Travel Creator Spotlight: Passports and Polyglots

Meet Colleen and Xander of Passports & Polyglots. Discover how they traveled to over 28 countries on a student budget and their top travel recommendations and tips for exploring the world without breaking the bank!

Liv Coning

Marketing Lead

Travel Creator Spotlight: Passports and Polyglots

Jul 11 2024

They’ve traveled to over 28 countries on a student budget.

Colleen & Xander of Passports & Polyglots

Meet Colleen and Xander—also known as Passports & Polyglots. They’re Thatch travel creators and avid explorers who are currently living and studying in Abu Dhabi, UAE. In the past two years, they’ve traveled to over 28 countries together.

The most impressive part? They’ve done it all on a student budget.

When they’re not traveling, you’ll find them studying languages. They can speak 5 between the two of them!

Favorite Destination:

It’s hard for us to decide between Argentina and Oman!

We studied abroad together in Argentina and spent a lot of time exploring the country all the way from the southern city, Ushuaia, to the north in Salta. The country is so diverse, has every type of nature, a fun capital city, and amazingly hospitable and friendly people.

Oman is a place we keep coming back to: for the beautiful nature, an interesting culture that is a mix of Arab and Zanzibari culture/history, and extremely loving, genuine people.

Top Recommendation:

When you go to Greece, skip Mykonos and head for some of the less popular, more local islands instead.

Syros, Paros, and Tinos make for fantastic and more budget-friendly alternatives!

Travel tip you swear by:

Let your destination choose you by being open-minded and flexible.

We have the philosophy that everywhere is “on our list,” so we choose whichever flights are cheapest and work with our schedule. That way, we can prioritize our spending in a country instead of on a plane ticket.

Some of our favorite destinations, like Paraguay and Bosnia & Herzegovina, were places that we didn’t know a lot about until we visited. Keep an open mind and be flexible with the destinations and you will have an amazing experience!