About Us

 Hello and Welcome!

We have always been travelers, in fact our first journey happened so long ago we barely remember them. Both of us moved to Canada as kids and we firmly believe that planted the travel bug in us. We have not stopped moved since then. Alan has toured the USA and Canada with his young family and I moved back to the UK when I was 20 and lived there for 10 years.

Alan and I met in 1993 and have been together ever since. Our 3 boys are now in their late 20’s and early 30’s and we tried very hard to get them to travel. So when they wouldn’t that was when we set into place our plans to run away and travel.

In 2014 it became abundantly apparent that our lives were just not sustainable anymore in Canada. Alan was getting crippled with all the walking at Canada Post and I was sick and tired of the short term contract work offered. I have always been a writer, marketer and connector so I was running my own business outside of my day job helping others develop their businesses and writing tons of material for websites, magazines, government bodies, and not for profits. This work I could do online and remotely so it added another income to a very meager Canada Post Pension.

Alan took early retirement and we decided to move to Mexico. We chose a small village in the Yucatan called Chelem and we moved with 2 giant suitcases and settled into a rented house. The Yucatan, near Merida is a pretty damn cool place but it is relentlessly hot. So hot that when you get up at 6am and sit outside having a coffee you are drenched in sweat before you take a mouthful. We have written many posts on being an expat in Mexico which you can read here.

 

However, it was Mexico that inspired us to start housesitting. Our first job was a fill in for an emergency sit and it grew from there. We decided after a couple of housesits we would take the plunge and go full-time and try to get to Europe.  We applied for dozens of sits and our first success was a job in Ireland with 7 dogs, sitting in Tipperary.

We have been non stop housesitting ever since. We have housesat in Dublin, Donegal, Tipperary, County Down, Cork, Berkshire in the UK, Yorkshire, London, Spain, and Cyprus. In between sits we find various accommodations from Air B&B, Homeway and we use a lot of Groupon coupons for great hotel stays. Sometimes we want a little luxury and sometimes we want a clean cheap place to stay.

On XYUandBEYOND we explore the places we are privileged to live in through housesitting and I write about them on our blog.

We are often called “brave” for taking the leap and getting out of the consumer culture we were living in. We sold everything and we miss nothing about our “stuff”. Our readers and followers are our inspiration, we truly love to share information about housesitting and travelling and we are passionate about sharing the places, destinations and experiences that mean so much to us.

We are not millenials we are ass end baby boomers that have no great income but we choose to spend our money on travel and experience. We concentrate on destinations and experiences many in our age group desire: historic sites, beautiful gardens & parks, cities and cultural destinations, food and drink, active travel, and personal connections. We also contribute practical information and resources to promote an easy-going travel lifestyle. In short, we provide content geared for mature, active, and inquisitive travelers. We also write about the practicalities of choosing a place to retire to.

Work With Us

We started travelling full-time nearly 3 years ago and this year we created our blog XYUandBeyond. In less than six months are combined social media reach is over 10,000 active and engaged connections. We combine our professional background in journalism and marketing with our firsthand travel experience to bring our partners original, multi-platform media packages. We’re enthusiastic about providing custom stories for all types of print and online publications, and building reach and engagement through social media.

Let us propose a custom program for you, featuring your best assets. Contact us at info@xyuandbeyond.com