In 2022, 21-year-old Bella Robben lives with her parents in St. Louis, Missouri, working as a barista in the morning and a waitress at Outback Steakhouse in the evening.
“Pretty much what I do at home is save money so I can travel,” Robben told CNBC Make It.
Robben started backpacking at the age of 19 and visited 19 countries in two years.
Robben’s Australian tour began in May 2023, when she left St. Louis for a backpacking trip in Peru. She traveled around the country for three weeks, then traveled to Colombia for six weeks before flying to Europe. She lived in Barcelona for a month, London for another month and Lisbon for three weeks.
“I always knew this was what I loved to do,” Robben said.
By September 2023, due to the growing influence of social media Tik TokAfterwards, Robben got the opportunity to go on a brand tour with Australia’s Northern Territory Tourism Board. Her flight was operated by Student Universe, a travel company for students and young people.
In November 2023, Robben moved into her Melbourne apartment with three roommates.
Bella Robben
Robben’s original plan was to visit Australia for only a week, but before the trip she decided to apply for the country’s working holiday visa.
“If I get a visa, I can stay long-term, earn money and go backpacking in the south of the country,” she said.
Within days, she was approved.
“I didn’t know I was moving to Australia when I left, and now I don’t necessarily want to go back because I do prefer life outside the United States to being in the United States.”
Australian working holiday visa People aged 18 to 30 (or 35 in some countries) are allowed to take extended leave and work in the country to fund their 12-month stay. If granted the first visa, the applicant can apply for the second and third visas after meeting certain requirements. Each new visa can extend your stay for an additional 12 months for a fee of A$650 or US$425.
Robben’s first apartment in Melbourne was in the city centre, above a nightclub.
Bella Robben
Robben spent about a week in Australia’s Northern Territory before flying to Melbourne, where she lived in a hotel for several months while looking for an apartment. That November, she found an apartment above a nightclub and shared it with two new friends she’d met in a hotel.
The monthly rent for this unit is A$2,390.00 or US$1,569. According to documents seen by CNBC Make It, Robben earns $523 per month.
“This is the greatest apartment known to man. It’s the perfect backpacker apartment,” Robben said. “It’s in the center of everything. We always have people coming over and have the best neighbors. I absolutely love that apartment.”
Robben and her flatmates used Australia’s free marketplace Gumtree to outfit their apartment with almost everything they needed.
In Melbourne, Robben worked as a waiter in a small cafe.
Robben and her flatmates took advantage of one of Australia’s free markets to renovate their first apartment together.
Bella Robben
After living in the apartment for about seven months, Robben and a roommate bought a car, left Melbourne and drove north to the seaside town of Port Douglas in Queensland, northeastern Australia.
Eventually, Robben found work as a hotel receptionist near Far North Queensland.
One of the great things about working in a hotel is that hotel accommodations are cheap. Robben pays just $98 a week for a house she shares with two roommates. According to documents reviewed by CNBC Make It, Robben is paid $682 a week, with rent automatically deducted from her paycheck.
“It’s hard to get yourself out of here”
Robben’s daily life in Far North Queensland includes morning walks on the beach and working on his social media channels, Respond to emails before your shift starts at noon. She leaves work around 7 p.m. and goes to the grocery store to buy ingredients for dinner that night or to go out with friends. The 21-year-old takes day trips around the country on her days off.
“I never thought I would stay this long and now I have found so many good friends, the money is good and it is very comfortable to live here,” Robben said. “There’s so much to do here and so much nature, so it’s hard to tear yourself away from here.”
A perk of Robben’s job is that she can live in a hotel for $98 a week.
Bella Robben
Robben said she had enough income to live on and save in Australia. This was the opposite of what she thought she would be like if she returned home to the United States.
“I didn’t want to move out of my parents’ house because I knew all I had to do was work to pay the rent, and that’s not what I wanted to do,” she said. “I sacrificed living in the city and making friends because I wanted to travel.”
Now, approaching a year in Australia, Robben says she is no longer the same person she was when she first arrived in the country.
“It’s crazy to think that a whole year has passed. It was daunting to move here and there was a time when I didn’t want to be here,” Robben said. “Now, I can’t believe I ever thought that.”
Robben likes to take day trips to Australia after work.
Bella Robben
Robben said that as the youngest child she was always very sheltered, so moving so far away helped her force herself to do a lot of things on her own. I really had to rely on myself and trust that I knew what to do,” she said.
Robben said she never really had a life in the United States: “I didn’t really have a lot of friends because I moved around a lot growing up,” she said.
Robben returned home to St Louis earlier this year because she missed her family, but said she wanted to return to Australia as soon as possible.
“When I came back, I felt this strong feeling almost immediately because everything is so career-centric in America,” Robben said.
“I like ambition, and I feel like I’m ambitious, but it can also be overwhelming.”
Nandroa Falls is Robben’s favorite place in Far North Queensland.
Bella Robben
Robben’s first working holiday visa is about to expire, and when she completes her 88 days of work, she will set off backpacking across Southeast Asia.
“I hope that some opportunity or some country will appeal to me in some way,” she said.
Robben is considering applying for a second working holiday visa in Australia, but not right away: “I’m kind of keeping that option in my back pocket for when I run out of money and need to come back to work,” she said.
“Obviously, things went wrong for me and not everything was perfect, but I do believe that everything will work out,” Robben said.
Bella Robben
For others who want to live and work abroad, Robben says it’s okay to be a little paranoid.
“Obviously, things went wrong for me and not everything was perfect, but I did believe that everything was going to work out. I think it’s good to be paranoid because you never know,” she said.
“I just want to live in the moment,” Robben added. “I want to live in the moment and appreciate what’s going on.”
Conversion between Australian dollars and US dollars is done using the OANDA exchange rate, that is, 1 Australian dollar is converted to 0.66 August 9, 2024 USD.
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