Meet the Team
These legends are the legends that keep our site… LEGENDARY.
The whole damn Broke Backpacker tribe! What started out as a one-man travel blog has grown into an epic adventure family!
Some of these peeps met on the road. Others share Bali as a home base. A few, well, we’re not even sure where they came from… But they’re here now, and they’re here to stay!
We’re a diverse bunch – premium adventurers, veteran vagrants, hippies, musicians, nerds, gym junkies, psy-explorers, linguists, alumni, high school dropouts, sea-farers, mountainfolk, and everything in between – all collected from the various corners of the globe. But what we do share is a passion for travel.
Well… that and a little spark of madness. 😉
Our team strives endlessly to bring you the BEST backpacking content on the web. They work on and off assignment, exploring the globe, updating our destination guides, reviewing the top adventure gear, and keeping our content toasty-tight.
So let’s learn a little about the people of The Broke Backpacker and how they KICK ASS!
The OG Broke Backpacker
The man of the hour.
Will Hatton
Founder & Chief Adventurer
The first-generation Broke Backpacker, the head honcho, the legend himself: Will Hatton.
Will started travelling more than a decade ago as a headstrong and penniless youth, but his years on the road quickly turned him into an expert of the budget backpacking trade. He grew, he learnt; he loved, he lost. He travelled, he made mistakes, and through it all, he found his calling – to explore, to share, to learn. Will is passionate about the power of budget travel as a personal development tool, and about teaching others to ditch their desks, embrace adventure and to build an online income.
Both cursed and blessed with a pathological inability to sit still, you can usually find Will either high up on a mountain or deep down in a new project. A natural ideas man, self-taught SEO ninja, and a system building guru, Will has exceeded his original scope as a decorated adventurer and now finds himself on the journey of online entrepreneurship.
Will is currently based in Bali with Chimmigi and Kiki, his beloved doggos, where he just opened Tribal Hostel, the island’s sexiest and first dedicated digital nomad coworking hostel. Come visit and give him a wicked round of pool!
The Broke Backpacker Tribe
Our team of epic adventurers, wonderful writers and globetrotting fact-finders…
Aiden Freeborn
Gear Manager & Senior Editor
Aiden began working with The Broke Backpacker in 2016. When not DJing Psytrance, Aiden is an explorer of uncharted countries, under-rated museums, and unsanitary dive bars in need of a good deep clean. If he’s not doing that, you’ll likely find him attending to his hair maintenance routine – he never hits the road without a hairdryer.
As well as freelancing as manager of The Broke Backpacker’s library of epic gear content, Aiden heads the development of new series and and is always keen for a think tank sesh. Aiden is the founder of the Consultancy firm Go Realise Digital and also moonlights as a guest writer for the Huffington Post and Matador.
One of his life highlights is push-starting a truly fucked tuk tuk on a very precarious slope amidst the Himalayan foothills – which he maintains is perhaps his greatest accomplishment to date!
Tomás Monteiro
Brand Specialist & Whizz-Kid
Part mindless, part mindful, and all goofball, Tomás believes he has mastered the Art of Chilling. You’ll likely find him in a sunny park, guitar in hand, and boiling hot tea by his side.
You’ll see his words all across the site. Tomás handles brand communication & works The Broke Backpacker voice, runs our sexy newsletter, slaps together some graphics when needed, covers a lot of bases. Tomás knows his wheelhouse and is always coming up with slick new ideas…
Tomás is currently based in Lisbon, Portugal, his big beautiful birthplace. You can find him there, or wandering around the globe looking for trouble. The good kind, that is!
Samantha Shea
Travel Writer & Adventure Expert
A travel blogger and writer-for-hire, Samantha has been on the road in one way or another since 2017. Hailing from the USA, you’ll most likely find her gobbling up the delights of Asia, particularly South Asia, and PARTICULARLY Pakistan. Her expertise of Pakistan is unrivalled.
Samantha is a fan of slow travel, overland travel, and adventure travel: the three travels of The Broke Backpackers’s golden ratio. As such, we’ve put her to good work expanding our ever-growing library of illustrious adventure locales. She also plays a hand in optimising our existing content and, particularly, tightening the screws of our Pakistan and USA content.
An ice-cream addict and documentary lover, her infatuation for hippopotamuses cannot be understated. When she’s not travelling or writing about travelling, you can usually find Samantha enjoying a tropical ocean or getting lost in the mountains. Or eating… Street eats are her other homeboy.
Clair Cathryn
Superstar PA
Endlessly patient, Clair is a limitless font of wisdom and humour as we try to deduce just how the hell we’re going to make this work. A logistics superstar and an admin goddess, Clair consistenly moves the parts behind the scenes of the blog that keep it running so damn smooth.
Communications, emails, affilates, the best shampoos for Will’s fluffy doo: this is Clair’s wheelhouse. Of all the Wizards of the Court, there can be only one Hermione, and that is Clair. It’s hard to imagine The Broke Backpacker without her.
A bit of renegade around Southeast Asia and a proverbial master of long-stay travel, Clair finds herself caught between her many, many homes. Currently marooned in her hometown in Australia, Clair hopes to be losing her purse, drinking wine, and seeking out her favourite street food vendors in a land far away, soon, once more.
Rhenzy Caguioa
Empress of the Virtual Assistants
When she’s not tirelessly poring over The Broke Backpacker’s content with her all-seeing critical eye, you might see Renz at one of her favourite cafes plotting just how she’d make this cheesecake ten times damn better!
Living in ever-bustling Manila, Renz is tempted out of the house for quieter activities such as concerts, cinema, and downtown people-watching. Renz plans world domination through a chain of stores showcasing her boutique baked cheesecakes and other goodies. Her love for Korean TV dramas (and Naruto – heaps yeah!) cannot be understated.
Renz leads our team of star VAs; the ever-present force behind the scenes that keeps The Broke Backpacker RUNNING. It’s safe to say that without Rhenzy and her team of vibrant VAs, there’d be no Broke Backpacker.
Nic Hilditch-Short
Editor & Roaming Renegade
Nic has probably been to more countries than any of the other team members! Nic and their partner – together known as the Roaming Renegades – have been to over 65 countries so far, and the list is still growing.
With so much travel experience, the one place that really stood out to Nic was Southeast Asia. And where else could you just casually buy a manual bike (with no riding experience) and then just head off for a 5000km trip around remote villages, off-the-beathen path tracks and some epic places than in Southeast Asia?
They’ve also got the best collection of hilarious dog memes!
Danielle Wyatt
Dani is a lover of slow travel and marvelling at life under the sea. She’s lived in Spain and Thailand over the last few years, calling both her second (and third) home. She knows their underwater worlds almost as well as she knows the land.
Equipped with her bachelor’s degree in marketing and passion for creative writing, it makes perfect sense that she’s sharing her travel adventures with fellow globetrotters.
Harvey Pike
Editor & Double Protein Champ
Harvey always had a burning desire to see the world. So much so that one day he booked a one way ticket for £6 to Madrid on his lunch break… and he hasn’t stopped since.
Two years later, with a rollercoaster of experiences 0n his back, from push-starting his tuktuk along Sri Lanka’s coast to living it up in a van across Spain and meeting the love of his life, fellow TBB’s resident Kiwi, Harvey joined the team with a strong spirit and a passion for adventure.
When he’s not ordering double protein after a grueling workout, you can usually find him getting stuck into a game of chess or growing his business Cleanify.
Taya Jessica
Editor & Resident Foodie
Born with a travel bug, Taya inherited her wanderlust from parents who spent their pre-kid years gallivanting across the globe, never settling in the UK for long. Now, she’s living by that same mantra, hopping about, soaking in every bit of culture she can find. She can’t imagine spending her 20s in any other way (who needs to use that degree anyway?)
A lifelong foodie and music lover, Taya’s adventures always lead her to one or the other, whether that’s festivals in Barcelona or street eats in Bangkok. If she’s not diving into research or diving amongst the fishies, you’ll find her forever scheming her next adventure and sniffing out the next best food joint.
Her belief is knowing that happiness is wherever her heart takes her, and she’s all about embracing the ride. The world’s big, wide, and she’s on a mission to explore every damn inch of it.
Maria Storey
Editor & Undercover Witch
Maria has spent years chasing summers around the globe and now is settling into cyclical living in New Zealand. After spending long periods in France and Indonesia, learning the (respective) languages and befriending local people.. She’s doing the same in Aotearoa, connecting to the land and the indigenous language and traditions she was born into.
Called Maz by her friends, she’s a bit of a witchy woman who pays the bills by editing our content here at The Broke Backpacker. Having studied anthropology, when she’s not online she’s connecting with her community and bringing people together through her passion of sharing food and story.
She hopes to share this love with the world one day but for now, is nesting in her area code and investing in life there.
Broke Backpacker Hall of Fame
The Broke Backpacker team is a transient group of wanderers and sometimes folks head off into the sunset.
This is the hall of fame where they live on forever….
Art Patterson
We found this SEO and content scaling guru wandering and confused in the hills of South America. His hard work and endless slogging have landed him a spot in the elusive Broke Backpacker Hall of Fame.
Who knows where Art can be found now? We’ve heard rumours that say he’s back in the South American hills, the word on the street is that he’s in Estonia, but he’s most likely somewhere else where the woods are vast and the mountains high.
If you do spot Art in a cafe, ordering round after round of V60 pour-overs, fear not. This highly caffeinated animal doesn’t bite.
Ralph Cope
Ralph is a wild child. He has a desire to experience all things unconventional and often gravitates to the lesser-known landscapes of the world, landing him in some pretty strange and sensational places.
During his time at The Broke Backpacker, Ralph adventured to Africa and the Middle East and transversed the steppes of Eurasia. He generally did his best to maximise his time in the wilderness and avoid anywhere the crowds go. His photography and writing will live on in The Broke Backpacker’s history.
The Master of the Negroni, Ralph bases himself in Italy these days from where he ducks out for quick jaunts across the globe.
Ziggy Samuels
Zig, Zigz, Zigglez, Zigzag, Zigalig, and even just plain old boring Sam, Ziggy is a man of many names. And many lives. Once, he even milked a goat!
A published expert on all things budget backpacking, Ziggy really embraces the spirit of a true broke backpacker. He was our connoisseur of the art of dirtbaggery: busking, dumpster diving, hitchhiking, vanlife, illicit substances, sleeping in cemeteries (don’t ask), etcetera.
A native to the notorious Byron Bay Shire, perhaps Zigz was always destined for vagrancy. Although it’s been a long time since he held a fixed address, Ziggy still always finds himself begrudgingly dragging his ass back to his found-family in Australia for a boogie and keenly-rolled doobie.
Laura Pox
Laura, aka Laurita if you want to add some spice, was a part of the Broke Backpacker team for quite a while. She didn’t shy away from the opportunity to join the team, even after having to endure Ziggy’s 6am Ukulele Solo Sessions in Nepal.
Laura was one of our most active and important travel editors and writers, preening the site to make sure the content is looking all nice and lovely. She has a nack for letting a few too many swear words slip in there too.
Some fun facts about Laura:
– She wants to win that chess game even if she says she doesn’t care.
– You can’t convince her Reggaeton is good.
Rose Wilson
A born and raised Bristolian, Rose’s love for travel started from childhood with her family trips around the world. Her parents celebrated imparting rich cultural experiences on their children and such a blessed upbringing led to Rose’s adoration with travel. Yearly visits to Bali to meet family-friends led to an early onset dream of one day living on the Island of the Gods – flash forward 20 years, and here she is.
A lover of dogs, pasta, rewatching the same TV shows on repeat, and espresso martinis, her travel days are mostly behind her now, content to her life in Bali with her fur-babies.
Joe Middlehurst
Joe’s a deceptively simple man who chooses to live a simple life led guided by his instincts and love for the natural world. He is on a mission to travel, explore and learn as much as possible about the natural world, life and himself.
Joe has a passion for the English language and shares his vision of a better world through his writing, with the aim of inspiring others to make the most out of their one and only shot at life. Joe is currently developing an unhealthy coffee addiction in SE Asia as he embarks on an ambitious spearfishing and surfing campaign.
Amanda Draper
Amanda is an explorer at heart with a wild spirit. An advocate for slow travel, Amanda is pretty much a globe-trotting tortoise.Her favourite book is “The Alchemist” and Like Santiago, she’s forever questing, turning every stone in search of life’s hidden treasure.
But Amanda’s journey isn’t all about the adrenaline. She loves to dives headfirst into the soul of each place she visits. if you meet her somewhere around the world, she would be thrilled to sit down for a cup of coffee and share travel stories, she never misses an opportunity for storytelling, her favourite pastime.
And her journal? This bad boy has seen its share of ink and tear stains, and if you’re lucky enough to get a peek, you’d swear you could smell the salt from the beaches and hear the whispers of ancient forests. Forever a dreamer, she travels with a deep love for the world and everyone around her.
Audy Scala
Audy, a mermaid and free-spirited adventurer, can be found atop a mountain of pineapples in a pickup truck, basking naked on secluded beaches and frolicking through the Burning Man desert.
Leaving home at 17, she fearlessly hitchhiked across Mexico and Central America where she drove a hot-wired car through Baja California, busked on the streets of Costa Rica and took magic mushrooms with shamans in the mountains. The challenges she faced and the boundaries she pushed shaped her into the person she is today, constantly evolving on the edge of her comfort zone.
Now on a path to becoming a scuba instructor, she finds solace in the depths of the ocean, often alongside graceful manta rays. Audy’s dreams take her on thrilling journeys, envisioning driving a bus across Europe, the Middle East, and Asia, sailing across the globe, and diving alongside great white sharks.