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Business Insider •

We retired early and started traveling the world. We're not planning to leave money for our 6 kids.

When I was in my 40s, if you had told me I'd be writing this from Mauritius after months of traveling across Europe, I would have laughed.

Back then, I had a more traditional view of retirement: I would work until 65, leave a nest egg for my kids, and settle into a quieter life.

But when I was 53, my husband, Nigel, and I quit our jobs in oil and gas, traded comfort for adventure, and hit the road.

To retire early and travel, we spent seven years restructuring our finances and mapping out a p...
Business Insider •

I retired early and began traveling the world with my husband. In some ways, it still feels like work.

For more than 30 years, I helped companies ranging from startups to giants such as Shell and Chevron navigate strategic change. As a consultant, I focused on guiding organizations through uncertainty — always with a servant leadership mindset.

Now, in retirement, I'm no longer the guide but the one experiencing transformation firsthand. In my field, which was mostly focused on change management, there's a saying: "Drink your own Champagne." It's about practicing what you preach—not just in busi...
Business Insider •

My doctor said my 80-hour-a-week job had been slowly killing me. Retiring early gave me my life back.

My plan had always been to retire at 65 — grind it out, climb the ladder, and finally enjoy the freedom. But plans change, especially when your body starts flashing warnings you can't ignore.

Last year, at 53, I retired early with my husband — not because we had meticulously planned every detail, but because the cost of staying in the rat race — mentally, physically, and emotionally — had become too high. Work had always been a source of pride, but it was also a source of stress and, at times,...
Business Insider •

We retired early from our jobs in oil and gas to travel. Starting over again in new places has been terrifying.

Last year, at 53, my husband and I quit our jobs in oil and gas and retired early to travel the world. Many friends assumed we were fearless — that anyone who leaves behind home, routines, and everything familiar must be chasing adventure

The truth? I'm not fearless. I'm a total scaredy-cat.

I didn't grow up traveling. We didn't hop on planes or dream about faraway places. Our family vacations were road trips to Ohio to visit relatives — reliable, predictable, safe. Most of my family still doe...
Business Insider •

We retired early to see the world — but fast travel made life feel stressful again

Plain and simple — hold the tomatoes — fast travel is exhausting.

My husband Nigel and I retired early last year to slow travel the world. We've made it a habit to stay in one place for a month. It feels long enough to unpack, exhale, and feel like we live there.

But this summer, we broke our own rules.

We planned a five-week sprint through the UK and Ireland — seven stops in quick succession, most just five days long. We started in Dorset with a brief, emotionally heavy family visit, then ma...
Travel + Leisure •

I Retired at 53 to Live in Airbnbs Around the World

For Travel + Leisure’s column Traveling As, we’re talking to travelers about what it’s like to explore the world through their unique perspectives. Burnt out from corporate America, Kelly Benthall got her finances in order and gave up her Texas lifestyle to retire at 53 and live around the world in Airbnbs with her husband, Nigel. Here’s her story… 

I was living in Texas and working in oil and gas. As time went on, and the kids left, my job became extraordinarily stressful—to the point that I...

Region-Focused "Slow Travel"

Benthall Adventures — A Slow Travel Journal. •

Medellín & Bogotá

We flew to Colombia for Demilade’s christening and were honored to return home with our friend Alison to her country. People thought we’d lost it — because for so many, “Medellín” still sparks images of the drug trade. What we found was something else entirely. Alison’s family took incredible care of us. I’m convinced she’s related to everyone in Medellín — the taxi driver, the waiter, the tour guide. A small city disguised as a sprawling one, full of warmth and connections. Say you’re going to Col...
Benthall Adventures — A Slow Travel Journal. •

Mauritius

You don’t expect to get flipped upside down in early retirement — or underwater. But Mauritius had other plans.We had just left Sevilla, where a month of tapas and late-night squares tempted us to stay forever, when winter pushed us south in search of holiday warmth. The Seychelles looked glamorous, the Maldives too expensive, the Canaries too crowded. Mauritius felt like the wild card: remote, affordable, and just far enough off the radar that it required intention to reach — a speck in the In...
Benthall Adventures — A Slow Travel Journal. •

Sevilla, Spain

Last November we lived in Sevilla — a month in a tiny apartment with a rooftop pool, across from a community center. Every evening our little square filled with life: kids kicking footballs against stone walls, parents chatting over drinks, the whole street humming with energy. We weren’t just watching a city. We were watching community in motion. We had planned to use Sevilla as a base, to take the train around Andalucía — Córdoba, Cádiz, maybe Granada — and collect highlights along the way. But...
Benthall Adventures — A Slow Travel Journal. •

Croatia

Nigel’s mum has lived an epic life — Cairo, Hong Kong, Tehran, Indonesia — but Croatia was one place she had never seen. At 88, she’s still going strong, so after visiting her at home in England, we all flew to Croatia — our very first stop after retiring.We explored up and down the coast. Wineries tucked between hillsides. Marinas glittering at sunset. Ancient towns where Roman walls still stand. Medieval marvels. Crystal water so clear it felt impossible. And waterfalls that made us stop and s...
Benthall Adventures — A Slow Travel Journal. •

Tulum, Mexico

Tulum wasn’t a vacation.It was a test.Could we live abroad for a month? Could early retirement actually work?We’d timed it with our Christmas year-end break from work. At first, it was just a holiday we extended. We even worked a bit from paradise — testing the digital nomad option before we knew whether retirement was real. Back then, both paths were still on the table.At the time, Nigel hadn’t retired yet. I’d been planning it for a decade, but he didn’t quite believe me. Tulum was our trial b...
Benthall Adventures — A Slow Travel Journal. •

Ireland

After a quick trip to Dublin, we spent a month in Ireland, and it wasn’t the Ireland of postcards or Instagram filters. It was better — and harder, and wetter, and stranger.We based ourselves in the twin towns of Killaloe and Ballina, straddling the River Shannon where it spills into Lough Derg. From there, we wandered outward in loops: Ring of Kerry, Cork and Killarney, Galway and Connemara, castles and abbeys everywhere, and finally the Dingle Peninsula — Ireland’s grand finaleKillaloe/Ballina...
Benthall Adventures — A Slow Travel Journal. •

Provence, I Think I’m in Love

We didn’t fall for Provence on day one. She’s not a show-off. She doesn’t try to impress. She waits. Lets you fumble with the language. Lets you get a little lost. And then, slowly, she seeps in. At first, I could barely order a coffee. Now? I’m speaking French, reading menus without a panic tap to Google Translate, and taking roundabouts like a local. (They make sense now. I’ve seen the light.)We wandered through towns that sound like poetry… Roussillon, Gordes, Lourmarin,...

Fast Travel (The Affair Series)

Benthall Adventures — A Slow Travel Journal. •

Series Kickoff: The Affair We Both Said Yes To

After three months in Provence — where time moved like honey and our most pressing decision was rosé or red — we’re doing something uncharacteristic.We’re moving fast.Five-day stints. Rolling bags. Pub dinners. Fewer baguettes, more boots. We’re calling it an affair — short, passionate, and slightly disorienting — with fast travel.And it started, like all good flings do, with a warm-up weekend and questionable footwear.We kicked things off with family time in Minehead for Claire’s birthday — lon...
Benthall Adventures — A Slow Travel Journal. •

My Lover, My Dear: The Cornwall Affair

Our friend Annie said it over breakfast, pouring coffee while we packed our bags to move to the next county: “I’m too young to get old.”It landed like a toast. A challenge. A gentle reminder to keep saying yes to surprise.That line wrapped itself around our five days in Cornwall — days that felt like gifts we didn’t know we needed. We arrived expecting coastal charm and left feeling a bit undone, in the best possible way.There was the day we tried to see seven beaches but only made it to four.Be...
Benthall Adventures — A Slow Travel Journal. •

The Cotswolds: The Quiet Courtship Affair

Not every love story starts with fireworks. Some begin with footpaths.Cornwall had cliffs and sea shanties — bold moves, late-night folk circles, and a hidden gourmet hut on a bluff. The Cotswolds? It played the long game. All golden stone and dry wit. The kind of place that raises an eyebrow instead of making a scene.We walked. And walked. Between after hours pub parking lot parties with Icelanders and Essex-boy railroaders…and sheep who couldn’t be bothered, we fell a little bit in love.Someti...
Benthall Adventures — A Slow Travel Journal. •

The Lake District: The Wild Wanting Affair

It spit rain as we left Keswick, the fells socked in like a goodbye. A quiet weeping. A lover left too soon.We felt it, too.Five days nestled in a top-floor flat named for Catbells, gazing out at Derwentwater and three rugged fells, watching the weather shift by the hour — this wasn’t a vacation. It was a summer fling. Wild and fast and full of bruises and awe.We could’ve stayed another week. Maybe longer.The Lake District is unapologetically alive.The air is sharper. The people, heartier.Every...
Benthall Adventures — A Slow Travel Journal. •

Edinburgh: A Stormy Kind of Affair

We don’t often travel like this — five days, in and out. But sometimes a place doesn’t need long to leave its mark.Edinburgh was one of those places.We stayed in Leith, just steps from the sea inlet, in a little apartment where seagulls called outside our window and three Michelin-starred restaurants were within walking distance. I knew exactly what she meant.This city buzzes with vibes — kooky, weird, and wild. The kind of place where an Afro-Caribbean dance troupe might suddenly start practici...
Benthall Adventures — A Slow Travel Journal. •

North Wales: The Affair That Took Our Breath Away

We weren’t prepared for North Wales.Not for the signs that read like incantations.Not for the views that stole our breath.Not for how quickly this place would start to feel like something we’d miss before we even left it.We based ourselves in Conwy, a medieval walled town that looks like it was ripped from a fantasy novel — stone turrets, coastal mist, and a castle you can actually walk. One morning, we hiked into the Conwy hills, past Hen Eglwys Llangelynnin, a 12th-century stone church nestled...
Benthall Adventures — A Slow Travel Journal. •

Dublin, Distilled: The End of the Affair

We kicked off our month in Ireland with four fast-paced days in Dublin — beautiful, overstimulating, musical, fizzy, and exactly the kind of “fast travel” we’re glad to be leaving behind. Dublin marked the final chapter in our affair with constant motion. From here on out, we’re returning to something quieter and more lasting: slow travel.But what a finale.We toasted with rosé champagne under a cascade of flowers at WILDE. We rode the hop-on hop-off bus like proper tourists, soaking up sunshine...
Benthall Adventures — A Slow Travel Journal. •

Series Recap: Returning to My First Love

We don’t usually travel like this.Fast travel isn’t our norm. But for one month across the UK and Ireland, we said yes to a different kind of love affair — the kind with early checkout times, rental cars, and just enough time to unpack your expectations before packing them up again.We called it The Affair.Each place offered something — awe, surprise, exhaustion, belonging, longing — and every stop became its own chapter in this unexpected, unforgettable series.In case you missed any, here’s the...

Lifestyle & Learnings

Benthall Adventures — A Slow Travel Journal. •

If You Can’t Find Beauty Here, That’s Not the City’s Fault

Travel doesn’t just change your view. It changes you. This is Part 1 of a three-part arc on how travel reshapes us: And here’s my confession: if you’ve been reading me for a while, you know I’m not built for sweat. I’ve written plenty of Notes thanking adventure writers for the views I’ll never see. My natural state is more café table than mountain ridge. If you can’t find beauty in Dublin’s Temple Bar crush, the backstreets of Naples, or Paris in a heatwave—it’s not the place’s fault. It’s yours.
Benthall Adventures — A Slow Travel Journal. •

The Best Place to Live Abroad Doesn’t Exist

Here’s the truth: there is no perfect place to live abroad. Not in Portugal, not in Mexico, not in the glossy Top 10 lists that shuffle every year.The best place doesn’t exist.What does exist are places that fit you — for a season, for a chapter of life, for the kind of Tuesday morning you want to haveOur spreadsheet pulls in the usual suspects — Forbes’ Best Places to Retire Abroad in 2025 and International Living’s 2025 Global Retirement Index — but then filters them through what really matter...
Benthall Adventures — A Slow Travel Journal. •

I've Been Hiding Behind a Map

We’ve been slow traveling for over a year now — one-month stays, off-season rentals, local cafés that remember your order by week three. But even as I’ve moved through new countries, languages, and landscapes… I’ve stayed pretty good at hiding. I ask a lot of questions. Listen more than I speak. Let others tell their stories. People love that — and I genuinely do care. But I’ve realized something on the road: being the observer is comfortable… until it’s lonely. That’s why Substack surprised me .I d...
Benthall Adventures — A Slow Travel Journal. •

The Truth About Airbnb, B&Bs, and That Hotel With the Champagne Check-In

In the past few weeks, we’ve sampled all three of Ireland’s coziest accommodation types:Each one had its own rhythm. And cost. And quirks.(Yes, we know. Airbnb’s not perfect — more on that below.)Best part? The mix itself.The variety gave us just enough novelty without knocking us off our rhythm. A fast breath of hotel luxury here, a cozy B&B night there, and a long exhale in our quiet riverside Airbnb.Airbnb (Ballina-Killaloe):Best for: slow travel, long stays, living like a localCost: With the...
Benthall Adventures — A Slow Travel Journal. •

This Is Not a Language Lesson

Right now, we’re in Ireland — where I technically speak the language, but still have to work harder to follow a casual conversation than I ever did in Italy, Spain, or France.I made a new friend here, and I have to fully concentrate just to have a chat with him.I stare so deeply into his eyes you’d think I was trying to read his soul — when really I’m just trying to figure out if he said “boat” or “goat.”That’s the thing about slow travel: sometimes the hardest conversations happen in the places...
Benthall Adventures — A Slow Travel Journal. •

You Don’t Have to Be Fearless to Retire Early and Travel

When I set out to explore the world—not just to see new places, but to find a different kind of belonging—people assumed I must be fearless. That anyone willing to leave behind home, routine, and everything familiar must crave adventure.The truth is, I’m not fearless. I’m a total scaredy-cat.I didn’t grow up traveling. We didn’t hop on planes or dream about faraway places. Our family vacations were road trips to Ohio to visit relatives—reliable, predictable, safe. Most of my family still doesn’t...
Benthall Adventures — A Slow Travel Journal. •

What If We Regret This?

We heard it a lot when we told people we were retiring early and traveling full time:“What if you regret it?”It usually came from people who loved us. People projecting their own fear onto our version of freedom. Sometimes, we asked it ourselves — quietly, at night — after a long day of planning or in one of those “what are we doing?” moments.But here’s the thing:We didn’t run from that question. We lived with it.We still do.And freedom?It doesn’t always look like a margarita on a beach.Sometime...
Benthall Adventures — A Slow Travel Journal. •

The Letter That Sparked an Unexpected Friendship

When Business Insider published our first essay about retiring early and traveling the world, I expected some kind messages. Maybe a few questions. Maybe even a little criticism.I did not expect Bev.She read the article, and instead of scrolling past, she wrote to the magazine. Not to me—to the editor. A real, heartfelt letter from a 90-year-old woman who had done something similarly bold with her husband Dale back in 1986. They’d retired early, sold everything, and hit the road in a 34-foot mot...
Benthall Adventures — A Slow Travel Journal. •

If a Tree Falls While You’re Traveling

Since sharing our first post, we’ve heard from a few friends and readers who said, “I had no idea where you were!” That’s been a theme for us lately — the strange tension between living an intentional, awe-filled life and feeling strangely invisible while doing it.We’ve been slow traveling for over a year now — hopping from town to town, country to country, building a life that feels wildly free and deeply grounded. We gave up careers, routine, and everything familiar in search of something more...
Benthall Adventures — A Slow Travel Journal. •

A Love Letter to Emily

When people ask how I ended up here—traveling the world, retired early, wandering with purpose—I usually talk about the big decisions. Leaving a corporate career. Moving abroad. Downsizing. Investing differently.But really? It all started with a friend.Her name is Emily.We met during a quiet but pivotal moment in my life—after my divorce, when I’d just moved from the suburbs into the city. I didn’t know exactly what I was looking for, but I was craving something real. A sense of possibility. A n...
Benthall Adventures — A Slow Travel Journal. •

Packing Light (On Purpose)

We came to Cassis during shoulder season, when the air was still crisp and the harbor was quiet. No lines. No jostling for tables. Just us, the fishermen, and a few sleepy gulls. But now the bees are buzzed, the flowers are flirting, and the tourists are flooding in like they just heard rosé was invented yesterday.Spring is showing off. Summer’s preheating. And we’re folding laundry into packing cubes again.We always knew this stop was temporary…they all are. But there’s something about leaving...