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It’s the little details that people often get stuck on when planning a major life change like going on a round the world trip or becoming a digital nomad.
We’ve written recently about how we got started as digital nomads and how we fund our travels, and as promised this post covers all the practicalities that we often get asked about—how is it actually possible to work while travelling indefinitely? What about…
Travel Insurance
When we first left the UK in March 2010 we started with a one year backpacker/longstay travel insurance policy that we found using the comparison site moneysupermarket.com.
There are plenty of options for one year trips, but the problem for digital nomads comes after a year when your policy expires. It can’t be extended and all the new policies we looked at required us to be living in the UK.
We didn’t know what to do and went uninsured for a few months which is not a good idea—if we had had a medical emergency and needed to return to the UK for treatment it would have cost us thousands.
We did some more research and found a few insurance companies that do allow you to purchase policies when you are already travelling. I have written about these in my post on how to purchase travel insurance when abroad.
For many years since then we’ve been using True Traveller insurance (only for UK residents) who are affordable and understand the needs of long term travellers. We found it quick and easy to make a claim. See my True Traveller insurance review for details and pricing.
Update: In 2021 we are using SafetyWing insurance. They are available to most nationalities and are aimed at digital nomads and remote workers. We like the subscription pricing model where we can pay monthly (from $40 every 4 weeks) rather than deciding on how long we’ll be out of the UK. My SafetyWing insurance review looks at the pros and cons and compares it to similar insurance policies.
Obviously, you should check the small print of any policy you choose to see what is covered and what the excess is. We choose insurance that only covers medical expenses, and we really have it for emergencies. We’ve never had to use it so we can’t say how good the policies above are when you actually need them.
Vaccinations
A site I check to find out which vaccinations and malaria preventatives are necessary for each country is Fit for Travel run by NHS Scotland.
It is best to see a doctor or nurse a few months before you travel to get up to date advice based on your situation, ideally one who is experienced in travel medicine.
These are the vaccinations we have:
- Tetanus, Diphtheria and Polio
- Typhoid
- Hepatitis A
- Hepatitis B
- Yellow Fever – we only needed this for South America.
- Rabies – we got this for our first trip but didn’t get the booster when it expired. It’s only really necessary if you are going to remote locations where you can’t get to a doctor quickly after being bitten by an animal. Even if you do get the pre-exposure vaccination you still need a few more injections after a bite.
Simon did actually get scratched by a monkey in Thailand last year and as his vaccination had expired he had to get the full course of five rabies vaccines. One on the day (or as soon as possible after the bite/scratch), then 3, 7, 14 and 28 days later. This was easy to arrange in Thailand and cost $27-47 per injection but finding somewhere to get the last injection in Italy was tricky (as they don’t have rabies there) but we did manage it and it was free.
Luckily we got all of these vaccinations except for rabies and yellow fever for free on the NHS in the UK. I also got a few boosters for an affordable price in Thailand.
We only take malaria preventatives when visiting high risk areas. We haven’t taken any in the last three years but took doxycycline on our RTW trip without any side effects. You can buy these pills without a prescription cheaply in many parts of the world including India, SE Asia and Latin America.
Healthcare
We take advantage of our annual trips back to the UK to get any dentist and doctor checkups we need. When we have needed minor medical treatment on the road we’ve found it easy and affordable. In Thailand we saw a US trained doctor who spoke fluent English and it only cost $7 for a basic examination and $15 for a blood test.
We stock up on our prescription medicine back in the UK and when we run out we either get a relative to post some more to us or buy it locally. In most parts of the world we travel to (Latin America, Southeast Asia, India) you don’t need a prescription and can buy medicines like antibiotics and the contraceptive pill over the counter. We make sure we stock up on these things before we travel to Europe or the US.
Our travel medical kit usually includes ibuprofen, a few plasters, dimenhydrinate (Dramamine) for travel sickness, Immodium for diarrhoea, ciproflaxcin antibiotics for stomach bugs and our prescription medications.
Address
As digital nomads we don’t have a permanent address but it’s very difficult to survive in the world without one, so we use a relative’s address. Any mail that we must get (from banks, inland revenue etc) goes there and Simon’s mum very kindly scans them and emails them to us.
Banking
Get your banking in order before you leave your home country as it may be difficult to apply for new accounts once you’ve left. We don’t get bills anymore and these are the usual way that banks ask for proof of address when opening a bank account.
We wrote about how many accounts you should have and which bank is best for travel in how to manage your money when travelling.
Retirement
After 8 years as digital nomad we sold our house in the UK and finally started a pension fund with the proceeds. We manage our investments ourselves using low cost index funds on Vanguard.
See Part 2 as we continue with the practicalities of being a digital nomad and cover tax, visas, internet, phones, flights, packing and security.
