- From Short Trips to Traveling the World & Living Abroad -

About Me

Spend Life Traveling by Sanne Wesselman

Thank You for Visiting Spend Life Traveling!

My name is Sanne and I was born and raised in The Netherlands.

I started this website to be able to share some of my experiences traveling the world and living as a digital nomad and expat.

I first moved abroad in 2002, when I spent a summer working in Moraira, Spain.

That experience changed me. It showed me there is a big world out there to explore and that life isn’t necessarily ‘just the way it is’.

Pondering life at a beach in Sri Lanka
Pondering life at a beach in Sri Lanka

I strongly believe we (we, the ones privileged enough to be born in freedom and relative wealth) create our own lives and our own happiness.

And that makes me feel obliged to make the most of my life. By now, more than 20 years after I first moved abroad, I have found jobs abroad, volunteer opportunities abroad, and ways to travel all over the world.

Most recently I bought a catamaran (instead of settling down somewhere), sailed across the Atlantic, and am now enjoying the ups and downs of life on a boat, which you can read more about here.

Am I rich or do I have someone else paying for my lifestyle?

No, I choose to live a relatively simple life. I don’t own much and I do a lot of research to get good deals on flights and accommodation.

I have spent hours at airports waiting for my cheap flight with a crappy connection and have stayed at places with leaking roofs and cockroaches.

But I have also stayed in some of the most amazing luxury resorts, sailed on beautiful yachts, visited exclusive restaurants, and spent the night on an uninhabited tropical island once.

Traveling is the ultimate drug. The more experiences you have, the more addictive it becomes.

I have flown an airplane, been parasailing behind a car in India, and paragliding off a cliff in Goa. I have been diving all over the world. I’ve had the opportunity to volunteer at an NGO in Mauritius working with dolphins every day. I taught English to kids in a slum school in India and I fed spider monkeys in Guatemala.

And yes, all of that makes me feel alive. I have stepped out of my comfort zone. I have seen the world: good and bad. I have learnt from every experience and hope to continue doing so for a long time to come.

my life spent traveling around the world & living abroad

About Spend Life Traveling

On this website I share information about the places I visit and try to give tips and recommendations that are both useful to travelers and to expats.

I also share guest posts from a select number of experienced travelers all over the world. But, I only allow articles about places or travel-related topics they are experts on to make sure you will find only honest, in-depth information on this website. And I interview expats about their life abroad.

If I would have to describe in one sentence what you can find on this website then it’s this:

The Good, the Bad & the Ugly About Traveling and Living Abroad

I love to write about my travels, my sometimes amazing and sometimes horrible experiences abroad.

But in an online world where beautiful pictures of too-perfect-to-be-true destinations seem to be the norm, I find it important to show you both sides: the good and the bad. Whether that’s as simple as places to visit and places to avoid in a city, or more serious information such as the downsides of living in certain places.

I hope that you’ll find the articles on this website useful and can appreciate my sometimes brutal honesty!

Some of My Articles & Interviews on Other Platforms

The first time I was asked to write a travel article in English was for W Retreat & Spa Maldives, one of the best resorts in the Maldives.

They invited me to be present at their Chinese New Year celebration in February 2013 and to review their resort. It was a great experience in an amazing resort. And it marked the start of me sharing my travel experiences in English.

Also check out:

And, something I am very proud of: a detailed interview about my life traveling the world was included in a book! Find out more about this book on Amazon.

And then there was that time when a newspaper in Finland interviewed me about my life as a digital nomad and travel blogger.

Ask Me Anything!

If there is anything specific you would like to know more about, if you have information about one of the destinations I have visited that you would like to share with the world through my website or social media, or if you would like to discuss any type of collaboration, please contact me by e-mail: info@spendlifetraveling.com

Or if you would like to collaborate with Spend Life Traveling, please check the Work With Me page.

I hope you find some useful information on this website and enjoy exploring our planet as much as I do!

Dutch Travel Stuff

For years I kept a blog about my travels in Dutch. I have written about my amazing experiences in different countries, about the problems I faced, and about the countries themselves and the problems they faced.

I now try to do a similar thing on this website but include more general information about travel destinations and about life as a traveler and an expat.

For information about what I have written and the publications I have contributed to in Dutch please click here.