Vagabrothers

Who are Vagabrothers?

Vagabrothers is short for Vagabond Brothers. This channel, as you already might have guessed, consists of two brothers. Firstly Marko Ayling, the older and, some might say,  of the two brothers. Secondly, Alex Ayling, who is two years younger than the first half of this dynamic duo. These brothers didn’t spend much time together before they started their journey.

Vagabrothers was founded in 2012. However, neither of them realised how huge this channel is gonna become. Their mutual curiosity inspired them to create videos about hidden histories, celebrate differences and dispel stereotypes. Therefore their channel inspired over a million people who are subscribed to Vagabrothers channel and follow them on their adventures.

With a talent for storytelling, these brothers created over 200 videos from more than 50 different countries. For instance, their adventures include visiting the White House for Michelle Obama’s summit on Global Citizenship and earning them “Creator-in-Residence” at YouTube Space 2018 in LA. 

Vagabrothers have their own website that you should definitely check out (Vagabrothers.com). If you are also interested in travelling, you might be interested in their travel tips episodes or just check out what places to visit. Who knows, you might even want to be part of #TravelTribe, the Vagabrothers community. 

About Vagabrothers

Their mother was a stewardess for PanAm and their father a New Zealand ex-patriot.

Marko Ayling was born in San Diego, California, on April 2nd, 1986. He is a writer and producer with endless curiosity to discover new places all over the world. However, Marko wasn’t always the adventurer we know today. Before the whole rise to fame, thanks to My Destination’s Biggest, Baddest, Bucket List, Marko tried out a whole variety of different jobs. For instance, an English language teacher in Spain or a guidebook writer.

Alex Ayling was born in San Diego, California, on March 15th, 1988. He is an editor, filmmaker, surfer and photographer with love for nature. Likewise, Alex is also an adventurer and shares Marko’s passion for travelling and exploring. 

Vagabrothers collaborated with well-known stars on different videos. For example, in January 2016, Vagabrothers collaborated with singer Donal Skehan and created the “Airplane food hack” video. Another time they made “How to save money while travelling” with Raya Encheva, who is also a YouTube video blogger who shares travel and lifestyle videos on her channel.

Biggest, Baddest Bucket List

BBB is a competition held by My destination where you have a chance to win a 6 months journey all over the world and 50,000 in cash once you get home from your adventures. The rules of entering the contest are simple. 

Firstly you need to create a video about your favourite destination. You should show off the icons, secret spots and best places to eat at. Above all you need to share your passion. It doesn’t matter if you film it on a smartphone or professional camera. Content is the only thing that matters, not quality.

Secondly, you need to share a 500-word travel tale in blog post style. Pick your most emotional memory in the most colourful way you can.

Lastly, illustrate it with photos. Go through your memory box and share three pictures to show your story. Even rearranging and taking a new picture counts!

Biggest, Baddest Bucket List and Vagabrothers

When Vagabrothers applied to these channels, they knew their chances were one in a million. Even though Vagabrothers had years of experience practising their filmmaking abilities when living in Spain, the competition was ruthless. Alex was always the one who felt comfortable in front of the camera, but it wasn’t the case for Marko. It took him a crazy 25 tries to even get one whole line on camera. However, Marko got better little by little.

Conveying their natural brother chemistry on camera was the best decision they could make, just like when they were young. It won them My destination biggest, baddest bucket list challenge.

Vagabrothers soaked up the family atmosphere in their hometown before they took off on their journey across the world. North and South America, the UK and Iceland. Undoubtedly, this duo had a blast in all of these places. Still, most importantly, Brazil, both of them claim that they always wanted to visit Brazil. It even surpassed their already high expectations. After taking off Brazil, this duo continued to Europe, the Middle East, Africa, Asia, Australia and New Zealand. 

Alex looked forward to visiting Kazakhstan and stated that it’s sad that Borat is the first thing that comes to mind when you mention this country. It’s the 9th largest country in the world, and central Asia, in general, is fascinating. Most importantly, it’s the land of the Silk Road, where nomadic people roamed the steppes.

On the other hand, Mark enjoyed Oman. The Middle East has always been “enchanting” to him. Oman just holds the best of the region: beautiful wadis, strong traditions, hilltop castles and even ports and beaches where you can surf.

This journey held a lot of contrast housing wise. Imagine this, at first you stay in a beautiful beachfront Crane Hotel in Barbados with two ocean fronts and your own private pool on the balcony. However, on the other day, you inhabit a tent in Rancho DiAndrew in Costa Rica in the middle of the jungle. Vagabrothers lived in a penthouse apartment at the Chambers in Edinburgh or in a caravan in a West Sussex 800 person village.

Vagabrothers decided to split the $50,000 fifty-fifty and donate a chunk to a charity of each other’s choice. Alex decided on Living Tongues, a project that works to save endangered languages from extinction. At the same time, Mark will donate to Kiva, a microfinance NGO that helps people get loans to start up their own businesses.

How much do Vagabrothers earn? Net worth!

Thanks to various websites crunching some numbers, we can safely assume that Vagabrothers net worth is somewhere between $100,000,000 and $250,000,000 on the high end. The actual number is always unknown, but we can give you a rough idea of how much they earn from YouTube.

Vagabrothers YouTube channel has 1.1 million subscribers and keeps rising in popularity. It generates around 340,000 views per month. Therefore around 12,000 per day. 

Channels that are monetised earn money by playing ads. In other words, monetised YouTube channels earn $3 to $7, depending on the content they create, for every 1,000 views. To sum up, Vagabrothers should be making $1,300 per month and around $20,000 per year. On the high end, Vagabrothers could be making even $40,000 per year.

Interesting facts about Marko Ayling

• Marko Ayling is 35 years old.
• His zodiac sign is Aries.
• His Chinese horoscope sign Tiger
• He believes random travel suggestions are dancing lessons from god.
• The meaning of the first name Marko is warlike. The name originates from the Portuguese.
• His real name is Mark. Marko is what his mom used to call him because she liked Italian culture and called him Marko Mio.
• He used to sing in Danish because he had a Danish nanny.
• He barely sees out of his right eye due to two injuries. They pinched his eyeball when he was born and got a fingernail to the eye in middle school.
• Even though he is right-handed, he uses his left hand when he needs to shoot a bow or a gun because he can barely see through his right eye.
• He is a man of many moustaches, French moustache, monkey moustache or monkey moustache (look it up, it’s hilarious).
• He used to be in a wrestling team and weighed 112 pounds.
• He learned Latin in school because it was required.
• He is an autodidact (self-learner).
• His favourite book is Cannery Row.
• He is obsessed with old maps.
• In 2008 he joined Dirty hands, which was rebuilding houses after hurricane Katrina.
• He is double-jointed in his thumb.
• He is an Evernote addict, always takes notes and even paper ones for the initial thoughts.
• Marko's ideal dinner party would include Hunter S. Thompson, Oscar Wilde, Frida Kahlo, Sir Richard Burton and Bill Murray.
• He once bought a $300 motorbike in Saigon and tried to ride all the way through Vietnam. Sadly he made it only two thirds before he crashed it in the Jungle and needed to leave it on the side of the road.
• Thanks to turning down a job in Mumbai, he wasn’t there during the terrorist attack.
• He once worked as a deckhand on a ship in the Mediterranean.
• His favourite director is Wes Anderson.
• Marko almost lost both of his nipples when mountain biking with his dad. He flew over his bike and slid on his chest on the ground.
• He loves to wear a three-piece suit.
• He camped in Zuccotti Park during Occupy Wall Street.
• He spent one month walking 800km on the Camino de Santiago.
• Marko has a fake front tooth. It got knocked out twice. First when the door slammed his face and secondly when he fell on the skateboard.
• He was on a snowboard team at UCLA.
• His first album was Elton John because of the Lion King.
• His favourite meal is breakfast.
• His biggest inspiration when he was little was Tin Tin.
• He got pulled out of kindergarten on his first day because he had a Kiwi accent (New Zealand accent) from his father. Teachers thought he had some sort of speech impediment.
• His favourite way of travel is by train.
• He took the Trans Siberian Railroad from Beijing to Moscow.
• Marko wants to write at least one book in his life.

Interesting facts about Alex Ayling

• Alex Ayling is 33 years old.
• His zodiac sign is Pisces.
• His Chinese horoscope sign is Dragon.
• He used to be an anthropology Maya and Inca civilisations student.
• Alex Ayling shoe size 4 (US) & dress size 8 (US).
• His nickname as a kid was Flanders.
• Alex was a little bit overweight as a kid.
• He had a mullet as a kid.
• He wanted to be a veterinarian and a fighter pilot after he got a little older.
• He is fluent in Spanish.
• He speaks conversational French and Portuguese.
• He went to school at UC Santa Barbara.
• Alex studied abroad in Dunedin, New Zealand.
• The scar on his lip comes from when he went to a BBQ at his friend’s house. His sister ran a dog sitting company. One of the dogs, a big bluetick coonhound named Bingo, snapped onto his lips. Alex ended up getting over 80 stitches and wasn’t able to get any anaesthesia during the procedure because he had beers at the BBQ.
• He likes fly fishing.
• Horseradish is his arch-nemesis.
• Alex's favourite book is The Alchemist.
• He enjoys going to the dentist.
• Alex is “decent” at freestyling.
• He likes red wine and his most favourite is Malbec.
• Mathematics was his least favourite class.