About Us

Hi! We’re Nick & Raychel, the Canadian travel couple behind the brand ‘Not Luxe’.

Far before we were married (and on a mission to see the world), we were working our brick & mortar 9-5 jobs in Vancouver, Canada. Soon after falling in love, we decided we wanted more for ourselves. We had a little bit of travel experience (and by that, I mean we had been to a couple of countries), some professional work experience, and a whole lot of ambition. Our lives and jobs weren’t awful, but we were barely scraping by financially, and paying way too much for a run-down apartment in one of the most expensive cities in the world. Let me tell you – we definitely did not have enough money in our accounts to up & leave (savings? what are those?). I had heard about people who moved overseas to teach English, but we didn’t really know what that would entail, how we’d even get certified to do that, and had no idea where to start.

In 2017, we decided it was time to make the leap into whatever the heck we were about to leap into. Eventually, we landed on the idea of teaching English in Cambodia – a country we had never even stepped foot in before. Here comes in the researching, studying, and scratching our heads for answers. We always said that once we figured it out, we’d teach others how to do the same – because while there were so many people who did this before us, we couldn’t really find the exact information we were hoping for. That’s how this blog and our YouTube channel were born.

Since then, we’ve travelled through Asia, lived in Australia, built a campervan out of a retired ambulance, and travelled across Canada – twice. We’ve taught English, figured out working holiday visas, ate delicious food, met amazing people, got engaged, then married while living the van life. And while we still don’t have it all figured out, we are still sharing our learnings along the way with you.

Because if we’ve learned anything, if there’s a will, there’s a way.

You don’t have to be perfect, you don’t have to be rich, you don’t have to be luxe.

So let’s go see the world.

With love,

Nick & Raychel
www.notluxe.com