The Backpack Years

Part travel, part romance, part failing at life, The Backpack Years intertwines two memoirs, charting Stef and James's six-year journey from happily wandering to miserably settled and back again.



Straight-laced Stef left America to study abroad in Spain, letting loose and falling head over heels for two things: a handsome local and travel. Travel won out. James had a future in England he felt he'd already destroyed. Fueled by debt and a deteriorating relationship with his father, James fled to Australia and found something better.



After language mishaps in France and a topless night in Tenerife, an awful offal job in Warrnambool and a kidnapped manicure in Bali, Stef and James meet at an Irish pub in Sydney. Though their adventures are pulling them in different directions, they ditch the single life to forge a path together.



Can the two navigate their way through red-tape, relocation, miscommunication, and a last ditch, make-or-break trip to try to save their relationship, or will this be their last adventure as a couple?



Spanning thirteen countries and four continents, The Backpack Years is a story about how far we're willing to go to be with the one we love.