How I Traveled Full-time For Five Years

Julia Jerg
Jul 27, 2017 · 9 min read

Go out and find yourself. Most people see traveling as the ultimate way to self-reflection. By exploring the world, it seems that you can also find out a lot about yourself. Traveling in the end may help you unfold yourself to the utmost extent, which sometimes might not be possible when at home. Routine kills creativity and the thirst of fully living, I’ve found. So, what do you find when you are out there wandering around the globe? In this post I want to share my most valuable insights from five years of traveling full-time. I’ll also include some tips that might help you start traveling longer for less.

Traveling as a form of learning:

While you you are out there traveling, your mind seems to become like a sponge, or perhaps more like a student. Suddenly, you start taking notes again and pay attention to the details that your history teacher would have told you in school. The difference to former times in school, NOW it actually interests you . But what has changed?

I believe that seeing the world in ‘live’ makes your synapses function differently. Everything you learn about a destination and its people, food, and culture is somehow printed in your memory. No history class would have ever been able to do so. Traveling full-time leaves an impression on you. I always go away from somewhere with the feeling that I actually added a new puzzle piece to this big picture called ‘life’.

Enjoying a guided tour through Portugal’s capital — it’s supposed to bring good luck to touch this statute…

Go check it out and see it for yourself

If you are an explorer and love the idea of seeing all the places in the world, stop surfing the web and go out to see them with your own eyes. All those dreams we maintain, usually never become real because we are too busy to ‘quickly’ doing other things before we actually dedicate our time to what we really want to do. Our dreams seem to be lived by other people, those people from the magazines.

We like to say that before we can ‘play’ we have to take care of our duties and do something that is ‘really important’. Yet, I’ve learned that there is nothing more important than following your passion and do every day what makes you truly happy — even if society considers it leissure. Otherwise, your life will always feel like a long sequence of duties.

The ocean is my happy place, I could stand and stare at it for hours….

Frankie was right!

For some it might sound selfish but you shouldn’t care about those people because most likely they won’t care if you die with regrets either. So, ‘I do it my way’ is a deliberating concept for happiness, I think. Design your life with all the creativity you have and add the details to it which make you happy. I believe that this is the key to personal freedom. And then you will enter a new dimension of life. There is no right or wrong when it comes to your personal lifestyle design. What suits you might not suit me but that’s fine.

So, being a wAnderful soul, it has dawned to me that traveling does not have to be reduced to the short periods of vacation time that your boss approves by the end of each year. For me, the most beneficial consequence after changing my life was to become self-determined and free to choose wherever and whenever I want to go.

After five years of living a nomadic lifestyle, I have learned a lot and worked even more to maintain this way of living. And even if it was not always a clear vision that I’ve been following, and it also was not always easy, I don’t regret my drastic transformation that I begun in 2011.

In fact, traveling full-time and to become location independent sometimes is tough. It requires a lot of determination, discipline and creativity. But it is the most rewarding lifestyle you can imagine. Be careful though, it’s very easy to crawl back into the safety net of our society which sells pre-made lifestyles. So, to know why you do what you are doing is crucial…

Sightseeing after work — not the usual business break you might be used to, right?

Remember your ‘Why’

Living outside the system can be tough. So, the most important part for me is to remember why I chose to change my life. And perhaps you can relate to it: your 9–5-job bores you; the routine of work-eat-sleep-repeat makes you unhappy; life seems dull; your time feels wasted. If that sounds familiar, it will be easy to remember why you want to make a change.

Your motivation to find a way to make a travel-life happen is almost guaranteed. And with each new place you visit and new person you meet, you realize that life can be so colourful and diverse. Your grey old you from the past seems to fade away. Like an old friend from former times, you get less and less emotionally attached to the past. Reality is what your life is now. And this is an important process to your personal freedom.

Once your new self is completely shaped you feel more like a protagonist of a big adventure. You have completed the transition phase from your conventional life and you can finally welcome your new you! This change becomes very obvious as soon as you realize that you don’t feel like you are wasting your time with your daily tasks anymore… you have then reached the level where you live life the fullest! Isn’t that what we are all here for?

Just always keep in mind what makes you happy must be worth to be chased…

Travel longer for less:

If you are serious about traveling full-time and want to know how you can get to know the world without going bankrupt, check out my post on ‘How to travel without being rich’. My first advice is to switch from tourist mode to traveller. Here is how you can adjust a few travel habits that might help you save money and experience your destination differently than ‘the average’ tourists:

  • Become social, social and triple social:

Instead of reading your Lonely Planet, you can get personal advice from real travellers: I joined many travel-related groups on Facebook. That’s where I get location specific info on accommodation, activities or simply if I want to know how to get to a new place in the most efficient way. You save time browsing the web and you’ll get personalised answers to all your questions.

But I also use those groups to learn about new trends, find out about useful tools/apps, travel deals, and to evaluate new destinations before I go. On Trip Advisor you can do the same but personally I like the groups on Facebook better. You might even extend your network and make new friends! Here are my favourite ones: Travel, Digital Nomads Around the World, Extraordinary Female Travelers and We Travel We Blog.

  • Keep Your Costs Low With Volunteering Programs

Worldpackers, HelpX, Workaway and Wwoofing are ways to get a more local experience while saving on accommodation costs. All four organisations require an average of three to six hours of your help per day, mostly five days per week. This gives you enough time to get involved in a local project but also still leaves you time to explore the destination you are visiting. Conditions vary from host to host and can sometimes be individually negotiated. If you are interested in woofing, check out my article about our trip to Hawaii and our experience on an organic farm there.

The view from our bedroom on the organic farm in Hawaii.
  • Live like a Local

If you don’t want to ‘work’ or be actively involved in some sort of local project, then couchsurfing or house sitting might be a better option for you. These two options are a little bit less predictable though, because you have to apply for a couch/house sitting gig in advance and wait until the house owner will choose you… This tool is not for your last-minute travel plan. But it is our favourite option to stay away from hostels, or if we are tired of volunteer work. And if you manage to get a house sitting gig in one of your chosen destinations, that’s like winning the lottery — a home away from home for free!

  • Start a Travel Blog

Not everyone should do this. Maintaining a blog is a big commitment and requires a lot of dedication. But even if you don’t like writing and researching you can always think of alternatives like a photo or video blog. Either way, I would highly recommend that you have at least one online platform on which you document your travels. Whichever option you choose or if you decide to feed them all, rest assured that this will bring you a lot of benefits for your travels. If you are interested in starting a travel blog, check out my post on ‘How to become a successful travel blogger’.

  • Traveling full-time is pure fun?

It’s a big mistake to think that a traveler’s life is all that easy. When you are traveling full-time, you’ll find yourself outside your comfort zone almost every day. And that can be a bit challenging sometimes. At least, that’s how most people experience it when they try something new. The unknown can be scary up to the point where one manages to adjust to a new situation. Then one relaxes and knows again how to deal with new situations.

Those relaxing moments when laying at a beach, sipping a cocktail underneath a palm tree or overlooking a beautiful valley from top of a high mountain are moments that YOU worked for. They became real because you worked towards them. You should thank yourself every now and then for being strong and brave!

The moments in life when you feel nothing else but happiness should be occurring on a frequent basis, I’d say!

Last but not least…

Traveling full-time or long-term is like a job. You spend a lot of time in front of your computer to organize your route, next flight, bus, hotel etc. Every day has to be newly created. But even if that scares you, I’d say try it out at least once in your life! I am pretty sure that you won’t regret it. For me, not knowing what I will do tomorrow is the beauty of a location independent life. Not having a routine and living without material burdens lets me live more flexible. As soon as I was able to appreciate the fact that I don’t have to know every single step in advance, it brought me personal freedom.

Today, I live a very exciting life full of new adventures every day! Here’s to another five years of traveling!

Did you like this post? What are your experiences from traveling full-time? Or are you about to start a nomadic life yourself? Get in touch or comment, I’d really like to hear your thoughts on this topic!

Check out my blog and subscribe to my monthly newsletter on www.jeyjetter.com to get tips and insights into a travel life of a digital nomad.

Julia Jerg

Written by

Social media marketing coach, location independent since 2011, blogs about digital nomads and long-term travel at JeyJetter.com

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