What happens when you stop dreaming about the life you could be living and actually go for it? Meet Allison Bieller, one-half of the duo behind The Endless Adventure, and a travel blogger exploring the world with her husband Eric. They left their comfortable jobs, beloved cats, and an apartment in San Francisco behind to pack their lives into a suitcase. The decision led them to pursue a life fulfilling their wanderlust callings in cities all over the world, including Berlin, Milan, Castellane, Brussels, and counting. You can tag along their adventure through their travel vlogs on YouTube!
Tell us about yourself and how you found yourself on this endless adventure.
Hi! I’m Allison Bieller. I’m from a crazy, midwestern family of 9 and have been married to my high school sweetheart and partner-in-crime, Eric, for 8 years. I moved around a lot when I was younger – I’d lived in 6 different states by the time I was 15 – and I think that’s what ultimately sparked my interest in traveling.
After college, we moved to the bigger city of San Francisco to start our professional lives. After almost 6 years on the west coast, we found that despite having high paying jobs and an apartment downtown, something was still missing. We realized our lives have become predictable. We’d go to work, then happy hour, then eat dinner at home with our cats and go to bed. And it wasn’t the kind of funk we thought we could shake by moving to another city.
Traveling full time was something we’d fantasized about for years and making YouTube content is something we’ve always dabbled with. It eventually all just fell into place. We decided, why not travel and make vlogs about it?! That way it’s both exciting and creative – the things we were lacking most in our daily life. Plus, our moms would always know what we’re up to 🙂
And the Endless Adventure was born!
What was the hardest thing you had to let go in order to free yourself through traveling?
Definitely my cats! My husband and I actually spent a good bit of time trying to figure out a way to travel with them. We looked up flight costs and pet-friendly Airbnbs all over the states and Europe. Ultimately we realized it’d be far too stressful for all parties involved, so we ended up rehoming them. They now live with our friend who’s an awesome cat dad, which is really comforting! Plus he lives in an actual house, not a tiny studio like we did. So I imagine they’re having the time of their lives running from room to room and laying in all the sunbeams.
If you could give your younger self one piece of advice, what would you say?
This one’s tricky. There are so many things I’d love to tell my younger self to potentially do differently, but in the end, it all led to this part of my life where I’m literally living my dream.
I do wish that I could go back and give my younger self a dose of confidence though. I still deal with insecurities here and there, but back in middle school and high school I really held myself back. Who knows who I could have met, where I could have gone or what hobbies I could have gotten into had I just had a little more faith in myself and my abilities.
How has traveling with your husband affected your marriage? Do you ever feel the need to spend some quality time alone?
Luckily Eric and I have always had a really close relationship. Even when we weren’t traveling, we were pretty much inseparable. I think this definitely helped ease the transition from spending the majority of time together to spending all of our time together.
I will say it has been really interesting seeing pretty much every emotion, action and decision he makes on a daily basis. I feel like I understand him a lot more and at the same time I’m constantly in awe at how differently our brains work. I’m sure he’s finding my inner workings fairly entertaining as well 🙂
I don’t really ever feel the need to go off on my own. But I think having some time with your own thoughts is really important. For me, I get that when I work out and cook – both of which I do almost daily.
What is the scariest thing you’ve done and why did you do it?
Sitting on the edge of the Grand Canyon. It was such a consuming, physical fear having your legs dangle over a 5,000 foot drop.
The whole experience was beyond words. I’d seen plenty of pictures of the Grand Canyon and had just done what I thought was a pretty big hike in Big Bend, so I really didn’t expect to be taken aback as much as I was. I think that’s why I did it. It was just so amazing and epic that I wanted to take it all in and for me that meant sitting on the furthest point and really trying to process the vastness.
What was your most favorite place to visit and why?
The Gorge du Verdon in southern France has definitely been a highlight for me. It’s actually referred to as the European Grand Canyon – I guess cats and canyons are my vices! It’s not quite as grand as the one in the states – only reaching about 2,300ft at its deepest compared to 6,000ft in the states – but the Verdon river is the real star. It’s this absolutely stunning greenish blue river that snakes through the canyon. There are a few man-made lakes throughout the canyon which really show off the color of the water. I was terribly carsick during our bus ride through the canyon, but I couldn’t take my eyes off of it!!
We stayed in a little campsite in the town of Castellane which sits directly on the Verdon. It was such a perfect mesh of French culture and nature.
Tell us about the biggest lesson you’ve learned about the world through traveling.
The biggest lesson I’ve learned is that traveling is not scary. It’s exciting and frustrating and confusing, but it’s not something to be feared. Sure you want to be aware of pickpockets and try not to get screwed on prices at restaurants and markets, but that happens everywhere!
I think people have this misconception, and I had it to an extent before traveling, that the world is a big, terrifying place full of scary situations and bad people. But in reality, we’ve met all kinds of amazingly nice people from all sorts of countries and backgrounds. We’ve stayed at crappy campsites and in really nice Airbnbs. We’ve eaten really gross food and really delicious food. And you know what? We survived it all so far and had a blast!
Taking a step into the unknown is nerve-racking, but it shouldn’t keep you from experiencing the world. The experiences and realizations you have on the road will always top sitting at home and watching Netflix. And eventually, travel actually becomes just as comfortable as a stroll around your hometown.
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