Newlyweds Austin Craig and Beccy Bingham completed a 100-day Bitcoin-only world tour, starting in Provo, Utah, and navigating merchants across America, Europe, and Asia. The journey demonstrated both growing merchant acceptance and the practical hurdles of using Bitcoin for everyday travel. They relied on partnerships with travel agencies like Simply Travel, which became one of the first to accept Bitcoin bookings, enabling hotel and flight reservations using the cryptocurrency. In mid-September, Simply Travel expanded Bitcoin acceptance, further facilitating the couple’s itinerary.
Along the way, the couple reported moments of surprise when merchants accepted Bitcoin, such as a henna tattoo artist in Singapore. They described Stockholm arrivals and other experiences illustrating the evolving willingness of businesses to transact in Bitcoin.
When they first arrived in Stockholm, they were exhausted from their flight and slept. They woke up hungry and could not find anywhere to accept Bitcoin, so they waited until the hotel’s breakfast the next day. They described walking through a market for the Divali festival where a woman asked if they wanted a hennah tattoo, and they arranged the payment using a smartphone. Gregor Amon, CEO of Simply Travel, noted that Bitcoin has no risk of credit card fraud or credit card chargebacks, which is a major problem for the travel industry because many payments are large.
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