob is the oldest and Rob is the youngest.
Quote for the gang? Our favorite quote would be, “Briani it” It’s basically a term we came up with for thinking positive and believing things will turn for the good of the group.
Song(s) of the gang? We love The Killers because they are perfect for long road trips where everyone can sing along and immediately pumps energy into us. It’s best if you turn the music up really loud and everyone sings the loudest they can!
Destinations (and number of trips)? We have traveled to Australia, Hong Kong, Tokyo, Beijing, Mt. Fuji, Kangaroo Island, all over Europe and the United States, the UK, Iceland, Belize, Mexico, Bahamas, Puerto Rico, Hawaii, and The Virgin Islands.
Main travel activities? We are doers, adventure seekers and theatre lovers. We will always climb or hike a mountain if we can, snorkeling anywhere the water is clear enough, and even if we can’t understand the language- we love to see local theatre or live shows.
Questions
Best thing about travelling with the gang? Worst thing?
The best thing- We all compliment each other so well and I think that goes from years of knowing, living and traveling together. If one person needs there space or is feeling out of it, the other two always know how to pick the other one up. We are all really funny (at least we think so) and it’s always great to be able to laugh at yourself and each other to calm any tension.
The worst thing- There are only 3 people in our gang and it makes it hard when finding hotels or hostels that cater to only 3, usually they do for 4. Financially it would be great if there were 4 of us to even out the money some, but that’s about it.
How do you prepare your trips? Who’s in charge of that?
For our RTW trip, we each made a list of our “must see” places and then combined the list. Some of them overlapped and others were specific to only one person. Then we plotted them out on a map, how easy it was to get to, how expensive, what activities we would do in each city, narrowed them down and made a final list. We still have a similar approach- we try to take everything into consideration while allowing for some excitement and exploration. Jade is really great at trip-planning and research, but I would add that all of us try to have our input so that it feels like a group trip, not a trip that one person created and the other two are just along for the ride.
What would be the ideal trip of the gang?
Our ideal trip would be one to the Galapagos Islands and a trip to Antarctica (can we say private plane and boat needed?!!) We love animals and I think this would be the ultimate combo of fun sea life and contrasting temps!
Best travel memories?
I think the best memories are when things didn’t go as planned. Trying to get to The Great Wall of China on our own without a tour company tested all three of us. Snorkeling the Great Barrier Reef and swimming right above a sea turtle and a shark- pretty thrilling.
Next trips of the gang?
We are headed to Mexico for a week of surfing and exploring and then in June we are heading up to Canada for a 5 day road trip. We are really excited about both of these trips because we haven’t been to either area before!
