Jeff’s goal is to visit all 204 countries on Earth before he is too senile to forget them all. Together with his girlfriend Marina, they run Latitude 34 Travel Blog as a source of helpful information for those who love to travel or those who simply dream of Living The Dream.

Living The Dream: Don’t Make Someone Else’s Dream Come True, Make Yours

Living The Dream Jan 16, 2014

Jeff Johns

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

Traveling has always been a part of my life. My first trip abroad was to the small island of St. Maartin in the Caribbean. My father befriended an elderly patient who was so moved by his passion for medicine, family and travel that she insisted he take his family to stay in her condo on the small island. I don't remember much from the trip other than the stark realization that I was suddenly aware of an entire world outside of my grade school classroom, sleepovers and carpool.

Marina traveled domestically while growing up but it was not until we were in Visual Journalism school together in Southern California that she traveled abroad to Chile, where we lived together for two months while shooting a documentary.

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

We have been lucky to travel quit a lot over the last few years. Together and apart we have worked on documentaries across the world which have taken us to Vietnam, India, Chile and South Africa. It wasn't until early 2013 when we realized there was never going to be the perfect time to leave it all and hit the road, so we decided to just take the leap ourselves!

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

We have lived in Phuket, Thailand for almost 9 months no and have been able to visit and work in many countries close by since our move, which has been wonderful. As visual journalists, there are stories everywhere, and we have loved telling some of the ones we have found around us. Although we plan to be based in Thailand until mid 2014, we are looking ahead to which country we would like to settle down in next. While we do not travel by backpack and change locations weekly, we do enjoy moving from country to country. We are at an exciting time in our lives where we are letting our passions for travel decide where we go to next.

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

We are both visual journalists, photographers and video editors. These skill sets allow us to work virtually wherever we can find reliable internet. We also run our travel blog, Latitude 34, full time which allows us to share our love for photography and international travel, advice and experiences.

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

Bring more money! It's a real bummer having to talk about money in regards to traveling, because shouldn't we all just be able to explore the amazing world around us without worrying about our wallets? But in reality, you can never have too much money before or during your travels, so suck it up and work an extra month or two before taking off on that amazing trip around the world. That being said, lack of money or not, we have never for a second regretted our choice to up and see the world.

What does "Living The Dream" mean to you?

Living The Dream has a unique meaning to each and every person, and to us it meant never waking up another morning regretting what we were doing with our lives. It meant not going to a job we couldn't see ourselves working at in 5 years. It meant not dreaming about future anymore, but chasing and catching it. We still have rough days, hard times and struggle like we all do, but we take pride in knowing we are at least living our lives our way, and not working toward making someone else' dreams come true.