A 165 Day Round-The-World Trip With Erin Hynes
Erin Hynes travelling - photo credit Erin Hynes
Ep 151 w/ Erin Hynes (Pina Travels) - A 165 Day Round-The-World Trip - Tanzania, Travel Budgets + Travel Insurance
My latest Winging It Travel Podcast episode features Erin Hynes, also known as Pina Travels, who hosts the Curious Tourism Podcast.
Erin came on to the podcast to talk about her round-the-world trip in 2024, during which she visited countries such as Tanzania, Greece, Nepal, Sri Lanka, and more!
I was keen to get Erin back on the podcast (she is a returning guest) to hear about her trip, but I also wanted to ask some deeper questions about travel and how she views the world of travel after her trip.
Erin’s last ‘big’ trip was in 2017.
Seven years later, I was keen to see how she viewed travel from a budget perspective (post-COVID was a factor too in. my questioning), how the trip affected her own self, how travel changed, what people she met on her trip, and what it was like to travel in her thirties.
Of course, I asked these questions myself, so I was glad to respectfully compare my answers and thoughts on our trip.
In this episode, we cover many topics, and I am excited to share it with you all.
Get a coffee and sit back to hear us converse on our travels. Don’t worry—there are plenty of laughs, too. The ending of the conversation was so awkward that as soon as I pressed the ‘stop record’ button, we both cracked up laughing at how awkward it was.
Luckily, Erin and I are friends so that we can have this rapport on the microphone.
It was great seeing Erin again, as I last saw her in Toronto last summer on our road trip. I hope she is coping with the travel blues.
Let’s dive into some topics in this blog.
No, really. You should get booking those flights to Peru like Erin! If you scan the QR code below or click the QR, a link will open a new tab on Skyscanner!
Scan or click the photo to get the link
Book those flights with the link or QR code and help the Winging It Travel Podcast make a tiny commission.
Chilling out ready for the sunset in Wadi Rum, Jordan
Tanzania was epic for Erin as she saw the ‘big five’ camping in the Serengeti, and now she is booking more Africa trips.
On our travels, we all have that one place that resonates so strongly with us that it forces us to reconsider something or really explore an area of the world more in the future.
This was Tanzania for Erin.
She booked a G Adventures tour to camp for five nights in the Serengeti, where she would experience a safari and share it with others.
This trip was as much about seeing the fantastic wildlife as it was about meeting new people and making new friends.
We can all agree that when you experience something unforgettable with others, it has that special feeling and bond, and you make friends for life.
Erin stressed that she and her partner Luke wanted to be sociable during their trip, so they opted for this G Adventures trip. They fancied camping under the stars and with the hyenas.
You can tell by the way Erin describes this portion of her trip that it brought her deep happiness. She loved seeing the animals, she loved her guides, and she loved the people she was with.
She even explains that later on in the trip, she was next to a herd of elephants, which was amazing, but the group was mid-way through sharing tongue twisters from their own languages; she said it was surreal.
I actually love this story because, obviously, everyone is there to see the wildlife, but those special moments with random people where you are hysterically laughing at something are something cherished; they are rare.
Another unexpected part of the story of Tanzania is her love for Stone Town in Zanzibar. We all hear about the idyllic beaches, but Erin has 24 hours in one and has returned to the city.
I am a city person too and totally understand why she went back to the city, sometimes you need to feel alive with the culkture, the people and smell the air of a market.
Bangkok has this for me, and I am always thinking about returning. In terms of an experience like this, I always recall my first time in Luang Prabang where fifteen of us spent a day around the Elephant Waterfalls, I actually don’t remember the experience, I only remember the laughs we had before, during and after in the evening.
Special times.
Tanzania is high on my list, and my shameful fact is that I have never been to Africa as a whole. So, based on Erin’s experience, I need to go, and I need to go quickly.
What impact has this trip had on Erin?
She has already booked another trip to Africa for January, this time to Kenya. I think Erin has found a dangerous new love for the world, and I wonder if she is thinking of another ‘big’ trip to Africa.
Time will tell!
This trip was not as transformative for Erin as the last one.
The travel experience definitely changes as you get older, and what I love talking about here is that we have both been on big trips that are normally longer than a month at different times in our lives.
Sometimes, I speak to people who have only been on a big trip once, and that is fine, but essentially, that is a once-in-a-lifetime trip.
I love deep-diving into people who have been on a big trip multiple times and of different ages.
For Erin, this trip was not as transformative for many reasons compared to my recent trip, which I would say was the most transformative trip I have been on—and we are both the same age!
Erin explained that she is much more experienced, confident, and wiser when it comes to travel. She knows what she wants when traveling and how she wants to travel, and she can budget expertly.
Back in 2017, Erin was 27 and unsure of herself as a young woman, how she identified herself with travel and how her relationship would unfold.
Fast-forward to 2024, and she is married (with the same guy mentioned in 2017), has learnt a lot about travel from her blogs and podcast, is more confident, and is comfortable accepting that she will be doing these types of trips for the rest of her life. She also loves her job and knows what she likes from a career point of view.
This is so awesome to hear!
For me, it was slightly different. I was bored before my trip, burnt out from my job, had no idea what I wanted to do career-wise, hoped that the podcast would make me an income, was uncomfortable with labelling myself as a traveller for the rest of my life, and had a few more health issues to deal with during travel.
Luckily for me, this all became clearer towards the end of my trip going into 2025. I am now much more aligned with myself regarding what I want from my career, how I want to travel, what it will take to make the podcast/YouTube a full-time thing, and the acceptance of a few personal things.
I mentioned that in my twenties, finding a job, saving money, quitting, travelling until the money ran out, settling somewhere new and repeating had more clarity. It is much more defined.
Now, my thoughts are very different and arguably much more challenging as I figure the rest of my life out.
For Erin, she is ahead of my in this journey but that is OK, I love hearing this and it inspires me.
I will leave this section with a question: how much did your last big trip define or transform you?
Erin on her travels in 2024 - photo credit Erin Hynes
The importance of travel insurance and having a healthy travel budget.
When hearing stories about these kinds of trips, many people normally question how much a trip like this would cost and how much the guests had for their trip.
Luckily, we have Erin Hynes on the podcast; she is very open about sharing this information.
Herself and Luke had $40k CAD for their 165-day trip with a $20k CAD returning to Canada fund or a backup fund if you like.
Naturally, I wanted to dive in with some questions about this fund and how they found it at every place they went, so you will have to download the episode to find out the juicy details.
One part of the budget I will share with you now is flights and the unforeseen cost of flying home in an emergency.
There is a valuable lesson here: make sure you get travel insurance!
I always use SafetyWing for my travel insurance, which you can purchase here. Erin’s story is another reason why I don’t mess with travel insurance when I go away.
Erin had to fly home to Toronto for an emergency from Nepal, and the cost for both was $8000 CAD in return, which is a hefty amount from the travel budget.
Luckily, Erin’s travel insurance provider gave them half of this total cost, which softened the blow of the expense.
Why would you risk not having travel insurance?
I tied these two subjects together for this section because flights are the most costly part of your budget. I was shocked at how expensive they were for our trip last year, and I think they will get more expensive going into 2025.
There are two key lessons here: remember to purchase your travel insurance and have a healthy backup fund or travel budget so you can make those quick decisions to fly home if you need to.
Check out my latest YouTube episode in British Columbia.
Other ways to support the podcast
My Patreon for Roaming with Hammo - support me today!
Supporting the podcast can be quick, easy and free. You can visit the platform you use for listening to podcasts and leave a five-star review and a nice little comment to go hand-in-hand. Check out my podcast page here.
Alternatively, you can contribute to the podcast by using my Buy Me A Coffee page where you can buy me a nice coffee for $5 whilst I conduct the interviews or click the button below.
I imagine most people listening to the podcast and reading this article are travel enthusiasts. Another way to support the podcast is to use my affiliate links to book flights, accommodations, tours, transport, and more. Click here to use them today!
My Instagram promotion for my latest guest episode
Who is Erin Hynes?
I’m Erin, a Canadian travel writer and podcaster!
When I’m not traveling internationally or exploring Canada, I write and talk about how to travel in a way that is better for the planet and for people. Recently, my profile was featured in the Toronto Star, True North Living, and I won a Traverse Creator Award for Best Written Piece!
When I was 19 years old I moved on a whim to Venice, Italy, where I spent many months working in a hostel. It was there that I earned the nickname Pina because Erin is hard to pronounce if you speak Italian.
My travel love affair originally started at 16, when my parents sent me alone to visit family in the Netherlands. Following that I spent time living in Italy, the Netherlands, and traveled across Europe and Central America solo. To date, I have traveled to Asia, Africa, Europe, Central America, Middle East, Oceania, and across North America.
I believe that travel is an incredible way to learn not only about the world, but about yourself. But, travel is not accessible to all. Those of us who have the financial means, passport, and other benefits that allow us to travel have a responsibility to do it in a way that’s better for people and for the planet. So, I’d like this blog to not only inspire you to travel, but to do so responsibly.
On Pina Travels, you’ll find guides that cover topics like how to avoid overtourism, tips for traveling sustainably, and explanations of travel privilege. You’ll also find destination guides that include responsible travel tips! While a lot of my content is focused on my home province, Ontario, you’ll find blogs covering international destinations too.
Prefer to listen? I also host a podcast about responsible travel called Curious Tourism. You can check it out right here.
I have a community of 50,000+ on social media! Follow me on Instagram, TikTok, or YouTube:
Want to work with me? Email me at erin@pinatravels.org.
This episode is available on Spotify, Apple Podcasts, Spreaker, Audible and YouTube. And anywhere else, you get your podcasts!
Be sure to follow me on Instagram too!