The Story of Explore Now

Brad, Rebecca and Kaiya

We are addicted to travel. Between the 3 of us, we have been to over 45+ countries and had over 5+ years experience of long term travel and living abroad. Travel enriches our lives like nothing else!

We met in Sydney in 2001, after American Bex had been living in London for 3 months and traveling through India and SE Asia for 5 months. Only a few months after we met, we embarked on a 2-month 4WD/SUV adventure around Australia, camping every night in the outback. We realised that if we could handle those conditions with no fighting or complaints, then we could do anything together. 🙂

Our next big adventure was 2 years living together in Japan, followed by the birth of the original Explore Now website, which allowed us to travel around the world for over a year! That first travel website business allowed us to travel in a way we never could on our own, as we bartered for accommodation, food and amazing tourism experiences.

Brad, Bex and Kaiya Rasmus in Athens, Greece

The Original Explore Now.net

ExploreNow.net was a unique website idea that worked extremely well and allowed us to experience ‘Travel and Adventure from Budget to 5 Star’.  Bex was the writer, Brad the photographer and web-builder. Together we marketed ourselves as 2 of the first ‘travel bloggers’ long before blogs, trip advisors or social media sites were on the internet. One of the main goals of the website was to provide what guidebooks couldn’t: details of our experiences with the accommodation and tour companies, including lots of photos, and the ability for companies to update their information immediately.  In exchange for our services, companies around the world provided complimentary accommodation, attractions and meals. In addition to allowing us to travel like never before, Explore Now.net also helped us live our legacy of motivating others to live a healthier, happier, more fulfulling life, by encouraging people to discover new places and ways of living.

ExploreNow.net Website Homepage – 2004

ExploreNow.net Website Travel Route 2004-2005

The Seven Year Itch

After over a year of constant travel with ExploreNow.net, we were ready to ‘settle down’ for awhile, so we put down roots in Sydney, got married and had our daughter Kaiya. Fortunately, we never got the “7 year itch” as a couple, but after 7 years staying in one place, we definitely got the itch to travel again. So we starting dreaming again, talking about our travel desires, and working together to figure out our next adventure. This time there was a bit of fear to overcome – How would we travel witha 5 year old? How would we afford it? How would we leave our established home and career? However, we also had learned a lot more tools and strategies! And so we planned our 7-month family mini-retirement (why wait until you’re too old?!).

Explore Now Resurrected

During our 7-month family trip in Europe and Mexico, we wished we’d had 5 pesos for every time someone back home or on Facebook asked us how we managed to ‘live the dream’ for a whole 7 months, and with our kid, nonetheless!

How were we affording it? Were we working as we traveled? What did we do with our stuff and apartment back in Sydney? What about Brad’s clients and career? How was our daughter managing all the travel and changes? Was it safe to travel in certain places with a child?

Brad started to realise that these questions actually were worth more than a few pesos. Our travel experiences are priceless to us, and so giving people the answers to these questions to help them to realise such a dream for themselves would be incredibly valuable for everyone.

And so exactly 10 years after the inception of our original travel website, we resurrected Explore Now, this time to show YOU how you too can enjoy extended travel, on your own, with your partner, or even with your family.

We hope you…