Living The Dream: Be Happy Where You Are In The World

Cailin is a video blogger. How cool is that? Back in 2009 she filmed the big La Tomatina festival in Spain and has never looked back. For her Living The Dream is being happy where ever you are in the world.

Cailin O'Neil

What was the first country you visited? Who with and why did you choose it?

Growing up my mother worked for an airline so as a family we were always traveling somewhere in North America. The first country that I ever visited outside of Canada was then of course the US. I was probably 4 or 5 and I'm guessing it was a family vacation to Florida as that was always a popular spot for my family to visit.

When did you start a travel lifestyle? What inspired that change?

In University I took my first trip to Europe and did a 21 day tour of France. Following graduation I began working full time in the Film and TV industry but as a freelancer I often would have months off in between jobs. Having had a small taste of France I wanted to go back and see more of Europe. In December 2007 I took a Contiki tour around about 8 countries in 14 days and I was hooked. For the next 2 years I traveled whenever I could and finally in 2009 I decided to film my own travel TV series and I took a camera man with me to Spain for the big La Tomatina (tomato fight) festival. To promote my show and youtube channel I created my blog and social media channels and the rest is history!

Do you have a base you travel from? Or is it continuous travel? And why do you choose that style?

I base myself out of Halifax, Nova Scotia at the moment as it is where I was born and raised and is where most of my friends and family still are today. I actually have never traveled continuously longer than 6 weeks at any given time. When I started traveling I didn't save up for a big long endless epic journey, I just went with the money I had and traveled a bit here and there. I'm a bit of a homebody oddly enough so I crave sleeping in my own bed once and a while so doing a bunch of trips instead of one huge one works just great for me.

How do you fund your travel lifestyle? Is it something you do when travelling or are you a saver?

I pretty much save all of the money that I make from freelancing, sponsorships, partnerships, affiliates and film and TV work just to travel. From time to time I will stay in a hostel to save money but I tend to not penny pinch on experiences as I'd prefer to enjoy the whole thing rather than a cheaper version of something. When I run out of money I come home and build my bank account back up again for the next trip.

If you could tell yourself one tip before you started your travel lifestyle, what would it be?

Probably save money better and take every opportunity that comes your way. Also hostels aren't scary!

What does "Living The Dream" mean to you?

Living the Dream to me is living your life and waking up with a smile on your face every day being happy with where you are in the world and what you are doing. Nobody's life is perfect but if you are following the path you desire then most likely you are living the dream, your dream.

You can find Cailin here -

Website: Travel Yourself

Facebook:Travel Yourself

Twitter:  @CailinONeil 

Travel Yourself is a TV show about just that, traveling by yourself.