HOW WINNING A TRAVEL COMPETITION CAN CHANGE YOUR LIFE

Hey, we're Stephen and Jess and if this is the first time you have ever stumbled upon our blog, we wanted to introduce ourselves and say thanks for stopping by. We are an Australian couple who quit our jobs just over four years ago, packed our bags, and jumped on a plane with a one-way ticket to the USA.

Back in 2015, our dream was to travel the world for an entire year... But that dream not only became a reality – our one-year goal has actually turned into almost five years of continuous travel.

"How?” you ask? How did we turn our 9-to-5 primary school teaching jobs into travelling for a living full-time?

Well, the short answer is a whole lot of determination, perseverance and sleepless nights; having the guts to say goodbye to our entire life savings; and dedicating our time and energy to film, edit and upload over 1,000 travel videos to YouTube. Plus, our dream of travelling full-time also received a little boost at the beginning of our adventure when we needed it the most - we were crowned the 2015 winners of Cover-More Travel Insurance's global travel competition, which launched us into the public eye.

Let's take a moment to rewind to the summer of 2015 to paint of picture of just how this competition provided the ultimate pick-me-up…

We had been on the road for almost six months, money was running low (and I mean really low!), and our goal of one year of full-time travel was slowly diminishing quicker than our savings account.

Thankfully, our hopes of achieving our dream were still extremely high, but our approach to travelling required a change in order for us to survive. So, we both decided we would need to settle down somewhere for a little while and get part time jobs to keep our stomachs full and our dream alive. We chose Vancouver as our base and soon set off to find work. Stephen re-opened his online marketing business and Jess headed to a local shop to pick up some cashier shifts.

During this time, we were still making travel vlogs around Canada’s west coast, working on our blog and practicing our camera skills. A couple of weeks went by before a friend we’d initially met online told us about a video competition she thought we would be perfect for. We looked it up and saw the winning prize was just what we needed - thousands of dollars!

To enter, all we had to do was share our travel adventures – and we had lots! – so we jumped at the opportunity and entered our travel video into the competition.

Much to our biggest surprise, -  we WON!

We were in complete shock. Of course, we’d hoped we’d win, but we never thought it would actually happen!

As a direct result of winning Cover-More’s travel competition, we were able to use the winnings to continue travelling full-time and focus on creating travel content that would end up shaping our YouTube channel into what it is today.

Thanks to the cash injection, we both quit our jobs in Vancouver and started travelling again for the next six months. We went through Central America, Europe and Africa, and finally met our goal of travelling for 365 days – a massive accomplishment for both of us!

Since then, the content we have filmed, the people we have met, and the tourism boards, hotels and tour companies who have seen our work and believed in our unique ways of storytelling have helped us get to where we are today. We are now full-time travel journalists with over 1.3 million people joining us virtually on each journey we embark on.

But, we will never forget what helped kick start this dream back into gear in 2015. If we didn’t win Cover-More's travel competition all those years ago, who knows where we would be today...

Cover-More is back with a brand-new travel competition for 2019 – and we are the judges!

Wow, talk about full circle! We are so excited to announce that Cover-More is running a new global competition – #UltimateTravelTales – and we’ll be judging all the incredible entries!

This year the travel insurance provider is giving three lucky travellers the chance to win AU$5,000 each. To be in the running, all you have to do is submit your best travel memory on Instagram in either photographic, video or caption format.

We are super-excited to join Cover-More’s most active globe-trotters on the judging panel for #UltimateTravelTales and can’t wait to see your entries! So, make sure you head over to Cover-More’s Ultimate Travel Tales page for more information on how to enter.

We can still remember the exact moment when we found out we had won all those years ago – as well as how amazing it felt – and we hope you get to experience that, too. Plus, who knows where winning Cover-More’s competition could take you?!

Good luck! xx