At Mirror Lake - Yosemite National Park
At Mirror Lake – Yosemite National Park

Hi there! I’m Anne Moss, the owner of Trip Memos. Together with my husband and our two boys, we like to travel the world. We still have a life here back home though!

Do you fantasize about becoming a digital nomad?

Would you like to just leave everything behind and go into the wonderful great unknown?

Can you do that, though?

No? That’s what I thought. Neither can we. We’re in our forties. We have a family. We have commitments to keep. “Leaving everything behind” won’t work for us, just like it doesn’t work for 99% of people our age. Or more likely, 99.99%.

The good news is that we still travel A LOT and we believe you can too!

TripMemos.com is all about inspiring you to take a fresh look at the world around you, leave your comfort zone, and experience your life to the full by traveling!

Without losing track of the grand scheme of life though. Realistic traveling within a realistic frame.

Contents

How do we do that?

It’s all about priorities. We decided that creating memories is a priority for us as a family. That’s why and how we’ve managed to spend a total of more than a year and a half traveling outside the borders of our small country (Israel, as it happens).  Here’s the list –

2009 – 1 week in England + 3 weeks in the US

Sequoia & Kings National Park, April 2009

2011 – 5.5 months in the US and Canada

Hiking Athabasca Glacier, Canada, July 2011

Hiking Athabasca Glacier, Canada, July 2011

2013 – 4.5 months in the US & 10 days in England

England, May 2013

England, May 2013

2015 – 2 months in the US & 4 days in Rome

Bryce Canyon National Park, September 2015
Bryce Canyon National Park, September 2015

2016 – 6 days in the French Alps

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2017 – Europe Trips  to Paris and Berlin

We took a trip to Europe in the spring, including –

4 days in Paris
Our Trip to Paris

4 days in Berlin
Berlin trip

2017 2.5 months Grand Road Trip to Alaska!

Alaska road trip

I’m gradually adding our Alaska trip reports to this blog. You can take a peek at the Visiting Fairbanks, Alaska post or read our Our Denali Trip Report. Or see all of my Alaska posts here.

Our COVID-19 situation

International travel has taken a major hit in the pandemic. On a personal level, it meant we had to cancel our planned trip to Florida in March 2020. Everything was ready and fully booked, but three days before our flight, we decided to cancel and stay at home. We do not regret that decision. Canceling the trip was hugely disappointing, certainly. However, international travel during a pandemic is complicated at best. Had we gone through with the plan, we would have faced two weeks of isolating ourselves at home on the way back – at the very minimum.

Plus, we just really don’t want to get infected. I am 48 and my husband is 50, and that’s not a good age for catching COVID-19, so we just stay at home, practice social distancing and wear our N95 masks religiously when we go outside. We do travel locally, focusing on hiking on trails and making sure to practice social distancing there as well.

We’ll keep TripMemos running in the meantime, with more destination guides and bucket list posts. It’s good to remind ourselves that this will be over someday and we’ll get back to traveling abroad!

Why this blog?

Seeing the world through another person’s eyes can be nothing short of inspirational.

When travel is concerned it’s not just a question of perspective. When I read someone’s description of a new place I’ve never been to, I almost always get the urge to go there and see it for myself. It is literally motivational that way. It makes you “move” towards a place in what can end up to be a very “real” endeavor.

What made me launch Trip Memos? I was going through several lists of “Top Travel Blogs” and noticed that many of them were written by digital nomads. These – often young – travelers move around the globe, from one country to another, taking on temporary jobs or working online, living the moment and enjoying their discoveries.

Tempting as it may be (and it is!) there is no way we could do this ourselves.

The bottom line is, taking off for long-term travel is not feasible. Yet. My plan is to take on at least a semi-nomadic lifestyle once the kids leave home and my better half retires. That should hopefully be in about a decade and not longer. Once that happens, all bets are off and that nomadic-lifestyle may become a reality for us as well, at least for a few years.

Until then, our motto is:

Have Life – Will Travel!

We refuse to let life ground us as we patiently await retirement and vow to do all we can to travel abroad as often as possible. Ideally, I want to keep spending an average of two months of each year traveling. We believe this is a goal we can manage with our current lifestyle choices.

I hope you join us on our journey and be inspired to do the same!

If you enjoy the blog and find it helpful, I’d really appreciate it if you could use my booking.com affiliate link code to make your reservations. It won’t cost you anything to do so and Booking will pay me a small commission for that.

Here’s my booking.com affiliate link – please bookmark it for future reservations! Thank you!

I’d love to get to know the readers of this blog, so please leave me a message here and tell me about your own travel adventures, past, present, and future!

Don’t miss out on blog updates –

Technical blog stuff

We are a participant in the Amazon Services LLC Associates Program, an affiliate advertising program designed to provide a means for us to earn fees by linking to Amazon.com and affiliated sites.

Most of the content for this blog was written by me. However, we also hire researchers and writers to create some of the posts.

23 Comments

  1. What is your guest post price at  https://tripmemos.com/

    I need cheap Price. I have very small budget. But I have regular Orders.
    My article related to essay writing, seo, tech, news, law, fashion, health, business and general.  

    Waiting your good reply 
    Thanks

    • Hi Muhammad,
      We only consider high-quality travel posts by fellow travel bloggers. Even then, links to the sites will be clearly marked with re=”sponsored” as per Google’s requirements.

    • We only consider high-quality travel posts by fellow travel bloggers. Even then, links to the sites will be clearly marked with re=”sponsored” as per Google’s requirements. If you’re still interested, please leave us another comment and we’ll get back to you via email.

  2. Hi, hope you are well. I was looking for authoritative websites on the internet and came https://tripmemos.com Believe me, the content you have is of great value to the readers.

    I want to be a content contributor for your platform and am willing to pay a publication fee for it too. What I request in return is a referral link from your website.

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    • We only consider high-quality travel posts by fellow travel bloggers. Even then, links to the sites will be clearly marked with re=”sponsored” as per Google’s requirements. If you’re still interested, please leave us another comment and we’ll get back to you via email.

  3. Hi,

    This is Gel, an outreach assistant. I wanted to find out who the best person is to speak with to contribute an article on your website?

    I am looking to write an article that you can post on your blog. The article will be well-researched based on the large pool travel experts that our company has access to. In exchange, I was hoping that you could credit our online travel media site for providing the article to you. Please let me know if you would be interested?

    Thank you,

    Gel

    • Hi Gel,
      That would be me but I can just let you know here that we don’t take guest blog posts at this point. Thanks!

  4. I came across your web site when looking for Alaska trips as one of our daughters moved to Anchorage in April last year and is planning to stay there, so obviously we will be visiting. (And I love reading everything I can about Alaska, like your blog.) I have a question though. Christi is getting married the end of July outside Anchorage and one of her other sisters (in her 30’s) has the summer off so wants to drive up there. She would love to find someone to go with her, but is considering going by herself if no one else can go. We’re a little, or a lot, concerned about this idea, what do you think? Thank you so much, I hope you can give me an idea one way or the other whether this would really work well. (We’re flying up for the wedding! I’d love to go with her, but my husband is not well and I just can’t do that.) Thank you so so much.

    • Hi Anne,
      Wow, tough question. In some ways, I think driving to Alaska could be safer than driving alone through some of the states in the Lower 48. That’s to say, it would be quite safe. The only thing that makes is slightly less safe is the lack of cell-phone reception most of the way. I am sure many people, men and women, travel the route on their own but personally, I would probably prefer to have someone come with me. Sharing the driving would probably be safe too, reducing the risk for road fatigue.
      Maybe one of the other people who is coming to the wedding can share the drive with your daughter? I don’t think it’s dangerous per se, just a tad safer to do with someone to keep you company, much like any long-distance road trip, really. I hope this helps!

  5. Hello,

    I enjoyed reading your post. I am an adventurer too. I am inspired by your testimonies. God bless you for your hard work to share your adventures. How do you go for vacation a lot. You much make a lot of money so you can afford to travel all the time with your whole family. Just wondering how can I follow your steps to bring my children around the world.

    • Thank you so much for your comment, Mildred! We actually consider ourselves to be quite frugal but we’re fortunate enough to work in ways that allow us to travel, at least to some extent. My husband is a consultant who works as an independent contractor on projects. Our long trips were taken when he was “between projects”. I keep working while we travel, as I have an online business. I can get away with working 20 hours a week while we travel, which can be done early in the morning or late at night even on a day of travel (not easy! but doable!). The kids are homeschooled which really helps too, of course.
      Having said that, we still can’t become digital nomads and rely on working as we travel. I do need to put in long hours (usually 50+ a week) into my business most of the year, and my husband needs to be near his clients. We try to take a break once every 2-3 years for a couple of months of traveling, and otherwise, limit ourselves to traveling on weekends or taking short week-long trips. It all adds up though! I hope this helps 🙂

  6. Hi Anne,
    My name is Terry Taylor and I posted a comment yesterday on your site and it showed up and then it disappeared. What happened to it? I hope it isn’t lost because I was hoping for a reply from you.

    Thanks!

    • When you comment on the blog for the first time it’s held for manual approval. I usually get to checking comments and replying twice a week so it can take a couple of days for me to approve and reply. Sorry about the delay!

  7. Hi Anne! My husband and I (69 and 70) have been saving and planning for a Trip to Alaska for over 5 years for our 50th anniversary in 2020. Your blog has been amazing and the information you provided and the tips are awesome. I always like to hear it from people who actually made the trip than just to read about it in a book. We have been able to travel all over the US and Canada in our younger years with 4 children but never able to take the amount of time that your family was able to do. You and your husband must have jobs that allow you to be gone for such a long time. Are or were your boys home schooled in order to take these long trips. The more I plan it seems like we have to add more money to the trip and I am only able to get prices for 2019. We are thinking that we may need to add about 15% to maybe be able to cover the 2020 increases. I have bookmarked your blog so that I can go back and read it from time to time. Thank you so much for posting this and for the help it has provided me in planning this once of a lifetime dream trip.

    • Hi Terry,
      So glad you’re enjoying the blog! Thank you for your kind words!
      To answer your questions, yes, we homeschool the boys which makes things a whole lot more flexible. My husband is an independent consultant to various companies, so he can decide to take time off (fortunately, he’s good at what he does so there’s always work waiting for him when we get back).
      I’m sure your trip to Alaska will be amazing but yes, it can be a challenge to get good prices. I hope the post about budgeting for Alaska helps you guys cut on costs where possible.

  8. Your posts are wonderful. Finding your website is as grand as a tour. I will be in Israel this month and better for having seen your tips.
    Thank you for being there.

    • Thank you so much, Hope! Enjoy your trip to Israel and if you have any questions at all, don’t hesitate to reach me here.

  9. Loved what I have read so far on your blogs. A group of us will be in Isreal in October and this will be my first trip that is a tour. We, my husband and I have always travelled like backpackers with little reservations ahead but as we got older having some agenda made my husband more comfortable. I am looking forward to my trip but my husband will not be joining us. I have travelled almost all over the world and have dived in many places and did consider going to Elat to dive but would have been on my own. Oh well, maybe next time. Have you ever considered the West coast of Canada and maybe America. It is really great.

    • Hi Pat,
      I’m sure you’ll have a terrific time in Israel – even without diving in Eilat. Sorry to hear your husband won’t be coming along with you though.

      As for ourselves, we’ve traveled extensively in Western Canada and the US. Including a long drive to Alaska and back! We love traveling in North America. What a beautiful country and great people!

  10. Awesome start to this blog! I think everyone should take at least one trip to some place new a year. Its great to experience different cultures and see new things! Enjoy it while you can!

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