I have been graced with the ability to travel around the world while working on my startups. Before moving to Portugal, for the 10 prior years, I have seen so many great places and have learned so much of what make this world “ticks”. In this post I have compiled 100 travel tips for digital nomads which will help you get the most out of your travels while working online.
50 Travel Tips For Digital Nomads Who Want To Travel The World But Don't Know Where To Start
Travel Planning
1. Secure Steady Work: Make sure you have steady work before you go. Never assume you can finance longer term trips in the country you are visiting.
2. Pack Light. You dont want to lug around suitcases up mountains. On crappy buses. Plus you can buy local clothes when you land. You´ll stick out so sometimes best to look like a local.
3. Go Down Rabbit Holes. If someone invites you for a drink, to their house, to hangout with another nomad do it. This is why you are traveling. Just be cautious if something feels weird. Remember there is still crime and weirdos out there.
4. Communication. Get an international mobile number and internet credits. Nothing worst then not being connected. You can get a Google Voice, Skype, Whatsapp.. etc.
5. Document. Take pictures, be active on Instagram. As much as everyone hates Facebook, I love getting memories from my previous travels.
6. Try To Learn Language Basics. Learn the basics the language of the place you are at. This will help you connect with your local place much easier. Even if you sound like an idiot, it will let the locals know that you care enough to try. Memrise is a great app for that.
7. Be Prepared For Emergencies. Know the basic for survival in country such as what their equivalent for 911 is, how to go to a doctor or hospital, and where your country’s embassy is located.
8. Research Basic Daily Tasks Before Leaving. Search on Google Maps to see what the local buses, trains, boats are near to your lodgings. Have a plan for where to exchange or withdraw money, you get the gist.
9. Be Respectful. Be respectful of the country you are visiting. They are hosting you and they have norms and culture which probably isn´t your own. The woorst thing travelers do is just push their own belief when visiting a country. Locals will always have poor opinions of you if you are loud, aggressive, rude, or just indifferent. When you are in someone else’s house, you follow their rules.
10. Lodging. Use AirBnB, CouchSurfing, TripAdvisor, hostels to find where you lay for the evening. The world isn´t cheap but their is an option for all levels of budget.
Work Setup
11. Have A Working Laptop. It sounds kind of obvious, but the last thing you want is your old busted laptop to break in a non-English speaking country to have to replace your machine with a laptop with a different set of keys.
12. Phone Setup. There are multiple options for this. You can have your regular phone and pay extra for it to work internationally. You can also pick up SIM cards in the different places you travel. On top of this, you will want to have Google Voice set up. This is always a great way to have a working US phone number no matter where you are at.
13. Video Calls. Do Skype-Zoom-Google Meet video calls for the human touch, both with friends, family, and clients/bosses.
14. Chargers. Make sure you have the proper plugs and chargers for the country you are traveling to. If you are bringing serious gear, bring a convertor brick.
15. Microphone. A microphone is key for client calls. The last thing you want is to have those on the other line not be able to understand you.
16. Wifi. Get the best wifi possible. If your internet is not reliable, you risk your finances and they are key to you being able to travel.
17. Use Apps. There are so many amazing apps. Duet Display turns your iPad into a second screen.
18. Payment Systems. This will differ if you are running a company or if you are doing work for someone else. There are plenty of platforms for payments, so do some research to find out which is the best for you. Look into, direct deposits into your bank account, Paypal, wire transfers, TransferWise, and digital currencies.
19. Join Co-Working Spaces. This gives you both a solid working environment AND a way to meet people who are similar to you.
20. Set Boundaries With Clients. You are going to be on a different schedule and you need to set boundaries so they aren’t expecting to call you at 1am. Explain the best ways and times to get in touch with you. I also find that scheduling a monthly meeting via Zoom or Google Meet where they can see your face works wonders. Use Trello and give them access to their boards so they can follow along with the work you do, seeing the work you are doing will go a long way in your work relationship.
Family & Friends
21. Send Gifts. Get everyones home address. Make a list of everyone you love. At each location, send one of those people a small token to let them know you are thinking about them. It does not have to be expensive, but it should be thoughtful.
22. KIT. Call your mother, siblings, family, friends as much as you can. You can really begin to get disconnected with them more you travel. This helps with your sanity.
23. Send Post Cards And Written Letters. When is the last time you actually got a card or a letter? Not a bill or spam? Your handwriting is a wonderful way to let people know you care (and it is cost effective). Make a list of friend’s birthdays and pre-write the cards. This way all you have to do is head to the post office, pay for a stamp and send it off.
24. Video Calls. Do skype video calls or Google Hangouts as much as possible. When you travel you will get very disconnected with the “normal” world. You friends will get married, have kids, move, change jobs and you will be traveling. You will come home with hundreds of stories of different adventures and they will tell you about the Supermarket or job drama. The key is to keep in touch with them visually as much as possible. This will reduce the culture shock of their lives when you see them. Also there is an incredible loneliness when you travel. It is good to hear the voices and see faces of the people in your life that matter the most.
25. Invite People To Join You. We always get AirBnBs with 2 bedrooms. This way people can join us. We normally let our close friends know what our plans are and let them know to book their vacay around our travels. It’s a great way to build memories.
26. Plan Visits Home. If you are always traveling, it will make it really hard to maintain relationships with the ones you love. Blanca and I scheduled visits to our family and friends in the US when we needed to get out of the Schengen area, and her family in Latin America during the winters so we could skip out on the cold. Make travels home a part of the rotation. She also always goes to the US for her Goddaughter’s birthday. Considering when you visit is as important as making the visits.
27. Visit Foreign Friends. We made tons of friends during our travels. We ended up adding their locations into our travel rotation. For example, we made tons of friends in Beaune; so now we schedule a visit every year during the wine auction.
28. Don’t Boast Too Much. I know we all get excited about the places we go and the things we do. Instagram also encourages us to put out the best parts of life. You and I both know that digital nomading is not always glamorous, that there are plenty of uncomfortable mattresses, unreliable wifi connections, missed and delayed flights, and sweaty runs to a train. Your friends can feel angry or jealous if they only see the good stuff from your travels, so when you visit them…of course tell them about your adventures, but make sure not to gloat and to give them plenty of time to tell you all about their adventures.
29. Make Your Visits Count. When you come home, sure, you can organize a big dinner to see everyone at once, but for your close friends, set up intimate meaningful get togethers. Offer to babysit for your best friend. Go with him or her to that old diner you went to in high school. The goal here is to have meaningful conversation and strengthen your ties.
30. Budget For Emergency Flights Home. In the horrible case that something bad may happen, it is smart to have an emergency fund for flights home in case of someone’s death, illness, or other tragedy.
Local Culture
31. Buy Someone A Drink. A glass of wine, a coffee. It does not matter what it is, this goes a long way. We’ve made some great friends this way.
32. Join Meetup. Regardless if you want to meet locals or other expats, this is a great platform to get to know people in a safe environment.
33. Join Facebook Groups. There are tons of Facebook groups for local areas. For people like you, join Digital Nomad groups. If you want to talk to expats, there are those too. And very often there are also groups where you can meet locals.
34. Co-Living Spaces. This is not my cup of tea, but it is a wonderful way to get to know others and stave away the loneliness, so it can be a wonderful option to break up the monotony of staying at AirBnBs by yourself.
35. Join Language Classes. Not only is this useful, it is a great way to get to know a few locals and others like you.
36. Take Guided Tours. Be it a bike tour through the city, a guided museum visit, or something similar, you will meet tourists and you can get some great tips on where to meet more people from your guide. Heck, when the tour is done, invite your guide for a coffee or a drink and make a friend or two.
37. Join Tinder. That is if you are single. We all get lonely, and Tinder is a great way to meet people if you want to have a different type of fin.
38. Join A Gym. You’ll need to stay in shape. Join a gym and take some classes there. If you’re into fitness, you are likely to find others who do as well.
39. Volunteer. I find this is the best way to meet locals (after buying them a glass of wine at the bar). If you like art, see if you can volunteer in a museum. As an English speaker, they may be able to put you to good use. Or, volunteer for a good cause…walking dogs at the local rescue. Volunteering is always a great idea.
40. Go To Pub Crawls. Tons of people will be there, libations will make the talking easier. Just make sure to drink responsibly.
Issues You May Run Into
41. Illness. You may get sick. If you’re like Blanca who loves to try the local dishes – like Balut on the beach in Boracay – you will end up sick at some point. Before leaving get all your shots. This can prevent a lot of wasted time sitting at home sick.
42. Accidents. We have dealt with headaches from a pinched nerve, gashes on feet from a bottle exploding on my foot, and breaking my head open in a dark Milan apartment’s concrete walls. These things will happen so you should be prepared to go to the doctor in your host country. Travel Health Insurance can be purchased through plenty of online places. Check these sites. Find out what the participating hospitals are in the cities you are visiting so you don’t have to do the research when you’re not feeling well.
43. Lost or Stolen Credit Cards. This is where Google Voice and Traveling Mailbox come in handy. As soon as you know that your credit card is missing, call your credit card company and let them know. Have them ship the new card to your Traveling Mailbox so they can then forward it to your location. Hopefully, you will have back up cards you can use until you can get your new card shipped to you.
44. Crappy Lodgings. You need to have a plan just in case you get to your hotel, hostel, or AirBnB and it is not what you expected. I usually do a video when I arrive and leave so that I have documentation of how things are. If you are using a rental platform, keep all your communications via the rental platform so you can prove the issues. Begin to look for alternatives asap so that when you get your money refunded, you know where you can go. You should already have back ups from your research before your trip.
45. Technical Issues. When the unexpected happens, like torrential rain happens out of nowhere and your laptop is ruined, (or maybe your machine gets stolen, or you get hacked) there is no point in freaking out. Take a breath, and go into your plan of action. You should already have a list of Internet cafes, cowering spaces, repair shops, and computer stores in the area you are visiting (this should be part of your planning). If you have immediate work to do, head to the Internet cafe. Then, when you have time, either visit your local repair shop or retailer to get a replacement. You may be able to work from your smartphone or tablet depending on the type of work you do. But before all this, there are various things you can do to prevent disaster:
- Regular data backups (I always back up to the cloud)
- Encrypt your data in case of attacks
- Device tracking (works great with Apple products).
- And, of course, have a budget for emergency replacements.
46. Crimes. Before you head to a certain location, read up on the things that are considered crimes. For example, kissing someone in daylight in India is considered a crime. In Singapore, you can’t chew gum. It is illegal to feed pigeons in Venice (which should be illegal everywhere). Anyway, the idea is that you don’t want to get in trouble wherever you may go.
47. Document Loss Or Theft. Losing documents like your passport can be one of the worse things that can happen when you’re traveling as a digital nomad. I start by having a digital copy of my documents in the cloud and on my phone on a hidden folder. This way I always have a digital copy. I also carry around a paper copy that stays at my lodgings. If you lose a document, for example, your passport, there are steps you need to take:
- Go on your embassy’s website to see what requirements they need to get you a duplicate of the document and what the fees will be.
- Make an appointment with the local Embassy for your country.
- Go to the embassy and take care of it.
If it is something like a driver’s license, request the copy and have it sent to your Traveling Mailbox so that you can have the replacement forwarded to where you are at.
48. Car Rental Issues. We usually use or credit card’s insurance when renting cars and decline that of the insurance, but, before we do that, we check the policy of the credit card. Some credit cards don’t cover certain countries. Others only cover some types of damages, so if you are using your credit card as rental auto insurance, be aware of what is and is not covered.
49. War Or Political Unrest Or An Outbreak.
- The first thing you need to do is contact your Embassy. Ask them what their recommendations are.
- Join expat groups for your country on Facebook to keep a pulse on what is going on.
- Since you already have an emergency travel fund (we discussed that before), be ready to put it to use.
- Stay away from crowds and demonstrations.
- Subscribe to your local airport’s newsfeed.
- Always err in the side of caution.
50. Shake Downs. In certain countries, you will have to “tip” police. If you “make an illegal right turn while driving in Mexico”, the cops may tell you that you can pay the fee right then and there. I say, look at this as the cost of doing business. You can try to haggle, but do you really want to? When you’re dealing with cops, it’s completely different than going to the Bazaar and haggling over a trinket or shirt. When dealing with cops, I say just give them what they want.