What is Travel Nesting, Anyway?

It’s simply living your normal, cozy life in a series of international locations. And it can usually be cheaper than living a typical life in the United States.

There Is NO “Right Way To Travel”.

No matter what anyone says, as long as you respect the places you visit and the people who live there, you are allowed to travel however the hell you please.

Everyone is different, has different preferences and ways of living. You are perfectly entitled to create your own way of life.

For instance, it seems the group most often criticized as superficial is the one where people go on tours, where they want to see as many famous landmarks as possible in the least amount of time. Well, you know what? That may very well be the only way those people can afford to travel or the only way they can do so safely and comfortably.

Those people may have only two weeks a year to travel, most Americans do, and they may be saving every extra penny to see places they’ve always dreamed of. They may be elderly retired people who need the extra care of a tour guide. And most of them are probably extremely grateful that they were able to do so.

My grandmother took those tours twice a year in her sixties and seventies because she dreamed of seeing the world beyond the little backwater community where she’d lived her whole life. She went to Asia, Mexico, Canada, Europe more than once and sometimes just toured her own country by bus.

I went with her on one of those tours the summer before my senior year in high school. A bus full of senior citizens going from New Orleans to San Francisco and passing through Las Vegas from both directions. Since I’d grown up in the same backwater community, I was thrilled to see what seemed to me like very exotic locations. I loved it!

And let me tell you, after ten years of dealing with travel logistics on my own, there is a lot to be said for this type of travel. So anyone who sneers at it is just a travel snob.

I’m dead sure they’d sneer at the way I travel, but who the hell cares about the opinions of travel snobs? I certainly don’t.

Basically, I do all the things I did at home. I work for hours at a time, I still have to cook, clean, do laundry, run errands and go grocery shopping. And just like at home, I don’t have a whole lot of energy leftover to do much of anything else, so I mostly just don’t.

Just a typical supermarket in Morocco...where you scoop grains and spices out of vats.

Sure, there are exceptions. But I mostly get my thrills from just being in very interesting locations when I’m out running errands and grocery shopping – which, by the way, I’ve hated my entire life and now it’s become a major source of fascination.

So, regardless of what anyone else may think, I have thoroughly enjoyed my way of life. If you are a low-energy introvert, you may enjoy a similar version of it.

I Travel Full-Time, But I Hate Leaving My Couch

Let me be honest upfront: I have a passport full of stamps (though those are mostly a thing of the past), but my preferred method of travel is from my sofa to my fridge. The greatest journey I undertake most weeks is the perilous trek to my washing machine. My soul is permanently fused to my couch cushions or bed pillows (not all of my tiny studios actually have a couch...)—and yet, I travel full-time.

So what's an introvert homebody with a rampant case of wanderlust to do? How do you answer the call of distant horizons when your primary requirement for a good day is that getting dressed is, and I cannot stress this enough, optional?

The answer, my friends, is not to feel pressured to see everything there is to see. For one thing, you can't, there's too much of it. For another thing, it's not going anywhere and you probably need to work in order to fund your travels.

No, the answer is something far more sublime. And if you do it right, it can be cheaper than living in the States.

So, How Exactly Does Travel Nesting Work?

Travel Nesting is my not-so-secret, slowly-evolved strategy for seeing the world without sacrificing my right to be a hermit. It's the art of staying in one place for a solid chunk of time— somewhere between one to three months. This isn't a visit; it's a temporary relocation. It's the core of my slow travel philosophy and what makes long-term travel actually sustainable. Deep discounts on monthly rentals bring your cost of living waaay down.

You unpack your bag (bliss). You work your remote job. You cook dinner. You do your laundry. You figure out which grocery store has the best cheese. You find a café where the barista starts to recognize your order. You are, for all intents and purposes, living your normal life. It's the part of the digital nomad lifestyle that no one talks about enough: the mundane, comfortable middle.

But here's the magic: the backdrop is upgraded. Your mundane errands become tiny, delightful adventures. Doing your laundry in a laundromat—or even in your own rental—when you need Google Translate to figure out the settings is infinitely more interesting than hanging out in your building's sad, fluorescent-lit basement. And speaking of Google Translate, it really gets a workout grocery shopping in foreign stores—whether you're navigating a massive indoor supermarket or an open-air farmers market.

You're not just seeing a place; you're inhabiting it, with all the cozy, boring, beautiful routine that entails. The goal isn't to be a tourist; it's to be a temporary local, someone who knows the shortcut through the park and which baker sells out of their best croissants by 10 AM. It's about trading the pressure of sightseeing for the pleasure of simply being in a place so completely different from anything you're familiar with.

Let's Be Clear: What It's NOT

Before you get the wrong idea, let me shatter a few illusions. Travel Nesting is:

• NOT a permanent vacation. It's just… life, elsewhere. I still have deadlines and dirty dishes.

• NOT about rushing to see All The Things™. If I miss a famous monument because I was deeply invested in a novel at the park, so be it. The FOMO is dead here.

• NOT Instagram-perfect adventure tourism. You will not find me bungee jumping. You will find me judging the bungee jumpers from my comfortable seat at a sidewalk café.

• NOT synonymous with expensive luxury travel. It's often cheaper, thanks to monthly rental discounts and not blowing your budget on museum tickets every single day.

However, this lifestyle is also not a permanent rejection of the tourist style of travel. It's slow a majority of the time, which conserves energy for joyful short intervals in locations that have much you want to see (for me, that's London), if that's what you feel like...after which you'll probably be eager to return to your quiet, peaceful long-term routines.

Why This is an Introvert's Dream Come True

If the thought of repacking a suitcase every 72 hours gives you a nervous twitch, welcome home. Travel Nesting is our sanctuary. This is the ultimate form of travel for introverts and anyone seeking a more peaceful approach to long-term travel.

I could easily spend hours watching the world go by from a Parisian laundromat.

First, there are no more 11 AM check-out panics. No frantic shoving of half-dry towels into your backpack. You are rooted. This stability is the foundation that makes everything else possible. It allows you to find your "spot"—that one perfect bench, that cozy library nook, that café with the just-right lighting—and claim it. The profound joy of becoming a "regular" in a foreign city is an underrated luxury.

And let's talk about "sightseeing." For me, people-watching from a Parisian laundromat is just a more fascinating experience than fighting the crowds for a 30-second glimpse of the Mona Lisa. It's about absorbing the rhythm of a place, not just checking off its landmarks.

This is not my idea of a good time.

You get to engage with the world on your own terms, in small, manageable doses that recharge you instead of draining your social battery. You can have a full, enriching day of "experiences" that to an extrovert might look like you did nothing at all. It's the ultimate low-energy, high-reward way to explore.

Speaking of Paris...

Okay, full disclaimer here: there is probably very little chance that you will be able to spend a month or more in a place of your own in Paris, London or most other major European capitals on a travel nesting budget (with the exception of Athens, which I love and will return to time and again while it's still affordable.). However, that does not mean you can't visit the famous places you've dreamed of visiting. You simply do so for a few days in between your long-term stays or you stay in a hostel - wait, don't knock hostels yet!

Forget everything you've heard because there are all kinds of different hostels and, suffice it to say, they are not nearly as bad - even for introverts - as you might expect. In fact, there is a hostel in London where I regularly stay weeks at a time. Check out my post The Introvert Hostel Hack to find out how to make life in a dorm bearable.

London is my happy place, but rents for entire apartments are rarely affordable on small budgets even with deep monthly discounts. I still manage to enjoy the city a great deal while I'm there. I once treated myself to Afternoon Tea at the Ritz...while I was staying at a hostel.

I go to the theatre, which is also not exactly cheap, often having dinner out first for a whole fabulous evening experience. I go to freaking Buckingham Palace and walk around the State Rooms before finishing with tea and a scone on the back terrace! (Though, obviously, they don't get out the good china for me.)

I had dinner at the Swan Restaurant attached to the historic Shakespeare Globe Theatre before a performance while the line to see the Queen lying in State in Westminster Abbey snaked along the river in front of the building. I can do all of this because I'm spending $250 or less a week for my lodging. However, you can also just go for a few days when there are often affordable hotel rates on Booking.com and other platforms. Weekdays are usually less expensive.

The Moment It All Clicked For Me

I knew this was my style long before I had a name for it. The defining moment wasn't on a mountaintop; it was on a drizzly November day in Paris in 2017. I was wet and cold and tired of moving around even though I'd only been traveling for about 6 weeks.

I'd spent a month in Mexico City, then a month visiting family in Las Vegas. Now, after a few days in New York, several weeks traipsing around the UK and a few days in Paris, I just wanted to go somewhere for the winter that was fairly sunny, warm and cheap. I was burned out on the typical pace of long-term travel.

I started with places where I might not have too much trouble with the language. Having grown up in a French-speaking community, I'm not anywhere near fluent, but I can understand and make myself understood well enough for the basics. That's how I stumbled upon Morocco. I'd like to point out that I also discovered my much-beloved Antalya, Turkey when inflation started running riot in Morocco, raising rents by up to 50%. Turns out, "go where it's cheap" can be a fairly decent budget travel philosophy.

To this day, the Essaouira apartment is the most exotic place I've ever stayed in my life.

I found gorgeous apartments in Marrakesh and Essaouira. Back then, Marrakesh cost me almost $1,000/month, but by 2022, I was getting huge one-bedrooms for barely $700. Now? Those deals are harder to find in my preferred neighborhood of Gueliz. But that's okay—when Morocco's prices climbed, I discovered Antalya, Turkey. Picture a coastal fairy tale city where you can live "in the castle" (as the locals call the ancient area) for even less.

Anyway, I found staying a month in one place to be bliss. Then I remembered when I first started going to Mexico City—I'd stay for months at a time because I loved the city. Now it’s another victim of skyrocketing rents that I don't visit as much anymore. And that's fine, because now I'm exploring Albania. The world is full of surprises—I find them so much more enjoyable when savored slowly.

My first Marrakech apartment had a wraparound balcony, my second was a lot cheaper.

Is This You? Welcome, You've Found Your People.

This style of affordable full-time travel is for you if:

• The mere thought of packing and unpacking every few days—or even weekly—gives you hives.

• The phrase "full-day itinerary" makes you want to lie down in a dark room.

• You dream more about finding the perfect local market for fresh fruit than you do about skydiving.

• The idea of "work remotely from Turkey and buy strawberries for $1.13 a kilo from the Muratpasa Belediyesi Pazari" sounds infinitely better than "quit your job and go find yourself in Bali."

The fabulous Muratpasa Belediyesi Pazari in Antalya, Turkey, where the food is gorgeous, delicious and unbelievably cheap.

If your ideal vacation involves a library card and a favorite bench, or if you believe that the true soul of a city is found in its neighborhood parks and grocery stores, not just its top-ten list, then you are my people. This is for the slow movers, the quiet observers, and those who believe that connection to a place doesn't have to be loud to be meaningful. This is for anyone considering the digital nomad lifestyle but terrified by the non-stop pace.

Your Cozy, Global Life Awaits

This isn't some far-off fantasy. It's a practical, peaceful, and deeply satisfying way to live. I've been doing it for over a decade, fine-tuning the art of creating a home anywhere in the world—and I'm here to show you the possibilities.

If this sounds kind of perfect, welcome. You're in the right place. I'll show you how I do it—which isn't necessarily how or where you should do it.

READY TO START YOUR TRAVEL NESTING JOURNEY?

Get lots of details in the Travel Nesting e-book.

• Over 30 mostly free remote job boards & e-learning platforms

• Best two insurance companies for long-term travel

• Best debit cards for international travel

• Best way to get health care in Europe and the UK that most

  travelers don't know about

• Must-have apps for international travel

• My favorite Merino wool wardrobe brands

• Exact examples of monthly budgets in places like Antalya,

  Durres and London

Dream-to-Departure Planner & Journal

Not ready to leave yet? That's actually fine — there's a lot you can do right now to make your future travels smoother and less overwhelming. The Planner gives you one small task per week to move toward the life you want, at your own pace. No panic, no pressure.

• Weekly progress pages (a full year)

• Monthly task menus covering housing, finances, packing, remote work and more

• Fillable planning and packing templates

• Bonus: downloadable extra template copies