If you read What are you Waiting for? you know that the first steps to becoming a digital nomad are Finding a remote job, creating a budget and downsizing your possessions.
However, there is another important step along the way.
Throw out Preconceived Notions
Before you take the plunge to go completely nomadic make sure you remove any idea from your head about other cultures, other languages, the world in general. We know from our experiences that everywhere we’ve gone is completely different than we expected. Traveling in general is different than Americans think it is.
A lot of people in the world speak English and the rest speak French or Spanish as a second language at least. Being friendly and sociable will get you a long way with locals and invite opportunities to explore the country with a smaller investment than you see quoted online.
For example, we were able to swim with sea turtles in Mauritius as a family on a glass bottomed boat for only $25 USD. The regular price for this trip is around $100 USD. This was accomplished by talking to the people operating the boats and scheduling a day they didn’t have a tour going to go out privately.
It was an unforgettable experience for a very reasonable price.
. . . Continued from What are you Waiting For?
Step 4: Start Searching and Make a List
At this point, you can start looking for flights as the first step. However, there are some important rules when searching for flights to ensure you don’t overpay!
- Always Always search in Incognito mode
- Never use a travel APP (kiwi, cheap flights, expedia, etc)
- Search at least 30 days before your planned date
Look out for another blog with all the ins and outs of flight searching!
Make a list of all the places you see which are affordable for your family that you think you’d like to travel. Usually, you can start closer to home and work your way further away.
Pro tip: Travel “out of season” to places will get you better prices on places to stay, tours and more. For busier locations, you will also avoid the crowds!
Step 5: Check Details for Each Location
Next, you need to look into the places you’re considering. Check Visa requirements (a full blog on this will follow). Look into cost of living, general safety, internet connection, activities for kids and families and anything else that you find relevant.
A website that can give you some good guidelines is Nomad List for these items. However, note that the cost of living is often grossly misrepresented. You can see this by searching your own city and compare the information you find for locals and apartments. Overall, as a resource Nomad list is not great but, unfortunately, we have yet to find a better option.
Another useful resource here is to compare the cost of living between the US and your prospective country. Keep in mind, if you live in a more expensive city your actual cost of living in the US is higher than the average.
Lastly, check the exchange rate to see how far your paycheck will get in local currency. This helps you understand the general cost of the country. I also like to take a look at online grocery stores in a country and compare prices once I know the exchange rate. Look at the items you always buy to ensure they are available and see how much they will run.
Step 6: Find a Place to Stay
There are lots of options to find and book hotels, apartments and houses online. Even in the most remote countries you can find places to stay ahead of time. Since you’re not backpacking like a college kid and especially with kids, you want to ensure you book a place before your arrival.
If you’re booking a hotel room you can often reserve the room with a card and pay in cash upon arrival. This option can be useful if you want to try and barter with the hotel for your room.
Pro Tip: Smaller and less developed countries really don’t have set prices and will charge you more sight unseen. These places really want your money and will drop the prices to ensure you don’t go elsewhere.
The other option we find especially useful is AirBnb. Here you can set your budget and number of adults/kids to ensure you find places that meet your needs. You can also write the owners to ask questions and sometimes get offers for better prices if you haggle a bit.
Pro Tip: Air BnB offers discounts for longer stays. We always search for an entire month and often save 55% versus the regular rate on rentals. This trick allows us to stay in really nice places for the same cost as gross bed bug infested shared rooms!
These 6 steps are the beginning for planning a great trip at a fraction of the cost. Generally, we try to choose locations where the cost of living is low enough that we can include flights in the cost for 3 months and this averages out to the same budget we would use to live in the US.
Modern Nomad Family 