When I contacted David for this interview, I was a little doubtful that I’d get a “yes.’ Not only did I get one, but his answers were so full of life! I’ve seen so many of his videos and it warmed my heart to see him on my island of Dominica one day! I found out about this bar that I didn’t even know existed. :O

David Hoffmann is an entrepreneur, foodie and travel host from South Miami, Florida.

He has been named one of the Top 10 Best Travel Videographers by USA Today and Top 10 Travel Video Sites by OOAworld. David has also won the 2020 Travel Video Alliance Award for Best Culinary Video, and the Top Travel Blog award from CrowdsourcedExplorer. He has had numerous articles written on him and his food filled adventures, and has also done countless interviews, and Dit Mwen Tout is HAPPY and GRATEFUL to be added to that list. Let’s take a dive into David’s world!

You can find David everywhere with the handle @Davidsbeenhere!

Thank you for agreeing to this interview. Blessings. May you please introduce yourself for those who may not know who you are?

It’s my pleasure! Thanks for having me. So, my name is David Hoffmann. I am a world traveler, entrepreneur, and the founder and CEO of David’s Been Here. I’ve been traveling full-time since 2008 and I haven’t looked back.

• Where in the world are you replying to us from?

Right now, I’m replying to you from my new storefront in South Miami, Florida! We’re planning on opening in early 2024. Right now, we’re getting everything ready—painting, remodeling, acquiring inventory. We’re located at 5832 Sunset Drive and we’re going to sell my David’s Been Here Hot Sauce, travel gear, and unique hand-made crafts from countries around the world! For people who don’t live in Miami, we’ll have an online store where you can buy anything we have in stock. So, no matter where you live in the world, you can buy our products. It’s the first store of its kind and I hope it makes the world a bit more accessible to people who don’t have the means to travel the way I do.

UPDATE! David’s store is now open for business!

• How many countries has David been to, to date? (I worked on cruise ships and touched quite a few ports myself, but I’m betting I’m nowhere close to your total!)

As of October 2023, I’ve visited 101 countries, with the most recent new country being Indonesia. I have quite a few more to go!

• What’s your zodiac sign? (Haha I’m trying to see if your knack for travel has anything to do with the stars. 😊)

I’m a Virgo—born September 4, 1985.

• What prompted you to start this unique concept and when was “David’s Been Here” launched?

I founded David’s Been Here in my final year of college in 2008, but my love for travel starts long before then. As a kid, my family and I traveled often to visit friends and relatives in other parts of the world. When I was a teenager, I visited my mother’s family in Gubbio, Italy. I didn’t speak Italian and my mom’s family didn’t speak English, so I was lost in translation the whole time. But we were able to bond over food. That’s when I realized that food is something that binds us all together. No matter your race, your culture, what language you speak, food brings people together. It’s universal. It was then that I truly fell in love with travel and decided I wanted it to play a part in my career. I just didn’t know how to make it happen until YouTube came along many years later!

• Was it a difficult start?

Yes, very. After I founded David’s Been Here, my first order of business was raising money to fund my travels. I spoke to investors and had to convince them that my dream to make travel accessible to everyone via a new, untested platform like YouTube was viable. Thankfully, I raised $250,000 and was able to hire a full-time videographer and an assistant, who joined me on trips around the world for the next two years. We filmed and released hundreds of short-form episodes during that time, which you can still find on my YouTube channel if you go back far enough. But, because there was no way to monetize content on YouTube back then, we made no money from those videos. I ran out of money in 2010, and we were forced to go back to Miami. I struggled for the next two years because I wanted to be traveling, not selling travel gear and guidebooks on Amazon, which is what I did to make ends meet. I had no money. But eventually, I was able to make enough money to start traveling again in 2012. I’ve been pretty much non-stop since then.

• Your business is of a particular nature. There are so many things to consider when moving from one country to another, from rules and regulations to the type of climate that you’re going to have to face. Is there anything or things in particular that you do before entering a new territory?

I don’t really talk about it in my videos, but understanding the political climate of any country is key when I’m considering where I want to go. For obvious safety reasons, I stay away from areas where there’s a lot of conflict and violence. Other than that, I do lots of research. I study the laws, customs, and etiquette in each country because there are things we do that are commonplace and acceptable here in the U.S. but can get you in serious trouble if you do them in other parts of the world. Yes, I look up attractions, food, and restaurants that interest me, but I also establish contact with professional guides or “fixers” there, so they can arrange for me to visit and get access to places only a local would know about. I also ask them to arrange cultural activities for me. I love studying maps, and that’s one of the ways I pick the route I’ll take once I’m on the ground. There are a lot of moving parts when I travel.

• Random! Soccer or football?

Soccer all day! I grew up playing it. I’m obsessed. I actually live-streamed myself watching the World Cup earlier this year! (2023) I wanted to go, but I had other travel plans that conflicted with it.

• What could be considered the most dangerous territory that you’ve visited? Dangerous here could refer to anything. Climate, terrain, crime etc.

Oh man. I think the harshest environment I ever visited was the Sahara Desert in Morocco in 2008. This was very early in my professional travel career. Of course, it’s unbearably hot during the day, and that’s how my time there became dangerous, but not how you might think. While we were there, one of my friends dumped a bucket of well water over my head. It felt cool and refreshing in the moment, but I guess there was some kind of bacteria or parasite in the water, and some of it got in my mouth. A few hours later, we were far out in the desert and I started feeling sick. Before long, I was vomiting uncontrollably, hours from the nearest city. It was awful, and I was terrified. I wound up having to go to a hospital to get my stomach pumped. It’s not an experience I ever want to repeat!

Mel here! I’m here with my mouth open! OH MY GOD! What an experience, and in the middle of the desert!!!

What keeps you doing what you do? How do you know that you’re going to be safe and unharmed during your travels and expeditions?

Oh, that’s an easy question. My two daughters keep me going. Everything I do is for them. I want to build a better life for them and give them things I never could have dreamed of when I was their age. And to answer the second part of your question, the main thought in my mind when I travel is that I want to get back home to them. That’s why I’m very risk averse when I travel. You can’t eliminate all danger, of course. But it’s why I purposely don’t do risky activities or visit conflict zones. I need to get back to my girls when all is set and done.

Mel here again! I’ve never dropped into someone’s interview that much but I’m here saying “AWWWWW.” As a new mom, I totally get it!

1. I’ve seen quite a few of your videos and was delighted to see you on my sweet island of Dominica not too long ago. Accept my late “Welcome!” On your trips you indulge in the culture, customs and food of the people. What’s the strangest food/drink that you’ve tried, or activity that you’ve taken part in? (If you dare say :D)

Now for a hard question! Haha, I’ve eaten so many strange things over the years, I’ve probably forgotten some of them! I’ve eaten beetle larvae, silkworms, scorpions, centipedes…but the strangest was probably the octopus I ate at the Taejongdae Clam Tents in Busan, South Korea. The cook killed it in front of us and chopped it up into little pieces, but the pieces still squirmed around on the plate like they were still alive! I could feel the little suction cups latching onto my tongue, the insides of my cheeks, and the roof of my mouth as I chewed them. You have to chew them very well or they can grab the inside of your throat when you swallow! On top of that, the raw octopus was definitely an acquired taste. It’s one of the few meals I had in South Korea that I didn’t enjoy.

:O :O :O

1. Have you ever gotten ill from eating something strange and new?

Yeah, that’s one of the downsides of being a foodie who travels and is open to try anything! I’ve gotten sick a few times while traveling in the last several years—I just don’t talk about it much in my videos. But during my first trip to India in 2018, I started my trip by eating street food for three days straight in Delhi. As I was leaving the city via a train to Agra, I started feeling sick and started throwing up in the train bathroom. I was sick for almost two weeks and could barely eat anything in the next three cities on my itinerary. It sucked, because Indian street food was the main reason I’d booked the trip, but I had to be careful. Luckily, I was good to go by the time I got to Mumbai two weeks later, so I went all out with the food there!

I also got sick in Kosovo in 2020. I was in the capital, Pristina, and the same thing happened. My guide Erjan and I went for some street food, and we both got horribly sick after arriving back at our hotel. We were both violently ill for about 8 hours, but then we woke up and were fine the next morning.

And I got really sick in Ghana in 2021. I tried some exotic dishes in Kumasi and woke up vomiting at five in the morning. I was so dehydrated the entire day. My legs and feet were cramping from losing so much water and I still had to go out later that morning and film an entire day in the villages outside the city—including food! It was a rough day to say the least.

1. What was your favourite part about my beautiful Dominica? In terms of landscape, we are truly one of the most beautiful Caribbean Islands. (Biased for days here, but you understand 😊)

That’s actually the thing I loved about Dominica the most! The landscapes on the island are gorgeous. The mix of lush, green rainforest, waterfalls, and mountainous landscapes is so beautiful. And then you also have really nice beaches, so you have a bit of everything. You can go hiking, explore the waterfalls, and swim in the ocean all in the same day if you want. It’s a tropical paradise!

Let it be known people! Daivd approves our lovely Dominica!

1. What’s a surprising but unknown fact about you? (Shock me!)

I’ve been a hustler ever since I was a kid! I used to sell candy and muffins to my classmates at school and I also sold mangoes from our mango tree on the side of the road in Miami. Everyone called me “the muffin man” at school. I almost got suspended for doing it, so I eventually had to stop! But very early on, I knew I had to work for every dollar and that nothing would be handed to me. If I wanted it, I needed to go get it myself.

1. How do your close friends and family feel about the business that your own/run?

It’s a mix, honestly. There are some people in my life who are incredibly supportive of what I do, but there are also others who don’t really get it or aren’t into it. It’s something you have to learn to deal with, regardless of what you do. Everyone isn’t going to see your vision for yourself and that’s okay. You just have to be grateful for the ones who do believe in you.

1. Are you currently, or have you encountered any problems that are possibly unique to your business type? Have you ever been denied entry into a country?

I’ve never been denied entry into a country, but back in March of 2020, I was exploring Bhutan when the World Health Organization named COVID a global pandemic. Every country started closing their borders, and I had to cut my trip short by four days to hurry up and get out of the country. Otherwise, I’d be stuck there for months with no way home. I had to hop a last-minute flight to Kolkata in India, and then get out of India before their borders closed, too. It was probably the most stressful 24 hours of my life!

1. What’s a country that’s on your bucket list that you have not yet gone to?

There are so many. Egypt and Vietnam are both up there, as are Romania, Nigeria, and Bangladesh. I was supposed to go to Egypt last year, but the plans fell through. I’ve also been chatting with a fellow travel YouTuber who lives in Vietnam about teaming up with him at some point to explore the country. It’s all about getting the timing right.

1. Random-er! Boat or plane?

Plane. They’re faster. 😜

1. When you’re not literally showing us around the world, what are you doing? Do you ever feel the need to slow down, or stop and rest?

It’s hard for me to rest, if I’m being honest. Being the CEO of a company, there’s always something that needs to be done. Thankfully, I have a great team that helps me with a lot of daily tasks because there’s no way I could get them all done by myself. But I still spend 6-8 hours a day at the office. When I’m not traveling or at the office, I’m with my kids. That’s probably the closest I get to true relaxation, even though I’m usually chasing after them and making sure they stay out of trouble!

• Describe yourself in three words.  

Driven, outgoing, kind.