WanderGays

Behind the Scenes

Being a digital nomad is not exactly how the idyllic instagram photos make it look. Unfortunately, it’s not all beaches, beers, and SCUBA diving. Let us take you behind the scenes, so you can decide if this lifestyle is for you.

PLANNING

This one might be the death of us. The planning never stops. When we reach a new place, we’re already planning out the next one. Where should we go? When is the high season there for diving? Can we afford it or is it outrageously expensive? How do we get there? What town should we stay in? Is there good WIFI connectivity? All of these questions need answers, and it never fails that as soon as we answer them, it’s time to do it all over again for the next location. To mitigate this from becoming overwhelming, we try to stay in one place for a minimum of a month.

TRAVEL DAYS

In order to make traveling as cost effective as it can be – we aim to travel on the cheapest days we can find, meaning that all of our travel days are flexible. The drawback of this is that we lose work days. Our most recent trip to Roatan took two days, Thursday and Friday, which set us back in our work. Travel days are lost days and depending upon how often you travel and how far you’re going, that time adds up. We try to compensate by doubling up on our work hours before traveling, but that isn’t always possible.

DISCIPLINE

Oh how hard it is to work when you’re staring at a beautiful ocean and have the warm sun beating down on you. Discipline is the real battle when it comes to being a digital nomad. Being able to consistently hold yourself accountable when it comes to meeting your work goals and not falling into the trap of thinking you’re on vacation.

COMMUNITY

Being a digital nomad allows us to collect friends all over the world and build an awesome network of cool individuals. However, when it’s time to relocate – saying bye sucks – as does having to start all over again somewhere new. The challenge also

levels up when we relocate to a place where the bulk of people don’t speak the same language as us. Also, not only do we have to build a new community in each place we visit, but we also have to be intentional with keeping up with our community back home. While it takes effort, it’s such a privilege to maintain robust friendships.

CONNECTIVITY

Despite all of the research and planning we do (even asking hosts for internet speed tests) – we can still arrive at some place to find out that it doesn’t have working WIFI or that there are power cuts every day for hours. Our work is online, so if we can’t access the internet, we can’t work. This is one of the most frustrating aspects of being a digital nomad – not knowing what we’re getting ourselves into until we’re there on the ground. Once we see that there are issues with the internet, then we have to put our planning hats on again and figure out how we’re going to get work done.

Being a digital nomad has so many perks and facilitates a life of joy, inspiration, and continuous learning. As with anything, it comes with its own set of challenges. Now that you know some of the most pressing struggles – you can decide if this is a life for you.

This is Not a Vacation

This is not a vacation – this is life. It’s freeing and exhilarating, but also something we have to remind ourselves pretty often. We have to remember that when we select places for our next adventure. Not every place we want to visit has solid cellular reception and WIFI, which would leave us unable to work.

Here are our top 5 favorite places we’ve visited that have allowed us to stay connected:

5. St. Lucia

Out of the Caribbean islands we’ve visited, St. Lucia provided the most stable, consistent WIFI and cell service. The country code is +1, and the language is English – so communicating back home with clients, as well as with locals was easy.

4. Gili T, Indonesia

Gili T is the smallest island we’ve ever visited. There are no motorized vehicles, so people ride bicycles or in horse-drawn carriages. The entire island can be walked from top to bottom in an hour, so we were pleasantly surprised to find that we had cell reception and that WIFI was prevalent. There are a few cafes that have stable WIFI that were right across from the beach – which made for a fantastic home office. The hotels were hit or miss with WIFI, so it was nice to have the cafes to fall back on if there was an outage, or it was working slow at home.

3. Malta

Malta is a diver’s (& history buff’s) paradise. There are so many wrecks and so much history to be explored under the sea. Not only was WIFI and cell service so easily attained – there was also a DRYER in the condo we rented. That was the first dryer we had encountered in our travels, outside of professional facilities. We can’t tell you how many times we’ve gone to wear something only to realize it wasn’t fully dry (even the following day) – so this was a pleasant surprise. We will say though that we think our clothes are fading slower from line drying – so ya win some and lose some.

2. Italy

Italy is amazing, we wouldn’t recommend going for the SCUBA diving, though. Other than that, it was ideal. It was one of the easiest places in terms of connectedness. Our three months of Google Fi had lapsed by this time, so we bought Vodafone sim cards which worked perfectly. A word to the wise, though, don’t throw away the package the sim card comes in. It has a pin number on it that you will need to reenter on your phone every time your phone restarts. We may or may not know this from experience (two times over). The sim card was around €60 and included 50 GBs of data, it’s really nice if you get to use it all.

1. Phuket, Thailand

Phuket was our absolute favorite. The conditions were perfect for work – excellent WIFI, cute cafes to work in, and perfect cellular reception. The kindness and welcoming nature of the Thai people kicked it up a notch and the food, wow, it was the cherry on top. Not to mention how beautiful the endless number of beaches were. There was always something beautiful to see and experience when we weren’t working. Existing in Phuket was seamless and easily our favorite destination so far.

Where to Next?

If you plotted our travel destinations on a map, you might think we just randomly select where we go next – but you’d be wrong. There is a method to the madness – and clearly it isn’t the closest country to us.

When picking a destination, flexibility is key. We have a long list of places we would love to visit, but some aren’t financially feasible for various reasons, so we just slide those locations in our back pocket for when the opportunity arises. Our favorite website to explore when we’re looking for a new place to visit is Kayak’s Explore page. We enter where we are and then can see the flight prices for all of the places we’d like to visit. We don’t stop there, though. Once we identify a few affordable locations from our travel wish list, we then go to Kiwi to see if it’s running any specials for those flights. Here are some deals I’ve gotten from Kiwi:

Naples → Corfu for $36
Corfu → Turin for $19
Turin → Copenhagen $24

We’ll also take it one step further and cross reference those flight prices with the airline listed on Kiwi. We’ve found the flights can be similarly priced, but the airline will offer cheaper luggage rates – or even luggage specials.

When we’re exploring routes on Kayak, we take note of layover destinations. Many times, a popular layover destination happens to be on our travel wish list, and breaking up the flight also breaks up the price (and helps with battling our nemesis, jet lag). A version of this saved us over $200 when we were booking our flight from San Diego → Roatan, Honduras. We found the cheapest flight from the US to Roatan and then worked backwards finding the cheapest flight from San Diego to that location (which happened to be Miami).

Circling back to flexibility being key – we’re always open to delaying our travels by a few days in order to get the best flight price.

In our experience, there’s almost always a hack to be found to make flying more economically advantageous – you just have to know where to look.

How Do I Live Without You:

An Ode To Our Packing List

You’ve set your sights on the sky and decided to fly away to a life full of adventure. There are some things, though, that shouldn’t be left behind. Here are a few tips to help as you embark on this journey.

VPN

A VPN is MUST HAVE. A lot of programs/databases/etc. only allow you to access them within the US (or your home country). If you’re planning to travel to a different country, you can’t risk being locked out of the sites that get you a paycheck. We’re all for traveling on a budget – but having no money at all could complicate things. We use Express VPN, and they’ve been awesome – allowing us to stream our favorite shows and even watch our Bama boys play football.

Cellular Plan

We use Google Fi – and ABSOLUTELY love it. It allows you to use its service in most countries without any added data fees and the fee for international calling is minimal. The only drawback is that they limit how long it can be used outside of the US – which is 3 months, and then they pause your data until you come back to the US. You can still use it for voice calling and messaging, with the minimal fees. Once our Google Fi plan hits its 3 month limit – we switch to Grasshopper. Grasshopper allows us to use WIFI to make international calls without fees; however, the service does cost a flat rate of around $36 per month. Grasshopper is a VOIP, so it routes calls to our phones.

We see people recommending local SIM cards as a way to save money – while this is extremely useful in some situations (like trying to order food delivery – the KFC fix is real), it’s not helpful when clients need to access you using your US number. As digital nomads, it’s not great to change your phone number whenever you hop over to another country – so we use these services for much-needed continuity. Whenever we touch US soil again, we switch right back to our Google Fi plan to handle our in-country communication.

WIFI

We’re sure you’ve noticed the trend by now – ways to stay connected, so you can keep making that money that lets you live like this. WIFI is a big one. When we first started traveling, we stayed at a few places without solid WIFI, and it was a mess – think back to the noisy, dial up, sloth slow internet. We’re traveling so that we can experience the world – not so we can be stuck inside waiting for a post to upload or hear 1 out of every 10 words our clients say. Now, before we book a place (typically through airbnb) we reach out to the host and ask them to run an internet speed test and send it to us. This has helped alleviate stress and anxiety about visiting off-the-path places.

The Tangibles

We’re fans of packing light (or at least we try our hardest to be) – but there are still a few things that I make sure to carry with us.

Power strip – this one is a game changer. You’ll only need one universal plug adapter and with the power strip you can charge multiple things at one time. If you’re traveling with someone else – this will definitely help if you have a plug hog on your hands *cough cough Mariya*.

Dry bag – in tropical climates, rain can be a sneaky surprise. We’ve been caught off guard a few times on a motorbike with our laptops, and it’s hectic. It’s also useful for boat outings, beach days, and any tours you go on.

Deodorant – We have yet to find deodorant outside of the US that does the trick for us. It’s also difficult in a lot of places to buy stick deodorant, which is our preference.

Menstrual cup – period products aren’t easily accessible in a lot of countries and can be pretty expensive. ALSO – it’s difficult to find public toilets – a menstrual cup typically eliminates those needs (and cuts down on waste).

Face sunscreen – We’re picky about what products we put on our faces, so this is a necessity for us to stay safe and healthy. We use Elta MD, and it’s fantastic. We also use Sun Bum’s face sunscreen when we’re going to be in the water, because it’s reef safe.

Quick-dry towel – lightweight and easy to carry. What’s a good beach day without a towel to lounge on? And – ours are green with palm trees, so they’re easy on the eyes.

BONUS: Amazon Fire Stick – We downloaded the Express VPN app onto our fire stick and can stream all of our favorite shows and games on the TV, instead of having to watch on the computer.

Honorable Mentions

Here are a few things that we bring with us but could do without / buy local if we had to: favorite seasonings (we also buy local seasonings and carry them with us), hair products, portable blender (morning smoothies with local fruit are clutch), body sunscreen, deet bug spray, and OTC medications.

Being a digital nomad is a rewarding adventure – what you choose to pack can make it smoother or cause some difficulties. So – pack right & pack tight. Let us know if you think we left anything off the list!

Did You Rob A Bank?

Did you rob a bank? One of the many questions garnered by our travel pics on Instagram. A fair question, since traveling is typically something we see as cost prohibitive. We’re going to let you in on our secret, since you are taking time to read our blog and all.

No rent

When we decided to leave the US and travel, our apartment lease was up, and we opted not to renew it. Instead, we sold / re-homed some things and then put the others in a storage unit. Rent in the US is EXPENSIVE – so not having that obligation while we travel has allowed us to reallocate that money to pay for housing abroad.

We typically use airbnb to rent homes (at least for our first few nights in a new location – so we can scope it out on the ground) and budget for $65 per night, with most locations offering a discount for monthly rentals. Splitting this between us, leaves us spending less on rent than we were in the US, by several hundreds of dollars.

We have food at home

Such an unfortunate phrase to hear growing up – but it’s totally true. When booking an Airbnb, we always ensure it has a kitchen. Eating out is expensive in some of the countries we’ve traveled to – so a kitchen is a must have! In Martinique, a basic hamburger was €22. Prices like that are fine when you’re only there a week, but a month of €22 burgers will blow a budget. Groceries have been reasonably priced, sometimes meat has been hard to find – so flexibility is important when meal planning!

Shoulder season travels

We often travel to places during shoulder seasons. There are two main benefits of this – it’s less crowded and less expensive. During a shoulder season, the weather has only slightly shifted, so it’s still pretty ideal. Skipping crowds and soaking up the good weather – sounds pretty perfect to us.

Flexible travel plans

We have a list of places we’d love to visit, and are constantly monitoring flight prices to those places. We also use the “anywhere” feature when looking up flights on Kayak, Google Flights, or Kiwi. If we want to go somewhere far away, we look for places to stopover on the way – which breaks up the cost a bit. So, we won’t be able to tell you where we’ll be in 6 months, but we know wherever it is, it’ll be great!

There ya go, our top four secrets to being a digital nomad without having to rob a bank. Shh… let’s keep this between us.

Work/Life Balance: A Futile Quest?

Work/life balance – definitely a buzzword that’s been overplayed yet underachieved. When we set out to forge a different path, that was actually one of our pursuits. What does this life look like when you don’t work all day, come home, eat, and then are too tired to exist. What does it look like to thrive and how could we do it?

In March of 2022, we took off in search of the answer – and spoiler alert, we didn’t find it right away. After landing in Phuket, Thailand, we rested on the beach under the sun and let the rays calm our chaos. We ate delicious pad thai and tom kha (among many other dishes, because what Thai food could ever be bad). Mariya tested the limits of her stomachs with street food (Sam had already learned her lesson). We played pickleball and got sunburnt. We island hopped and road tripped (and even learned a little Thai). But, wait a minute, we were in pursuit of balance and this just flipped the scales the other way. We were calm and relaxed but definitely not hitting all of our work goals. We learned the lesson that if this is going to be our life – and not just a vacation – we needed structure.

With the different time zones and our night owl dispositions, it wasn’t too difficult to find a balance that allowed us to have it all. We started our days a little later – around lunch time – and then had a good 6 or so hours for some fun in the sun before beginning our workday at 7 PM in Thailand, which aligned perfectly with working hours in the US, and wrapped it up around 2 AM. Even with working the same amount of time, by working in the evenings we had more daylight and energy to pursue our personal interests during the day. Honestly, it was the best working structure we had ever implemented.

So – we encourage you to push the limits and find a structure that allows you to thrive and not just exist. Life’s long and like Matthew McConaughey says, “Ya just gotta keep livin.”

WanderGays Origin Story

WanderGays sounds like it could exist in the Marvel universe, so surely we’re entitled to a solid origin story, too. Ours is a bit more conventional, though, and entirely on brand for a pair of millennials – thanks, Hinge! Serendipitously, our time in Alabama aligned quite like the stars – and what good gays can argue with the astrology of it all. The famous last words were uttered (just looking for fun, nothing serious) but things went rogue, as they tend to do.

Fast forward a few months, and Sam’s new job wanted her to relocate to Denver, CO. Denver sounded like an adventure, so we packed up Sam’s things and hit the road. Mariya assisted with the move – the uhauling came a bit later (patience is a virtue we’re working on).

Three months into Sam’s 6-month lease, we decided the cold was not for us. It was -12 degrees Fahrenheit for over a week straight. Snow is pretty but not pretty enough to endure the freezing temperatures. We decided to chase the sun and spend Thanksgiving with Mariya’s family in San Diego. One night, we were fairly tipsy at a bar in Mission beach, and Sam boldly said “move to Thailand with me.” You see, Sam had lived in Thailand for four years and had only been back in the States for a little over a year. So, the question wasn’t entirely outrageous – still, Mariya’s response was “are you drunk?”

Not only did we wake up with hangovers the next mornings, but we obviously had to discuss moving to Thailand. On the list of things to discuss after a night out drinking, this was by far not the worst. We talked over the logistics, wondering if it could really work. We both work remote, so we could continue our jobs from anywhere. Sam’s attitude was very much – if we don’t like it, we can come back. Few things in life are permanent – so we decided what the hell. Let’s go (after Sam’s lease was up, of course, we are responsible adults)!

We put all of our stuff in storage in March of 2022, said our see ya laters, and took off. It’s been a whirlwind of an experience. We’ve had mishaps and misadventures, redefined our beliefs on success and happiness, and grown, individually and closer together. We’ve explored 16 countries, with even more on our list. Currently, there is no end in sight. We invite you to come along for the journey – whether it be for the jokes, tips, or messy stories – we love having you here!