The "Everything You'll Need To Be A Digital Nomad" List
After Dinner Conversation is just crossing over two years, and almost from its beginning it’s been a remote project. While it was initially started in the United States, it has now been run out of Thailand, New Zealand, Estonia, Cyprus, Spain, Croatia, and soon to be Italy.
It has for sure been a learning process.. For those looking to be a remote entrepreneur, or run a magazine remotely, here are some of the services we use to make it work.
Deciding Where To Go
Numbeo - Outstanding website to figure out the cost of living (and crime rates) for various places in the world.
Nomad List - The digital website for figuring out where digital nomads like to go to live and work.
ReOpen Europe - The official website to figure out where is open right now, and what you need to do to get into it. And here is great map about what is in the 90 day area, and what is outside it.
Lonely Planet - The, and I mean the, travel book to use when outside the US. Everyone else is a distant second. Also, Lonely Planet has branched out and even has a really great book on How To Be A Digital Nomad. I’ve read it, and it’s really good!
I also really like this website for counting days. For Americans, you get 90 days per rolling 180. This calculator makes sure you don’t overstay or re-enter to soon.
Youtube - They have a surprising amount of would-be influencers that post videos about cities around the world. Just type in the name of practically any city in the world and you’re bound to get five videos showing you what the city looks like.
Google Street View - This one might be obvious, but sometimes you want to see what an area looks like “on the ground.” Google street view shows you this for almost every place in the world.
Money Stuff
Wise - Online banking that allows you to have bank routing information for sales/transfers from anywhere in the world with super low fees. Partner in the US, use the US bank routing information. Partner in Europe paying in Euros, use the EU banking information they provide.
Chase Sapphire Preferred Card - Gets you 80,000 points after signing up and using it for a bit. They also have a great website portal for booking flights and hotels with points, cash, or a combination of the two.
Charles Schwab Banking - You can only get this one if you are an American, but hands down the best way to go. Use the ATM card anywhere in the world to withdraw local currency at the best exchange rate, with no international fees. And, to top it off, they reimburse you all your ATM fees at the end of each month.
Facebook Pay/Paypal both tie into your personal bank accounts and allow you to move money from one person to another with little or no fees. They can then transfer that money into their own bank account.
Housing
Airbnb - There are cheaper ways to find housing, but none so convenient, and none so secure. We always look for a place with good wifi, a kitchen, and a washing machine.
Trusted House Sitters - Watch sometimes dog/cat/chicken etc and live and work in their house for free while they are gone on vacation.
Workaway - Website where you find someplace to work 15-25 hours a week in exchange for free housing and (sometimes) meals. Good option if you don’t have a remote job you are also doing.
Health Insurance
Genki Health Insurance - Health insurance outside the United States is so much cheaper than health insurance in the United States. Honestly, you can buy six months of better digital nomad health insurance to live outside the US, then you can get one month for living in the US. We pay about $600USD a year, with a $500 deductive. We used IMG Global for awhile, but switched to Genki, and so far, like them better. Also, the travel health insurance websites are WAY easier to navigate than Aetna or the older insurance companies in the US that aren’t tech savvy. As a reminder travel health insurance is different than travel insurance. The first one covers your body, the second one covers your luggage.
Communications
Google Fi - Amazing service that works anywhere in the world at no additional costs. Literally, it’s just like you are in the US. Keep your phone number, keep your phone, gets text and calls just like you always do at no additional cost. Data works anywhere in the world as well, at the fixed price of $10/GB. (Use the Discount Code “YKAHTE” to get $20 off your first purchase.) One other heads up, Google Fi will shut off your international after 90-ish days if you aren’t back in the US from time to time. No worries, you’ll be using Airalo anyway…
Airalo - A really nice esim add on to Google Fi. Allows you to get data even cheaper than google fi offers. So, use your physical sim to keep your phone number, and use your airalo esim to get data as cheap as $1.85/GB when you don’t have wifi. (Use the Discount Code “ASHLEY027” to get $3 off your first purchase.)
Private Internet Access (VPN) - Useful to keep your internet private when working in a coffee shop. Also useful if you need to get to a website that is only accessible from a US location. Some websites don’t work if your VPN is on, so you’ll have to turn it off an on from time to time.
Google Drive/Dropbox - Both great cloud service companies. Both pretty comparable, and a solid way to do online storage backup.
Whatsapp/Zoom/Facebook Messenger/Skype/Signal Apps - The various array of messaging and meeting apps that people prefer using. Personally, we use Zoom for meetings, messenger for talking with family (because everyone has Facebook), Whatsapp because that’s what everyone in the world uses but the US, and Signal because we don’t like the idea of people spying on our text messages.
Getting Around
Google Maps Downloads - Save yourself the trouble and data, download offline maps on google when you have wifi before you head to a new location.
AllTrails - At some point you are going to be looking for a temple or castle and wish you google maps was better at mapping trails. This is the phone app you’ll want to use. It’s really amazing just how many trails they have listed here.
Entertainment/Other Stuff
Netflix, Disney+, Amazon Prime, etc - Because, you know, sometimes you want to watch American movies and TV. Bring an HDMI cable so you can hook your laptop up to the TV in your place.
Duolingo - Solid language learning app, and actually kind of fun.
Fiverr/Upwork - Both good websites that allow you to buy cheap contractor work online.
Libby by Overdrive - Go to your local library, get a library card, and get the digital library app before you leave the country. Libby is a pretty popular one. You’ll have some free time on trains, and you’ll want a book to read, or an audio book to list to. They also have audiobooks.
Hoopla - Like Libby, just depends which platform you local library uses. It might use this one if it doesn’t use Libby. Has ebooks and audiobooks you can download for free from the library.
Facebook Groups - Seriously, pick the city or country you want to go to, and do a search for “Digital Nomad [Name]” and join that group online. They will be an amazing resource for local conditions.
There are a few other things you might also want to buy. Like plug adaptors and a HDMI cable to plug your laptop into the TV, a cell phone power brick because if your phone dies when you are out walking around, you got issues…but mostly you will figure it out as you go.
I’ll add to this list as I think of things, but hopefully this quick list provides you some insight into work remotely, all the best.
~Kolby @ After Dinner Conversation
ADDENDUM:
This post is only minutes old, and I’m already thinking of things to add…in no particular order.
Google Flights, Rome2Rio, Hopper, Skyscanner, Google One, Hostelworld, Flixbus, Agoda, Google Translate, and Tripit are all apps I have on my phone I tend to use, but there are loads of others. I also really like Amazingmail.com for turning photos into postcards to send home. They ship from Scottsdale, Arizona, so postcards arrive in days instead of weeks.
Don’t worry about what bringing your whole life with you overseas. Most everything you need, you can buy where you are (unless you are deep in Africa or something) and if you need a specialty item, Amazon is a really great way to get things delivered in just 7-10 days. Amazon seems be faster than just about everyplace else in getting things to you from the US (even faster than express mail) If you are in Europe, be sure to check out Amazon.de Amazon.es , or other Europe Amazon sites. Shipping is even faster. If you are really desperate for something that only comes from one store in the US, and they absolutely won’t ship overseas, you can use this shipment forwarding company. It’s time consuming and expensive, but it does work, and they will ship anywhere in the world.
ADDENDUM #2: (December, 2022)
I refer people to this website fairly often, and they often ask for books on the subject I recommend. Actually, Lonely Planet does a “Digital Nomad Handbook” that is surprisingly good! Worth a read!
Also, if you are wondering, “where do people usually go?” I found this map online that I think is really quite accurate of “typical” backpacker travel routes. (map)
One additional silly one. My wife and I also decided to add a Nintendo Switch to our travel pack and really love it. Portable for long bus/plane/train rides, but also can be docked to a TV when you are staying in one place for a bit.
* This post may contain affiliate links. They cost you nothing, but might throw a few bucks my way if you make a purchase. That said, this is the honest list, and the affiliate links had no bearing at all on how it was written.