Traveling as a digital nomad family can get utterly exhausting. After three years of full-time family travel, we discovered the easiest way to enjoy ourselves, crush our work goals, and travel full-time.
Travel Slowly.
It seems almost counter-productive to say slow travel helps you see more of the world. After all, you left your life behind and started traveling to see the world, not establish a routine. But when traveling as a family, your priorities change. If you’re traveling long-term, slowing down will make the trip enjoyable, productive, and sustainable.
Slow Travel Helps Your Family Establish A Routine
Not having a routine makes everything more complicated. It makes our baby sleep worse, demotivates me to work, and makes finding the time to book our next trip feel impossible. It’s impossible to establish a routine when we’re amid a whirlwind of travel.
Enter a long-term stay. Once we’ve established a base and know we’ll stay somewhere for at least three weeks, we fall into a routine that works for our family.
Check out this blog on building a routine that works for you!
Slow Travel Builds Your Understanding about Your Destination
Spending longer than a few days in a destination allows you to meet locals, build friendships, and interact more meaningfully.
The people of the Cook Islands were friendly, but their smiles grew once they learned we were visiting their beautiful paradise for three months.
In Portugal, our neighbors eagerly taught us about their beautiful island, explaining the seasons, the best markets for produce, and how to boil the best potatoes ever.
In Thailand, our neighbors shared their driving tips for surviving the crazy Thai roads and how to survive the extreme heat.
Slow travel enriches digital nomad families, as it helps them build the community you need to function. If we’re feeling ill, having a neighbor we can count on is essential.
Slow Travel Means Better Housing
The housing benefits are, by far, our favorite part of long-term travel.
Not only is it cheaper to rent long-term, but you’ll get better-equipped homes. And, if you’re staying somewhere for longer than a few weeks, you’re more willing to spend money on something you’ll use daily, like a desk, pot, or pan.
The longer a homeowner plans to rent a home, the better equipped they tend to be. Our favorite homes have been monthly rentals we’ve found through local real estate websites, facebook marketplace, or by talking to our neighbors.
Check out VRBO for furnished vacation rentals – your home away from home.
Traveling Slowly is Cheaper!
Traveling slowly is cheaper than hopping around a continent or country. You’ll save on airfare, accommodation, food, and anything else.
Before becoming digital nomads, we went on a trial run to the Italian island of Lipari. Our VRBO was a short walk from a beautiful pebble beach.
The flat cost 500 Euros per week but only 800 Euros monthly, so booking two weeks in Lipari would cost us 200 euros more than staying for a month.
Another way to save by traveling slowly deserves it’s own blog, but I’ll mention it here.
If you stay longer than 182 days in many countries around the world, you may be required to pay taxes there instead of your home country (unless you’re a US citizen, in which case, you’re screwed). You can save thousands of dollars a year by strategically choosing countries with lower tax rates, not taxing foreign income, or having tax treaties with your home countries (including the USA).
Slow Travel Helps Your Family Make Friends
Travel is lonely. Although you spend your days exploring new cultures and environments, it isn’t easy to build lasting, deep friendships.
Especially if you’re traveling quickly and only spending days in a place.
By slowing your travels down, you can meet the locals. We met with local like-minded families when we spent ten months in Madeira. Our time in Thailand allowed us to build a community with our neighbors; they brought us homemade meals after birth.
Childcare is another great family-centered reason to travel slowly. If you spend months in a place, instead of days, you’ll have enough time to interview local nannies and babysitters. In some countries, you’ll even qualify for state-subsidized childcare! There are also plenty of communities for digital nomad families that offer childcare, homeschool support, and furnished homes spread around the world.
Slow Travel Prevents Traveler’s Burnout.
It seems odd to discuss burnout and travel in the same sentence, but traveler’s burnout is no joke. A digital nomad family life is mentally exhausting and physically taxing, especially on travel days.
Minimizing travel days reduces stress, allowing us to work productively while traveling the world.
By traveling slowly, you’ll leave yourself time to explore a new location and relax at your hotel.
Slow travel allows you to relax, tour a new location, and enjoy a delicious meal on different days.
It allows you to be fully present in the moment and enjoy every moment.
Slow Travel Allows You To Make the Most of Your Travels
Transitioning from a stationary to a nomadic family life is difficult. Especially at the beginning! There are thousands of places we want to see, experiences we want to share, and foods we’d like to try.
It’s impossible to decide on one destination and even harder to stay there.
Long-term travel is a marathon, not a sprint. Slowing down is essential if you want to avoid traveler burnout, not exhaust your family, and stay productive while working.
I recently came across a post in a digital nomad forum from a disappointed nomad. This couple worked in the UK remotely and flew to Paris to work abroad. They were disappointed to discover one harsh reality of digital nomad life – you’re still working. Your days will consist of 9 hours of work, even in Bali.
Staying in one place for a long time helps you make the most of your time off. We treat weekends as mini-vacations and weekdays as workdays. This means spending all day at the beach, hiking, shopping, or whatever we feel like on weekends, but hunkering down and working during the week.
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