We had the good fortune of connecting with Dominika Duricova and Pavel Rusko and we’ve shared our conversation below.

Hi Dominika and Pavel, what was your thought process behind starting your own business?
We love traveling and have always wanted it to be a big and important part of our lives, so we try to focus on that and travel whenever possible. Our trip to the USA was definitely the biggest and most adventurous we have ever taken, as our home is in central Europe. I wouldn’t call what we do a business yet, but we definitely have that ambition.

Can you open up a bit about your work and career? We’re big fans and we’d love for our community to learn more about your work.

Traveling has always been a big part of our dreams and that’s why we try to discover as many new places and countries as possible. Before we decided to visit the USA, we visited several European countries, but that “American feeling” is still somehow special for us. We spent only a month there, as we both had to go back to work in Europe afterwards, but we plan to return and discover a lot more of American cities, culture and nature.

We both have full time jobs, so it´s not easy to manage time between our travels, contect creation and job, but we see that we are slowly getting better and better, and that motivates us. We would be traveling anyway, so why not try to inspire others too and make it a side hustle?

What we would like to achieve is to motivate people to travel. To visit places they have never been to and also places and countires they thought there was nothing to see there, because sometimes those are the ones that surprise the most. The fun thing about traveling is that you are not only discovering new places in the world, but also within yourself.

If you had a friend visiting you, what are some of the local spots you’d want to take them around to?

As for our home country Slovakia, we would definitely take our friend to the Tatra mountains. The nature in Slovakia is really beautiful, so we would plan several hikes to the most beautiful peaks and lakes.

If this question is referring to our travels in Arizona, we loved the nature and it was one of the most unique experiences of our lives. American nature was something we looked forward to the most. It was absolutely amazing to finally see places that we only saw in movies. For us, these places were Grand Canyon, Antelope Canyon and Horseshoe bend. So these are definitely places we would show to our friend visiting Arizona, but we would spend more time there. We would go on a Colorado River cruise through Horseshoe bend, go on various hikes in National parks, and we would ride horses. Instead of hotels, we would stay in various Airbnbs close to nature.

Shoutout is all about shouting out others who you feel deserve additional recognition and exposure. Who would you like to shoutout?
While we were writing the answers to these questions, I asked Pavel what or who always inspired him to travel. The answers were quick and clear: Indiana Jones and Bilbo Baggins. I think that explains a lot. 

Instagram: @thehappybackpacks

Image Credits
All images were taken by us.

Nominate Someone: ShoutoutArizona is built on recommendations and shoutouts from the community; it’s how we uncover hidden gems, so if you or someone you know deserves recognition please let us know here.