America has always been a nation on the move. Recently, however, the idea of working remotely while traveling far and wide – the Digital Nomad lifestyle – seems to have taken hold of the public’s imagination.

After more than a year of pandemic-induced cabin fever, Americans are dreaming of the open road. Not just for vacation, however, but as a sustainable way of life.

A host of recent trends have only added to the fervor. During the pandemic, many employers have seen the benefits of a teleworking labor force, especially as teleconferencing apps such as Zoom, Google Meet, and Skype have improved alongside digital connectivity. Gig-economy job training and opportunities have flourished online, while apps such as PayPal and Venmo have made digital payments and money transfers instantaneous. Traveling light to scenic regions with lower costs of living has become more affordable, while cheap accommodations such as Airbnb and couchsurfing sites have proliferated worldwide. Cell phone GPS has simplified navigation. Savvy “geo-arbitragers” are learning to take advantage of differential currency exchange rates to lower living expenses.

Social media influencers and communities of like-minded fellow travel bloggers have sprung up around the globe providing eager voyagers with travel tips, recommendations, and bucket list destination goals. Many prime destinations have even begun offering cash or other incentives (such as e-Residency visas for digital nomads) to lure remote workers to contribute to their economies. Hotel chains are offering subscription memberships to encourage travelers to hop from one location to the next.

Many digital nomads have also taken to the open road in pursuit of seasonal work, as economic downturns have restricted their work options, retirement incomes, and homeownership. Customized RVs and travel vans, as well as the parks accommodating them, are more present than ever on the travel landscape.

Even Hollywood has jumped into the action, as the film “Nomadland” recently garnered three Academy Awards based on its interpretation of the 2017 book by Jessica Bruder, “Nomadland: Surviving America in the Twenty-First Century.” Bruder, a
Columbia University journalism professor, traveled the country as a “vandweller” to research her book about the “invisible casualties of the Great Recession [who] have taken to the road by the tens of thousands in late-model RVs, travel trailers, and vans, forming a growing community of nomads.” Several of the people Bruder met during her voyages appeared as cameos in the film.

The term “digital nomad” was first popularized in the 1997 book “Digital Nomad,” by authors Tsugio Makimoto and David Manner, who foresaw the rise of technologies enabling people to become itinerant virtual workers.

According to a recent report by MBO Partners, digital nomadism doubled in the United States from 2018 to 2020, from 4.8 million in 2018 to 10.9 million in 2020. The most common occupational fields for digital nomads, per the report, are information technology (12 percent), followed closely by education and training (11 percent), consulting, coaching and research (11 percent), public relations (9 percent), and creative services (8 percent), along with a “smattering of numerous other professions that can be done with a laptop and a decent Wi-Fi connection,” according to Hal Kos.

To find out more about the digital nomad lifestyle, The Georgetowner hopped onto a Google Meet video call to Zagreb, Croatia, to chat with former D.C. residents Mike and Tara Shabbuck about what this way of life has meant to them. Authors of “Create Your Escape: A Practical Guide for Planning Long-Term Travel,” the husband-and-wife team, who met as students at American University, have been traveling the world extensively since 2012 when they set out on an “around the world” honeymoon voyage, visiting 26 countries in more than 14 months – from Asia to Africa to Europe –and creating a travel blog about their experiences at twotravelaholics.com.

Thrilled by the road life and under the sway of travelaholism, the couple decided to become permanent digital nomads. After five years of intensive preparation, such as lining up their client bases, living in efficient apartments to save money, selling their belongings, and arranging their credit and finances, they said good-bye to their old ways of life tethered to the Washington area. In 2019, they took to the road once again – but this time with the goal of becoming “location independent” for the long term.

“I started picking up free-lance clients in addition to my regular job,” Tara said, and soon realized “we could turn this into something. We could live a more flexible lifestyle… We were reading about people who would sort of travel and work and we just liked the idea…” On her website, she recounts: “We decided that 2019 was the right time to start that transition to becoming digital nomads.”

They had been hopping from Portugal and the delights of the Carnival season on the island of Cabo Verde to a country they had “loved and sworn to return to” – Croatia – when the Covid-19 pandemic hit in March of 2020. Though their international globe-trotting has been halted due to the pandemic, they continue to work virtually from Zagreb: Mike as an IT professional, technical writer, and applications trainer, and Tara as a marketing consultant, content strategist, and freelance writer.

For Mike and Tara, Zagreb has turned out to be a great location to become temporary “slow-mads” (i.e., nomads who slow down their movements) during the pandemic. The time-zone differences are perfect for working with their U.S. East Coast clients, always giving them the advantage of being a calendar day ahead and allowing them to prep in the morning long before their clients wake up. “When we were first thinking of becoming digital nomads,” Mike said, “we were thinking of going to Bangkok, but with East Coast clients, you’re suddenly doing a lot of work at 3 a.m. or 5 a.m.!”

Where to go?

nomadlist.com

• Join a global community of 26,834 remote workers living around the world.
• Get unlimited members-only access to cities in 195+ countries and research the best places to live, travel and work remotely.
• Get up-to-date COVID-19 travel info from people in the places you want to go (like entry requirements).
• Get access to the paid Nomad List Chat on Slack Pro + Discord and find your community on the road (6,739 public messages and 6,653 DMs sent this month).
• Learn how to get visas & residence permits from other people who been through the process.