Jeff Bell

Jeff Bell is the Managing Editor and Operator of The Broke Backpacker. He spent a decade-plus in investment banking, strategy consulting, and corporate strategy before leaving to buy this travel website, which is not the normal thing people do when they leave corporate, but is definitely more interesting than buying a plumbing company.

Before any of that, he left his desk for the first time to backpack across 20+ countries on five continents for 13 months, and later thru-hiked over 1,000 miles of the Appalachian Trail. His career turned out fine, which is a point he will make to anyone who'll listen.

He now oversees editorial strategy and a remote team scattered across multiple time zones, working to make sure The Broke Backpacker’s guides are written by people who've actually been to the places they're writing about. Ask him about long-term travel planning, round-the-world routing, or hiking logistics and he'll talk your ear off. Favorite destinations include the Pacific Northwest and Chile, though he hasn't been back in a while and should probably fix that.

When he's not managing editorial operations, he loves big hikes, cheap eats (ok - expensive eats, too), and places where things don't go perfectly. He believes travel is supposed to feel a little messy and that the best stories come from deviating from the plan.