About Me
Hi, my name is Kevin! I am a traveler, a language enthusiast, and a coffee addict. Welcome to Caffeinated Excursions, a blog documenting my experiences!
I’m currently based in Chicago! I’m originally from Seattle, and Caffeinated Excursions is at least in part named to pay homage to my home city.
What’s my story?
I’ve lived in a number of cities since I graduated from college, including Columbia, South Carolina; Mexico City, Mexico; Ho Chi Minh City, Vietnam; São Paulo, Brazil; and Rio de Janeiro, Brazil. I started out working in engineering sales, but have spent the last few years working in education. It’s been quite the journey, and travel has always been an integral part of my life!
I graduated from the University of Washington in 2017, and I was also fortunate to have the opportunity to study abroad in China from 2013 to 2014. I spent that year in Shanghai, which is a truly incredible city that you really have to see to believe. That year of college in Asia is probably what inspired me most to continue traveling after graduation. By now, travel is a part of who I am and is something I see myself doing for the rest of my life!
Why did I start blogging?
For my first few solo trips abroad, other travel blogs were an invaluable resource for me (and continue to be to this day). When I went to Aruba in December of 2017, I based my entire trip around this 48-hour guide and had a truly amazing time. My hope is that Caffeinated Excursions will be a similar resource for others who want to make the most of their journeys to the places I’ve been.
On a more basic level, I also want to share my experiences with anyone who is interested! We all have constraints on our time and money, and some destinations are just too far or too expensive to visit from where we live. I find that reading blogs about travelers’ experiences in South Africa, New Zealand, or Tanzania is honestly a lot of fun! Travel blogs are incredibly personal, and the stories people have really make hard-to-reach places come alive.
So where have I been?
Below is a complete map of the places I’ve been to. So far, I’ve been to 43 countries! At this point, I’m trying to add at least one per year. I’m eyeing places like Costa Rica, Chile, Spain, New Zealand, or Guatemala for #44 and #45!
Before I started blogging, I had only been to 13 of the 43 countries. That means that from January of 2018 until now, I visited 30 new countries. I think it’s safe to say that blogging has kept me on my toes, literally! However, I also really love going back to places I’ve been before. I loved my first trip to Colombia so much that I went back and saw three additional areas on my second trip. I also revisited Shanghai, which was such a fun and rewarding experience since I’m already familiar with the city’s layout and best attractions.
While living in Mexico, I managed to visit 9 of the country’s 31 states and written posts about eight of those. To learn more about Mexico’s best destinations, click here.
And last but not least, I’ve visited 34 of the 50 states in the US (as of 2024). Below are maps of my progress at the end of each calendar year. States visited but not yet blogged about are in lime green, and states visited that were featured on my blog are in forest green.
Where do I want to go next?
In addition to the countries mentioned above that are on my short-term travel wish list, I have a bunch of medium-term destinations I’d love to visit before the end of the decade. I’ve written about all of them in my “20 Places To Visit In The 2020s” post, which you should definitely check out for some travel inspiration!
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The Caffeinated Man Behind The Blog
Where I’ve Been
