‘Rose-colored glasses’: The stressful reality of being a digital nomad
- While the digital nomad lifestyle may seem glamorous, the reality involves numerous challenges like internet connectivity issues and work-life balance struggles.
- The number of American digital nomads has significantly increased, but successfully merging work and travel requires careful consideration of routine, community building, and time for exploration.
- The influx of digital nomads, particularly in popular destinations, has raised concerns about affordability, overcrowding, and gentrification.
Working from a tropical paradise, taking calls with an ocean view, and then unwinding at the beach afterward sounds idyllic. But the day-to-day reality of the digital nomad life can be far more chaotic than what’s shown on social media.
When Deryn Russell and her partner were working remotely in Puerto Escondido, Mexico, enjoying the sunshine and surf, things started to go downhill. Their Starlink router refused to connect properly when Russell needed to sign in to a video call for work and forced her partner, a video editor, to take the week off. Adding insult to injury, he also dealt with a severe bout of food poisoning, and their laundry service lost all their clothes.
“It was just a disaster,” Russell, a full-time tech worker who also runs the travel blog behind Inside the Upgrade, told USA TODAY. “When (the) internet doesn’t work, and you’re trying to work remotely, your stress levels skyrocket. It’s important not to draw attention to it. I’m a productive team member; it’s not like, ‘Sorry guys, I’m in Mexico.'”
After feeling trapped in her New York City apartment during the COVID-19 pandemic and her company going fully remote, Russell decided to give into her love of travel and try the digital nomad life. Since then, she has worked from Colombia, Paris and most recently, Costa Rica, with brief pit stops back home.
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Overall, traveling as part of her daily routine is fulfilling. The lack of stability, however, can become a source of stress. “I think it’s really easy to put on rose-colored glasses,” she said. “I will say I’m speaking from a place of privilege, and I’m really lucky to do what I’m doing.”
Like Russell, many people are drawn to the digital nomad life. Gone are the days of requesting days off when you’re working on the go. From 2019 to 2024, the number of Americans who call themselves digital nomads grew by 147% to 18.1 million, according to a survey of 6,575 U.S. residents by MBO Partners.
Blending work and travel can be tricky. There are everyday challenges around sticking to a routine, building community and finding time to enjoy the destination. Though it’s not for everyone, this way of life allows some people to fulfill their travel dreams.
“It does look very glamorous online, but when you’re living that lifestyle, there can be a lot of challenges,” said Ellen Flowers, who blogs about her travels at The Perennial Flower. “It can be exhausting − a lot of things that are unexpected.”
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A balancing act
After a decade of fusing work with travel, Flowers’ work-life balance has been thrown off-kilter.
“You’re loving the destination, and you want to explore whenever, but I’m working remotely,” Flowers said. “When do I start? When do I turn off? There’s a line where maybe I don’t know how to vacation anymore.”
A typical 9-to-5job, even remote, ends up dictating your travels. Russell works weekdays, so she has to limit where she can go because of time zones – unless she wants to have meetings in the middle of the night, which she did in Paris, taking calls until 2 a.m.
If she goes somewhere for two weeks, that leaves her with only one weekend to fully unplug and explore – quite different from a real two-week vacation. “If you’re only in a place for a few days or a few weeks, you have FOMO (fear of missing out) the whole time,” she said. “Everyone’s going to the beach and happy hour, but you have meetings.”
Finding accommodations for longer stays can be a challenge, so Russell has to plan ahead a few months. “If you’re trying to spend a month somewhere, people will often book three days here and there, so it’s hard to find a place that’s available for the full duration,” she said. Whenever possible, to support the community, she books from a local host on a short-term rental platform or checks WhatsApp housing groups where residents share their guest rentals.
“I think when people picture digital nomad, you’re in a different city every week, and you’re moving around every few days,” she said. “It’s just not possible if you’re trying to have a real job.”
Several countries offer visas allowing foreigners to work and live legally for extended periods of time if they meet certain requirements. Portugal’s digital nomad visa requires a monthly income four times the local minimum wage, but applicants may also need to pay for their own international health insurance out of pocket. The country also has a popular golden visa, but there was a backlog of up to 50,000 applications, with some people waiting years for processing.
A lack of routine
Being on the move naturally disrupts your daily routine, from the packing and unpacking to the long travel days and unlucky disruptions. Even accomplishing simple tasks are harder than at home, like sticking to your budget and health regimen if you don’t have a full kitchen and have to eat out, or even doing laundry.
“How do you have a routine when it’s constantly changing?” said Casie Tennin, a digital nomad and owner of Coaching with Casie. She is a certified life coach, helping others achieve the same working-abroad goals. She recommends digital nomads come up with a couple of daily templates to “copy and paste” in the places their visiting, like always fitting in an early-morning walk. “Otherwise, you feel super-ungrounded and unrooted.”
The constant transience also makes it hard to put down roots or build deep connections. “It feels super-lonely,” Tennin said. “It’s easy to meet people, but they feel like travel friends, you meet up for a few days, but you don’t cultivate deeper friendships. … You always kind of feel like an outsider of where you are.”
Cultural barriers, language differences, even the “digital nomad” label can add to the isolation. “I think a lot of locals, where there’s a lot of digital nomads, there’s a sentiment that they’re coming here and driving up our prices,” Tennin said. Working remotely – especially while earning an American salary in a country with a lower cost of living – is a privilege.
The influx of expats in many destinations has strained local communities, pushing up costs and contributing to overcrowding and gentrification. In some locales like Bali, the trendy cafes and other businesses popular among foreigners are too expensive for locals who earn a daily minimum wage of about $10.
This April, Spain’s golden visa – granting foreigners residency when they purchased real estate – will officially come to an end after residents spoke out against the impact on housing affordability. Portugal also added tighter restrictions.
Making an effort to learn key phrases in the language, supporting locally owned businesses and talking to residents on a deeper level can go a long way. “Be mindful of the impact that you have in general,” Tennin said. “Be aware of any privilege that you might have coming in and have an intentional mindset.”
Is being a digital nomad worth it?
For those who itch for the next adventure, to immerse themselves in another culture, being a digital nomad is worth all the hurdles.
“If you love traveling, it can be an incredible way to do it,” Russell said. “This feeling of being on vacation doesn’t always have to happen when you’re on vacation. Even when I’m going to the grocery store, I’m doing it in Costa Rica, so that brings me a lot of joy.” Fitting in a surf session before signing on for work is an enticing bonus.
Everything that comes with being digital nomad, the good and the bad – the learning to divert and experiencing other cultures – have been pivotal in shaping Flowers into a better version of herself, she said. “It’s made me more of a well-rounded person. I handle chaos a lot better.”
The lifestyle seems exciting and daunting at the same time, and the question potential nomads should ask themselves, Tennin said, is, “Why do you want to do this?”
“Oh, because it looks cool on Instagram? But is there some sort of deeper-seated drive there? If the intrinsic value is freedom and flexibility and adventure, those are things that’ll probably drive you to feel fulfilled in that lifestyle.”
