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We had so many backup plans—teaching English in Taiwan, crewing on yachts in the Caribbean, getting a working holiday visa in Australia—as when we set out in March 2010 with a one way ticket to Rio, a 10 day old travel blog, and Simon’s first and only freelance project, it all seemed so unlikely that we’d be able to create a business that would fund our travels. We had savings for a year so that was our deadline to make it work before we’d have to try something new. Despite our lack of business plan, reluctance to do marketing, and refusal to follow much of the online business advice, we somehow made it work.
2000 days later we are still going.
It’s an epic milestone and we feel blessed that we’re able to live this life.
The Good
We’re free to go where we want, when we want; to work on projects we love; to have lazy lie-ins on Tuesday mornings and trips to ancient ruins on Thursday afternoons; to book a flight to Italy because we’re craving melanzana parmigiana; to answer to nobody but ourselves.
We’re free from the constraints of an office—from arbitrary work hours, pointless meetings, office politics, and being stuck inside on sunny days.
We’re free from winter—we follow the sun and only see snow when we choose to.
We travel light so our possessions don’t weigh us down. We can pack up everything we own in 10 minutes and be on the road, off on another adventure. Our travels have taken us to 30 countries—to beaches in Brazil, Thailand and Mexico; mountains in Bolivia, Slovenia and Guatemala; and ancient ruins in Peru, Cambodia and Jordan.
We’ve learnt to sail a yacht in the turquoise seas of Malaysia, studied Spanish and tango in Buenos Aires and salsa in Cuba, discovered yoga in Thailand, and taken cooking classes everywhere from Bolivia to Japan to Turkey.
We’ve experienced so many magical moments: floating in a hot air balloon at sunrise over the otherworldly rock formations of Cappadocia; watching a volcano erupt at sunset on a Sicilian island; hiking in ancient Petra; releasing baby turtles in Mexico; washing giant elephants in Thailand. We’ve been to Disney four times!
We’ve housesat horses on a remote off the grid farm in Andalucia and cats in a quirky Kyoto house; stayed in a luxury beachfront villa on Koh Lanta and a temple in the mountains of Japan; lived in an apartment with panoramic views of the volcanoes of Lake Atitlan and in an open-sided casita overlooking the jungle in San Pancho.
We’ve eaten so much good food.
We’ve built a business—with no idea about what we were doing, no experience making money outside a paycheque, and without a business bone in our bodies. We’ve grown Never Ending Voyage into a site that’s had over 2 million visitors and inspired many to explore the world; and created Trail Wallet, an app that has helped thousands of travellers stay on budget.
We’ve had time to write, draw, read, run, cook. We’ve had time for each other—we’ve spent almost every hour together for the last 2000 days and, after 16 years together, we’re stronger and happier than ever.
We’ve met amazing people. People often wonder if nomadic life is lonely but we find that not only can we visit friends and family when we want to (and spend more quality time together than we ever did living in England), but we’ve made new friends, fellow nomads who understand our lifestyle, share our interests, and inspire us with their creativity and passion. Couples like Tom and Jenny, Victoria and Steve, and Warren and Betsy, some of whom we’ve crossed paths with on four continents. Most of the time we’re happy with each other’s company but we know our friends are just a plane ride away.
The Challenges
Everyone says we’re living the dream and we do feel like we’re living our dream, but it’s not everyone’s dream. This isn’t an easy lifestyle. The highs are higher but the lows are lower—self-doubt, travel burnout, work burnout, and money worries have all been challenges along the way.
The Battle with Self-Doubt
The biggest challenge for us has been building a business (and we still feel calling what we do a “business” is rather laughable). We didn’t have any business experience before we left and we had to learn as we went along. When you work for yourself you have to make a constant string of decisions and we are never sure if we’ve made the right one. The self-doubt can be paralysing. It’s gotten much better over the last few years but we still occasionally feel that everything is going to collapse around us—what if the app stops selling or the blog’s traffic plummets?
It helps to realise that everyone feels like this sometimes, to focus on what is going well, and to realise how many backup plans we have before the worst could happen (and we are lucky that our worst is going back to England and getting a job!).
Mostly we realise that if we’ve made this work for 2000 days then there’s no reason it won’t continue.
Balancing Work and Travel
We have struggled to balance work and travel, especially in the early years. We either spent too much time on our laptops and didn’t get to enjoy where we were or we’d be travelling without getting any work done. We’ve discovered that slow travel is essential. Once or twice a year we spend 2-3 months in one place and that allows us time to get into routines that make our work more productive, gives us time to explore, and time to focus on health—cooking for ourselves and exercising. At these times work will be our main focus, and then we’ll hit the road and travel will take over. In “travel mode” we still prefer to spend at least a week in places, sometimes a month, and we work when we can, but it’s less likely to be on big projects that need more focus.
Travel Burnout
Long term travel can be exhausting. You have to make so many decisions every day—where to sleep, where to eat, what to work on, what to do for fun, where to go next. Simple tasks take so much longer as everything is unfamiliar—navigating supermarkets where nothing is in English, finding a SIM card, buying a sketchpad. The act of travel itself is tiring—why sitting on a bus saps my energy so much I don’t know, but it does.
We do get tired but we find travel burnout has a simple solution—stop moving. Slow travel is so important to keep our energy levels up— when we feel ourselves getting exhausted and appreciating places less we rent a place for a few months until we get itchy feet again.
We find planning in advance helps reduce the stress of decision making. We’ve realised that we hate turning up in a place and traipsing around looking for accommodation so we always book at least the first few nights online. It helps to have a list of restaurants to try so we don’t have to walk the streets looking for vegetarian options while getting increasingly hangry.
We conserve our energy in other ways too—by flying or choosing a luxury bus rather than spending 12 hours on a chicken bus; by renting comfortable apartments where we feel at home and can cook for ourselves; by mixing new destinations with old favourites (Chiang Mai, Koh Lanta, San Francisco, Rome) where familiarity makes things easier.
Finding a Purpose
I especially have struggled with my purpose. Simon has always had so many projects he wants to do—illustration, development, writing, music—that his problem has just been deciding what to do next. My passion has always been travel and after a few years on the road I felt that as that goal had been achieved shouldn’t I want something else? Shouldn’t I be pursuing a new challenge? Travel was normal now, it was our life. The blog was doing well and although I continued to write regularly it was no longer as time consuming as in the beginning. I struggled with the question of what to do next but I just didn’t know what I wanted to do.
Eventually I realised that it was OK not to know and that I don’t need a huge mission in life. I am living a life I love and I don’t need anything more. I love researching travel, visiting places and writing about them on the blog; I love taking photos and sharing them with our readers; I love having time in my day for running, yoga, and lazy afternoons reading by the pool. New challenges are important but I’ve stopped asking myself that overwhelming question, “what is my purpose in life?” and instead am trying new things, like running a half marathon or writing a book about packing light.
Sharing our Lives with the World
I’m a private person and before we started the blog I didn’t even have a Facebook account. Now we share our lives with the world—how much we spend, what we eat, where we go—and at times I feel vulnerable and exposed. Most of the time running the blog is incredibly rewarding, especially when we hear stories of others who’ve been inspired by our posts, whether it’s to eat at our favourite restaurant in Chiang Mai or to sell everything and give nomadic life a go. But people aren’t always positive and the criticism can be hard to hear—whether it’s a judgment against our travel style or a bad review of the app. We’re trying to develop thick skins but the truth is it still hurts.
What We’ve Learned
Finding Our Own Path
We’re not motivated by money. Sure, we’d like more of it, but we don’t do nearly as much as we could in pursuit of it. We used to do annual reviews and set lofty income goals for the next year that we wouldn’t come close to achieving. It made us feel bad, but it didn’t change our behaviour.
Now we’ve accepted that enjoying the work we do is more important to us than money. We make our work decisions based on how we want our life to be rather than how much money it can make us, and adjust our lifestyle accordingly.
Simon made the risky decision to stop doing freelance web design work, to say no to many clients because it wasn’t making him happy. Freelance work was a great way to get started in our early years but it felt like having lots of bosses rather than just one—we wanted a life without deadlines and to work on projects that interested us. So Simon turned down paying work, taught himself to make iOS apps, and built Trail Wallet. It was a lot of work and many months before it made any money, and for a long time it didn’t make enough to justify the amount of time he spent on it. But it was so satisfying to have created something that people found useful, and working on our own product gave us much more freedom, so he kept going, kept making it better.
We often doubted the decision and felt like the correct business decision would be to fail fast, cut our losses and try something new. But it felt right to carry on, so we did. 33 months, 25 updates, and over 1000 hours of work later and Trail Wallet has had 55,000 downloads, over 300 reviews with an average rating of 4.5 stars, and is now our main source of income. And it finally feels like passive income—Simon has barely worked on it in the last six months but sales keep growing. Giving up freelance work and continuing with Trail Wallet despite its initial low income might not have been the sensible business decision but it was the right decision for us.
We now feel more confident in following our own path. We don’t do anything we don’t enjoy just for the money. We don’t work long hours—in defiance of the workaholism culture that’s prevalent in some digital nomad circles that say that for a business to succeed you have to live and breathe it. That’s not what success looks like for us.
Breaking even after over five years might not be success to some people, and while we would like to contribute more to our savings, it’s not worth changing our lifestyle for. And it’s a good life—we stay in comfortable accommodation (I’m currently writing this with a jungle view from our pool villa in Bali), splurge on fancy meals when we want to, and generally do what we want.
Persistence is Everything
You have to keep on going. Keep on posting on the blog when it feels like no one is reading and your writing is painfully bad; keep on improving the app when you’re not even earning minimum wage and those one star reviews sting like hell; keep on writing and drawing and developing and taking photos and whatever else it is you love to do.
You have to ignore those negative voices in your head and on the internet and from those around you. You have to stop comparing yourself to others. You have decide what success means to you and not quit until you achieve it.
Accept Change
Accepting and embracing change is vital. Not only of our surroundings but in our business too. We have multiple income streams and they’ve changed dramatically over the years—from freelance web design in the early years to blog advertising to our app and affiliate income. It’s nerve wracking when a source of income dries up but we’ve always found something to take its place. We just have to keep trying new things and keep believing that it’ll all work out.
Privilege is a Thing
Although we do fundamentally believe that persistence has been the one thing that has helped us reach 2000 days, we also have to recognise that we enjoy many privileges that have made this journey easier. We come from relatively well-off backgrounds, we both have university degrees, and we are from a rich country with good diplomatic relations with the rest of the world and decent, free healthcare.
It’s no fun to be reminded that the world is indifferent to the concept of fairness, but one of the most important things we can do is to recognise the advantages we’ve been able to exploit, to remain grateful and humble for the privilege we enjoy, and to recognise and validate other people struggling with challenges we’ll never face and helping out whenever and however we can.
The Importance of Digital Detoxes
When you work online it’s too easy to become inseparable from your laptop or phone, constantly checking emails and tweets and instagrams. We believe that time offline is essential for staying sane—to have time to relax and appreciate your surroundings, and to have a break from the constant external noise of opinions and snark and outrage in order to listen to your, much quieter, inner voice.
We try to limit checking emails and social media to once or twice a day, and turn off notifications on our phone so we’re not tempted to check them when we’re out. When we’re settled down in “work mode” we have at least one day off, completely offline, a week. We have regular digital detoxes where we spend a few days or weeks offline—we always end up feeling much more positive and content.
We Don’t Need Things
This has become so natural to us that I almost forgot to include it here, but relinquishing our dependence on possessions has been an important part of nomadic life. We sold almost everything we owned before we left the UK and we don’t miss any of it. We’ve lived out of a carry-on sized backpack each for years and we don’t need anything else.
Owning things is fun—Simon especially likes shiny new technology—but by living with less we find life is easier and we value what we do own more. We choose quality over quantity.
Do We Plan to Stop Travelling?
No.
We don’t want to stop and we can’t imagine choosing just one place to live. After years on the road many of our digital nomad friends are choosing home bases for part of the year and, although I can understand the urge, it’s not something that we feel the need for. When we rent an apartment or house for three months that becomes home to us, but we like the flexibility to change the location each year. I’m sure over the years we’ll end up travelling even more slowly but we have no desire to give up the freedom this lifestyle gives us.
To learn more about our digital nomad journey see our posts on how we got started, how we fund our travels, our year 6 expenses, recommended resources for digital nomads, and the practicalities of nomadic life. We also recently answered your questions about our digital nomad lifestyle.
You are a couple. You are a minority. Vast majority of DN are single, bachelors. The older you get, the less friends you make. Loneliness becomes boring then depressive. You cannot count on one another in case anything happens (just a little sickness). Hurdles are everywhere. The laptop becomes the buddy. Then, taking a detox-day from it is like losing Wilson in Cast Away movie. Virtuality does not replace a romantic diner by the beach. Sex life is reserved to the young and cute. For the others, abstinence or paid intercourse; not than glamorous anyway.
So, you’re lucky to do that as a couple even if I can imagine it is not rosy every day. I have seen some couples shooting at each others on a paradise spot. But loneliness is often worse, as it reminds of what you’re missing, mostly when surrounded with couples on holidays resorts. Reason why, eventually, solo DN resume to the normal, boring, 9-5 office job. To settle and build something.
We could relate to so many of your reflections! Travel burnout is real. . . but you’re right, slow travel is the solution. We just started our journey earlier this year, but are committed to continuing to travel and help other nomads do the same. Thanks for sharing your journey!
Funny, I have also had Trail Wallet for two years now, but only now found your blog. Maybe you guys need to sneak in some promo of the blog in there? I am sure a lot of people who use the app would love this blog.
I’ve been cruising around your blog this evening and really digging it. I found a post on Laos or Malaysia first, as we’re likely heading to both soon(ish). We’re traveling for the year and have run into our first bit of travel fatigue six months in, so we’ve rented a place in Kunming for the month and are laying low and recharging. Lots of your writing has really resonated with me… thanks for sharing, both the helpful information and the fun and more personal insights. And PS — I’ve owned Trail Wallet for a while! I was happy to see it’s Simon’s doing; I really like it.
Thanks very much for your kind words Kim! I’m glad you’ve found the site and Trail Wallet useful.
Hi Erin! I just wanted to comment to let you know how very much I’ve enjoyed clicking around your blog, and how much I hope that this (someday) can be my lifestyle as well! I’m American (though not sure how loudly I should claim that nowadays…!), but lived in the Netherlands for two years during college and have traveled a fair bit; I have a linguistics undergraduate degree and a physician assistant (medical) master’s degree, so I’m a bit of a jill-of-all-trades, as it were. :) I’m practicing clinically right now, but hoping to transition to the digital nomad lifestyle within the next couple of years, probably via either pharmaceuticals or scientific editing/writing (telemedicine will be booming soon, but it’s not quite there yet!).
At any rate, I just wanted to say that I admire you and Simon tremendously for recognizing the life you wanted and going after it! I’m sure there were many scary and discouraging moments along the way, most of which didn’t make it to the blog, and I admire you for sticking with your dream despite the odds. My Osprey Ozone 35L is very much hoping that she and I will be able to follow suit within the next couple of years! :)
Thank you! We actually know a physician assistant who works remotely for a doctor’s practice in San Francisco while living in Paris and travelling. She does consultations by email and skype. I think the company is pretty forward thinking, but hopefully more will get there. Good luck with it!
I came across your blog just over a year ago. It was one of the first times I was exposed to digital nomadism and I became extremely curious.
My wife and I now have plane tickets booked and accommodation reserved in Tallinn, Estonia to begin our DN journey in August. Thank you for the helpful and inspirational content!
Good luck with it Garrett! Tallinn sounds like an exciting place to start your adventure!
Hi!
Thank you for this post. I’ve just discovered your blog (thanks to Goats on the Road), so it will take me some time to read every article. But I especially enjoyed reading about the challenges you had. Just recently we decided to give blogging (and eventually a digital nomad lifestyle) a go and travel the world with our 14-month year old. On one hand really exciting, obviously, but on the other there are a lot of doubts: will we ever be able to make money (we don’t need lots, but still) out of a blog. Will our writing be good enough? Will anyone actually read our stuff? But then again, this post reminds me that other people, like you, once felt the same way :).
Love,
Babs
Just want to say you have a fantastic informative blog. I regularly reference back to your website when I’m on the road. You’re an inspiration for digital nomads. Keep up the good work!
Thanks for this post. I agree that slow travelling is the key to long term globetrotting and a digital lifestyle on the road – I have also transitioned from hopping around to staying in one place longer, setting up shop by renting an apartment and being able to work from that location. It helps me keep “life” and “travel” entwined, rather than thinking of them as two separate things. All the best!
What a crazy life.. should do the same with my wife:) all the best!
Excellent retrospective on nearly 7 years on the road … not only an entertaining read, but I learned a few things as well!
I was really enjoying your post! So inspirational!
Let me know if you ever will visit Poland!
Thanks Piotr. We really must make it to Poland one day!
This is the most inspirational post I’ve ever read. All of it. Although I am not a digital nomad, it is also very informative as me and my boyfriend started a blog recently and are planning a huge trip next year ;-) I will spend a lot of hours on your blog during the upcoming months.
Wow, what a lovely thing to say Maya. Thank you! Good luck with the blogging and travel plans!
Such an inspiring post! I love it! And I’m so happy to be counted among your friends. We’re still umming and ahhing about London, but this post certainly reminded me of a few things! Sigh. Decisions are difficult!
Thanks Victoria! I guess we’re lucky that we can make the decision about where to live, even if it’s difficult.
You guys have one of the first travel blogs I ever followed. It’s so nice to see you forged your own path and didn’t go down the destination marketing route which signals the death of a travel blog in my eyes. It’s especially impressive that you developed an app which I would have thought was quite a risky thing to do but like you said, persistence pays off.
I can also relate to your nomadic life. I did it for three years and quickly learnt that slower is better. I also struggled with the work/life balance and never found a solution that worked for me. Eventually the travel became too tiring for me and I’m now using Budapest as my base. I do miss the freedom and new experiences though.
Good luck with the next 2000. :)
Thanks Andrea. I can understand the need for a base – Budapest must be a lovely place for it!
Thank you, thank you for this amazing post. It does indeed make us feel better. There is so much to digest in this one post that describes so much of the stuff that has been going through our hearts and minds. It will take a few days to digest and even more to come up with some new strategies that we can apply to us.
We love your app and use it regularly. Thank you for the honest and willingness to share. Definitely inspires us to do the same.
Cheers from Romania,
-PJ
Thanks so much PJ! It can be hard for me to write these personal posts but it’s worth it when I get comments like this. I think it’s important to show that it’s not always an easy lifestyle and that we all go through this stuff. Good luck!
First of all congratulations! Not just for the 2000 days of the lifestyle but also the fact that you have done it together as travelling as a couple can be challenging at times. We connected with this post so much in fact I was smiling the whole way through as everything you mentioned I agreed with. Accepting change, persistence, recognizing you are lucky to be born in a rich country, not needing as much stuff…the list goes on and on. The freedom you describe, the lifestyle, and the negative aspects as well are all things that we’ve felt as well. Like you we have self doubt. We (especially Alyse) are struggling to want to share every part of our life with other people but we do want to take our blog to the next level (actually make a few bucks!) so we know we’re going to have to. We are coming up on three years of travel and are heading home (back to Canada) for Christmas. We are pretty sure we won’t stay there very long as we’ve grown to love this lifestyle like you. We are now after 3 years trying to work our own way to keep this lifestyle going like trail wallet has for you guys. I’m really looking forward to reading through more of your blog and following your guys moving forward. Would love to meet for dinner somewhere in this wide world , heading to India by change? Cheers guys :)
Thanks for the lovely comment Ross and we’re glad to hear the post resonated with you. These personal posts are always difficult for me to write but it’s so worth it when we get comments like this! We really want to go back to India but I don’t know if we’ll fit it in in 2016 (we’re in Bali the rest of this year). Hope we cross paths one day and good luck!
Erin,
I’ve greatly enjoyed readng your blog. It is inspiring and has helped my wife and I to change our coming plans. We will be retiring at the end of the year and had planned to move from Portland OR to Costa Rica for an extented period of time. Those plans have changed to a six month period in Costa Rica, and then world wide travel for the next unknown period of time. I’ve done a lot of ultra light backpacking, so your style of packing and travel is familiar. I would love to go that route. We’ll see if my wife is able to adapt to that.
Also Erin, don’t worry about your writing skills. You do a great, very descriptive job. I quite enjoyed your post about 2000 days of travel. I’ve purchased your app and look forward to putting it into use.
Take care,
Eric
Those sound like exciting plans Eric. Good luck on your adventures and thanks for buying Trail Wallet :)
Absolutely amazing post Erin -I think my fave ever from you guys! You are a constant inspiration and it’s really interesting to hear about the downs as well as the ups. Can’t wait to hear about your next 2000 days!
Thanks Clare!
ALL OF THIS. Really, it all resonates so much, we are kinda travel twinsies I think. :) I’m so happy that we got to meet once and I can’t wait to cross paths again.
I felt like that when I read your anniversary post! We really want to meet up again too – you have to come somewhere warmer though :)
Congratulations on completing 2000 days, that’s almost unbelievable isn’t it? You’ve been serious inspirations to so many people and will continue to be for a long time. Your blog is so interesting and packed full of information that’s both relevant and useful. I love reading it. We’ve recently quit our old lives to travel and although we’re in our mid 50s feel that so much of what you write relates to our own experiences so far. We are obviously blog novices but we’re enjoying writing and I think learning week by week, any crumbs of advice would be most appreciated.
Here’s to another 2000 days !!!
We do find it hard to believe sometimes! Thanks for your kind words and good luck on your travel and blogging journey!
I had to read your post in sections with rest breaks because so much of the content, including the sense of purpose and mission, the self-doubt, and financial concerns, resonates with my state of mind right now. Before I started reading, I thought of decisions I’ve made lately to not travel and wondered which version of “me” started thinking so conventionally. Your blog post is the call to attention I needed. Thanks!
Thanks for the lovely comment Marlene and I’m glad to hear that the post resonated with you. Good luck with any changes you choose to make!
Hi Erin,
I absolutely loved this blog post. Thanks for sharing your reflections and congrats on 2000 days! You’re absolutely right that if you’ve hit that many days there’s no reason why you can’t continue.
The balance that you guys have created is great. We found that while blogging we were always doing one or the other but rarely both at the same time. We took a month off of travel and rented an apartment in Panama and that was a great way to actually do both, travel and work. We’ve got a lot of hustle left in us and are hoping to digital nomad full time. Long-term travel is completely exhausted thus these stops for us. More mentally which leads to the physical exhaustion just like you mentioned. Of course we get anxious after all that and wanna pick up our bags again haha.
Purpose… We’re having this struggle now. We just finished 16 months. Got offered a job in Austria, waited for a few months and still no visa. This past week we decided to just not wait any longer. Now we’re playing with this crazy idea of going to Bali.
Also your Trail Wallet app is amazing. Only suggestion is an income category.
I love this post, the digital detox is much needed but not taken enough. The idea of privilege is something overlooked even in the face of abject poverty and travel. There’s so much to respond to in this article but I think I’ve said enough.
Thanks for your unique perspective on all this!
Love from Manila,
Mark
Thanks Mark for the detailed comment!
Congrats on 2000 days! It is really inspiring to read that from a couple that are on the other side and are where we want to be in 2000 days (we leave “permanently” on 1 December). Trail Wallet is awesome by the way – I am an android fan but am currently planning on using an iphone on our travels purely so we can use Trail Wallet.
Good luck on your travels Matt! And that’s lovely to hear you are planning to use Trail Wallet :)
Thanks for sharing! Question: have you two ever been in different places emotionally where one of you wanted to land and the other wanted to keep going? Did you handle it by renting or house sitting a place for an extended period of time?
After two years on the road, my wife needs a break, whereas I’m still stoked to keep exploring. It feels a bit like giving up to land for the six months we have planned, yet I would be a jerk not to honor her desire to do so. Perhaps we are shifting to the home-base style of travel, which isn’t the worst thing in the world I suppose! I think longer stints in one place (which we haven’t done much) would help a lot, but a refresher at home to rest up will probably be just the ticket to get fired up again.
Have a fantastic time in Indonesia! Here’s to another 2,000 days of adventure on the road.
I tend to find it more difficult to settle down and it takes a while to get used to not moving. But, yeah if one of you wants to stop then it’s best to take a break. For longer periods of time in one place I find it helps to find activities to do (like yoga classes), and once we’ve had a rest plan lots of day trips and weekends away. That type of travel is a lot less tiring but still keeps things interesting. Good luck with it!
Excellent advice. We’re going to focus on doing things that are tougher to find while traveling, plus enjoy not dealing with logistics. It should (hopefully) be good…and then we’re off again!
Thank you for this awesome post! You guys are amazing. You are an inspiration to us. We quit our career and started our quest to experience authentic food around the world a couple months ago. We are so glad to have dowloaded your trail wallet app. It has helped us a lot so far here in Argentina and we are counting on it for our next country Uruguay. We really enjoyed reading your post as we totally relate to it. And we also started our travels in South America.
Right now, as we start this new life style, our biggest challenge is the “balancing work and travel”. To build content and talk about the authentic food we are discovering, we need to travel. At the same time, we need to blog and promote our content and basically do the work. The best would be to stay put. What a dilemma! And to add to that, we have to deal with poor wifi/internet connection wherever we go.
Thanks for sharing your own challenges and learnings, it is reassuring!
Thank you Claire. The work/travel issue is something that every digital nomad struggles with, especially if you are a travel blogger. I find that I gather enough content during our travel periods to have plenty to write about when we stop for awhile. Staying in one place for longer also has the advantage that I can write more indepth content—for example I have a list of over 40 vegetarian friendly restaurants in Ubud to try! That would be impossible on a shorter stay. Good luck with it!
Beautiful post Erin! I got chills reading what you wrote about persistence, and probably really needed to hear that for myself today. Congrats on the huge travel-versarry, and we are looking forward to the next time we can share some mango-run shakes poolside!
Thanks Jenny. The persistence message (and blocking out negative voices internally and externally) is something we have to remind ourselves of frequently. You guys have been such a huge inspiration for us getting into apps, and I’m loving seeing how your blog gets better and better. Looking forward to more cocktails in the pool together!
Great post, and what an amazing run so far. Two-thousand days!
I’ve never travelled for such a long period, but even after only a few months I experienced travel burnout just the same. It was just for just one or two days at a time, but taking it easy for a few days was enough to get me fired up again.
By the way, for some reason I hadn’t made the connection bewteen you guys and Trail Wallet. If I may mention it, I recently posted a mini-review of your app on my website:
I used it in a multi-country trip that lasted several months, and loved it!
And not just for budget-keeping, as I discuss in the review ;)
Thank you so much Fernando for the lovely write up of Trail Wallet. I love that you use it as a mini travel diary too!
Congratulations!!!! I wish you continued freedom and success on your own terms. Your Cuba posts were invaluable to us – thank you!
Thanks Sarah and I hope you had an amazing time in Cuba.
A great article! We’re 9 months into a 1 year trip, aged mid 40s on a career break, and are looking at ways to make it more permanent. And the realisation is that it’s not impossible! I especially love the fact that we have a container of “stuff” back in England, that we really no longer need! A backpack is more than enough!
Keep up the blog, and keep safe!
Cheers! Paul and Charlotte
It was after a year of travel (without working) that we came back to our stuff and thought what on earth do we need all this for? There’s nothing like living out of a backpack to make you realise what you really need. Good luck in making your trip indefinite!
Really enjoyed reading this article (as well as so many others on your website). My wife and I would love to one day find a way to full time travel as you guys do. We like the idea of slowing down the pace of travelling and spending weeks in one location. In the mean time we are working abroad and travelling on holidays and summers off (I am a teacher). We currently just moved to Chiang Mai and your posts have been so helpful. I have tried out many of the vegetarian restaurants you suggested and we found any apartment to live in through a real estate company you suggested. Keep up the great work and good luck finding creative and enjoyable ways to make it to the next milestone.
Thanks Zack and enjoy Chiang Mai (we must return soon!).
Reading your blog is one of my favorite pastimes. :) You’re always such an honest and humble writer and have the best recommendation. When my husband and I took 16 months to travel, I must have clicked on your blog at least once a week for recommendations and other travel tips. Plus Trail Wallet was my husband’s best friend and my enemy (he’s the one that kept us on budget haha!). Thanks again for another great post. Even though we’re done traveling, reading about your adventures reminds me of the fun we had during our trip. You guys are great – keep exploring!
Ah, thanks so much Erin.
Great post!!! this inspired me to keep doing what i love !! congratulations your blog is incredible
Thanks Izy!
Congratulations on 2000 days, and I’m sure many more to come. Rhonda suggested this post (and your blog) to us. We’ve just passed 500 days on the road, but have only recently seriously started to travel as digital nomads. It’s comforting to see that people with similar interests, skills and goals have been achieving what we want to achieve with no end in sight. It makes me realise our goals are definitely attainable and that the very steep learning curve we have been through in the past few months is just a logical first step to this process. Thanks for the well written post.
Congratulations on 500 days Emma! The first year or so were a huge learning curve for us too. Sometimes it feels impossible but you get there in the end. Good luck!
This is a lovely post, really well written and thought out. I like your perspective and outlook on this lifestyle. Congratulations on 2000 days on the road! I’ve enjoyed following along with your travels. Cheers!
Thanks Ayesha – we appreciate your support!
Such a great post. You two have inspired us for so long and, now that we’re finally hitting the road again in two months, it is even more important to remember that the reason we are making this leap of faith is because we want to live life on our terms and not fall prey to old habits and being TOO connected while trying to make it work. We truly hope to meet you in person one day to thank you for your realistic version of a digital nomad, and also for the ongoing inspiration.
Thanks Rhonda and good luck on your adventure!
Well done guys and thank you
Thanks for reading Steve!
This is perhaps the most accurate post I’ve ever read on what this lifestyle is really like. Thank you for writing it! I still chuckle when I think of the first time we met in the UK, never realizing we’d soon meet up at the Bangkok airport on the same flight to Chang Mai, and of course our fun times together in later years in Mexico and Spain.
I’m so inspired by your commitment to run your business in accordance with your lifestyle goals. Even among digital nomads, this is not such a common thing. Your acknowledgement of privilege is something many don’t consider, and it shows what humble and socially aware people you are that you do.
Best wishes to you both for many more traveling years, and I can’t wait until we meet up again for another adventure. Buen viaje!
Thanks Betsy – that means a lot coming from you. You guys have always been a big inspiration (even if we can’t motivate ourselves to meet deadlines like you do!) and we’ve loved meeting up around the world. Hopefully we’ll see you again soon!
Really great post guys. For me personally (an aspiring app developer) the fact that trail wallet is your main income now is great to hear. Well done on your persistence and honesty and keep up the good work.
Thanks Lewis. It took a long time to get there with Trail Wallet but if you love the work then it’s worth keeping going. Good luck with your apps!
I love reading about you guys, you’re very inspiring and everything you say and do totally resonates with me (how you see travelling, the self-doubt, your views on money and success…). Would love to meet you on the road, you both seem like our kind of people :)
Thanks for the great post(s) !
Hopefully we’ll cross paths someday!
Thank you for this great post! My husband and I are in the first few days of our year adventure in South America. And even with that little time, this post rings so true! And we were happy to hear bus rides exhaust you too! I wonder daily whether I’ll make a year of travel but have decided to take it day by day. I love reading all of your posts and look forward to more. Thanks again – signing off to go Canyoneering in Los Baños, Ecuador!
I think South America is particularly exhausting as the distances are so huge and you can’t hop on a cheap flight like you can in SE Asia. All the more reason to take it slowly I think. Enjoy!