This couple travels the world full time. Here’s what it costs — and how they pay for it

Ernestus Tyminas felt “stuck” in his role as marketing manager at a newspaper in Colorado Springs, Colorado.

So he requested a two-month vacation to backpack through Asia, he said, landing in Beijing in January 2019.

“The first day … I meet this,” he said, pointing to Darina Karpitskaya, sitting next to him.

The couple, speaking to CNBC via video from Dubai, said that they met through travel app Couchsurfing, which connects solo travelers together. Karpitskaya, 31, and a flight attendant at the time were held in Beijing for two days due to mechanical problems on her return flight.

Although more solo travelers agreed to meet that day, the only two who appeared were Tyminas and Karpitskaya.

After being together for a day, they made plans to meet again in Asia a month later.

Tyminas, 29, said Karpitskaya returned to Asia, and the couple’s second date was “a month of insane adventures” traveling to Singapore, Thailand and the Philippines.

It was in the Philippines, he said, that he decided he was not going back to his old life.

“We … were lying on the beach under the stars,” he said. “We were starting to dream about this lifestyle.”

After returning to Colorado, Tyminas quit his job, sold his belongings and moved to Europe, he said.

Karpitskaya was not there yet, saying, “At first it seemed like: Oh my god, you’re quitting your job. You’re leaving America. Maybe it’s too early. But at the same time, when I came back That journey made me feel like I was living a life I was not enjoying.”

Tyminas flew from Denver to Paris with his dog—an 82-pound Borzoi, once known as the “Russian Wolfhound,” named Cosmo, who stood over 6 feet tall on his hind legs Is.

“They gave me three rows of seats, and the dog was lying on the floor,” he said.

From there, the couple often traveled to places like Italy and Iceland, but were not yet full-time, he said.

Then Karpitskaya got what she called her “dream job” – a position with Emirates Airline. She moved to Dubai, but the two continued to mingle.

Then Kovid struck, and Karpitskaya accepted four months of unpaid leave from her job.

“We said: We have four months – we can go find out whatever is open,” Tyminas said.

All three — including the Cosmo, who traveled in a giant bed in the back of their SUV — first traveled to Croatia, then gradually to much of Europe, including several former Soviet states, Karpitskaya said.

She never returned to her job and the couple has been traveling since then, she said.

Tyminas said that initially, he spent between $1,000 and $2,000 a month — all from savings — living in cheap accommodation, cooking at home and looking for free activities.

As money began to dry up, Tyminas took on a number of online jobs that cost between $2,000 and $3,000 a month, not far from his $3,300 salary in Colorado, he said.

But the work was cumbersome, and “it felt like I still had a job,” he said.

So the couple decided to open a marketing and graphic design company, despite the fact that “we didn’t know much,” Tyminas said.

They reach out to thousands of people, he said, often working late into the night. Potential customers will ask, “Can you design a book cover?” “Can you promote the music?” Tyminas said his response was always the same, “Of course I can.”

In fact, he was learning on the job, he said, relying on YouTube, Google and online research. But the customers were very happy, he said.

“They paid me half of what other marketing agencies paid and the results, he said, were better than before,” Tyminas said.

He said the couple made $6,000 in the first month. Now, sometimes they make several thousand dollars a day working with real estate companies and music labels, he said.

“We blog for people — we do everything,” Tyminas said. As well as “We don’t have to report anyone. We are our own bosses.”

Over the past six months, the couple said they spent an average of $4,000 a month. More than half go into housing, which varies by location – from $3,100 a month in Dubai to $1,500 in Lisbon, Portugal, he said. They tend to stay for more than a week in expensive places like Switzerland, he said.

One way to save money, Tyminas said, is by booking a month-long stay on Airbnb, which cuts average nightly rates and lowers service and cleaning fees. But when they jumped from place to place to visit Europe’s Christmas markets last year, they still paid about $2,500 that month, he said.

Karpitskaya said she didn’t want these costs to scare people because they spent very little in the beginning. At the time, they spent about 80-100% of their income, but now “we spend about 30% and save the rest,” Tyminas said.

The couple told CNBC that they still travel modestly — no five-star hotels — and that they still cook most of their meals at home. But they spend more on the activities they film for their YouTube channel Dream Team Travels — another “completely self-taught” venture, he said.

He said that a life of constant travel is not fun and games.

They encounter crappy Airbnbs and hosts who cancel reservations at the last minute. His camera equipment and clothing have been stolen twice – once in Mexico, and most recently in France – as well as an attempted theft of his belongings from his car in Barcelona while he was sitting in it.

Tyminas said that while he really loves the beaches of Portugal or a place like the French Riviera, he has even thought about settling down.

“But then… we drive somewhere else and this place is as good as we are,” he said.

When Russia invaded Ukraine, quickly capturing the Kherson region where Karpitskaya’s parents live, Tyminas emailed CNBC to say they would stop traveling for a while.

“We didn’t even leave our apartment in the first few weeks,” he said. “We spent a great deal of time arranging for transportation to take many dogs out of dangerous areas to civilians as well as from shelters for adoption in Europe.”

By the summer, he had resumed traveling, but was still helping to evacuate Karpitskaya’s family.

“Just a week ago we were finally able to get Darina’s parents out of Ukraine,” Tyminas said, adding that they are currently at their family home in Lithuania. “We also traveled to Romania to pick up Darina’s sister and her five-month-old baby across the border and take her to live in Germany.”

The couple are now in Malaysia, he said, and plan to explore Southeast Asia for the next two months.