About TravelKiwis

Slow Travel, City Walks, and Life Lived Locally

TravelKiwis began with a simple question:

What if travel didn’t have to feel rushed?

In 2016, we sold our home and stepped into a different way of living and travelling — one that prioritised time, curiosity, and everyday life over ticking boxes.

Since then, we’ve explored cities, towns, and regions across Europe at a gentler pace, often staying long enough to feel less like visitors and more like locals.

TravelKiwis is where we share what that way of travelling has taught us.

We’re Terry and Maura

Man and woman with 2 dogs
Housesitting for slow travel city walks

We’re travel writers, slow travellers, and international house sitters.

But more importantly, we’re walkers.

We walk cities to understand them — not just their landmarks, but their rhythms. Where people shop. Where they linger. Which streets feel welcoming, and which ones don’t.

Over time, walking stopped being something we did between sights — and became the way we experienced places entirely.

Why Walking Changed How We Travel

When you explore a city on foot, something shifts.

You notice patterns instead of highlights.
You feel oriented, rather than overwhelmed.

Walking gives you:

  • A sense of scale

  • Time to absorb details

  • Freedom to pause, detour, or stop entirely

It also reveals which routes feel right — and which don’t.

That understanding is the foundation of everything we create at TravelKiwis.

How House sitting Fits Into Our Story

You may notice we occasionally talk about house sitting — and it’s worth explaining why.

House sitting has allowed us to live inside neighbourhoods for weeks or months at a time, rather than passing through quickly.

It means:

  • Walking the same streets repeatedly

  • Learning daily rhythms

  • Refining routes over time

  • Experiencing cities as places to live, not just visit

That depth of familiarity is what feeds directly into our City Walks.

They aren’t designed from a checklist or a short stay — they’re shaped by lived experience and repetition.

From Walking to Creating City Walks

Over the years, people began asking us the same questions:

  • “How do you always seem to find the quieter streets?”
  • “How do you know where to walk without getting lost?”
  • “How do you see so much without feeling exhausted?”

The answer was always the same:
We walked — a lot.

Eventually, we realised those walks could help other travellers too.

That’s how Urban Footprints City Walks were born:
self-guided walking routes designed to help travellers explore European cities calmly, confidently, and at their own pace.

What TravelKiwis Is Today

Today, TravelKiwis focuses on:

🚶 City Walks in Europe

Carefully designed self-guided walks that help you explore cities on foot — without rush, crowds, or confusion.

📖 Travel Stories & Slow Insights

Thoughtful reflections, destination notes, and walking-based travel stories from life on the road.

🧭 Practical, Lived Experience

Everything we share comes from time spent being there — not just passing through.

Our work is particularly suited to travellers who:

  • Are 40+ (or travel that way)

  • Enjoy structure without rigidity

  • Value comfort, clarity, and context

  • Prefer depth over speed

About Our House Sitting Book

A 3D view of a book titled Go House Sitting

Our years of house sitting naturally became part of our story — and eventually, part of a book.

The book shares:

  • How house sitting works

  • What we’ve learned from living locally around the world

  • The realities — not just the romance — of long-term travel

It’s written for travellers curious about:

  • Slower, more affordable travel

  • Living like a local

  • Designing a different kind of life on the road

📘 Learn more about our housesitting book

(This is an optional path — not a requirement to enjoy TravelKiwis or our City Walks.)

What We Believe About Travel

We believe:

  • Cities are best understood on foot

  • Travel doesn’t need to be rushed to be meaningful

  • Fewer places, experienced well, beat many places rushed through

  • Walking reveals what guidebooks often miss

TravelKiwis exists to support that kind of travel.

If You’re New Here

If you’re just discovering TravelKiwis, a lovely place to begin is with one of our walks.

🎁 Try a Free City Walk
🚶 Explore City Walks in Europe

Or, if you prefer to wander first, our Travel Journal is always open.

A Final Thought

Small boats in a harbour with colourful house
Selce, Croatia
Travel doesn’t have to exhaust you to be memorable.

Sometimes, all it takes is a well-chosen walk, a little time, and permission to slow down.

That’s the kind of travel we believe in — and the kind we share at TravelKiwis.

Welcome. We’re glad you’re here.