Welcome!
I’m Adi from Toronto, Canada and my number one passion in life has always been to travel. Another interest of mine is personal finance. So I decided to combine the two and this is how The Sum of Travel was created! I wanted to make a blog more focused on the finances of travel. I want to show everyone that travel does not have to be expensive. Also, I will share my personal experiences, useful tips and budget breakdowns of each trip. I hope by doing so, I can help you save money and influence you to travel more!
First, here is a little about me and my travels.
Growing up, my family could only afford short trips within Canada and the United States. I got first taste of travelling with my own money in 2012, when I went to Dominican Republic with my friends!
After graduating university, I got my first experience of long term travelling by backpacking Europe. My best friends and I got the EU Rail Pass and went around for a month and a half!
After the backpacking trip, I did the “normal” thing and got a job. I majored in accounting in university, so it made sense I worked as a financial analyst at a large corporation. My first couple of years working, my travels was only limited to a cruise to The Bahamas as I had to use most of my vacation days to study for the CPA designation.
After completing all the exams for the CPA designation, I was able to use my vacation days for actual travelling!
For the next couple of years, I used up whatever vacation day I had (only 3 weeks per year 🙁 ) on my travels. I was able to go on my first solo(ish) trip to Costa Rica with G Adventures, visit to Japan and South Korea, watch the 2018 FIFA World Cup in Russia, and explore around Yucatan, Mexico.
I would also take advantage of long weekends, by going to cities such as New York, Chicago, Montreal, Pittsburgh, New Orleans, and Boston.
This is also when I started “travel hacking” by aggressively collecting airline points (more on this). It was also this time, where I fell in love with travelling and it became my number one passion.
In September 2018, I made a huge decision and quit my cushy corporate job. I was fed up with the mundane tasks of working in a large organization. This was probably my quarter life crisis, and instead of buying a fancy sports, car, I went travelling!
At the time, I didn’t know how long I was going to be travelling or the places I would go. I knew that my family was heading to Indonesia for family weddings and I used that as a jumping point in my travels. I would then explore the rest of Southeast Asia.
With five months in Southeast Asia coming to a close, I saw an opportunity to extend my travels. I redeemed 110,000 Aeroplan points and turned my Southeast Asia trip to a round the world trip!
Redeeming more airline points, I was able to get on my first business class flight, flying from Bogota to Sao Paulo on LATAM.
Having to get back to reality, my year of travel came to an end. However, I haven’t decided to come home just yet. Wanting to live out my dream to work abroad, Shelly and I moved to Sydney, Australia on a Working Holiday Visa!
In 2020, the unprecedented COVID-19 pandemic cut our stay in Australia short along with our plans to travel afterwards. Luckily, we were able to travel around the East Cost of Australia.
Coming back to Toronto, Canada in the Summer of 2020, we bunkered down like everyone else. During when international travel was limited, I was able to explore more of Canada in 2021 making trips to Alberta in May , Vancouver in June, Saskatchewan in August, and Quebec in September. With the US border opening up in the autumn, I was able to visit New York City and Washington D.C.
When 2022 rolled in, COVID restrictions started to loosen up and I was able to start travelling internationally again. Working a remote job also helped with being able to explore more destinations and for longer without having to quit my job. 2022 was my revenge of two years being restricted in my travels, taking longer trips to destinations like Mexico City, London, the Middle East (Oman, UAE, Qatar) in the Spring and to Paris, Munich for Oktoberfest, Bavarian Alps, Finland and the Baltics in the autumn.
This is a neverending journey, so make sure you stay tuned by subscribing below!
STATS
COUNTRIES VISITED
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Canada & USA
- Canada
- Ontario
- Quebec
- Alberta
- British Columbia
- Newfoundland
- Nova Scotia
- New Brunswick
- Prince Edward Island
- United States of America
- New York
- Vermont
- Massachusetts
- Pennsylvania
- New Jersey
- Washington D.C
- Virginia
- Georgia
- Florida
- North Carolina
- South Carolina
- Tennessee
- Ohio
- Michigan
- Illinois
- Louisiana
- Tenneessee
