Joyful Travel.
Enriching Exploration.
Incredible Memories.
After 30 years of marriage and two fabulous kids now grown, we are off on our next adventure! We created this site to share our combined passions for traveling the world, capturing its beauty through photography, and connecting with incredible people along the way. Our goal is to spark your wanderlust, to make your journeys a little easier, and to highlight some of the unforgettable places, people, and experiences that make our world truly extraordinary.
Welcome to The Well-Explored Life!
Hi, we are Danielle and Tom!
Danielle Lavallee
Nutritional Psychologist, Writer
With a doctorate in clinical psychology and a masters in nutrition, Danielle is passionate about the impact of food on our mood, our brain function, and our long-term cognitive wellness. You can view her work on eating for brain health at:
https://thewell-nourishedbrain.com.
Travel is one of the best ways to keep our brains young and vibrant. It broadens our vision, exposes us to unfamiliar languages and customs, encourages us to move our bodies daily, and teaches us lessons we would never have learned sitting at home. Danielle loves planning foreign adventures, making useful and beautiful things by hand, and connecting with wonderful people around the world.
Tom Barwick
Professional Photographer
Tom has been a travel and lifestyle photographer for the past three decades. Creating beautiful images of people, locations, and food are his passion. You can view his work at:
https://www.gettyimages.com/search/2/image?phrase=thomas+barwick+travel.
Tom has a unique ability to bring out the best in anyone he photographs. His impressive body of work is a testament to his remarkable skill at capturing beautiful moments on film. He loves to explore and he achieved his goal of visiting all the continents in a single year in 2024. He is up for any outdoor adventure, and he especially loves climbing up tall mountains and skiing down.
Why Us, Why Now?
Our last 25 years were happily spent caring for others - first our wonderful children, one of whom has a debilitating health condition (a rare bone marrow disorder), and then our beloved parents. As our time of caregiving is now over, we are free to roam as we like and we are lucky enough to be able to travel the world while doing work we love.
Given our backgrounds, we are uniquely placed to provide a window into truly special global experiences. We often travel for Tom’s work and we hire a producer in nearly every country we visit. These talented individuals not only help with photoshoot organization, but they find us remarkable venues, lead us to unique experiences, and introduce us to amazing chefs, vendors, and artisans. They also give us insight into their cultures that we would never gain as casual tourists. We can then share this knowledge and these special experiences with you. Our aim is to showcase exceptional places and people worldwide to make your future travels more enriching.
Beyond exploring beautiful destinations, we also highlight the powerful lessons that can be learned on the road. We dive into the transformative power of travel and the ways in which we are forever altered by our journeys into other cultures. For us, travel’s unique ability to open the heart and to broaden the mind is what makes global exploration so enriching.
We hope this site will inspire your journeys, ease your way into foreign lands, and encourage you to venture out into our big beautiful world. We are excited to have you with us on The Well-Explored Life.
Warmly,
Danielle and Tom
