WER STEHT UND STECKT HINTER DEM "HOBO-TEAM"?
WHO IS BEHIND THE "HOBO TEAM"?
Martina & Gunther
Uns beide zusammen als HOBO-TEAM gibt es bereits seit 2011 (privat schon etwas länger)! Damals wollten wir einfach ein paar Monate Auszeit in Griechenland geniessen - es kam ganz anders, auf dem Weg durch Albanien ließ uns das kleine Balkanland fast nicht mehr los - zumindest kamen wir mit einer enormen Verspätung auf dem Peloponnes an und arbeiteten dort in den verbliebenen Wochen des Jahres an unserer Albanien-Vision, die sich im Laufe der Jahre zu einer sehr erfolgreichen Geschichte entwickelte.
Die ganze Story könnt ihr weiter unten nachlesen!
Nach außen hin agieren wir zwar "nur" zu zweit - das reicht allerdings, gerade wenn wir auf Recherchereise sind, nicht aus. Dann ünterstützen uns unsere fleißigen Helferlein zu Hause tatkräftig, schnell und zuverläßig im Versand.
Martina & Günther
Bislang waren wir nach außen hin zwar "nur" zu zweit - das reichte meist vollkommen aus, lediglich im Versand hatten wir unsere fleißigen Helferlein* wenn wir unterwegs waren.
Der Erfolg der Firma "HOBO-TEAM" stellte uns aber an die Grenzen und so haben wir seit 2023 ein weiteres motiviertes Duo mit an Bord - Anna Lena und Davide - mehr zu den beiden gibt es HIER.
Uns beide zusammen als HOBO-TEAM gibt es bereits seit 2011 (privat schon etwas länger)! Damals wollten wir einfach ein paar Monate Auszeit in Griechenland genießen - es kam ganz anders, auf dem Weg durch Albanien ließ uns das kleine Balkanland fast nicht mehr los - zumindest kamen wir mit einer enormen Verspätung auf dem Peloponnes an und arbeiteten dort in den verbliebenen Wochen an unserer Albanien-Vision, die sich im Laufe der Jahre zu einer sehr erfolgreichen Geschichte entwickelte.
Die ganze Story könnt ihr weiter unten nachlesen!
Martina
Martina Holzmann
Research | Texts | Website | Planning
Profile Martina:
- born in Vienna in 1968, brought to Germany by her parents at the age of 3 to Lake Chiemsee and sometimes circles close - living there again since 2017;
- always loved to travel: after training as a travel agent, I immediately went abroad/Southeast Asia and over the years spent longer periods there and also worked in tourism for a time, in between various jobs in sales at different companies in the computer industry;
- Founding member of the HOBO TEAM in 2011 and since then responsible for ensuring that the travel guides have the latest information and are legible, the website is kept up to date, the planning customers are given a great vacation and all the financial details, on our research trips she is the best satnav (says the driver) and the best "preparer" (nobody plans better) of all our trips that are still to come in the future and much more.....
Günther Holzmann
Photography | Layout | Correspondence | Rental Cars
Günther's profile:
- Born in 1965 in Erding, the city of wheat beer, he now prefers Elbar Weiss from Albania, a wheat beer that is second to none!
- After a very technically oriented training (mostly in the workshop due to great personal interest) in the warehouse of a car dealership, I switched to the armaments industry and created the illustrated parts catalog for military aircraft. In between, I sold wooden toys and school and kindergarten materials, then went back to the armaments industry and then FINALLY:
- Founding member of the HOBO TEAM in 2011 and since then always with a camera in hand for travel photos next to the steering wheel, he likes to experiment with new reading material to optimize the layout, takes care of marketing and social media channels and also tirelessly meets the needs of rental car customers and provides our prospective customers and customers with all the information they want and need and much more...
Martina Holzmann
Research | Texts | Website
planning
Profile Martina:
- born in Vienna in 1968, brought to Germany by her parents at the age of 3 to Lake Chiemsee and sometimes circles close - living there again since 2017;
- always loved to travel: after training as a travel agent, I immediately went abroad/to Southeast Asia and over the years spent longer periods there and also worked in tourism for a time, in between various jobs in sales at different companies in the computer industry;
- Founding member of the HOBO TEAM in 2011 and since then responsible for ensuring that the travel guides have the latest information and are legible, the website is kept up to date, the planning customers are given a great vacation and all the financial details, on our research trips she is the best satnav (says the driver) and the best "preparer" (nobody plans better) of all our trips that are still to come in the future and much more.....
Günther Holzmann
Photography | Layout | Correspondence
rental car
Günther's profile:
- Born in 1965 in Erding, the city of wheat beer, he now prefers Elbar Weiss from Albania, a wheat beer that is second to none!
- After a very technically oriented training (mostly in the workshop due to great personal interest) in the warehouse of a car dealership, I switched to the armaments industry and created the illustrated parts catalog for military aircraft. In between, I sold wooden toys and school and kindergarten materials, then back to the armaments industry and then FINALLY:
- Founding member of the HOBO TEAM in 2011 and since then always with a camera in hand for travel photos next to the steering wheel, he likes to experiment with new reading material to optimize the layout, takes care of marketing and social media channels and also tirelessly meets the needs of rental car customers and provides our prospective customers and customers with all the information they want and need and much more...
our reliable support
Mitsubishi L200
- das "Maus-Auto" -
Recherche | Navigation
verlässlicher Kumpel
onRoad & offRoad
Kochen & Schlafen
Zusammen mit unserer
Pop-Up-Kabine namens "Norster"
sind die beiden ebenfalls ein unzertrennliches Team!
* Und an dieser Stelle auch mal ein dickes "Dankeschön" an die Helferlein zuhause, die uns während unserer Abwesenheit im Versand tatkräftig unterstützen!
our reliable support
Mitsubishi L200 - the "mouse car"
Research | Navigation | reliable buddy | onRoad & offRoad | Cooking & Sleeping
Together with our pop-up cabin called "Norster" the two are also an inseparable team!
* And at this point we would also like to say a big "thank you" to the helpers at home who actively support us in shipping while we are away!
The HOBO-TEAM Story
At the start of a guided tour through Albania, we always liked to tell the story of how we came to be so involved in the country and how our mainstays developed:
We have known each other since 2008. During our second holiday together, which was in September 2009 on the island of Murter in Croatia, at the Kosirina campsite, we met a very nice couple in their mid-50s from Switzerland. They told us that they had been travelling around the world in their expedition vehicle for 10 years. They also told us how they financed it, but that's another story.
It was clear to both of us that nothing and no one would stop us from taking a similar path, from breaking up camp in our mid-40s
- Simply turn your back on Germany.
Since our circumstances were of course very different from those of this Swiss couple, we modified our approach and also our goals.
The goal was quickly set: we wanted to visit a different European country every year with a caravan and explore the terrain by means of star trips from different campsites. The implementation in the financial area presented us with major hurdles,
We would still have 10 years to save to be able to quit completely.
Far too long - we changed some factors in our
Excel table and 10 years suddenly became two years. Prerequisite: earn part of the budget for the following year in the winter in Germany.
We set ourselves a date: It was to start on May 1st, 2011.
We had 1.5 years to clear out our apartments, exchange our cars for a four-wheel drive tow vehicle, buy a caravan and accessories, look for jobs for the winter, and, and, and...
Long story short: we left on time on May 1st, 2011
- first goal:
Greece/Peloponnese.
After two weeks at that fateful campsite on Murter, our next fate befell us. We arrived in Albania and immediately fell in love with the then still mysterious, unknown country, burdened with countless negative prejudices.
We told ourselves that if we didn't like it, we would be out again after about 300 km.
None of the ominous predictions came true; at every turn we encountered the warm hospitality of the lovely Albanians, beautiful landscapes and impressive cultures.
We stayed for a long time, but after a short time we knew: goodbye Europe, Albania, we're coming back - permanently and we want to work for this beautiful country and its remarkable people.
We then travelled to the Peloponnese and from there prepared our "emigration" to Albania.
The venture was to be financed partly by day trips in an off-road vehicle from a campsite into the hinterland, which was still quite inaccessible at the time.
After a winter of intensive preparation in Germany, we traveled to Albania on January 4, 2012 with our Nissan X-Trail, our caravan and a 7-seater Mitsubishi Pajero.
Until the start of the season, we used the time to improve our Albanian skills with the campsite operator.
The day trips from the campsite were quite a success, and people came back totally enthusiastic.
In our free time we continued to explore the country - to every corner that was somehow accessible at that time.
And this is where the travel guide story comes into play. We had a copy of the two Albania editions that were available at the time. Absolutely useful and indispensable. We happily had an announced new edition with new destinations brought to us - and were disappointed. No expansion, no revision. But we now know that this is normal practice among the major publishers.
We offered our services to the publisher and, fortunately, the deal never came to fruition. So in 2012 we started working on our first travel guide edition, which we produced ourselves, and it was a real hit in 2013, as if people had been waiting for a compact little book to get a taste of the country.
Over the years, our family of travel guides has become quite extensive and we also cover some neighboring countries. We now concentrate on special editions such as off-road guides or motorhome guides.
A request for a guided off-road tour in 2012 and a motorhome tour led to the creation of the guided tours division in the same year, and from then on there was one guided off-road and one motorhome tour per year.
- the 5 to 6 available places were always fully booked.
The travel plans also date back to 2012, although they were less professional back then - we drew maps while sitting together at the camping table - and the result was long, fun nights.
Today there are extensively developed programs with useful GPS data.
We soon moved our caravan to a private property in the very south of the country, and spent six years in Albania with only very short visits home and somewhat more extensive long-distance trips in the winter.
There were many reasons for our return to Germany, but it was definitely not due to any negative experience in Albania; it just felt right. Despite this, we still spend many weeks a year in the country and its neighboring countries to visit our friends and keep the travel guides up to date.
Our guided tours have not been available since 2024; we have replaced them with the complete self-drive tour packages.
Because we simply have the feeling that there are other places on this earth that we want to explore for you.
After all, there are almost 200 countries in the world! We have to hurry anyway!
When the story was finished, we were usually asked:
What does it actually mean
Hobo team?
Well - a hobo is an American migrant worker. He usually uses the train as a means of onward travel and takes the jobs that are offered to him. And there is a hobo like that in both of us (nowadays usually as a digital nomad):
Traveling and working at the same time.
The day trips from the campsite were quite a success, and people came back totally enthusiastic.
In our free time we continued to explore the country - to every corner that was somehow accessible at that time.
And this is where the travel guide story comes into play. We had a copy of the two Albania editions available at the time. Absolutely useful and indispensable. We were happy to have a new edition with new destinations brought to us - and were disappointed. No expansion, no revision. We offered our services to the publisher and, fortunately, we have to admit that nothing came of the deal. So in 2012 we started working on our first travel guide edition, which we put together ourselves, and it was a real hit in 2013, as if people had just been waiting for a compact little book to get a taste of the country.
Over the years, our family of travel guides has become quite extensive and we also cover some neighboring countries. We now concentrate on special editions such as off-road guides or motorhome guides.
A request for a guided off-road tour in 2012 and a motorhome tour led to the creation of the guided tours division in the same year. From then on, there was one guided off-road tour and one motorhome tour per year - the 5 to 6 available places were always fully booked.
The travel planning has also been around since 2012, although it was less professional back then - we would paint maps while sitting around the camping table, which resulted in long, fun nights. Today, there are extensively developed programs with useful GPS data.
We soon moved our caravan to a private property in the very south of the country, and spent six years in Albania with only very short visits home and somewhat more extensive long-distance trips in the winter.
There were many reasons for our return to Germany, but it was definitely not due to any negative experience in Albania; it just felt right. Despite this, we still spend many weeks a year in the country and its neighboring countries to visit our friends and keep the travel guides up to date.
Our guided tours are no longer available; we have replaced them with complete self-drive tour packages. Because we simply have the feeling that there are other places on earth that we want to explore for you. After all, there are almost 200 countries in the world! We have to hurry anyway!
When the story was finished, we were usually asked:
What does Hobo Team actually mean?
Well - a hobo is an American migrant worker. He usually uses the train as a means of onward travel and takes the jobs that are offered to him. And there is a hobo like that in both of us (nowadays usually as a digital nomad):
Traveling and working at the same time.
