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11 Reasons to Travel When You Freelance Online
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Do you freelance online? If so, now that the world is reopening, you might want to consider working and traveling. There are lots of traveling freelancers in the world who work on their laptops, earning money for their travels while they’re traveling. You can do this too!
Traveling freelancers, or digital nomads, usually travel more slowly than traditional travelers. This is because they must in order to get their online work done, but more importantly because they can, as their online work allows them to make money for their travels while they’re traveling.
I’ve worked while traveling for about 11 years on and off so far. This has given me experiences, friendships and connections that I never would have had if I didn’t have the opportunity to travel slowly for long periods of time.
Working while traveling allows you to see the world in a different light. When you work and travel, you become a part of different parts of the world – and come home with some amazing tales to tell.
Here are 11 reasons you should consider traveling while you’re freelancing online.
11 Reasons to Travel When You Freelance Online
1. See your favorite sights as many times as you want
When you freelance online while you’re traveling, sights that you’ve only dreamed of seeing can become as familiar as the back of your hand. Since you’ll be earning money while you’re traveling, you’ll be able to spend extra time wherever you want and see your favorite sights as often as you want. They’ll go from being just a dream to becoming a part of your reality.
2. Make new friends
One of the best parts of travel is the people. Traveling freelancers have ways of meeting other traveling freelancers and making new friends. Traveling slowly also makes it totally possible to get to know the local people and become friends with them too.
Related: Learn how you can create multiple income streams for your travels
3. Become more interesting
Traveling is always interesting, no matter where you go or what you do. Because you’re able to travel so much longer when you’re earning money along the way, you’ll end up with a lot more interesting travel stories than most people.
4. Never get bored working
While you may get bored working in an office or working from home, it’s unlikely you’re going to get bored working while you’re traveling. Take your laptop to a local coffeeshop, coworking space or other quiet setting to be around the local vibe and local people while you’re working. Be sure to use a VPN to keep your internet connection secure and protect your data from hackers while you’re traveling. I’ve used IPVanish VPN and it’s worked perfectly for me.
5. Try all the local restaurants
When you’re just passing through as a tourist, you might not have time to try all the amazing local dishes. As a traveling freelancer, though, you’ll be able to spend more time in the places that have the best food. You won’t have to leave one restaurant untouched.
Related: 7 ways to earn passive income while traveling
6. Eat home-cooked meals
Get to know some of the people wherever you travel, and maybe they’ll invite you over for an amazing home-cooked meal. You’ll probably rent an apartment rather than staying in a hotel or hostel. This means you’ll also have your own kitchen where you can cook up the local ingredients and make your own delicious meals too.
7. Learn a new language by immersion
When you’re working and traveling, stay in one place long enough and you can pretty easily pick up a few words of the local language. If you’re interested in learning that language even better, take lessons in that language while you’re immersed in it. I’ve studied Arabic with a private tutor I found on Preply. He was excellent, I learned a lot, and I can highly recommend Preply for language lessons. You can sign up for lessons in any language you want on Preply here.
8. Expand your comfort zone
We all have our comfort zones, but it’s important not to let them become too small. Travel is possibly the best way in the world to expand your comfort zone. Especially if you travel to less developed parts of the world, you’ll likely be in some situations you’re never in at home. Give it a little time, and you’ll become perfectly comfortable even in the most unusual places and situations.
9. Be a part of local life
Slow traveling, especially when you’re working and not just hanging out, shifts your perspective from someone who’s on the outside looking in to someone who’s on the inside looking out. You’ll be dealing with issues of routine daily life as the local people do and getting into the grooves of their lives alongside them. This will give you a completely different perspective of life in that location and a much greater understanding as well.
Related: Learn a new side hustle to make more money during your travels
10. Become a destination expert
Freelance online, earning money while you’re traveling, and you’ll be able to afford to stay longer in your favorite places. You can even stay so long that you’ll go from knowing nothing about a particular place to becoming a destination expert.
11. Make your dreams come true…and then some
When you’re a traveling freelancer, you’ll be able to visit places you’ve always dreamed of and get to know them as deeply as you want. You’ll also be able to more easily go back again. You’ll be able to far exceed your goal of making your travel dreams come true.
Want to learn more about freelancing? Take my free 7-lesson minicourse Get on the Right Path to Freelancing here.
Images by ptra, StockSnap and Matthias Zeitler
Sabina Lohr is a lifelong freelancer turned entrepreneur who created World of Freelancers to help others discover how to work for themselves online and live the freelance lifestyle. She’s always really enjoyed the freedom that freelancing brings, including several years on and off of working online while traveling and living abroad.
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These are all good reasons for online freelancers to travel while working. I’m now an online freelancers. But I’m not that rich to travel overseas yet. I’m only doing it locally at the moment. Hopefully, when I’m rich enough, I will travel overseas while working. Good post! Thank you for sharing.
Hi Fadima – Depending on where you live, traveling – especially slow traveling – in certain parts of the developing world can be much less expensive than living at home. I wish you all the best with your freelancing!