Hi, we’re Dan and Beck!
First of all, thanks so much for stopping by to find out more about us and our story. You may be wondering, ‘Who are these two people behind Travel Made Me Do It?’
Long story short, we’re an international couple (Dan’s an Aussie from Sydney and Beck’s a Brit from Manchester), who met travelling in 2018, and married and launched Travel Made Me Do It in 2020.
Well, that’s the bite-size version! If you want to find out a little bit more about how we met, why we started a travel blog and how we help our readers travel the world, please read on – we promise it’s all a decent tale!
Would you believe that our story begins in the Arctic Circle? That’s right! Of all places, we were lucky to meet each other in Lofoten, Norway, in 2018. We were both on separate trips and casually got chatting on a speed boat that was taking us to a deserted island called Bunes Beach. The next evening, we met together at Unstad Beach to watch the midnight sun!
Afterwards, we stayed in touch and met up a couple of months later on the Amalfi Coast, where our relationship began. Little did we know, we would start a travel blog together just a couple of years later!
Anyway, back to our story. We were both living in London in 2019 and taking plenty of shorter trips around the UK and to Europe. We both shared a passion for travelling, hiking and exploring the great outdoors.
With a desire to travel further afield, we decided to quit our jobs (Dan was a physiotherapist and Beck was a visual merchandiser) and travel nine months around South America and Central America in early 2020. Of course, we know how that played out! Because of the COVID-19 pandemic, two months into our trip, we had to book emergency flights from Bolivia to Sydney.
So, the dream trip together was over, just like that. Given the pandemic and visa situation, we were unable to work our usual jobs and were cooped up inside with not a whole lot to do. So, naturally, we started a travel blog! If we couldn’t travel, we could write about it instead!
For the remainder of 2020, we were fortunate to be able to do trips around New South Wales and Victoria and write travel guides about these destinations. In the midst of the pandemic, we also got married at Caves Beach.
Admittedly, with a lack of direction and know-how in 2020, we found the travel blog difficult to manage. Upon returning to the UK in late 2020 to live in Manchester, we decided to put blogging on hold and found ourselves some other jobs.
For much of 2021, Travel Made Me Do It was just ticking along with the odd post written. With the pandemic fading and a strong craving to finish the trip that we had set off to do in 2020, we once again quit our jobs in late 2021 and headed back to Central and South America.
With a renewed vision, we dedicated more time to writing travel guides about Central and South America in 2022. This was the year the blog gained momentum and it was the turning point for Travel Made Me Do It.
Since then, we haven’t looked back! With a love for hiking, and especially speed hiking, we collectively became known as the ‘Speed Hiking Couple’. Currently, we’re based in Manchester and continuing to explore more of the UK, Australia and Europe.
There you have it – that’s our story! Anyway, enough about us! Travel Made Me Do It is all about helping you explore the most beautiful destinations in the world. We share our experiences hiking and exploring naturally stunning places to help you do the same!
Of course, there are thousands of travel blogs out there. So, what makes Travel Made Me Do It different? We can think of a few reasons…
- We’re authentic: every single travel guide is personally written by us and based on our own experiences. We don’t accept guest posts and never write about places we haven’t been to.
- We’re comprehensive: our guides are particularly detailed and informative, so you can bookmark our posts and use them as information resources.
- We focus on outdoor adventures: whether it’s hiking up mountains, chasing waterfalls, exploring caves or beach hopping, our content focuses on experiencing natural spaces and reaping the health benefits of being both active and outdoors.
- We live in the real world: we understand that not everyone can quit their jobs to travel. We’re not preaching the blogging life. These days, we live at home in Manchester and take shorter trips around the globe. Our guides can be used by anyone, anywhere, for whatever type of trip!
- We’re responsible travellers: at the end of the day, travel is a luxury. We practice what we preach in trying to be considerate and sustainable travellers, respecting the people and places we visit.
We pour our heart and soul into this travel blog to inspire and help you to travel to spectacular places. We’re not that into social media, so we’re not very active on those platforms. Certainly, you’ll find our hard work and time is spent on this blog. Truth be told, in such a competitive industry, making a living from blogging isn’t easy.
Truly, we’re so grateful for every reader, who uses our posts to help plan their trips. The content on this website is FREE for everyone. With that said, the best way for you to support us is by using our referral links to book your accommodation, tours, flights, travel insurance, car hire, etc.
When making a purchase through one of our links, we earn a small commission at no extra cost to you. Although the commissions are small, they are a huge help for us to keep the site up and running.
Otherwise, you can show us some love and buy us a coffee via our Ko-Fi page.
So, what now?
Why not read one of our latest guides and get a taste of the adventure that awaits you? You could also head to our Travel Resources page to find the best deals when it comes to booking your trip. Otherwise, we recommend checking out our Gear page for advice on the best gear to travel with.
Either way, thanks for reading and happy travels!
A Little More About Dan and Beck
Here’s a little snapshot of our travel and career backgrounds. Thanks for taking the time to read this section and in doing so, getting to know us a bit better. It’s also to help the search engines know that we’re real people and not AI robots!
Daniel (Dan) Piggott
Co-Founder, Principal Videographer
G’day! After exploring nearly every state and territory in Australia (that’s where I was born and raised), my first international adventures were to Thailand and Vanuatu.
In 2013, during my last year of studying my physio degree, I spent a month travelling Europe and absolutely loved it. A thirst for more international travel was starting to brew! Once I returned from Europe and graduated, I began the 9 to 5 grind, working as a physio.
In 2016, during and in between physio jobs in Sydney, I spent 6 weeks travelling South America and nearly a month along the US West Coast.
After working as a physio in Sydney for around 5 years, I quit my job, packed my bag and began travelling the world solo in 2017. I travelled throughout New Zealand, Nepal, South East Asia and Europe for 9 months.
I then began working in London as a physio in 2018. From London, my wife-to-be (Beck, of course) and I spent the next 18 months hopping around Europe.
Between 2020 and 2022, Beck and I spent 9 months travelling and hiking in South and Central America. During this time, my now-wife Beck and I, began creating travel content, founding Travel Made Me Do It. At the same time, working as a medical writer accelerated my writing expertise.
Since 2020, I have called Manchester home (this is where Beck is from). And, since 2022, I have continued working as a physio and also as a content creator.
In the most recent years, Beck and I have continued to explore the UK, Europe and North Africa as well as occasional trips back to the Land Down Under.
To date, I have travelled to nearly 80 countries. I’ve literally spent years on the road backpacking, travelling and hiking.
The blog posts that I’ve written on this website come from first hand experience. As a professional writer and long-time traveller, I hope my travel guides help bring life to the wonderful destinations I’ve explored to inspire your next adventures.
If you want to learn more about me, feel free to check out my LinkedIn or personal Instagram. Or, to check out some of my other travel content, hit up my We Are Explorers author page.
Rebekah (Beck) Piggott
Co-Founder, Principal Photographer
Hi! Beck here. Believe it or not, the travel bug didn’t actually bite me until my mid twenties.
But, after a throw-caution-to-the-wind 2 week trip to Thailand and Cambodia with my twin sister, let’s just say the rest is history.
As it was, I was already juggling a full-time job as a visual merchandiser in the UK, which involved plenty of travel in itself. Working for a famous British fashion retailer for over 10 years, I travelled the length and breadth of the UK.
When I wasn’t travelling for work, I’d use my time off for weekend trips around Europe and take weeks off further afield.
Before meeting Dan, a 3 week trip around New Zealand was the longest adventure I’d been on.
Of course, I’m now fortunate to have experienced 2 long term trips around Central and South America!
After meeting Dan in the most serendipitous of moments, we quickly realised our shared love of travel and hiking.
And so, the adventures ramped up, with it quickly becoming a running joke amongst colleagues and friends that we never sat still.
Over the last few years, we’ve visited over 40 countries together.
Along the way, I’ve experienced some of the greatest adventures, many of which I’ve been able to document here, in this blog.
Throughout all my travels, I’ve always valued the first hand perspective of other travellers for their honest thoughts and experiences.
My hope is that you guys find the same in the posts I’ve written here.
For a little more about me, here’s my LinkedIn.