It’s official!!!

I’ve been a nomad for one month! October 1st marked the first month I’ve been on the road, traveling as a nomad. I can’t believe I made it so far and also it feels like one year! Hahahhaa.

I am pretty proud that for the first month on the road, my expenses was $1534.56. That’s average of $51.15 a day! When I looked it up on Google for average expenses for travelers in Spain, Google told me that the average for 7 DAY trip for a solo traveler is $1092. That’s for one week! I spent $1534.56 for the WHOLE MONTH!

You might be wondering how did I do that? Well, first I planned my trip and I did some travel hacking for accommodation and flight from USA to Europe. You might be wondering what entailed in travel hacking? For my trip, I signed up for credit cards that give great welcome bonus when we spend certain amount in certain time period ($3000 in 3 months is the most common one). I charged everything to that card when I was still living in USA. I charged my rent, groceries, utilities bills, shopping, etc but I paid them off right away as well.

When I hit the requirement of $3000 in 3 months from Chase & Capital One Venture Card, they gave me 60,000 miles and I used part of those for my free flight from San Francisco to Barcelona. I also used some of them for accommodation (2 nights in Barcelona & upcoming one week in Florence, Italy). My Chase IHG card, they gave 125,000 welcome bonus points which gave me a free hotel stay in Paris for 6 nights! Those miles and points really helped to bring my expenses down. I highly recommend you to get those cards if you are planning to start your nomadic journey or even just for vacation.

Another good way to find free accommodation is volunteering through Workaway , Worldpackers, or HelpX. On those websites you can find people (hosts) who are looking volunteers to help them with tasks. You can find hostels, parents who are looking for nannies, farms looking for workers, people who are interested to do language exchange, etc. They will offer you a free place to stay in exchange for your time volunteering there.

I volunteered for a week in Murcia, Spain. I helped a lady to improve her English in exchange for a free accommodation. I enjoyed my time there. Murcia is a smaller city but it was a nice place with friendly people and delicious food. I also made a new friend because of my time there. I highly recommend volunteering!

Another way to find affordable accommodation is renting a private room at someone’s house through AirBnb. I’ve done this multiple times even when I was just vacationing in USA. I like how you can sort the properties by how much you want to pay for it on AirBnb.

Along with all of those type of accommodations, I will highly recommend staying at hostels. I paid between $17-$26 per night so far for my stay at hostels. Yes you will share a room with other people but don’t let that scare you. At first I wasn’t sure either if I could do it but it wasn’t bad at all. I actually made great friends from hostels and I didn’t have problem sleeping in the same room with strangers anymore. Also most of the hostels, offered private rooms as well. You might want to check that out.

Another way to save money is by not dining out for all of your meals. My routine now when I just get to a new city is to go to the grocery store right away. I would get some yogurt for breakfasts or other breakfast food that I like. I would also get some food for lunches and dinner. Whenever I eat lunch at restaurants, I will try to eat my grocery for dinner and vice versa. It saves a lot of money!

I love museums and sightseeing. I always look up for museums in the city that I visited if they have free days or free hours. So far I haven’t paid full price for museums except for a couple of them. In Madrid, I went to three museums including Prado museums for free! You can do this with any of attractions you are interested in such as zoos or even theme parks. Sometimes they have discounted days and hours.

I know traveling right now during pandemic is a privilege but I just have to say that since I left USA, my mental health is in much better condition. People in Spain and Europe in general seem to care more about other people. Everyone is wearing face masks, I haven’t seen anyone is arguing because of face masks. Most of the population are vaccinated. In France they are checking for vaccination proof card (for USA citizens) or the Green health pass (for EU citizens) before we can enter restaurants or any places. Before I left USA, I was wondering if I made the right decision to leave and now I know for sure that I made the best decision for myself which was leaving the USA. I proposed a toast for entering the second month of my nomading journey and I hope more people will do it as well! Cheers!