25 Lessons from 6 Months as a Digital Nomad
The newsletter is BACK.
Over the past 6 months, I've lived in 7 countries, visited 30 different cities and towns, stayed in 15 Airbnbs (and one hotel), freelanced for 14 clients, and earned enough money to finance this lifestyle without burning through my savings.
This was my life as a digital nomad.
At the beginning of the year, my fiancee and I gave up our full-time jobs and the lease on our NYC apartment to spend a large chunk of the year traveling. This trip was the realization of a goal we both wanted to accomplish before settling down, getting married, and starting a family (i.e., commitments that would preclude us from taking extended trips in the future). To finance our travels, we both found work as independent contractors—my fiancee performing telehealth therapy for a psychology practice, and I writing content for various VCs and startups.
Our trip, which we largely planned on the go, looked like this:
March: Los Angeles, California
April: Rio de Janeiro, Brazil
May: Rest stop back in New York (wedding season)
June: Florence, Italy
July: Nice, France
August: Croatia, Paris, and Spain
September: London, England
Aside from August, we stayed in each locale for a full month in an effort to truly "experience" the culture (and because constant travel makes it impossible to get work done). We did, however, take multiple weekend trips in an effort to see as much of our surroundings as possible.
A lot of people have asked, and continue to ask, what our trip was like. So I'd like to present a list of things I've learned over the past 6 months, in no particular order:
You get used to new living situations faster than you think. You'd think constantly waking up in different places is a hard adjustment, but I found it took me less than a day to get used to a new living arrangement. If there's no AC, or if the fridge makes a funny noise, or if the water pressure in the shower is only so-so (and the Airbnb host won't do anything about it), I got over it quickly and moved on. If you're committed to the lifestyle, it's easier to adapt.
A month is a long and short amount of time to spend in a place. A month feels like a long time at the start, but when you re-frame it as the number of days you have left (e.g., "only 28 days remain for me to enjoy the only time I'll ever live in France") it feels like no time at all. This is only true if you enjoy the place you're staying.
It takes extra effort to stick to routines. Things like writing and exercise often fell by the wayside because I was more interested in exploring. It takes extra dedication to force your environment to bend to your habits, and not the other way around (hence why the newsletter cadence this summer was sporadic at best).
But your bad routines stay with you. If you sleep late, or you’re not committed to your workout routine, or you’re having trouble sticking to a diet, that doesn’t change because you’re on the road. In some cases, it just gets worse.
Good wifi is easy to find everywhere. I spent $120 on a mobile hotspot to safeguard against shoddy wifi while traveling and didn't have to use it once. Between Airbnbs and coffee shops, it's easy to find a good internet connection. Related point: co-working spaces are a rip-off.
Don't work from the same coffee shop every day. Working from coffee shops is a great way to get a feel for an area, but it's bad form to use the same coffee shop every day to work. I had at least 2-3 in rotation every place I went. This approach also ensures you visit new areas and meet new people (honorable mention to Todo Modo in Florence, the best coffee shop I worked from during our trip).
Enjoying travel is work. Every locale has sights to see, places to go, restaurants to eat at, events to attend, and people to meet. But "making the most" of your time in each place requires energy—and sometimes you just don't have it (especially when you're also working). So maybe you spend one of only 4 Saturday nights you have in London sitting on your couch watching HBO. And then you feel bad because you're not “making the most” of your time. This constant push/pull of enjoying travel while catering to your human needs was one of the most difficult parts of being nomadic for me.
VPNs and E-sims are necessary tech. The former lets you use the internet as if you were still in your home country (i.e., you can stream your favorite TV shows), and the latter allows you to use your phone as if you were still in your home country (except you'll have a random foreign phone number). A VPN from NordVPN costs $13 a month, and an E-sim from TIM (Italian phone company) only costs $30 to install and $15 a month for 15GB of data. Worth every penny.
Digital nomad-ing puts other life plans on hold. My fiancee and I got engaged in March, but no wedding planning was done during our trip.
Anyone can be a digital nomad. It's not that hard to become a digital nomad. You just have to be willing to move things around in your life. You have to give up a lease, find a job that lets you work remotely, be comfortable working late hours, and be okay pulling your outfit out of a suitcase most days. It's more uncomfortable in theory than practice. Plus, there are a ton of places around the world where the living is cheaper than in the U.S. That being said, it took me years to get over the hump and finally live nomadically.
If you tell someone you’re a digital nomad, they often say they’re jealous. I think this is a way of being polite and expressing approval of a lifestyle choice—but I don't think people are actually jealous. I know this because the people who say they’re jealous are also the people for whom the digital nomad lifestyle is the most accessible (tech workers, people who live in NYC, etc.). Instead of being jealous of something you can do with relative ease, just do it (I never actually said this to anyone, but it’s what I think to myself).
Grocery stores are a common language. The brands may vary, but the general "vibe" of every grocery store I went into in Brazil and Europe was similar to what you get back in the States: fluorescent lighting, sheet metal shelving, Michael Buble playing on the PA, etc. One key difference: Many foreign countries don't refrigerate eggs.
It’s easier to be outgoing. Something about being away from where you live and the people you know makes it easier to reach out to strangers and form relationships. As it turns out, this is actually a survival instinct. For more, read about my experience making friends on Bumble.
Older cities aren't car-friendly, and that's a good thing. It's why European cities are much more enjoyable to walk through than most American cities. Instead of 3-lane roads and shopping malls, you get windy cobblestone streets and charming restaurants and cafes.
America is cutthroat. It's hard to understand just how brutal American capitalism is until you spend time in other developed nations where people aren’t as driven by money. For example, one of the best restaurants we ate at in Nice, France closes down for the entire month of August, which is peak tourism season for the region. To an American, it seems absurd to forfeit all that business. But to the French, the goal of work is to have more time to relax. Compare the French attitude to America, where the rich work more hours than the poor, you need a job just to get health insurance, and many workers don’t use all their vacation days. We're always trying to get more money, while the French (and Italians and Spanish) are hanging out on the beach. The latter feels like healthier behavior.
If a place isn't recommended on travel blogs, you needn't go. I'm not advocating for doing everything travel blogs tell you to do, but if you can't find a certain thing recommended anywhere on the internet, there's probably good reason for it. For more, read about my trip to Bosnia.
Always use Lime scooters or bike shares in cities that have them. This is how I primarily got around London and Paris. It's a great way to get a feel for a big city and explore places you might otherwise not visit.
Running is a great way to experience a city too. Especially right when you arrive, as it provides a lay of the land as well as a workout. Running was my main form of exercise while traveling.
Don't go somewhere because a travel guide told you you "have" to. Tourists suck because they all flock to the same places to see the things they think they "have" to see (i.e., the Louvre, the Duomo, etc.), even if they don't actually care about that thing. Here's a better way to travel: if you don't care about something normally, don't care because you're on vacation. You just make it worse for the people who actually do care. Instead of caving to societal pressure, stick to the things you like doing. You'll enjoy yourself more.
Do walking tours. We did walking tours in Florence, Nice, Dubrovnik, and Barcelona, and all of them were great ways to get a lay of the land, meet new people, and learn about the ancient and recent history of places.
Do hostel bar crawls*. I say this with an asterisk because hostel bar crawls are hit or miss—it’s entirely contingent on the group of crawlers. All hostel bar crawls go to bad bars, but if you're with a good group of people, it's a great way to make friends who you can hang out with at better bars later. For more, read Part 2 of my guide to making friends on Bumble.
Get out of the cities. Some of the best legs of our trip were spent on mountains, in forests, and near beaches. These were mostly weekend trips, as we felt cities offered more to keep us occupied over the course of a full month. However, if I were to digital nomad again, I'd consider booking a longer-term stay in a more secluded area that offers easy access to great nature.
Freelancers need to be comfortable with being uncomfortable. Most of my clients never gave me a ton of notice when they needed work, meaning it was often hard for me to project how much I'd be earning month-to-month until the month was nearly over. Adjusting to this financial insecurity is one of the things I liked least about being a freelancer.
Americans suck at driving. I only drove in Italy, France, and England, but it was impressive to see the confidence with which Europeans handle their automobiles. Everyone drives fast and with purpose. In terms of driving on the wrong side of the road in England, it’s actually easier to get used to than you realize because you’re just following the lead of the other cars. It’s only challenging when there’s no traffic around and you have to remember which side of the road is the correct one to drive on. Also, roundabouts are a fantastic way to reduce congestion.
I already miss the life. The digital nomad lifestyle has its shortcomings: little sense of community, constant pressure to be doing stuff, etc. In fact, if I did it for several years, I believe I’d feel increasingly lonely and unrooted. But as I type this sentence, all I can think about is how much fun I had being on the road. Maybe that’s just wanderlust, or maybe digital nomad-ing is awesome. I recommend everyone find out for themselves.
Finally, a definitive ranking of every place we visited while traveling:
Florence, Italy
Dolomites Mountains, Italy
Paris, France
Rio de Janeiro, Brazil
Hvar, Croatia
Barcelona, Spain
Cassis, France
Antibes, France
St. Tropez, France
London, England
Malibu, California
Marseille, France
Derbyshire, England (Peak District)
Los Angeles, California
Dubrovnik, Croatia
Itamonte, Brazil
Joshua Tree, California
Cinque Terre, Italy
Monte Carlo, Monaco
Villefranche-Sur-Mer, France
Kravica Falls, Bosnia & Herzegovina
Saint-Paul-de-Vence, France
Eze, France
Palm Springs, California
Brighton, England
Nice, France
Cannes, France
Siena, Italy
Ibiza, Spain
Mostar, Bosnia & Herzegovina
Parting thoughts
When I was a kid, I promised myself one day I would travel the world. To me, that seemed like the coolest thing one could do with their life. This trip was my way of keeping that promise to my younger self. It's satisfying to do what you said you were going to do, and also to do things that at one time felt difficult and scary. As it often turns out, things you think are difficult and scary turn out to be a lot easier once you're actually doing them. Digital nomad-ing falls into this category. It makes me wonder about all the other things in my life that I currently perceive as difficult and scary, and how much of that is imagined.
Glad to see that you liked Florence. It's the most beautiful city I've ever seen.