Travelog

We did it! TEN THOUSAND Subscribers! Time for the promised AMA. Leave your questions here or on any future video (KLM 787 Business is out today) and I'll collate them for a longer video! Anything you want from travel tips to being a small creator to my personal life!

If you missed the last AMA, you can check it out here: https://youtu.be/46XtqDzeYQo

Thank you all so much, welcome everyone new, and I'll see you on the next one! And curious if anyone can identify where I took that photo...

1 month ago | [YT] | 17

Travelog

Happy New Year! Know this post is a tad late, but I was busy filming the next series, and wanted to provide a bit of a retrospective for 2024 and update on the channel for 2025!


2024 was another record year, with 936,000 views, 2,900 new subscribers, and over $5,100 in ad revenue. 27% of all views for the year came from a single video in fact. I’ll give you one guess which one. What can I say, clickbait and the male gaze really is a thing. It’s not something I can or will try and replicate, but I found it almost comical how well that video did relative to all the others.


The backbone of 2024 was the series “Around the World with You,” which was one of my absolute favorites to take and film. I have a cut of the final video, First class on JAL, but it’s not quite ready for publication today. I want to re-record the audio, but the combination of pneumonia, Covid, an 18 day trip, and picking up a parasite from that trip has delayed my production schedule. It will come out in a few weeks.


If you follow along on Instagram you already know that the next series is called “A Nice Redemption.” It’s a series focused on planes and trains that either I or the public has bashed, and I wanted to give a second chance to see if they are really that bad. Things like KLM, TAP Portugal, ITA, and my rematch with British Airways club suites. Of course, the name is also a triple entendre. This will be the core of the content for 2025, and it’s already filmed.


This brings me to changes in the upgrade schedule. I’ve been publishing videos every two weeks for more than 5 years at this point. Sometimes, such as last year, I even went with weekly videos because I had such a backlog of content. This year is looking a bit different due to some potential (positive) changes to my personal life. I’m still just a regular guy with a day job, who has a travel/miles and points addiction. I may not be able to do 20 day around the world extravaganzas moving forward. I will continue to create as much content as I can and release as frequently as possible, but all I can commit to at this time are videos once a month. I’ll shoot for more, but we’ll see what I can do and that does to viewership.


It's also looking like 2025 is the year the channel will hit 10,000 subscribers! I never imagined that I’d even be in that position, so thank you all so much! As promised, I’ll do another AMA then, and I can’t wait to see what we see and do this year!

3 months ago | [YT] | 10

Travelog

We made it to 7,500 subscribers! Thanks to each and every one of you for clicking that button! I'm here to announce that there will be another AMA at 10,000 subscribers. At current pace that's well over a year away, but with your help that can be sped up! The most recent Vietjet review is now my best performing video premiere I've ever had and has brought in a ton of new subscribers. Sadly I'm not sure I can repeat that thumbnail trick again... But for those new faces, welcome! Be sure and check out the last AMA here, which goes over who I am, my personality, and what my philosophy behind the channel is! 👉https://youtu.be/46XtqDzeYQo I'll see you all for the AMA at 10k!

6 months ago | [YT] | 11

Travelog

While on the channel we're still in the Nordics and this week's video will be about a ferry from Tallinn to Helsinki, my responses to comments may be delayed, as I'm off on the craziest, zaniest, around-the-world trip I've ever done for the next few weeks. Most of it won't even air till 2025 (there’s two other series airing first) but here's a taste. And, if you want to follow along in real time, I'll be posting it all on Instagram as I go!

1 year ago | [YT] | 12

Travelog

Happy New Year! As always, let’s take a look back at the past year of the channel and look forward to 2024.

By every measure, this was a RECORD year for the channel! 49 flights (53 when counting sightseeing trips), makes it by far the most flights since I started counting back in 2016, surpassing the prior high of 44 in 2019. We hit 1 million views (currently 1.4 million) , 5,000 subscribers (currently 6,117), and views, watch time, and subscriber growth are all up from 2022!


Most popular videos & views in 2023:


• Trenitalia Frecciarossa: 49,244
• Italo Premium: 37,675
• British Airways A380 Economy: 36,900
• Frontier: 36,676
• Heathrow Express vs Elizabeth Line: 34,541


As you can see, 3 of the top 5 videos are TRAINS! Where are my flight review peeps? And all of these videos are older videos, not anything even filmed this year.


In back half of the year there were two disappointments, perhaps linked. One day I logged into studio to see a note that my account had been flagged for “invalid traffic.” Basically, YouTube thought some of my views were illegitimate and demonetized them. They wouldn’t say which views or videos. This is an unfortunately common bug impacting a lot of creators recently, and of course there is no explanation or recourse. Overnight, the revenue I received per each view declined by 50%. It is very evident on the graph exactly where this occurred. Revenue really only recovered at the end of October. The back half of the year also marked a noticeable decline in views week over week. Even though I was putting out new videos, they simply weren’t getting the same number of views. “Escape to Paradise” and “The King in the North” just haven’t immediately resonated with viewers, at least not yet. Impressions were so low it was clear they weren’t even getting sent to subscribers. I'm not too worried as my videos often take years to get any traction in the algorithm.



Is this frustrating? Sure. Do I honestly care? No. I’ve never had the intention of “making it big,” and this channel will always remain a passion project.


So what is there to look forward to in 2024? A ton!

I finally did some PC and camera upgrades. Now rocking a Ryzen 5900X and RTX 4080. Upgraded my cameras to an iPhone 15 Pro Max, DJI Pocket 3, and Sonly a6700. So beginning with “An American Interlude” and “Figaro Went Yodeling,” all videos will be shot, edited, exported, and uploaded at 4K 60fps.


I’m currently working on the most time-intensive single review I’ve ever done, covering 16 flights in a single video. I'm only 1/2 way done at this point.


I just finished editing and uploading “Figaro Went Yodeling,” (six flight and two train reviews) and as of now there is content already complete thought OCTOBER 2024. And I haven’t even started filming yet in 2024! Does that mean we go weekly at some point?


While I am traveling to Mexico in January and again in February, the first big trip of the year will be in March 2024. It will be the most crazy, around-the-world trip I’ve ever done. Nine flight reviews, and at least three train reviews. And yes, it was inspired by a song from a low-cost airline, that’s so bad I just had to take it. It’s called “Around the World with You.”


I know I said to expect Avelo, JSX, Breeze, and JetBlue A220 last year. Sorry I lied. Well JetBlue pulled the A220 from Chicago, and I was hoping of also tying it in with the new Amtrak Avelia Liberty Acela trains, which are still in development hell. So those flights are possible, just at some point.



Have a safe and happy New Year everyone, thanks for watching, commenting, liking and subscribing, and I’ll see you on the next one!

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1 year ago (edited) | [YT] | 19

Travelog

I've been fortunate to be able to take some pretty crazy trips on this channel. Around the world, the Galapagos, the Outback, the Maldives. But I really think I've outdone myself here, and can't wait to share it with you all! I'll see you tomorrow to kick off "The King in the North," a journey to the northern most airport in the world! We'll travel by jet, prop plane, train, boat, and even dogsled! I'll see you where the sun never sets!

1 year ago | [YT] | 13

Travelog

No, it's not on the schedule, but just finished editing the Brightline video from Orlando to Miami in Premium which goes live TODAY! As you should expect by now, it's not going to be your...typical review, as you can see in this "behind the scenes" photo.

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1 year ago | [YT] | 7

Travelog

Today's review is going to be something pretty unique. Fiji Airways has a great business class product on the A350, and I absolutely loved it. But you may not. So go check out the first of three videos on Fiji Airways now!

1 year ago | [YT] | 7

Travelog

It's time to kick off a brand new series, Escape to Paradise! Join me on a crazy whirlwind adventure to Fiji, New Zealand, and Hawaii. From depths of the ocean with manta rays to landing atop a glacier in a helicopter. New videos every other Saturday!

Apologies if I'm late at all in my replies, for I'm already off and filming the NEXT adventure, “The King in the North.” How far north am I going? AS FAR AS I CAN BABY! Follow along in real time on Instagram!

1 year ago | [YT] | 11

Travelog

We did it, 5,000 subscribers! As promised, I did an AMA, clocking in at just under 39 minutes. Face reveal? Favorite flight? Starting beef with other YouTubers? You need to tune in and find out!

And come back next week, July 1st, for the kickoff of "Escape to Paradise," an epic 11 video series to some of the most remote, beautiful places I've ever been.

1 year ago | [YT] | 14