- 28-year-old Australian-born Sorelle Amore landed a job travelling around the world staying in luxury 5-star villas for three months.
- Third Home paid her $10,000 (£7,600) a month and covered her expenses while Amore Instagrammed and vlogged about her trip.
- She visited 12 luxury properties in destinations like Scotland, the Bahamas, Costa Rica, and Croatia.
Meet 28-year-old Australian Sorelle Amore, a vlogger who was taking photos in Iceland when she heard she had been chosen to travel the world for 12 weeks staying in 5-star luxury accommodation for free – and earning $10,000 (£7,600) a month to do it.
Amore bested 17,000 other hopeful candidates who responded to the viral job posting, which was hailed as the “best job on the planet.”
Now back in her hometown of Sydney, Australia, Business Insider caught up with her to hear about her trip.
ThirdHome is a Tennessee-based luxury second home exchange club which handles multimillion pound properties dotted across the globe - it's been called the Airbnb for the 1%.
Earlier this year, the company announced it was looking for someone to stay at 12 of its exclusive villas in places like Scotland, the Bahamas, Costa Rica, and Croatia, while Instagramming and vlogging about their stay.
Lots of travel-related companies now hire individuals with big Instagram followings to produce these kinds of sponsored posts, as it often works out cheaper than placing adverts in magazines - and typically reaches more people through the mighty powers of social media.
Amore had already set up her own YouTube channel and had a following of nearly 100,000 on Instagram, which no doubt helped her application - and land her the gig.
Her journey started in a Scottish castle called Glen House - roughly an hour from Edinburgh - on July 31. The estate is surrounded by lush parkland and woods, which Amore said she found "magical."
From there she headed on to a posh townhouse in Islington, London, for a week, eventually making the journey to Montana in the US.
Amore's fourth destination was Punta Cana in the Dominican Republic...
...where she visited a blue lagoon, which she called the "the ultimate tropical paradise."
Next up was one her favourite destinations of the trip, the Bahamas - and it's not hard to see why.
Amore was staying at the Bougainvillea in George Town, Great Exuma, where Hollywood actress Penelope Cruz has also stayed as a guest. Her giant villa directly overlooked the white sandy beach and turquoise water.
She was allowed to have a travel companion join her at various stages of her trip. One of her best friends joined her with her baby for this stretch.
While in the Bahamas, she managed to fit in some swimming with sharks.
From there, she headed on to Costa Rica, another of her top picks.
She stayed alone at Villa Punto de Vista, a five-storey house where she had her own butler and eight other staff members to make her stay comfortable.
She told Business Insider she didn't mind being alone, and enjoyed the nature of the nearby rainforest, from monkeys and squirrels to toucans.
"I think I felt lonely just three days out of the whole three months, as having previous experience as a solo traveller you just meet so many people," she said.
"Everyone was super friendly."
Amore said that she met some of the friendliest people in Costa Rica, China, and Bali.
"My travels reminded me that humans all around the world are the same, they just want love, connection, and respect," she said. "In today's world there's so much fear it's BS. Seeing how caring the world is reminded me that actually we're OK."
Her travels took her to Europe, too. Amore visited Arab baths in Malaga, Spain, and the stunning island of Brac in Croatia.
The pinnacle of her trip, though, was Bali, Indonesia, the only part of her trip that her boyfriend was able to join her for.
They stayed at The Mandala House, which was voted by Elle Decoration as "One of the World's Most Beautiful Homes" in 2017.
In Bali, the couple spent their time meditating, surfing, doing yoga, and sipping plenty of cocktails.
Many "Instagram travel couples" like Jack Morris and his girlfriend Lauren Bullen even get paid by brands to globetrot together and stay at fancy resorts - and it certainly makes for some pretty dreamy photos.
Amore said that only spending one week with her boyfriend out of the entire trip has actually strengthened their relationship.
"I know that I can trust he's OK with me going and seeing some of the world on my own," she said, which is just as well, as she plans to travel more.
The Mandala House in Bali had a two-storey swimming pool with a see-through bottom.
There was also this rather fancy standalone bath.
Amore's time in Indonesia was followed by a stint in China, about an hour outside Beijing, and then a week's sailing on a TradeWinds Yacht Cabin in Fiji, where she said she spent nights sleeping out on the deck watching the stars.
She finished her trip back on home turf - in Cromer, a suburb north of Sydney, in New South Wales.
She said she's already planning her next few adventures - she's heading back to Iceland in January and Egypt soon after that.
"44 is my favourite number so I'm hoping to make Egypt my 44th visited country in around February, then head back to Bali after that," she said.
Fortunately, with most of her expenses covered by Third Home during her trip, Amore said she has managed to save most of her $30,000 wage.
"It's a base that will keep me travelling and making short movies until I get more clients," she said.
