April Lunch and Learn: The nomad life

One of the major perks of being a freelance writer is being untethered to an office, allowing us to create and manage our own schedules. Some writers have learned how to take this to the next level by living in other countries or spending months traveling while they work. In our April Lunch and Learn, we featured two such freelance nomads, Sonya Collins and Kerry Dooley Young. Both offered tips and insight into how to travel the world while juggling work.

Collins has visited 20 countries and began her work/travel with a working trip of 10 days. Now she leaves home for about three months a year, most recently staying in South Africa and Kenya.

Dooley Young travels with her husband and has been to places including Portugal, Rio de Janeiro, Argentina and Brazil. She lives in Washington, D.C., but doesn't like cold weather, so she tends to travel in November, return for the holidays and then set off in February through April. She and her husband enjoy experiencing living in a country, rather than being tourists, so they tend to shop, cook meals together and find cafés to frequent.

Collins trips typically aren't led by assignments. Instead, she chooses somewhere she wants to visit, takes her regular work and then tries to find an article related to the area that she can also write. (Note: this allows her to deduct travel expenses while away.)

One of her early trips was to the Republic of Malta. At the time, she was writing for Genome magazine and found a researcher doing work similar to the Human Genome Project, whom she reported on while there.

Collins has also, more recently, begun planning when she will take her trips around the times when she can rent her home. She recently started using Airbnb and always lists for a minimum of one month. That way she doesn't get people who want it for a weekend "crash pad." Dooley Young has also had good experiences renting out her home while traveling.

Living spaces

For her jaunts, Dooley Young tends to find places she and her husband can stay through Airbnb. If you travel this way, she recommends a few things:

• Call ahead to check on internet reliability and speed, especially if it is in a more remote location.
• Check the locale's reviews for things like noise complaints if you want a quiet place to work.
• If you plan to cook, talk to the host ahead of time to see if they have utensils and pots and pans.

Collins prefers to stay in co-living spaces, which she said are geared toward solo digital travel nomads. She said these places tend to guarantee high-speed internet access and quiet, dedicated workspaces. Unlike hostels, co-living spaces also tend to have a private bathroom, with a shared kitchen and workspace. Other points about co-living spaces include:

• You can meet other people in the same situation as you, which can be good for a single traveler.
• There isn't a clearinghouse for them, but you can search coliving.com, Instagram (using #coliving) or Facebook travel groups (she likes the Female Digital Nomads group).
• If she can't find a co-living place, she joins co-working spaces.

Managing workload

Collins will sometimes build in a week "for vacation" if she is staying somewhere for a long period of time. But she typically sight-sees on evenings and weekends. Or she may keep a Monday through Thursday workweek. She may also lighten her workload during trips or perform work that takes fewer interviews.

Travel planning

If you are traveling solo, you may want to do a lot of advanced research to determine if a place will be safe before you go. Collins said she isn't a risk taker, so she makes sure to find out what it's like to be a woman in any potential location. She has planned entire trips from advice received from the Solo Female Traveler Network. Planning the trip can be part of the fun, and you may be able to use some AI programs like Gemini to find cities with a low cost of living, reliable public transportation or internet service.

COVID-conscious travel

For people wanting to travel in a COVID-conscious way, there are a lot of options. You might want to book earlier flights, which tend to be less packed than ones later in the day. These flights have also had fewer people getting on and off throughout the day.

When you get to your destination and want to work, cafés are often great places when in warm climates. They have outdoor tables and tend to have reliable internet. Botanical gardens may also have outdoor cafés and good Wi-fi. The American Horticultural Society has a $35 membership that gets you into gardens and arboreta across the country for free or at a reduced price.

Other points to remember

• It may be best to work in the time zone of the place you are staying. Sometimes that can work to your advantage by being available during "off hours" for sources in the United States.
• Collins doesn't always tell her editors that she will be working from a remote location to avoid them thinking she is traveling and not really working.
• Don't forget to ask obscure questions about where you are going. Collins went to Cape Town only to find out the electricity went out, on schedule, for two hours every day.
• Check out the laptop culture in places where you are visiting. It's not always safe to carry them around in some places. And in some areas, sources won't be happy if you show up to an interview with one in hand. Try Googling "laptop friendly cafés" in the place you are going to give you some idea of what you might find.
• Take a laptop stand so you can use your computer no matter where you are.
• You may want to have an internet backup plan. That may be a co-working environment or knowing where to find the closest Starbucks. You may also want to have GoogleFi or a phone with a second SIM card.
• If you are filing for a visa, you may consider saying you are a writer, instead of a journalist. Sometimes, because of the politics of an area, you may have to jump through more hoops as a journalist. For many countries, though, you won't need a visa. To find out more information about visa requirements, you can check out the State Department website.
• To handle your mail, you can join a service that will scan it so you don't miss things like paper checks or other important paperwork. There are some bonded companies, like Anytime Mailbox, that do this. The post office will also scan the outside of letters through its Informed Delivery program. If you have a friend or family nearby, they can then pick up anything that is important and scan the documents or send it to you.

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