We're slightly ahead on a path you want to walk.
Four years of continuous travel. 60+ housesits. Real numbers, real itineraries, the things we wish someone had told us.
Four years ago we gave up our home and started traveling. Not because things were bad. Because we wanted more.
We wanted to actually live in the places we'd always wanted to see — not visit them in a two-week rush, but settle in, find the good bakery, learn a few words, and understand what daily life feels like from the inside.
We left Florida in 2019 with $6,000 between us and drove west to Seattle. We discovered TrustedHouseSitters within weeks of arriving on Bainbridge Island. We were booked solid almost immediately — exploring different neighbourhoods, caring for other people's animals, living in beautiful homes we could never have afforded to rent.
Then Covid changed everything, as it did for so many people. We rented an apartment "month-to-month" because surely this would all be over soon. We were there for two years.
On May 1st 2022 we moved out, and we haven't looked back since. Sixty-plus housesits across the UK, Israel, the United States and Europe. Longer rentals followed — two seasons on the French Riviera, time in Portugal, time in Tuscany, weeks in Spain. We've learned how to find the right places, how to feel at home quickly, and how to make this life work practically without spending a fortune.
Between us we hold UK and US passports and have lived across three continents. We sound British, think of ourselves as Americans, and understand Europe from the inside in a way that most American travel creators simply don't.
We started Second Act Abroad because we kept meeting people our age — smart, capable, curious people with good lives — who assumed this kind of extended travel was too complicated, too expensive, or just not for people like them. It is for people like them. It was for us.
We're not going to sell you a fantasy. We'll tell you what it actually costs, what goes wrong, what goes better than expected, and how to make it work practically for someone with a life back home they're not leaving permanently.
Your life is already good. We just think it could have a European chapter.
— Keith & Caroline
How we got here.
Not a plan. A series of next reasonable things.
Florida → Seattle
We left Florida with $6,000 in the bank and drove west to Seattle. Started our TrustedHouseSitters journey on Bainbridge Island within weeks of arriving.
The two-year "month-to-month"
Covid arrived. We rented an apartment month-to-month, sure it would be over soon. It wasn't. We settled, we waited, and we used the time well.
The road resumed
We moved out of the apartment on May 1st and started travelling again — and haven't stopped since.
Housesitting across three continents
England, Israel, France, the United States. Sixty-plus sits. The best education we could have given ourselves in living lightly and feeling at home quickly.
Longer rentals, deeper stays
Two seasons on the French Riviera. Six months in Portugal. Time in Tuscany, Spain, and Italy. Renting longer, staying deeper, becoming TrustedHouseSitters Ambassadors along the way.
Second Act Abroad
The podcast, the YouTube channel, the book (Spring 2027), and this site — for everyone we keep meeting who's been waiting for permission to start.
Caroline sees the possibility. Keith finds the mountain.
Professional voiceover artist and audiobook narrator. Caroline is the one who plans the next adventure — the self-described delusional optimist whose first thought when something looks impossible is "but what if?"
Born in America, raised across the UK, Europe and South Africa. NoShooz Publishing publishes the US editions of Catherine Alliott's nineteen novels — a fifty-year friendship that started at Warwick University.
South African-born, UK passport, long-term US resident. Trained dogs for the South African Air Force — a detail that opens doors "we love animals" never does. Background in B2B software sales.
The active one. Mention hiking and he's already mapped the trailhead. We rode the major cols of the Alps and Pyrenees together — Alpe d'Huez, Galibier, Stelvio, Tourmalet, Ventoux. He runs the audio for everything.
One letter a week, from wherever we are.
What we're doing this month, what it cost, who we met, what we learned. The thing we'd send a friend who asked.