In this report, I share my daily routine slow traveling the world. You already know what I am doing when I am in front of a camera. So in this report, I will share my typical routine when the cameras are turned off.
I left the US in 2007. I have been traveling the world for over 15 years now. I have lived in or visited 67 countries. I don’t buy round-trip tickets. I move forward through the world instead of flying back between trips. I don’t have an empty bed anywhere in the world waiting for me.
Do you remember the TV show from the 70s called Kung Fu? One of my oldest friends says that I remind him of Kung Fu. He says I am like Kung Fu because I don’t think I am special. I am just a guy that knows what he loves and keeps on doing it, come hell or high water.
Another close friend says I remind her of that guy in the beer commercials, “The Most Interesting Man in the World.” She says I am kind of like him because I have a beautiful girl at my side except I don’t know anyone famous, I don’t have friends in high places, and I don’t have a beard or beautiful business suits. I wear shorts, a t-shirt, flip-flops, and I fly under the radar.
But the truth is, I am just a guy that has figured out how to live an unusual life seeing the world with much less money than you are probably thinking. Now, I am not saying that what I do is all that easy. It took me years to get the hang of it.
I did pretty much everything wrong before I figured out how to do a few things right. The good news for you is that if you find my life interesting, it might be easier for you to follow in my footsteps if you avoid some of the things I did wrong and do more of the things I do right.
Hopefully, my reports and videos will help you save time and money along the way.
As I share my typical daily routine, I will share various videos I have made that will help you save time and money if you decide to live this way. Okay, here is my typical daily routine.
My Daily Routine Slow Traveling the World
This example day is not a travel day. I typically stay in each location I travel to for at least 2 weeks. Sometimes I spend 2 months in a location if I love it. If you love a place, it can easily take a few months to really understand how it feels to live there.
So, my ideal day is just one day in the middle of several weeks to several months in that location. So I am not rushed. Taking your time to really get to know a place is one of the top two distinctive factors used to know whether you are a slow traveler, or not.
The second top factor in determining whether or not you are a slow traveler is your pattern of movement. If you fly back to a home base between explored locations, you are more likely a traditional traveler. If you move forward from place to place, you are a slow traveler.
I am not judging anyone, I am just explaining the difference. Think of the series Kung Fu, how often did he fly back to an empty bed somewhere in the world before moving forward exploring the world? He didn’t. He moved forward. That is my definition of slow travel. But you can make your own definition if you don’t like it. Let me know your definition in the notes below.
If slow travel is a topic you would like to explore more fully, I suggest you browse through my Youtube playlist on this topic: How to Slow Travel the World, link provided.
Okay, now that you know what my slow travel life looks like, my daily routine might make more sense to you. I have to complete everything necessary in my life as I slowly move forward. I can’t put things off until I get home because I am not going home. Okay, here is my daily routine slow traveling the world.
Morning: 5:00 AM to 8:00 AM (Local Time): Now that I am 61 years old, I just wake every morning at 5 AM. I drink 3 to 4 cups of coffee, I read the news. I check and return your emails and I read and answer your comments and questions on Youtube. I say good morning to Qiang around 7 AM. Then I make her a cup of coffee. I research online and plan fun things to do in ‘this’ city we are exploring and the surrounding areas. I think about what my Youtube videos will be about this week. I write checklists of content to cover in any videos I plan to make. I write retire cheap reports. I don’t do all of these things on any single day. These are just examples of things I do during this time slot, 5 to 8 AM.
Breakfast: I do not eat breakfast. At my age, I must continually do intermittent fasting Monday through Friday so I don’t get fat. On weekends I am not as strict with my diet. On weekend mornings we go out to breakfast or I cook our breakfast at home. Qiang usually eats oatmeal or eggs for breakfast that we cook in our furnished apartment.
You don’t need to take notes. This schedule and all the other information I share in this report are in writing. Just click the top link in the notes below this Youtube video.
Workout: 8:00 AM to 9:30 AM: At around 8 AM, I step outside the front door of wherever we are in the world and I start running. I love to eat and the only way I avoid getting fat is to run. Plus, travel is stressful so I have to keep my energy up. I usually run hard for about 20 minutes and then I do some muscle training for another 20-30 minutes. I am including an example video of my workout routine. The key to staying healthy while slow traveling is to not be dependent on a gym. You have to have a workout for times when there is no gym near you or when you don’t have time to find a gym because you just got to this new place in the last few days. No excuses, you have to take care of your body first before anything else. So I work out 5 times per week, usually Monday through Friday. On weekends we are usually walking long distances exploring places, so that is my workout on weekends.
Before Lunch: 10:00 AM to 1:00 PM: After my workout and shower, we either go out on some excursion and film some part of the world for our Youtube videos or we stay home and work. On Monday through Friday, we usually work two days and play three days of the week during this time slot.
If we are working, we do any of the things I have listed for mornings. If we are out exploring the place we are located, we typically have some plans of what we want to see and where we will have lunch after.
Lunch: 1:00 PM to 1:30 PM: On days we are out exploring, we try to find local foods we can share with you in our videos. If we are working at home that day before lunch, we may cook at home and continue to work after lunch or head out to lunch somewhere. My first meal of the day is usually around 1:00 PM.
After Lunch: 2:00 PM to 4:00 PM: After lunch, we often come home and take a 30 to 60-minute nap, especially if we are in a warm part of the world. Many parts of the world have Siesta Weather, where people are outside in the mornings and evenings but hide during the hot part of the day. After our nap, we either finish our planned exploration of ‘this’ city or stay home and do another hour of work or so.
Pre-Dinner: 4:00 PM to 6:00 PM: Once it is cooler outside we may head out to some local markets and see if there is anything fresh we want to make for dinner. Or we go on a nice walk if we already have food at home or are planning to go out to dinner. We walk almost everywhere and we almost never rent a car. In some parts of the world, we rent scooters if most of the locals rent scooters. Some Qiang finds a place or two that has a nice happy hour. We like to check those out and add them to our reports whenever possible. Most are 2 for 1 or better.
Dinner: 6:00 to 7:30 PM: Mostly we cook dinner at home because lunches are cheaper for eating out than dinner. But we do go out to dinner 4 to 6 times per month on average depending on where we are in the world. We try to have at least one date night per week and we usually do that out to dinner. My last meal of the day is usually around 6 or 7:00 PM. If you don’t know what intermittent fasting is, Google “Intermittent Fasting” and read. It is the only diet that really works in my world. It is more of a lifestyle than a diet.
After-Dinner: 7:30 to 10:00 PM: Some nights we hang out at home and watch Netflix. If we haven’t been out on the weekend in this new city before, we research and find the nightlife neighborhood here. We head out to see the nightlife at least once in each city so we can get a feel for how safe it feels. We often include nightlife maps in our retire cheap reports for a city.
For each city we visit, I write retire cheap reports so you have our estimated cost of living for that city based on what we learned living there. I post the reports about each city on my membership webpage and each report has embedded videos we made while living in that city.
I also write reports about all of my tips and tricks to retire cheap overseas or how to slow travel the world using all of my secrets of saving money while staying safe. All of these reports are included on our membership webpage. If you are interested in seeing our full catalog of reports, visit VagabondBuddha.com.
I also have a free eBook that teaches you how I was able to fire my boss and travel the world for the last 15+ years. Just look for the words “Free eBook” at the top of VagabondBuddha.com.
Also, if you would like to learn how to turn your hobby into an income stream, like me, watch my “Hobby Income Course Video.” It is not unusual for my hobby to make two or three times what we need to slow travel the world like this.
This is Dan of Vagabond Awake, the Youtube Channel for VagabondBuddha.com. The world is you home, what time will you be home for dinner?