Travelling Around World in an Old Van on £5.50 a Day

Travel bloggers Karol Lewandowski and Aleksandra Slusarczyk from Poland, have visited more than 50 countries on five continents since their journey began six years ago

The 27-year-olds have managed to keep their costs low because they don’t have to pay for hotels or hostels, they look for cheap buys at the supermarket and they have been helped by sponsors and friendly strangers.

Lewandowski and Slusarczyk have become popular bloggers in Poland and authors thanks to their travels to places such as Australia, the US, Mexico, Morocco and many countries in Europe as part of a project called Busem Przez Swiat, which means ‘bus around the world’ in English. With more than 90,000 miles behind them, they have had many memorable moments – from the time they visited a kangaroo orphanage in the sweltering heat at Coober Pedy, Australia, to the day spent in Iceland’s hot springs while the outside temperature was zero degrees. Along the way they got engaged and slept under the stars in the Sahara Desert, toured the Ukrainian city of Pripyat, which was abandoned after the Chernobyl nuclear disaster, spotted whales in New Zealand and visited the casinos of Las Vegas.

Lewandowski said people in Poland told him he was crazy for wanting to go on such a journey, but he and Slusarczyk weren’t deterred.
He said: ‘It was very simple – we just wanted to travel, we felt the inner need so we started to do it. In Poland, travelling is not very popular because everybody thinks that you must have a lot of money to travel. Our blog and books show that is not true. Our lives have become a journey. Every day we wake up in the morning feeling free and happy. Now we believe in that you do not need much money to start traveling and fulfil your dreams. Now we know that each of our dreams can become a reality.’

The couple has returned to Poland to take a break and finish its third book, but is planning to hit the road again and visit its sixth continent – South America.
Lewandowski said: ‘We want to drive with our van through three Americas – from Tierra del Fuego [South America’s southernmost tip] to Alaska. But the plans may change because very often they change, depending on who we meet and how we like the place where we are.
‘Work does not stop us because we are digital nomads. And this freedom is the best thing in our travels and our lives.’