The Unexpected Downsides of Being a Digital Nomad
A couple years ago, I boarded my one-way flight from Phoenix to Costa Rica to begin a new adventure — the digital nomad life. Being able to live and work from anywhere in the world definitely has it’s benefits and is a type of freedom most travelers can only dream about.
Once I discovered that it was actually possible to make an income from doing work that only required my MacBook and a wifi connection, I decided to go all in on freelance social media management and with that, take my remote work to Central America.
House of Somos / Santa Teresa, Costa Rica
Having lived abroad for years — in China, Thailand, Myanmar, and Mexico — I thought the transition to a digital nomad lifestyle would be an easy one. After all, I was no stranger to living and working in a foreign country and I was excited to experience the day-to-day of life abroad again. However, I quickly discovered that living/having a home base in a foreign country, and traveling around from that home base, was a very different experience than living out of a backpack, moving between hostels and Airbnbs, and being — as the term “digital nomad” would suggest — nomadic.
While living a nomadic lifestyle definitely has more “pros” than one can imagine, it didn’t come without its unexpected challenges once I tried the lifestyle on for myself. And here are three main reasons I did not like being a digital nomad.
1. Lack of community
You’re only in a place for so long and while you do meet a ton of new and interesting people on the road, the reality is that you’re only in this one place for a short amount of time. And so are the other travelers you meet. So realistically, the depth of these relationships you make and conversations you have on the road can only go so deep and eventually it will be time for one of you to move on again. The nature of community requires you to cultivate it. How are you supposed to cultivate it if you’re barely there? If you can’t put down roots or devote the time, effort, or energy that community requires?
2. Survival mode
I don’t think this gets talked about enough. Just when you get the hang out one place— like knowing where to go grocery shopping, discovering your favorite spots, gaining an understanding on the deeper intricacies of a culture and the way of life there, it’s time to pack up and move on to the next place and figure it all out again. And honestly, that became so exhausting. I felt like I was in constant survival mode, just trying to figure out where to fulfill my most basic needs on a day-do-day basis. This is the nature of travel in general, yes, but when you pair this with your obligation to work and the fact that you’re “living” in this destination, that’s where it starts to get really tough.
3. Balancing work and travel turned out to be more challenging than I thought
I wanted to experience the place I was in the way it should be experienced— to the fullest. When working as a freelancer, you obviously have the freedom to make your own hours, but that’s where things got complicated. When I was out doing travel things like taking surf lessons or Spanish classes, I’d feel guilty for not working. And when I was doing work at a cafe or my Airbnb, I felt guilty for being “cooped up” and not experiencing the destination. It also didn’t help that I wanted to use this time to go “all in” on freelance social media and essentially build a business (now Casa Social) while on the road.
Digital nomad life gets glamorized a lot, especially on social media, so I think transparent experiences and alternative opinions about this lifestyle are important for anyone thinking about becoming a digital nomad. However, it’s worth keeping in mind that every experience — good and bad — is unique depending on the individual, their needs, and where they’re currently at in their life.
After spending some time being a digital nomad in Costa Rica, Guatemala, and Colombia, travel burnout ultimately got the best of me and I came back home to do a hard factory reset on my life and priorities. You can only connect the dots looking backward and going home was the best decision I could have made for myself at the time. It brought me to where I am today — living in my own little studio in Metro Phoenix, working as a Social Media + Content Manager at a tourism board, working with aligned freelance clients through Casa Social, and building a life I enjoy and traveling when I can — which all comes together to create a physical and metaphorical place I’m really happy to be.
Will I ever try being a digital nomad again? Perhaps. When all the conditions are right. But for now, traveling around my full-time job during days off and PTO (aka the norm), works perfectly fine.
