Moving from Budget backpacking to Digital Nomad

I was giving this a long hard think over the last few months whilst hanging out on the island of Koh Phangan, Thailand. I wasn’t sure that my current mission in life matched the original mission of what I had intended for Travel Dave any more.

I’ve decided to transit Travel Dave from a blog about Budget backpacking and focus more towards Long stay, location independent and living a Digital Nomad Lifestyle blog post’s.

I still will be Dave and I still will Travel, simply shifting my writing subjects more towards a new category that fits my current mission in life.

This was bound to happen at some point as the blog reaches its 10th Anniversary this December, my writing style has gone a long way since then and my style of travel has changed in the process too.

Recently I’ve been more about long term travel compared to budget backpacking, I’m still all about affordable travel, just more focused on how this can be achieved long term compared to living out of a backpack.

Have I become more lazy as a backpacker?

Travel is still my main passion, it gets me out of bed every morning, its what makes me happy and it’s a lifestyle I’m pleased to be a part of.

I still enjoy backpacking, but I’ve recently shifted towards more long term endeavors, as this suits my overall game plan more.

I love writing blogs on Travel Dave, I enjoy interacting and helping my readers, I hope that this new shift will interest the current readers and attract and grow a whole new audience looking for information in this new emerging area of Digital Nomadism.

Travelling every day has lost its appeal, basing myself in a set location for a longer period of time and not having to rush has more appeal for me recently.

I’m not sure if it’s down to laziness or due to my age, but I get a lot out of being based in one set location for a long period of time and allowing myself to immerse into new cultural surroundings, compared to packing up and moving every day.

It’s simply more enjoyable and I’m aware others are also following along this same pursuit.

I do enjoy budget backpacking still, but in smaller bursts, taking the time to get to know a set location over a long period of time has more appeal for me these days.

My thoughts on budget backpacking

Remaining frugal and money savvy is still in my nature, having an eye for a bargain and being aware of good deals is still an area I enjoy. Making your money go further is what I wish to focus on, creating a better lifestyle option for yourself by stretching what you have to go further, but for long periods of time in set locations is an interesting area I would like to start covering.

I can see this area growing into a popular form of travel.

Making the most out of these types of opportunities is something I’m still passionate about. Travel Dave does appeal to a backpacking audience, but I feel moving towards a more long term frugal nature is something that matches my judgement better compared to writing about backpacking culture which I’ve sort out broken away from as the years pass by.

All the backpacking on a budget posts will remain, you will only start to notice a shift in topic over the next coming months.

Thoughts on Digital Nomadism

Digital Nomad is a coined phrase I see being chucked around which is used to describe this new wave of online remote working, it’s one that relates to a lot of people, and it’s what I would like to use as well.

The general concept of a Digital Nomad has been around for a long time, you can find many earlier cases around this lifestyle dating back to the 90’s. What’s been recently happening is clusters of small communities have started to congregate in set locations around the world and I can see some real emerging locations growing along with the communities that are being established.

How do destinations become popular amongst Digital Nomads?

It just takes a collection of like minded individuals to set up base, find good wifi, affordable accommodation options then write about it. Having some Travel experience under my belt from the years of travelling on a backpackers budget with Travel Dave, this has opened up some exciting opportunities to grow communities based on writing about new or growing areas where Digital Nomads are making something of a scene.

The best way for me to describe this new Digital Wave is sort of like the Hippies back in the 70’s talking about new areas of other Hippies that have started to grow a community, I like this idea and always wished I could have lived in the 70’s for this community collaborative reason.

I like where Digital Nomads are going and I want to help support this new scene.

For the digital generation who want to seek an alternative lifestyle, stepping into a digital nomadic lifestyle is appealing for some, they just want to find a community to make themselves at home.

I like the idea of this community feel and can see many destinations growing with interest, if a structure can be pulled together to meet the needs of Digital Nomads. With Growing interest in this area already and many new emerging destinations wanting to welcome this new community, I want to put my travel skills to use and help inform others about what’s possible out there with this new growing lifestyle scene.

Travel Dave has always been about helping others to travel, as my travel style has changed, so has the information needs online, I look forward to helping Digital Nomads discover useful travel advice that they are seeking to find relating to living a long stay, location independent Digital nomadic Lifestyle.

Not to worry, Travel Dave isn’t going anywhere, you will just start to notice a difference in the content over the next few months, I’m still travelling, I’m not Stay at Home Dave just yet.