About taste2travel
Welcome
Welcome to taste2travel, a travel website created for curious, independent travellers who want to explore beyond the ordinary.
My name is Darren McLean – I’m an Australian perpetual traveller (full-time since August 2013), a globally curious explorer, a digital nomad, and the founder of taste2travel.
Introduction
Home to more than 500,000 souls – the city of Newcastle is famous for its many fine beaches.
Born in Newcastle, Australia, and raised in both Newcastle and Sydney, I have been passionate about travel since childhood.
In 1986, shortly after completing high school, I began planning my first overseas journey.
At the time, I was working two jobs in Sydney, which enabled me to save enough money to book a flight to Europe.
In August 1987, one week after my twentieth birthday, I departed Australia – and I have never looked back.
Now, at the age of 58, my enthusiasm for travel remains as strong as it was at 20.
Over the past 38 years I have travelled extensively, visiting:
- 247 of 251 UN+ countries, dependent territories and unrecognised states
- 193 of 193 UN countries
- 7 of 7 continents
The four destinations that remain on my ‘to visit’ list are two dependent territories—Tokelau and the Northern Mariana Islands – and two unrecognised states – Abkhazia and South Ossetia.
You can view a full list of the destinations I have visited on the “Places I’ve Been“ page of my website, where all content is accessible from an indexed list of countries or territories.
Country and Territory List
My personal travel goal is to visit all 251 countries and territories listed on my Countries and Territories List, commonly referred to as the UN+ list.
This MS-Excel format checklist can be downloaded from my website and used as a personal country and territory tracker.
The list is based on the official ISO-3166 classification of countries and populated territories but excludes non-populated territories and the one restricted territory – BIOT!
On Finance!
Australia’s largest metropolis, Sydney is home to a cosmopolitan and international population.
“The secret to an enjoyable existence is to have your money working for you and not you working for your money.” Darren McLean
At the age of 18, I began my professional career as a trainee in an IT data centre in Sydney, Australia.
Rather than pursuing a university degree in Computer Science, I accepted an opportunity with an international financial services company that offered both structured training and paid employment.
In hindsight, it was an opportunity seized at precisely the right time.
The role was demanding and involved a steep learning curve, but it led to a rewarding career as an international IT consultant.
Over the years, I secured well-compensated contracts in Australia, Switzerland, Germany, the United Kingdom, New Zealand, and other countries.
Although my career enabled me to fund my travels, I recognised the importance of achieving financial independence, to allow me to step off the conventional 9-to-5 work treadmill.
To accomplish this, I immersed myself into the world of finance, educating myself about all aspects of the stock market and developing the knowledge and discipline required to become a capable share market investor and portfolio manager.
I invested my earnings into a diversified share portfolio, focusing on companies that generate sustainable, high-yield dividend income.
This consistent dividend stream has funded the past fourteen years of uninterrupted global travel.
Birth of taste2travel!
In 2016, after spending three years travelling throughout every country in South America, I was frequently asked by fellow travellers for travel tips.
I would respond by sending detailed emails filled with practical travel insights for each destination in South America.
While temporarily residing in Cali, Colombia, I decided to create a website that would allow me to share information more efficiently and with a broader audience – thus, taste2travel was born.
The first article for taste2travel was written in the kitchen of my apartment in Cali and featured Colombian Fruits, an unconventional but memorable beginning for a website whose focus has been on some of the remotest destinations on this planet.
Aim of taste2travel!
At its core, taste2travel is designed to inspire wanderlust, confidence and curiosity in travellers.
All content is written by me, with detailed destination guides, which are based on my own personal experience, providing useful insights to help travellers plan their own journeys to some of the remotest places to be found on our planet.
Whether you’re researching a secluded island nation, a lesser-known country, or simply looking for travel inspiration, the goal of taste2travel is to deliver reliable and engaging information.
The site provides practical, comprehensive travel information for destinations around the world, with particular emphasis on more distant, lesser-visited destinations.
While the internet offers an abundance of information for places such as Paris or Singapore, there is a dearth of information for more obscure destinations like Pitcairn Island or Mayotte – two of the many destinations covered by taste2travel.
In addition to detailed travel guides, taste2travel features travel quizzes, curated photo galleries, and a range of in-depth feature articles.
Travel Guides
My travel guides are best suited to those planning a journey to a particular destination.
My objective is to create practical and highly detailed travel guides for every destination I visit.
I believe that thorough information enhances both confidence and enjoyment in travel.
Many of the destinations featured on the website lie well beyond the traditional tourist trail.
Often described as hidden gems, these destinations remain largely undiscovered due to their remoteness or limited accessibility.
I take satisfaction in exploring and showcasing these “off-the-radar” locations, with the hope of inspiring others to venture beyond conventional travel routes.
Quote from Tony Wheeler (founder of Lonely Planet) from his Kiribati blog post:
“Unfortunately Lonely Planet’s South Pacific guide no longer covers Kiribati, although earlier editions devoted 24 pages to the country, and Moon Publication’s South Pacific Handbook is out of print.
Check Darren McLean’s taste2travel posting on Kiribati for more information.”
Travel Quizzes
Who doesn’t like a good travel quiz?
In addition to travel guides, taste2travel features a popular collection of travel quizzes covering topics such as UNESCO World Heritage Sites, world geography, flags, currencies, capital cities, maps, continents, airports, museums and much more.
The many travel quizzes on taste2travel are a fun way for readers to test their knowledge and fuel their wanderlust.
There are currently more than 80 travel quizzes on taste2travel, each containing 20 questions, providing a total of 1,600+ travel trivia questions designed to challenge and engage.
You can access all the quizzes here.
Photo Galleries
Photography plays an important role in my travels and, unless otherwise stated, all images featured on taste2travel are my own.
To inspire curiosity and a desire to explore, taste2travel includes numerous curated photo galleries showcasing destinations from around the world.
You can access all my photo galleries here.
Conclusion
taste2travel is ultimately about exploration, discovery, and encouraging travellers to look beyond the obvious.
Whether you’re planning your next trip or simply dreaming about future adventures, I hope my site inspires you to explore more of the world.
If you have any questions or enquiries, please feel free to contact me via the contact page.
Safe travels – and enjoy the journey!
Darren
Yves Klein Blue
A final note on design!
The shade of blue which I use on my website is International Klein Blue (IKB) – my favourite shade of blue, which was developed by French artist Yves Klein in 1960.
At the time, he patented the formula for an intense ultramarine blue which has the hex colour code of #002fa7.
I first became aware of, and enamoured by Yves Klein’s artwork when I attended one of his exhibitions in Winterthur, Switzerland, in my days when I was resident in Switzerland.
For Klein, blue carried a unique sensitivity, and served as a vehicle for the passage from the material to the immaterial: “Blue has no dimensions, it is beyond dimensions,” he declared.
The idea of something not being confined by dimensions appeals to the free-spirited wanderer in me!
This particular shade of blue brought Yves Klein worldwide fame – a striking shade of blue which he used in all of his works – and one which I am proud to showcase on taste2travel.
Content Links
Click on the links to access the following:
- taste2travel Home Page
- taste2travel Travel Guides
- taste2travel Travel Quizzes
- taste2travel Photo Galleries
- taste2travel Instagram