Truth about Traveling Full Time 🙄 Worth it? 14 Pros and Cons of Slow Travel Revealed

In this episode we break down our 14 Pros and Cons to consider before you set off on your own adventures. Pros and Cons of Digital Nomad lifestyle 📰 Subscribe to Our Newsletter: swiy.co/WanderingNewsletter

This video just popped up on my home-page and had to watch it. We definitely can sympathize with all that you’ve said here. As full time travellers, we’ve had to deal with a lot of the same issues and the same feelings that you’ve mentioned. Slow travel is the only way that we can make it work full time for us. We wouldn’t be able to move around non-stop, although sometimes we do take short side trips. We’ve subscribed so that we can follow along on your travel adventures! Cheers from Cartagena, Colombia :)

Very interesting. We are retired for 2 years now. We have been traveling about 15-16 weeks per year. We are mostly traveling for about 4 weeks and never less than 2. Our travel budget is $25k/yr and we are able to manage with that. We don’t include food in that budget, as typically we spend the same as at home. We certainly like the idea of slower travel, and are doing more of that. Certainly traveling off peak, and leveraging one flight into multiple destinations is very efficient. Longer stays are cheaper for sure on a per night basis, and typically include some modest meal preparation ability, which saves tons of money. We discussed longer trips, but don’t like the idea of not being home with family for many months, unfortunately many of our family don’t have the room to put us up for more than a week. So we downsized to a condo, that is easy to leave and is payed for. We like being home also at the nice time of the year since we live in Florida. We have traveled a lot in the past in the more expensive and traditional ways. There are more places for us to see, but we have no aspirations of seeing “everything”, instead just want to enjoy ourselves in interesting places. We typically enjoy second tier cities more than the tourist hot spots. Currently about half our trips are overseas and half are in the US. Here we often do road and RV(rental) mixed trips, we also have a boat that is set up for overnighting, and we can easily live on that for a month or longer. That all may sound expensive, but we have no debt and everything is payed for, so our ongoing budget is not that large. We are not minimalist in the true sense, but perhaps one notch up from that. We don’t do anything luxury anymore. It just isn’t worth the money.

This was really nice to hear. Thank you for sharing.

I slow travel too. Some places I have visited I almost immediately feel I could stay for months. But I have booked many places for a week or two and felt after 3 days, that I had seen it all. I will stay in some great places and sleep very well. But there is nothing that compares to waking up in your own bed. I've seen a lot of You tube channels that start out with something like "WE SOLD EVERYTHING AND..." I think that is a mistake.

Great video . And thank you for sharing

3 weeks ago, I learned about the term "Slow Traveler". I plan to visit 11 SEA Countries alone, sometime in 2025 for 3-12 months (I want 12 months, but just in case I may not like SEA, then make my travel shorter). I plan to put most of my stuff in storage, and plan to come back to my hometown of Pittsburgh after trip. I originally wanted to only go to The Philipines this year, but I started learning about other countries in that area. I just wanna get an overall view of SEA, then each of the 11 particular countries there. I plan to learn to speak as many SEA Languages as I can (that's also why I decided to expand my trip). I already signed up for your newsletter, and just subscribed to your channel. Thank You both, and may God Bless You both.

I so appreciate that you guys open up about the real and difficult human experiences of travel. I have been trying to envision what this lifestyle will be like and your stories are incredibly helpful as I make my decision about how, when and wheee I start slow travel. I think for most of us newbies we are just dealing with the worries of the unknown and you guys are really helping us set our expectations. Thank you so much for providing such realistic accounts.

Nicely done video 👏. 😀🙏

I have been searching and subscribing to channels like yours since covid, and suddenly this morning this video appeared in my feed as a recommendation...Youtube is strange that way. So, we're from Bellevue but live in Carlsbad, CA. Enjoying binging on your videos from the beginning today. We look forward to following in your footsteps soon! Except for the working part, as we're in our mid 50s! Meanwhile, we'll try to catch up on what you've been doing over the last several year.

Great Video! Kiki and I are traveling lots, maintaining a home base in Colorado on a ski mountain, but exploring all these benefits you discussed ❤ Wishing You, Great Health, Abundant Happiness and Outrageous Love

Hi i just found your channel! Will catch up on a few of your videos. Have you been to Scandinavia or South East Asia too? Subscribed! Thanks

Hi just found your videos! Im a new “follower” . What’s the best way to book directly with a landlord/owner in another country , you mentioned Albania. What is that website you use to book flights in Europe.. I tried to find it online. Thanks for sharing!

Good advice: Don't think it's unusual if only one locale out of 10 is interesting to you. For instance, Bansko bored the daylights out of me and an American couple but didn't bore the Harzes. The only places I've truly felt were fun and interesting in SE Europe were Glyfalda on the Athenian Riviera and Pirot, Serbia. I've still got places to go but my advice is not to feel guilty about being a snob if a city or town bores you out of your mind. It isn't you, it's the place. I need a small town atmosphere but not the "abandoned resort" vibe nor the "people arriving for three days in high season spending all their savings" vibe. There has to be a vibrant community. I just eliminated 90% of places right there with that description. If the majority of my time is spent talking with wait staff and taxi drivers, I'm as good as gone, even if I've found an excellent and low priced apartment with a washing machine and I've paid in advance. I'll pull up stakes and leave early.

Great video, but curious how you handle your finances and retirement planning while you are working and traveling?

Quick question. You mentioned you kept your car and have it partked at a friends. How does insurance work? Do you negotiate it based on use, or estimated miles driven? Thank you!

What do you do to keep an address for your mail back in the United States when you don’t have a house or an apartment?

I have been doing slow travel for 2 and a half years and I am really tired of living like a local. It feels like I just travel to stay at uncomfortable places and it doesn’t feel like a vacation. I think I just want to have a home base and just travel 4 to 6 months a year when I feel like it. Slow travel has become a chore for me and not that interesting anymore. Very lonely because you don’t speak every language. Airbnbs really suck.