Should I slow travel the USA or Internationally Right Now

In this report, I ask the question, should I slow travel the USA or Internationally right now?

So, what is slow traveling? I will show you pictures of the places I have slowed traveled while I discuss them. I will provide a link at the end so you don’t have to take notes.

Let’s talk about the old way people traveled first and then contrast that with slow traveling. Traditionally, people would only have a week or two off work per year. In Europe, they would get a month off.

People would fly or drive somewhere, do everything fun in that place for their holiday, and then fly home to their job. That is how the world used to be. A different kind of travel is becoming more popular now.

When you slow travel, you don’t go home for weeks, months, or even years. You just slowly move forward exploring places. Once you feel like you have seen enough of one place, you move to another place nearby and explore that. You just stay in each place as much as you like, then move on. You slowly move forward exploring the world.

Originally, very few people could slow travel during their working years.

A few people, like me, had online jobs so they could do their jobs anywhere. They could work anywhere that had reliable Internet. I called it geographically irrelevant income until someone gave me a name–digital nomad. Digital nomads didn’t have to rush home because we could make money with our laptops.

Slow travel was also a lifestyle that many retirees would live. Many retirees slowly traveled in their recreational vehicle (RVs) because it was cheaper than staying in hotels or furnished apartments.

But then COVID19 happened. Some people worked for companies that required them to work from home. Many companies temporarily closed their offices. In industries where employees worked in cubicles, they just stayed home and worked on their laptop computers.

Some people decided to leave home and work from other places. Some people visited family or friends or rented Airbnb apartments far from home. So long as their Internet bandwidth was good, their boss didn’t really know where they were. Home could be at the beach or the mountains so long as you got your work done.

Some companies even offered employees the right to live where they pleased. A few companies adjusted salaries lower if the ‘cost of living’ was lower where the employee decided to move. Many companies found no reduction in productivity. With stable productivity, smarter companies started to ask themselves–why do we keep paying rent for office space where nobody is working?

Suddenly a large portion of the population can work from home, no matter where home is so long as they have good Internet.

So suddenly, slow traveling became available to more traditional working age people. It wasn’t just the digital nomads that can slow travel.

So if you can do your job on a laptop, you have to decide. Do you sit at home, do you move somewhere else permanently, or do you just slowly travel the world through a series of temporary homes? Maybe you will decide to do what I do, stay in each home for a few weeks or months, and then explore somewhere new.

If you decide to slow travel as I do then you have to ask the next question. Should I slow travel the USA or Internationally Right Now?

To answer that question, you need to find out the following:

One. How much bandwidth and latency do you need to do your job?

Data Entry (0.5 Mbps): If you are just doing data entry type work on a client application communicating with the business server in your home country, 0.5 MBPS should be enough.

Chat and Email (1.0 Mbps) For chat and email you need about 1 Mbps.

Zoom Group Video (3 Mbps) For Zoom group video calls you will need about 3 Mbps. Latency is a factor in video calling and gaming. You need to keep it under 150 ms.

Netflix Streaming (5 Mbps). Do you need this for work or just entertainment?

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Two. Which countries are open to citizens of your country and how long can you slow travel in that country before you have to exit?

Visit this Kayak resource to find out what countries are open to citizens of your country. What are the terms of entry and how long can you stay.

Three. Are adjacent countries open to you that you can cross into when the visa period for the first country ends?

To reduce your expenses, it is best if there are multiple countries you can traverse in a given region of the world before you go fly somewhere else to continue your slow travels. The more time you spend in adjacent regions of the world the lower your annual flight costs will be.

Four. Of the countries you are allowed at this time, what countries have the bandwidth you need?

You will need to access this resource to know the maximum possible bandwidth you can get in that country. If the country has the capability you need, it doesn’t mean the owner of the Airbnb.com you will be renting from has purchased that level of service.

Five. What is the speed of the Internet router available at the places you would want to rent?

Email a few of the Airbnb hosts in the city you want to visit and ask them to run the ATT Speed test and send you the screenshot results (see example below). Have them do a screen capture with their smartphone and email it to you. Android Screen Capture. Apple Screen Capture.

Here is the screen capture for the router in our apartment in Mexico.

Six. Is that router dedicated to the unit you are occupying or is it shared with other units?

Ask the Airbnb host if the apartment includes a dedicated router inside the unit that is not shared with anyone or do multiple units share a router that is out in a public space somewhere?

I actually email and ask these kinds of questions to reduce the chances I will be disappointed in the working conditions. But even after that I usually book for a short period of time and only extend to the full period of time once I have verified the working conditions in person. Make sure to visit my report on How I find Perfect Apartments Slow Traveling the World.

Conclusion

Now you know why so many people have decided to just slow travel in their home countries right now during the Coronavirus. International travel requires much more research and planning.

For me, I plan on slow traveling the world internationally until I am in my eighties. Then I will probably buy a small RV and travel around the national parks in the USA. That way I can take advantage of the free medical care for seniors in the USA.

I note that you can travel freely in your home country performing only above steps five and six. Just contact Airbnb hosts and have them run an ATT Test and find out if the router is shared or not. Then jump in your car or RV and start driving around the USA.

But the above procedure for international slow travel has become routine for us and we identified Mexico as a place we can both go (Americans and Malaysians) for 180 days each without getting a Visa. Plus, we can head south into Guatemala once our 180 days in Mexico have expired.

We hope these six steps help you answer the question, Should I slow travel the USA or Internationally Right Now?

Please grab a free copy of my eBook “How I Fired My Boss and Traveled the World for 13+ Years.” Plus, watch my video, “How to Make Money Online with Your Hobby.”  That video explains how I pay for this life.

My goal is to make this hobby business better every day. But I need your help. Please leave your new topic ideas, criticism, and other thoughts in the comments below or on my Youtube Channel.

This is Dan from Vagabond Awake, the Youtube Channel for VagabondBuddha.com. The world is your home. What time will you be home for dinner?