Perpetual travel: The pros and cons

A growing number of people have hit the road in the past decade or so, and are still out there many months or years later. Most of these perpetual travelers could also be called ‘digital nomads,’ which describes people who can make their living anywhere they have an internet connection for their laptop. Others are writing books and some are just goofing off and using up their trust fund, but however they do it, there are some downsides to consider to go along with the more obvious upsides.

As a bit of background, I spent a full year on the road a few years back, and I’m currently about 10 months into another trip that will definitely go well into its second year at the very least.

Pros of perpetual travel

Here are some of the upsides to this lifestyle. If you prefer a happier ending, save these for last.

It can be surprisingly cheap

If you’re currently living in North America, Europe, or Australia, chances are you can actually save money by living on the road in other parts of the world. Most of Asia, except for Japan and Korea, offers good connections at living prices that can be shockingly low. Southeast Asia, and notably Thailand, Malaysia, and the Philippines are favorites since they are mostly modern and tend to have good internet speeds.

It’s actually not difficult to get by completely on around US$600 per month in this region, and if you can afford US$1000 per month you’ll actually be living quite well. Many parts of Latin America are also in a similar price range, though internet connections there can be trickier in some of the cheaper places.

The amazing freedom

One big reason why most people who do longer round the world trips prefer NOT to prebook tickets in advance is this gives them the ability to go anywhere they fancy at any time they like. If you are really watching your finances it obviously isn’t quite as easy, but still once you get good at it things do open up, even in more expensive places. For example, you might save US$100 by taking a flight a week later than you first wanted, so you just keep working from your US$10 per night hotel room for that week.

Many of us have explored some of the main highlights in Asia or in Latin America, but obviously both regions are incredibly deep and rich with destinations, so being able to spend a week, or a month, in an interesting and cheap small town is something that most people can only dream of.

It can be fairly luxurious

One of the best tips for perpetual travel is to minimize hotel stays by finding a cheap serviced apartment when you can. In places such as Chiang Mai, Thailand, you can get fully-furnished serviced apartments for under US$200 per month for basic ones, and about twice that for quite a bit of luxury. You also get a kitchen so you can buy groceries and cook for yourself to save even more money.

Cons of perpetual travel

This is only a short list of some problems that are likely to crop up for most people.

Social lives suffer

While it’s true that with email and free Skype video calls you are far less likely to become traditionally lonely than you would have in the past, it still can take a toll to not have good friends nearby. Making friends with locals, expats, and other travelers is a treat and rarely very difficult, but still you aren’t likely to know them for long so it’s not really a full substitute.

Visas can get expensive and be a pain

As of about 10 years ago a Westerner could show up in most any country with only a passport and be allowed to stay legally for 3 months or even more. But now only a few of the cheaper countries make it that easy, so you’ll definitely be hassling with entry visas every month or two. The US$30 to US$60 fees for most of these visas can be bad enough of their own, but they also come with often-complicated rules that mean you can only stay for 30 days at a time or mean you have to apply a week in advance at an embassy.

It really does take some of the carefree nature out of this sort of travel if you have to leave a country every 30, 60, or 90 days, especially if you’d prefer to stay for much longer. Some people do ‘visa runs’ and come right back in, but at best that’s a headache that none of us want to deal with.

Internet service can be a crapshoot

On the plus side, it’s usually very easy to find cheap hotels that offer free wi-fi, even in the guestrooms, but in reality it’s rare to find good speeds, and sometimes it’s just awful. Web browsing can even be challenging at times, and in some places you can forget about any YouTube streaming or torrent downloading.

Those of us who make our livings on the internet tend to be very sensitive to bandwidth issues, and non-productive days can be common if you get a bit unlucky where you are staying.

Ergonomics come into play

If you work from an office or home, chances are you’ve got a comfortable chair and desk plus everything else you need to be productive. But working from hotel rooms, especially cheaper ones, usually means a cramped desk or even working from the bed itself. Studies all show most people are much more productive with an external monitor or huge screen, so you can forget about those if you are moving around with any regularity at all.

In summary

For many of us this is an experience that we wouldn’t trade for anything, and the positives far outweigh the negatives, but after a period of time pretty much everyone finds a proper home again, if only for a year or so to get the urge to head back out again.

If you are thinking about this sort of lifestyle there’s a very good chance you’ll love it and that it’ll work for you, but it’s also important to regonize that it’s not as easy as we all wish it were.

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