Matt Kepnes
Verified Member
About
About me
HI I'm Matt, I run the award-winning budget travel site, Nomadic Matt, and wrote the New York Times best-seller: How to Travel the World on $50 a Day among other books.After a trip to Thailand in 2005, I decided to quit his job, finish my MBA, and head off into the world. My original trip was supposed to last a year. Over a decade (and nearly 100 countries) later, I'm still out roaming the world. I've scuba dived in Fiji, was a poker player in Amsterdam, taught English in Thailand, got lost in a jungle in Central America, and broke down in the middle of Australia's outback.
My writings and advice have been featured in The New York Times, CNN, The Guardian UK, Lifehacker, Budget Travel, BBC, Time, Yahoo! Finance and countless other publications. I regularly speak at travel trade and consumer shows and founded a non-profit called FLYTE, which sends students overseas to bring their classroom experience to life. I'm also the founder of the travel media school, Superstar Blogging, and of the TravelCon travel media conference.
When not traveling the world, I live in Austin.
QA
- Reason for joining
- I created this community! lol
- What is the country or city that made you fall in love with traveling?
- Thailand - meeting those five backpackers in Thailand changed my life forever.
- What's your best budget travel hack or tip?
- Travel hacking. I can't thank travel hacking enough for the amount of free flights and hotel rooms it's afforded me over the years.
- If you could travel anywhere (regardless of time and money) where would you go? Why?
- I'd like to spend 3 months in India. It’s too big and interesting to spend any less time here. I just don’t feel a short trip would do the country justice.
- What's the most surprising mode of transportation you've used?
- Hitchhiking on yachts in the Caribbean.
- When do you start packing for a trip? A month, week, day, or hour in advance!
- Trick question. I barely ever unpack.
