Fast Travel: Transitioning From Asia to Europe Through the USA

Time for some fast travel as we transition from Asia to Europe through the USA!

We like to mix slow travel where we work and get to know a place deeply with fast travel where we see as much as possible in a short amount of time.

We tend to slow travel in cheap places and fast travel in more expensive places.

Generally speaking, there are few places more expensive than the USA, so we are going to cover the width of the country in 2 weeks.

Los Angeles, California

We launched our new lifestyle in January 2019 with a $585 business class fare from LA to Bangkok via Hong Kong.

Well, that was a round trip fare! So we started transitioning from Asia to Europe through the USA using the return portion of that fare to fly from Bangkok to LA.

Our only tasks in LA: adjust time zones and see some friends.

Boulder, Colorado

Next stop: Boulder, Colorado to spend some quality time with Matt’s three grown kids over a long weekend.

Boulder is a gorgeous place to spend a long weekend with family so it was a no-brainer in terms of a stop.

Booking.com

Washington, DC

From Boulder it’s to Washington, DC. to spend some time with Matt’s parents and family.

And, of course, see friends and the gang at our favorite bar in the whole wide world, Spirits of 76 in Arlington, VA.

Matt visits his former colleagues at the job he left behind (with some ambivalence) during this 3-day stop as well.

Hershey, Pennsylvania

Our last stop transitioning from Asia to Europe through the USA: Hershey, Pennsylvania to spend some time with Lisa’s family.

And, most importantly…the original reason for the timing of our fast-travel in the USA…Lisa’s niece/goddaughter’s dance recital.

This is actually a really big deal. Lisa’s niece is an amazing dancer.

We’re both proud of and amazed by her talent (that’s her on the poster!).

Flying halfway around the world to attend the performance was always going to happen!

As an added bonus, Lisa’s nephew has a baseball tournament that weekend. So we get to see him strutting his stuff too.

Berlin

After a weekend with Lisa’s family we bring Lisa’s parents with us to Germany and Poland.

Lisa’s dad is of German descent and her mom is from Polish stock. For years they have talked about exploring their roots in those countries.

Lisa is turning that talk into reality.

We booked business class award tickets for all 4 of us to fly from Philadelphia to Berlin through Frankfurt. For an extra dash of fun we booked upstairs seats on the Lufthansa 747!

After exploring Berlin, we take a car rental trip south and east for 2 weeks exploring Germany and Poland with Lisa’s parents.

Then What?

So that’s us transitioning from Asia to Europe through the USA.

And that’s as far as we tend to plan.

But after dropping Lisa’ parents off at Krakow airport we have a notion of heading to Dubrovnik, Croatia before high season really kicks into high gear there.

Then heading east…Bulgaria? Georgia? When you’re a digital nomad decisions are HARD because there are so many places to go! 🙂

As always, we welcome your suggestions!