Traveling the World by Dice: Isaac Simonelli's Story

UPDATED JUNE 16, 2025.

In this Customer Profile, we tell the story of Isaac Stone Simonelli. Isaac is a world traveler who threw caution to the dice! He traveled the world on a year-long motorbike expedition where the majority of his travel decisions were made by rolling the dice. The result is Dice Travels, a website chronicling this adventures with dice.

A man wearing black motorcycle gear is kneeling on the ground with his hand outstretched from throwing the dice to decide on his travel destination; the red die he threw is in the foreground.

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Making decisions isn't always easy, and can sometimes lead to hours, even months, of deliberation. That's why when Isaac Stone Simonelli started to get the travel itch, he decided to take a radically different, and whimsical, approach to planning out his expedition.

Reflections on a Year of World Travel by Dice

A year of making decisions by the dice left a lasting impression on Isaac. We interviewed him after his return from travels. Isaac says he still uses dice to help make decisions, and sees great benefit in doing so. These are Isaac's reflection after his year of travel:

"Dice can be used to cut down on decision fatigue, help build personal narratives.

In dreams, our minds tend to connect unconnected events -- such as those produced by the dice -- and impregnate them with meaning. Dice can synthesize happiness.

I know this all sounds like a lot, but the deeper I dug into the idea and the further along I found myself in the project, the more these elements began to fall into place and make sense.

Though these ideas are complex, using the dice is really very simple. Basically, you choose options that exist within a 40-60% "you don't care either way" range. If you really want to go to Indiana -- go to Indiana. If you really don't want to go to Indiana, don't make it an option on the dice.

As we get closer and closer to a 50-50 decision, where each option will bring about equal happiness, it becomes harder and harder to make the "right" decision, and that's where the dice can become an excellent tool. "Even if we do make the right decision, the self-doubt about it and the energy expended often don't justify the difference in the results.

I find more often than not, I use the dice for binary decisions, as it's easy to come up with two options that are better than the rest. However, when it comes to travel destinations, I'd load a die all the way up with six options. Other times, I have three good options and split the die up that way."

What Kind of Dice Did Isaac Use?

Although Isaac carried a full dice travel toolbox, he found he mostly relied on the good old-fashioned six-sided D6 die:

"I had a 4, 6, 8, 10, 12 and 20-sided role-playing dice. However, I mostly used the standard cube."

Travel Dice on a Keychain or Necklace

Keep decision-making dice with you everywhere you go with our travel-sized dice set, inspired by the games soldiers played during WWII.

A handcrafted square brass tube with a walnut wood plug and brass dogtag keychain contain six (6) D6 smaller 7mm white or black dice.

The dogtag ball chain comes in two lengths: keychain or necklace for keeping on your person at all times. As a bonus, you can also play your favorite dice games anytime, like Yacht, Farkle, or Ten Thousand!