“On March 2nd, 2015, we waved goodbye to our comfortable life and advertising jobs in Johannesburg, South Africa, and started a journey that would allow us to escape our comfort zones, refuel our creative needs, and say “yes” to a whole bunch of crazy cool experiences.”
When HFFH founders, Chanel & Stevo set off, they aimed to see ‘how far from home’ they could go. Tracking each kilometre travelled, the two passionate (and unwitting) travel influencers wrote down the distance on a small chalkboard (which they featured in their legendary photo project on Instagram).
Now, 10 years, 67 countries and 1 toddler-in-tow later, the nomadic creative director duo continues to inspire travellers from all over the world through their blog, Instagram, YouTube and other social channels, and even an online store (all whilst ticking items off their bucket list – something they affectionately call their “Wanderlist”).
Their journey has evolved into a business focused on short-form video marketing, content creation, and creative strategy for experience-driven brands. As the founders of HFFH Studio, a boutique “borderless” video consultancy, they work with clients around the world, delivering story-driven video content, social media strategy, and digital storytelling services that help travel, lifestyle, and family brands grow online and stand out in a crowded market. You can connect with Chanel & Stevo directly through LinkedIn.
the highs
Some of the highlights from their 10 years on the road so far include hot air balloon rides in Kenya and Jordan, helicopter rides in Austria and New York, volunteer work with huskies and other dogs in Norway and Italy, romantic trips in Peru, India, The Netherlands, Japan and Malaysia, road-trips in the USA and Canada, foodie tours in London, an unforgettable 10-day elopement adventure in early 2020 with multiple ceremonies in one of their favourite countries in the world, Namibia, and then right before THE COVID-19 lockdown, they tied the knot back home in South Africa with friends and family from all over the world.
the lows
The tough times are where the greatest learnings can be found. No matter how glamorous a life can appear from the outside, there is a story of struggle and doubt etched into it, and this journey is no different. From sleeping on train station floors, being blocked at borders, constantly facing the fear of flying, and (in the beginning) barely having enough budget for bare essentials… to scrubbing toilets, spreading cow dung, polishing wine glasses, picking up dog poop in freezing, wet weather, and cleaning chicken coops whilst doing volunteer work, it hasn’t all been luxury resorts and gelatos in the sun. It’s brought about a certain realisation though, that you have to know what one felt like to fully experience and appreciate the other.
Where will your journey take you?
Follow HFFH here:
our history
before How Far From Home
2006
We both attend Vega the Brand Communcation School – a private university in Johannesburg, South Africa – to complete our BA Degrees specialising in Creative Brand Communications. We don’t actually meet (although Stevo recalls seeing Chanel in the corridors).
2011
We travel to Europe together for the first time, bringing along 3 friends for an epic escapade through Austria, Germany, England and The Netherlands.
2014
We see Stefan Sagmeister’s inspiring talk on “The Power of Time Off” at the annual Design Indaba conference in Cape Town – essentially giving us the push we need to pursue our “travel around the world” idea.
We develop our Wanderlist – our bucket list of things we want to see and experience.
We brainstorm the How Far From Home concept and start putting our plans in motion. This includes selling off (almost) all of our belongings, cancelling our phone contracts, gym memberships and other debit orders, saving every last cent we earn, and finally building up the courage to quit our jobs in advertising.
2010
We get set-up on a blind date by a mutual friend.
We go on our first cross-border adventure to South Africa’s neighbouring Mozambique.
2013
We enrol in the Goethe Institute, attending late night classes to learn German. They host a competition which had us create a stop-motion animation about Gummy Bears – our first creative collaboration together. We come second and don’t win that all-expenses-paid month-long trip to Munich.
hello How Far From Home
We drive through the night to the top of Europe to visit the North Cape, with our new friends Stefan and Stephy, spotting reindeer and giant sea eagles in a midnight-sun-lit sky.
We get our first two clients (Topdeck Travel and Tastemade) as a traveling creative director duo – a pivotal moment for us as it turned (what we thought would only be) a year-long sabbatical, into a nomadic creative business and lifestyle for us.
We create our first online course on Skillshare.
2016
We return home to South Africa for the first time since leaving and are asked to open the annual Design Indaba conference. We talk about our story, and our How Far From Home project (a full circle moment, as just two years earlier, we were the ones in the crowd listening).
We get featured by a local South African television show we grew up watching as children.
We film our first wedding (a sweet couple in London who booked us despite our lack of wedding experience).
We launch our YouTube channel and document some epic firsts: first time in North America, first time driving a motorhome, first time trying out pet-sitting (loved it so much we did it twice that year), first time skinny dipping in a glacial river whilst living off-the-grid on an island in Iceland, and first time trying Surströmming – that rancid fermented fish the Swedes love to eat on special occasions.
We launch our own online course to inspire and empower our community to follow their dreams and travel full-time like us.
We get another chance to work with The Luxury Collection visiting Peru and Thailand on two unforgettable once-in-a-lifetime adventures with some other incredible creators.
We make a song using a bicycle with super-talented Berlin-based Andrew Applepie, and finally get to see the cherry blossoms in Japan.
Our creative agency picks up some steam with new clients from Bali, Cambodia, Denmark, Austria, Czechia, and back home in South Africa.
2018
We start the year off with some extreme adventures in Finland and Norway – like wood-fired saunas and frozen lake bathing, arctic floating, snowmobiling, and husky mushing.
We visit India, Portugal, The Netherlands, Malta, Brazil, Slovenia, Jordan, Montenegro, Qatar, Ethiopia, Vermont in the USA, and return to Austria, Germany, Turkey, Peru, Kenya, Czechia, Greece, New York, Croatia, The UAE, and Australia.
The relationship we build with The Luxury Collection brand results in a year-long campaign sending us to experience 5 cultural festivals and visit 16 hotels and resorts in 9 countries on 5 continents.
We win the “Most Original Instagram Channel” award at the Traverse Creator Awards.
We become hosts on a short-series road-trip adventure called City Brakes, produced by DriveTribe for Marriott International and SIXT, which sent us on a series of “couple” battles in 4 countries (we won three of the four battles – sorry Tom and Kate).
We wave our South African flag high, working with a local bank and South Africa’s national airline on an epic six-month long campaign which saw us having high tea at Sketch in London, flying over New York in a helicopter, and trying undersea walking in Mauritius.
We launch our first co-authored book with the Italian dog trainers we volunteered for back in 2015 (you can buy the book here).
We work with the South African tourism board traveling to the world’s greenest canyon, and a local phenomenon known as “Hole in the Wall”.
We also visit Mexico for the first time (with Expedia again) experiencing the Day of the Dead Festival and we traverse around the Mexican Caribbean in a wild adventure to end off our year.
2020
We begin the year with our spectacular 10-day adventure wedding elopement exploring the world’s oldest desert in beautiful Namibia.
On 9th February we finally tie the knot in the most magical ceremony on South Africa’s West Coast, seeing friends and family from all over the world.
With the worldwide spread of COVID-19, we cut our honeymoon in Malaysia short, and head home to South Africa to stay safe and indoors.
Once travel bans eased up after 4 months of newly-wed quarantine, we buy ourselves a car aka The Badger so that we can explore more of beautiful South Africa, all whilst servicing clients from the road.
Our adventures around South Africa (with The Badger) continue – allowing us to enjoy sunrises with meerkats, and bush walks with cheetahs and giraffes – until a series of health scares keep us grounded and stationary. Stevo’s back injury results in 8 specialist’ visits and over 9 months of rehabilitation, and Chanel’s torturous COVID recovery takes a little over 5 months, forcing us both to stop working, and stop traveling.
As an agency we work with Expedia on a feel-good campaign as a follow up to our #TravelFromHome series, with several other travel lovers, celebrating Kenya.
2022
A magical year as we’re finally strong enough to travel again. We put The Badger (and some things) on a container, ship it all up to Europe, and decide to settle down (for a little bit) in Prague, in a beautiful apartment we could finally call “home” between the adventures.
Work continues for Stevo as he travels to Mauritius, Kenya, Spain and Germany for the second instalment of our #7DaysOfWellbeing campaign with JW Marriott, while Chanel stays at home with (a very young) Elodie.
Our relationship with Expedia continues to boom as we become part of their Expedia Ambassador programme (sending us on a few European adventures), and our work with South African company, Shyft, allows us to create a fun series of travel videos, ending off the year with Elodie’s first Christmas, and our project with Marriott Bonvoy.
2024
Stevo celebrates his birthday with a surprise trip to Dublin, and one of the world’s oldest golf courses. Also our 65th and 66th country.
Chanel celebrates her birthday by finally ticking off the number one item on her Wanderlist, “overlook the coastline in Positano, Italy”
We choose to pack up our life in Prague (temporarily) putting things in storage, and flying down south to visit friends and family in South Africa.
We travel to Ireland, Northern Ireland, Egypt, and San Marino for the first time, and return to South Africa, Italy, and England.
2015
We leave our lives in South Africa behind and board our first flight on 2nd March with only 4 bags to our names (filled with only essentials and camera equipment).
We start our blog and Instagram photo project, sharing photos of ‘how far from home’ we are, tracking the kilometres on a little black chalkboard.
We travel to Austria, Germany, Norway, Denmark, Sweden, Greece, Italy, Turkey, Australia, The UAE and Thailand (our first time in Asia), England, France, and Switzerland in those first 10 months, clocking up 86,614km.
We opt to spend a month unplugged whilst staying in rural Sweden – no internet, no phones, no laptops, no social media.
We write that blog post, which makes our Instagram account and blog go viral. We gain interest from all four corners of the globe with features about us written by Instagram itself, AdWeek, Buzzfeed, The Daily Mail and lots more.
We fly in a helicopter for the first time (with one of those wild Red Bull pilots), and dine at (the No. 1 restaurant in the world at the time) Noma in Copenhagen for Chanel’s 30th birthday.
We do lots of volunteer work: looking after huskies in the Arctic Circle, scrubbing toilets in Sweden, and birth the concept of our co-authored book while at a dog training facility in Italy (you can buy the book here).
We cover another 119,246km travelling to Namibia, Zimbabwe, Zambia, Malawi, Tanzania, Kenya, Mauritius, Spain, Portugal, Iceland, New York, Arizona, Utah, Nevada, California, Canada, and New Zealand, and return to Austria, Germany, Italy, Sweden, England, and Australia.
We launch our second Skillshare class following the success of the first one.
We also work with The Luxury Collection for the first time, visiting two of their hotels in Portugal and Spain.
2017
A big year for us as Stevo finally gets down on one knee and pops the question (in an epic surprise adventure in Northern Italy).
We travel to Indonesia, Vietnam, Cambodia, Japan, Peru (for our first time in South America), Croatia, Bosnia & Herzegovina, Czechia, Poland, and return to Australia, The UAE, South Africa, Denmark, Austria, Spain, Germany, Italy, and England.
We return to South Africa to shoot our friend’s wedding (our first official wedding photography client).
We also work with Expedia for the first time, in a fun community-led campaign (which won a few digital marketing and social media awards) that allowed our Instagram tribe to decide our next moves in Kenya – from dancing with the Maasai Mara and feeding baby elephants, to riding hot air balloons and going kite-surfing.
As an agency, we work with clients from Finland, Norway, Sweden, Portugal, Kenya, Spain, USA, and Qatar.
2019
With our wedding day approaching, we travel to Melbourne in Australia to get Chanel’s dress, to Antwerp in Belgium to get Stevo’s suit, and we finally secure our wedding venue and send our save-the-dates.
We travel to Scotland, Belgium, and Mexico for the first time, and return to Australia, Austria, England, France, Germany, Italy, Mauritius, Poland, New York, Croatia, Greece and South Africa.
We work again with The Luxury Collection, this time with the team from Italy on a magical journey taking us to 4 regions in the country over 2 months.
We launch our #TravelFromHome series to keep positivity and dreams alive as we moodboard and dream of future travels to places we have yet to see. We feature creators and small businesses from all over the world, hoping to inspire the hopes and dreams of our community.
2021
Nothing could quite prepare us mentally for the year that followed, going down as one of the hardest years either of us had ever had to endure.
We have one of our most successful years as an agency, working with JW Marriott on a wellness campaign called #7DaysOfWellbeing (sending us all over Europe and the Middle East), and Saudi Tourism, allowing us to visit our 61st country.
The biggest highlight of the year, however, was our falling pregnant, expecting our little angel the following year.
We travel to Saudi Arabia for the first time, and return to Turkey, Austria, Czechia, Denmark, Qatar, England, Italy, and Poland.
2023
After a pregnancy craving sends us to Switzerland, and our babymoon in Budapest (where we chose our final baby names), we welcomed our beautiful girl, Elodie Maia Dirnberger on 12 April 2023, changing our lives forever.
We travel to Hungary for the first time, and return to Switzerland, Czechia, Greece, UAE, Oman, Germany and Austria, now as a family of three.
Family travel life becomes the norm, as Elodie clocks up 15 countries as a 15 month old.
A Marriott Bonvoy project allows us to enjoy South Africa’s winelands, and we get to go full circle with Stevo’s wedding suit guy, Tommaso Bordoni, as we film and photograph his wedding in the Italian countryside.
2006
We both attend Vega the Brand Communcation School – a private college in Johannesburg, South Africa – to complete our BA Degrees specialising in Creative Brand Communication. We don’t actually meet (although Stevo recalls seeing Chanel in the corridors).
2010
We get set-up on a blind date by a mutual friend.
We go on our first cross-border adventure to South Africa’s neighbouring Mozambique.
2011
We travel to Europe together for the first time, bringing along 3 friends for an epic escapade through Austria, Germany, England and The Netherlands.
2013
We enrol in the Goethe Institute, attending late night classes to learn German. They host a competition which had us create a stop-motion animation about Gummy Bears – our first creative collaboration together. We come second and don’t win that all-expenses-paid month-long trip to Munich.
2014
We see Stefan Sagmeister’s inspiring talk on “The Power of Time Off” at the annual Design Indaba conference in Cape Town – essentially giving us the push we need to pursue our “travel around the world” idea.
We develop our Wanderlist – our bucket list of things we want to see and experience.
We brainstorm the How Far From Home concept and start putting our plans in motion. This includes selling off (almost) all of our belongings, cancelling our phone contracts, gym memberships and other debit orders, saving every last cent we earn, and finally building up the courage to quit our jobs in advertising.
hello How Far From Home
2015
We leave our lives in South Africa behind and board our first flight on 2nd March with only 4 bags to our names (filled with only essentials and camera equipment).
We start our blog and Instagram photo project, sharing photos of ‘how far from home’ we are, tracking the kilometres on a little black chalkboard.
We travel to Austria, Germany, Norway, Denmark, Sweden, Greece, Italy, Turkey, Australia, The UAE and Thailand (our first time in Asia), England, France, and Switzerland in those first 10 months, clocking up 86,614km.
We opt to spend a month unplugged whilst staying in rural Sweden – no internet, no phones, no laptops, no social media.
We write that blog post, which makes our Instagram account and blog go viral. We gain interest from all four corners of the globe with features about us written by Instagram itself, AdWeek, Buzzfeed, The Daily Mail and lots more.
We drive through the night to the top of Europe to visit the North Cape, with our new friends Stefan and Stephy, spotting reindeer and giant sea eagles in a midnight-sun-lit sky.
We get our first two clients (Topdeck Travel and Tastemade) as a traveling creative duo – a pivotal moment for us as it turned (what we thought would only be) a year-long sabbatical, into a nomadic creative business and lifestyle for us.
We create our first online course on Skillshare.
We fly in a helicopter for the first time (with one of those wild Red Bull pilots), and dine at (the No. 1 restaurant in the world at the time) Noma in Copenhagen for Chanel’s 30th birthday.
We do lots of volunteer work: looking after huskies in the Arctic Circle, scrubbing toilets in Sweden, and birth the concept of our co-authored book while at a dog training facility in Italy (you can buy the book here).
2016
We return home to South Africa for the first time since leaving and are asked to open the annual Design Indaba conference. We talk about our story, and our How Far From Home project (a full circle moment, as just two years earlier, we were the ones in the crowd listening).
We cover another 119,246km travelling to Namibia, Zimbabwe, Zambia, Malawi, Tanzania, Kenya, Mauritius, Spain, Portugal, Iceland, New York, Arizona, Utah, Nevada, California, Canada, and New Zealand, and return to Austria, Germany, Italy, Sweden, England, and Australia.
We launch our second Skillshare class following the success of the first one.
We also work with The Luxury Collection for the first time, visiting two of their hotels in Portugal and Spain.
We get featured by a local South African television show we grew up watching as children.
We film our first wedding (a sweet couple in London who booked us despite our lack of wedding experience.
We launch our YouTube channel and document some epic firsts: first time in North America, first time driving a motorhome, first time trying out pet-sitting (loved it so much we did it twice that year), first time skinny dipping in a glacial river whilst living off-the-grid on an island in Iceland, and first time trying Surströmming – that rancid fermented fish the Swedes love to eat on special occasions.
2017
A big year for us as Stevo finally gets down on one knee and pops the question (in an epic surprise adventure in Northern Italy).
We launch our own online course to inspire and empower our community to follow their dreams and travel full-time like us.
We get another chance to work with The Luxury Collection visiting Peru and Thailand on two unforgettable once-in-a-lifetime adventures with some other incredible creators.
We travel to Indonesia, Vietnam, Cambodia, Japan, Peru (for our first time in South America), Croatia, Bosnia & Herzegovina, Czechia, Poland, and return to Australia, The UAE, South Africa, Denmark, Austria, Spain, Germany, Italy, and England.
We make a song using a bicycle with super-talented Berlin-based Andrew Applepie, and finally get to see the cherry blossoms in Japan.
Our creative agency picks up some steam with new clients from Bali, Cambodia, Denmark, Austria, Czechia, and back home in South Africa.
2018
We start the year off with some extreme adventures in Finland and Norway – like wood-fired saunas and frozen lake bathing, arctic floating, snowmobiling, and husky mushing.
We visit India, Portugal, The Netherlands, Malta, Brazil, Slovenia, Jordan, Montenegro, Qatar, Ethiopia, Vermont in the USA, and return to Austria, Germany, Turkey, Peru, Kenya, Czechia, Greece, New York, Croatia, The UAE, and Australia.
The relationship we build with The Luxury Collection brand results in a year-long campaign sending us to experience 5 cultural festivals and visit 16 hotels and resorts in 9 countries on 5 continents.
We return to South Africa to shoot our friend’s wedding (our first official wedding photography client).
We also work with Expedia for the first time, in a fun community-led campaign (which won a few digital marketing and social media awards) that allowed our Instagram tribe to decide our next moves in Kenya – from dancing with the Maasai Mara and feeding baby elephants, to riding hot air balloons and going kite-surfing.
As an agency, we work with clients from Finland, Norway, Sweden, Portugal, Kenya, Spain, USA, and Qatar.
2019
With our wedding day approaching, we travel to Melbourne in Australia to get Chanel’s dress, to Antwerp in Belgium to get Stevo’s suit, and we finally secure our wedding venue and send our save-the-dates.
We win the “Most Original Instagram Channel” award at the Traverse Creator Awards.
We become hosts on a short-series road-trip adventure called City Brakes, produced by DriveTribe for Marriott International and SIXT, which sent us on a series of “couple” battles in 4 countries (we won three of the four battles – sorry Tom and Kate).
We wave our South African flag high, working with a local bank and South Africa’s national airline on an epic six-month long campaign which saw us having high tea at Sketch in London, flying over New York in a helicopter, and trying undersea walking in Mauritius.
We travel to Scotland, Belgium, and Mexico for the first time, and return to Australia, Austria, England, France, Germany, Italy, Mauritius, Poland, New York, Croatia, Greece and South Africa.
We work again with The Luxury Collection, this time with the team from Italy on a magical journey taking us to 4 regions in the country over 2 months.
We launch our first co-authored book with the Italian dog trainers we volunteered for back in 2015 (you can buy the book here).
We work with the South African tourism board traveling to the world’s greenest canyon, and a local phenomenon known as “Hole in the Wall”.
We also visit Mexico for the first time (with Expedia again) experiencing the Day of the Dead Festival and we traverse around the Mexican Caribbean in a wild adventure to end off our year.
2020
We begin the year with our spectacular 10-day adventure wedding elopement exploring the world’s oldest desert in beautiful Namibia.
On 9th February we finally tie the knot in the most magical ceremony on South Africa’s West Coast, seeing friends and family from all over the world.
With the worldwide spread of COVID-19, we cut our honeymoon in Malaysia short, and head home to South Africa to stay safe and indoors.
Once travel bans eased up after 4 months of newly-wed quarantine, we buy ourselves a car aka The Badger so that we can explore more of beautiful South Africa, all whilst servicing clients from the road.
We launch our #TravelFromHome series to keep positivity and dreams alive as we moodboard and dream of future travels to places we have yet to see. We feature creators and small businesses from all over the world, hoping to inspire the hopes and dreams of our community.
2021
Nothing could quite prepare us mentally for the year that followed, going down as one of the hardest years either of us had ever had to endure.
Our adventures around South Africa (with The Badger) continue – allowing us to enjoy sunrises with meerkats, and bush walks with cheetahs and giraffes – until a series of health scares keep us grounded and stationary. Stevo’s back injury results in 8 specialist’ visits and over 9 months of rehabilitation, and Chanel’s torturous COVID recovery takes a little over 5 months, forcing us both to stop working, and stop traveling.
As an agency we work with Expedia on a feel-good campaign as a follow up to our #TravelFromHome series, with several other travel lovers, celebrating Kenya.
2022
A magical year as we’re finally strong enough to travel again. We put The Badger (and some things) on a container, ship it all up to Europe, and decide to settle down (for a little bit) in Prague, in a beautiful apartment we could finally call “home” between the adventures.
We have one of our most successful years as an agency, working with JW Marriott on a wellness campaign called #7DaysOfWellbeing (sending us all over Europe and the Middle East), and Saudi Tourism, allowing us to visit our 61st country.
The biggest highlight of the year, however, was our falling pregnant, expecting our little angel the following year.
We travel to Saudi Arabia for the first time, and return to Turkey, Austria, Czechia, Denmark, Qatar, England, Italy, and Poland.
2023
After a pregnancy craving sends us to Switzerland, and our babymoon in Budapest (where we chose our final baby names), we welcomed our beautiful girl, Elodie Maia Dirnberger on 12 April 2023, changing our lives forever.
Work continues for Stevo as he travels to Mauritius, Kenya, Spain and Germany for the second instalment of our #7DaysOfWellbeing campaign with JW Marriott, while Chanel stays at home with (a very young) Elodie.
Our relationship with Expedia continues to boom as we become part of their Expedia Ambassador programme (sending us on a few European adventures), and our work with South African company, Shyft, allows us to create a fun series of travel videos, ending off the year with Elodie’s first Christmas, and our project with Marriott Bonvoy
We travel to Hungary for the first time, and return to Switzerland, Czechia, Greece, UAE, Oman, Germany and Austria, now as a family of three.
2024
Family travel life becomes the norm, as Elodie clocks up 15 countries as a 15 month old.
Stevo celebrates his birthday with a surprise trip to Dublin, and one of the world’s oldest golf courses. Also our 65th and 66th country.
Chanel celebrates her birthday by finally ticking off the number one item on her Wanderlist, “overlook the coastline in Positano, Italy”
A Marriott Bonvoy project allows us to enjoy South Africa’s winelands, and we get to go full circle with Stevo’s wedding suit guy, Tommaso Bordoni, as we film and photograph his wedding in the Italian countryside.
We choose to pack up our life in Prague (temporarily) putting things in storage, and flying down south to visit friends and family in South Africa.
We travel to Ireland, Northern Ireland, Egypt, and San Marino for the first time, and return to South Africa, Italy, and England.
Where will our journey take us next?
Follow along to see:
