
Hi – thanks for taking a detour from your daily lives to join us here at D2 Detours! We are Howard and Whitney Darby (2 “D”arbys) – husband and wife Canadians from Calgary, Alberta fulfilling our retirement dream of no fixed address!
We have always made travel a part of our lives, but in early 2021 we left our careers in the IT and legal fields respectively to begin a nomadic travel lifestyle.
Our intention with this blog is to pass along our insights into what we discover in each location, including our final location posts that will provide the following information on each of our destinations:
Dollars – what did it cost us to live there
Environment – where did we live/neighbourhood
Tips, Tricks and Transportation
Out and About – what did we do and see
Us – our overall impression/likes or dislikes of a city/country
Restaurants and the local food
Speech – useful words/phrases in the native language
Come along with us on our adventures! You can also follow us on Facebook, Twitter and Instagram.
Who Are We?
In 1985 we met in Whitney’s hometown of Edmonton, Alberta where Howard had recently relocated from Vancouver, British Columbia. The next year, we took a three-week trip to the Hawaiian Islands which was Whitney’s first trip over an ocean; Caribbean cruises and a European bus tour soon followed. Raising a family curtailed our overseas travel, but in 2014 we made travel a priority again visiting Italy, Croatia, Greece and England. A 2017 trip to Southeast Asia really whetted our appetite for living abroad, and a 2019 trip to Morocco, Gibraltar, Spain and Portugal solidified our plans.

Prior to retirement, Whitney spent most of her career as a paraprofessional in the legal field, with a short stint as a school librarian when our boys were school-aged. In addition to travelling, scuba diving, reading and a good bottle of wine rank high on her list of things that make life worth living.

Howard worked as an IT consultant for 40 years. He took us all over North America competing on the World Fast Draw circuit and still holds the title of Fastest Gun Alive. He was world champion 19 times and currently holds 18 world records. More on that can be found at howarddarby.com. Now he mainly uses a camera to shoot, having developed his photography skills over the last few decades. He is looking forward to documenting our travels both on land and underwater, which you can follow on our Instagram page. High quality copies of Howard’s photos are available for private, commercial, or editorial usage through these links: Getty Images/iStock, Adobe Stock, ShutterStock. All pictures on this blog have been taken by Howard unless indicated otherwise.

More Info: For a bit more information on how we travel you can check out the article we wrote for the “Life Chapter 2” series, and don’t forget to visit our Spending page for details on what it costs to live this type of travel lifestyle.
Lifetime Total Countries Visited: 46
Countries visited pre-retirement (alphabetically)
- Austria
- Belgium
- Cambodia
- Canada
- Cayman Islands
- Croatia
- England
- France
- Germany
- Gibraltar
- Greece
- Italy
- Jamaica
- Japan
- Liechtenstein
- Mexico
- Monaco
- Morocco
- Netherlands
- Portugal
- Saint Martin
- Sint Maarten
- Spain
- St. Thomas
- Switzerland
- Thailand
- The Bahamas
- Turkey
- United States
- Vatican City
- Vietnam
Countries visited post-retirement (chronologically)
- Bulgaria (July – Aug 2021)
- Turkey (Aug – Oct 2021)
- Jordan (Oct 2021)
- Madaba / Booking.com (2 nights)
- Wadi Musa (Petra) / Booking.com (2 nights)
- Dead Sea / Holiday Inn (1 night)
- Amman / Booking.com (2 nights)
- Egypt (Oct 2021)
- Cairo / Le Riad Hotel de Charme (3 nights)
- Aswan / Tolip Hotel (2 nights)
- Nile River / MS Salacia Nile Cruise (3 nights)
- Hurghada / Continental Hotel (3 nights)
- Cairo / Steigenberger El Tahrir (2 nights)
- UAE (Oct/Nov 2021)
- Dubai / Mercure Dubai Barsha Heights Hotel Apartments (4 nights)
- Spain (Nov & early Dec 2021)
- El Campello (Alicante) / Airbnb (4 weeks)
- Alcázar de San Juan / Airbnb (4 nights)
- Tanzania / Albatros (Feb 2022)
- Canada / Airbnb 1, Airbnb 2, Airbnb 3 (May 2022)
- USA, Alaska cruise / Holland America (June 2022)
- Italy / Airbnb (July 2022)
- San Marino (Aug 2022)
- Slovenia / Booking.com (Aug 2022)
- Hungary / Airbnb (Aug 2022)
- Romania (Aug 2022)
- Transylvania / Airbnb, Airbnb (1 week each)
- Bucharest / Airbnb (1 week)
- Serbia / Airbnb (Aug 2022)
- Croatia (Sept 2022)
- Istria Peninsula / Booking.com (1 week)
- Dalmatia Coast & Hvar / main: Airbnb (16 nights)
- Bosnia & Herzegovina / Airbnb 1, Airbnb 2 (Sept 2022)
- Montenegro / Airbnb (Oct 2022)
- Italy / Airbnb (Oct 2022)
- Malta / Airbnb 1, Airbnb 2 (Oct 2022)
- Sicily, Italy / Airbnb 1, Airbnb 2, Airbnb 3 (Nov 2022)
- Spain, France / B&B, Hotel 1, Hotel 2, Airbnb (Nov 2022)
- Portugal / Booking.com, Airbnb 1, Airbnb 2 (Dec 2022)
- USA, Coachella Valley, California / Staying with family (Jan 2022)
- Japan (Feb 2023)
- South Korea / Airbnb (Mar 2023)
- Vietnam / 1, 2, 3, 4, 5 (April 2023)
- Malaysia (April 2023)
- Kuala Lumpur & Langkawi / 1, 2 (17 nights)
Click the country/city name to open our article on that location, or the residence provider to view where we stayed.
Subscribe to Follow Along
We’d love to have you along on our travels and will be posting new blog entries from this site on our Facebook and Twitter pages. Please subscribe there to stay updated, or to our Instagram feed to see our favourite photos. You can also use the subscription form to have a weekly email digest sent to you when we have new posts that week.
Good luck in you new life full of adventures. I look forward to following your travels.
Guy
Love this chance to follow fellow Canadian nomads!
Woop 🙌 woop 🙌
Way to go … we look forward to following your adventures !
Enjoy …
The Helstons (Rob & Cheri)
Riley Helstons – Mom & Dad 😉
A blast from the past! How on earth did you find our blog?
I have only read o your post about Fethiye but I’m impressed so far, especially with the “DETOURS” feature. I travelled continuously from 2014-2017 then worked 3 years in Toronto before retiring on the very week in March 2020 that we went into lockdown. I hope to be back on the road in April (2022) and thanks to your info, Fethiye is now high on the list.