52 countries in 8 months—this retired couple is in no mood to quit!

Age is just a number, and passion clearly has no regard for it. Passion that can bring out the best in you. A recent testimony to this is a retired couple from Mumbai that went on a road trip covering 52 countries in a period of just eight months, and doing the same, raised a significant amount of money for charity. Sounds interesting, right? Wait till you know the entire story.


Mumbai-based Louis and Janet D’souza drew inspiration from a family that recently travelled for 111 days across 11 countries. And then, there was nothing that could stop this couple to embark on their own adventure.

Louis and Janet, 61 and 55 respectively, have been nurturing their dream to travel from India and UK for a while. Finally, driven by passion to explore the world and their love for driving, the couple decided to take a break from their monotonous business schedule and set out on a journey that would make the most of their days in retirement.

Since they already had an experience of exploring the southern part of India on a more-than-3,000 km-journey, they had very little to worry about while taking a bigger stride forward.


Naming their road trip as the “The Lifetime Journey”, the couple embarked on its journey from Mumbai in May 2016 and drove through 52 countries in eight months, which included popular destinations like China, Russia, Norway, Germany, United Kingdom, France, Spain, Switzerland, Croatia, Italy Greece and Iran among others.

Some of the other countries that they also covered include Myanmar, Latvia, Finland, Sweden, Denmark, Netherlands, Belgium, Portugal, Hungary, Slovenia, Malta, Bulgaria, Turkey, Georgia, Armenia, Kazakhstan and Kyrgyzstan.


Although the couple’s children were worried whether their parents would be able to complete the journey, Louis and Janet actually beat all odds and not only drove the entire distance but also covered a few extra miles for charity and thus donated Rs 10 for every kilometre they travelled! Doing so, they ended up raising around INR 6 lakhs for White Doves and Muskaan Sharing Smiles apart from INR 5.5 lakhs that they contributed earlier.

On the way, the travelling couple did face some challenges including language barrier in a few countries, but it was Google Translate that came to their rescue. Louis and Janet, through their eight-month adventure, have broken a lot of stereotypes about age, retirement and travelling in general. Not to mention that they have inspired a lot of people who dream of breaking free of their hesitations and travel the world.


Don’t make the mistake of thinking this couple is done yet. Louis and Janet are also set to go on another trip to New Zealand and Australia, followed by another trip from Cairo to Cape Town.

They don’t seem like retiring anytime soon; do they!