About the Very Hungry Nomads

G’day! We’re Marty and Rach, also known as the Very Hungry Nomads.

We’ve had a passion for travel for decades, and as self-confessed food lovers, the search for the ultimate food experience has always been a big motivation for our travels.

We’ve recently completed our goal to visit EVERY country in the world!

Countries Visited

20+

Years Travelling

Travel Articles

How did we get started?

We met in Europe in 2008 working as road crew for a youth coach tour company. Marty was a Trip leader and Rach was an on-road-chef.

Our jobs in Europe were seasonal. We worked for six months during the summer season, which left us half a year to do whatever we desired.

We chose to travel the world together.

After ten years of living this nomadic lifestyle, we moved to Melbourne to try and settle into 9-5 jobs. Two years passed and we longed for our previous travelling lifestyle.

We missed the freedom to go wherever we liked, the spontaneity of travel, the exotic food and the random adventures. So we packed up, sold most of our stuff and left Australia with a rough plan and enough money to travel for at least 18 months. This adventure took us to some of the most interesting and beautiful countries we’d ever seen.

Together, we travelled independently overland through Central Asia, also known as ‘the Stans’. We spent time in Georgia, Armenia and Iran too. We saw some spectacular scenery, had many heart-warming moments and we always felt safe and welcomed in this region of the world.

Sure, at times it was tough. We faced communication challenges, experienced some long and uncomfortable travel days, consumed some interesting food and stayed in questionable accommodations along the way. However, one thing that stood out above all else on this trip was the kindness of strangers.

As you learn more about Very Hungry Nomads, you’ll understand more about the positive messages we hope to share with you:

We believe that people are fundamentally the same, no matter what country you’re from. We hope that by sharing our travel stories from around the globe, we educate and help you better understand how incredible our world is.

Something incredible happened on that trip to Central Asia.. We hit a huge milestone!

We each reached our personal goal to have visited over 100 countries.

It was something we never imagined possible. You’d think that we’d be content with that. But, of course, we wanted more. We wanted to visit EVERY country in the world! We want to show that women can do extraordinary things and that the world is much safer than most of us believe!

Read about the moment we decided to visit every country.

Once we made the decision to embark on this crazy adventure together, we spent the next two years working and saving hard. At the same time, we spent hours carefully planning the logistics of how we could achieve this goal.

We departed our home city of Melbourne in April 2018.

Our plan to visit the remaining 88 countries over the next two years was set. This would allow us approximately 5-7 days in each country. Some countries we’d planned to spend longer and some countries would be a shorter visit. It was all dependent on safety, affordability and visa restrictions.

If you have been following our journey online via Instagram or Facebook since our departure, you’d have seen what incredible adventures we’ve had travelling the world! We were on track to completing our goal to visit all of the countries by April 2020, with only nine countries left!

Then, the Coronavirus pandemic spread across the globe.

We returned home to Australia in March 2020 at the request of our government. We purchased a campervan, named her Frida and spent the next 18 months travelling around Oz.

We picked up some travel jobs in resorts and restaurants along the way to support our continued travels.

We got back on the road in 2022 to visit the remaining countries.

On the 19th of November 2022, we officially entered our last country in the world: Samoa.

This makes Rach the first Australian woman and Marty the first Slovakian woman to visit every country in the world.

If you would like to see a recap of what our journey was like, watch this short video below.

What are we up to now?

It’s no surprise, but we’re still travelling the world! Due to popular demand, we recently began hosting group trips to some of our favourite destinations.

Check out our upcoming group adventures. We can’t wait to host you on a life-changing trip soon!

When we’re not hosting trips, we focus on continuing to write more content, tips, and advice to help you travel the world.

If you want to follow the adventure, say hello on Instagram or Facebook.

Join our mailing list to be the first in line when we launch new group adventures and to receive our latest advice and travel tips straight to your inbox!

To send us an email, please visit our Contact Us page.

Ready to work with us? Please contact us!

Rach

I grew up in Australia. I’ve always enjoyed taking on new challenges in life, and not a fan of routine. I thrive on being out of my comfort zone, perhaps this is why the nomadic lifestyle has always appealed to me.

My first real overseas experience was at age 21, I lived and worked in Canada for a year. I was instantly hooked on the spontaneity of discovering new places, faces, and random experiences that a travelling lifestyle presented. That year away taught me that your life can be the way you imagine it to be. You just need to focus on what you want in life, work hard, and stay determined to achieve it.

Travel and real food adventures are my passion. My favourite thing is to eat a dish that has been cooked with love, in my opinion, it’s the most important ingredient of all.

After reaching Samoa in November 2022, I am the first Australian woman to visit every country in the world.

Marty

I grew up in Slovakia, a beautiful country in the heart of Europe. I always wanted to see the world and learn languages so it was no surprise when I packed up my bags at the age of 18 to move to Germany.

Since then, I have lived in 6 different countries so far and travelled to many more. I’ve worked as a tour guide for many years which I loved, as it was a job that combined my passion for people and travel. Travelling around the world has allowed me to taste and learn more about food and different cultures and to find a real passion for it!

After reaching Samoa in November 2022, I am the first Slovakian woman to visit all the countries in the world. I love coffee, and history and I’m an endless optimist.