Episode 4: What to consider when deciding where to go
Albufeira Marina in Albufeira, Portugal
In this episode, Anya answers one of the questions she’s asked most frequently as a nomad:
“How do you decide where to go?” Through the lens of humanist values, she explores the various considerations of travel destinations and provides tips from experience.
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Podcast Transcript
Anya Overmann:
Hey everyone. This episode was recorded when I was President of Young Humanists International. We have parted ways since this recording.
This episode also uses language that some listeners may find offensive.
Enjoy the episode.
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[Acoustic guitar music begins playing]
Anya Overmann:
Hi. I’m Anya Overmann and I’m your host here on The Nomadic Humanist.
Humanist values of secularism, science, and human rights are inherently communal. The Nomadic Humanist explores how individuals without a single fixed home or community live out humanist values.
Through nomadic humanism, we learn to expand the definition of community, building relationships globally across cultures and digital space, to share this one life we have.
In this episode, I answer one of the questions I’m asked most frequently as a nomad: “How do you decide where to go?”
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“How do you decide where to go?” It’s a good question.
I’ve been living a nomadic lifestyle since August 2020, and there have been a lot of ethical considerations that have gone into the travel decisions my partner Phil and I have been making since then. We’ve traveled through 10 different countries in that time (not including the US).
Croatia for a few months, Malta for a few months, Mexico for about six months, a few weeks in the US, Guatemala for six weeks, Albania for three weeks, Greece for a couple of days, Portugal for two months, Madrid for a week, the US again for a couple of weeks, Colombia for three months, and at the time of recording this, I’m back in the US – hanging out with Atheists United in LA.
Even before I went full-on nomadic, I did quite a bit of traveling. So my country count now is up to 22. By the way, if you want to follow my travel journey, there is a link to a map I regularly update in the show notes.
In the past year and a half of traveling during a pandemic, we’ve learned to be very discerning about where to go. It makes it difficult to travel, but it’s still navigable.
Here’s what we consider when deciding where to go (and what I’d recommend anyone who wants to travel internationally take into consideration):
We start with the places that are open to the US passport.
When I turned nomadic in August 2020, only a dozen or so countries were open to US passport holders. US passport holders lost their grand privilege of traveling nearly everywhere globally (and I wasn’t even mad about it because we really deserved it). COVID was raging hardest in the US at the time, so many countries didn’t want us.
As of April 2022, most countries have opened back up to US travelers but require a vaccine or negative COVID test.
Just Google which countries are open to you. Entry requirements still change often.
And please get vaccinated if you’re going to travel. You remember what I talked about two episodes ago, right? About the history of imperialists haphazardly bringing disease to natives? If you’re concerned with unlearning imperialist attitudes, you don’t want to be showing up to any country without being vaccinated against COVID. That’s biiiiiiig Christopher Columbus energy, my friend.
Honestly, I have to continuously remind myself that we are spoiled by not being required to get a visa to get into many places. It makes the world so accessible. ONE WAY FLIGHTS! I can book one-way flights! I have friends with less powerful passports who couldn’t even do that. Their passports require them to get visas which means proof of return.
I’m telling you, passport privilege is real. And I always try to keep that in mind as I travel.
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Another important consideration when deciding where to go has been how a place is handling COVID and what its pandemic culture is like.
When I say pandemic culture, I mean the cultural response to public health guidance and mandates. We’ve learned that some cultures are more willing to take precautions than others. Pandemic culture may not seem like a significant factor now that we have vaccines, but it’s still something to consider.
With many countries lacking adequate access to vaccines, while rich and economically powerful countries hoard them, and with the nature of the pandemic coming in waves of mutating variants, we’re wary at best.
So when we’re considering a country as a potential destination, we Google COVID case counts, death counts, and vaccination rates. If we can, we try to get a beat from someone local who can tell us what it’s like on the ground. That’s where it helps me to have a global network of humanist connections.
For example, my humanist friends in Colombia encouraged us to come by sharing how adamant people were in Bogotá about wearing masks. The same happened with my friends encouraging us to come to Guatemala because they were masking.
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One of our worst experiences with a lack of pandemic culture was in Albania. If you’re not familiar, Albania is a nation on the Balkan peninsula in Eastern Europe, with a western Adriatic sea coastline just northwest of Greece. We arrived there at the beginning of September 2021.
I knew it was going to be bad news when the young guy sitting in front of us on the flight from London to Tirana began arguing with the flight attendant after she asked him for the third time on this 3-hour flight to put his mask back on.
He argued, “You don’t have to wear a mask in Albania.” The flight attendant snapped back, “I don’t care if it’s legal there. On this airplane, it’s illegal, and I can have you arrested when we land, or you can put on your mask.” He begrudgingly masked up. And I thanked the flight attendant loud enough so that the anti-mask rebel in front of me could hear me.
It did not feel safe once we got there. At that time, masks were nationally mandated indoors in public in Albania, but as we discovered when we arrived, that was not enforced. Not even a little bit! It was actually hard to find people that were wearing masks. Nobody cared about social distancing. Vaccination rates were also pretty unimpressive, and there seemed to be this shared belief amongst locals that vax rates were higher than they actually were.
People didn’t seem to care at all, and we witnessed an appalling number of people not covering sneezes or coughs while in close quarters with others. We ended up leaving a couple weeks early.
Albania is an interesting nation, but it was hard to appreciate it with such a strong shared apathy towards public health during a pandemic.
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Portugal, on the other hand, was one of our best experiences with pandemic culture. When we arrived in Porto, Portugal at the end of September from Albania, we got onto a train from the airport, and every single person was wearing their mask properly.
It was such a relief that the most bothersome thing on that train was the Mormons who we happened to be sharing a train car with. They were trying to be helpful by offering guidance around Porto since they had already been there before, but I was all out of breath from running with luggage to catch the train, and I really, really do not like missionary work – which is what they could not wait to talk about. But – to their credit – they did wear masks and stood a respectful distance away from us on the train.
The vaccination rate was at 89% when we arrived. We quickly learned there was a culture of wearing masks outside despite it no longer being nationally mandated. Most people masked properly in grocery stores and restaurants, and they made efforts to socially distance themselves. We felt much safer there, especially after spending three weeks in Albania. There felt like more of a culture of community care in Portugal. They were a little looser with masking in the south of Portugal, but there was also a lot more happening outdoors than up north in Porto where the temperatures were cooler in October.
The point is: For us, pandemic culture has been an incredibly important factor while traveling. There is a level of consideration in a proactive pandemic culture that makes a community feel safe and appealing.
In the next episode, I’m going to dig into the ethics behind traveling during a pandemic. But for now, I will say: No matter where you are, following COVID safety precautions is the best practice.
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Speaking of safety, there are places I wouldn’t go for the sake of my safety. Ukraine, for example, is not a place I’m interested in visiting right now. Active warzones aren’t really my thing. Maybe in the future, when they have been able to rebuild from war, but now is just not safe.
I’ve read that it’s not even a good idea for US citizens to go there to help Ukrainians fight. There’s too much diplomatic risk. Basically, if a US citizen gets captured by Russians, then the US has grounds to get involved directly in a war with Russia.
Nobody wants that.
It’s also unlikely that I will visit countries where women are severely oppressed by religion. There are more humanists at risk in certain Islamic countries in North Africa and the Middle East than anywhere else in the world. The oppression can be intense and terrifying. People calling themselves humanists reach out to me from countries like Afghanistan, Pakistan, and Ethiopia describing very scary situations – sometimes even fear for their lives, just because they don’t believe in the religion. I pass these very sad emails onto our casework department for Humanists International in hopes they can help them. So I have a hard time envisioning feeling safe in those nations.
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However, I think many US Americans have a warped perception of danger when it comes to countries like Colombia and Mexico. A lot of people are scared to visit Latin America for fear of corruption and cartels, but that’s a pretty hurtful stereotype.
The reputation of the cartels in Colombia is about 30 years stale. The country has changed a lot since then, and Colombia is a beautiful place. Medellín, which once was the murder capital of the world in 1993, is now a hipster holiday destination. It’s called the City of Eternal Spring, and it is vibrant, lush, and warm all year round.
And while Mexico’s cartel and corruption problem has gotten worse over the last 30 years, it’s been made out to be like it’s too dangerous to travel to. We were there for six months, in six different cities, and I felt safer during my time in Mexico than I did living in my South City St. Louis apartments, where I heard gunshots as frequently as every other night.
The thing is, you’re more likely to be murdered as a US citizen in the US than you are as a US citizen visiting Mexico. Plus, 13 of Mexico’s 31 states aren’t on the State Department’s non-essential travel warning list, and those states include the popular tourist destinations like Puerto Vallarta, Los Cabos, Cancun, Cozumel, Tulum, Mexico City, and Oaxaca.
So determining what’s actually too dangerous to visit and not just an undeserved bad rap requires some investigation. Don’t count on what you’ve heard.
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Another factor we consider when deciding where to go is climate.
We are not a fan of cold climates. I get Seasonal Affective Disorder. Cold weather and low light really bums me out. It’s also harder to pack for colder weather. Layers can be bulky and take up a lot of valuable packing space.
And since we live out of just a backpack and a duffel each, we’ve got to pack as light as we possibly can.
So we tend to pursue sunlight and warmer temperatures. Sometimes that means sweating through our clothes. But we’ve been buying wool clothing – so that sweat dries out, and there’s no stench!
If the climate matters to you, be sure to do your research. I’ve had the weather in some cities surprise me because I didn’t quite understand the environmental factors until I got there. Like Mexico City! After spending five months living in hot and humid coastal Mexican cities, I was under the impression it would also be hot in Mexico City in the summer. But I forgot to consider that Mexico City is built high up on mountains, 7300 feet above sea level, so it’s cooler than it is on the coasts.
[Music starts]
Just do your research on climate and weather before you go somewhere new!
[Music stops]
Whether or not we have connections in a place is something we consider, but it’s not a determining factor in deciding where we go. We are both comfortable going somewhere where we know nobody. We are capable of making new connections, as we date non-monogamously, and I have access to an extensive global humanist network.
However, knowing people in a new place that we’ve never been to before certainly helps. We probably would not have gone to Guatemala or Colombia if I didn’t already have humanist friends there to guide us.
Also, I’m far more motivated to consider a place when I know humanists there.
I think traveling for the sake of building connections is one of the most important reasons to travel. To foster cross-cultural relationships that would not happen without the freedom of human movement is a beautiful thing.
So, rather than always striking out somewhere new, I recommend prioritizing your network from time to time while traveling.
I also recommend surveying your network and asking around before going somewhere. Sometimes someone in your network knows someone you can speak to for insight.
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Let’s also talk about money. Budgeting is essential to the digital nomad lifestyle. So, the cost of living in different countries must be considered.
Bermuda is the country with the highest cost of living in the world, as of 2022. Followed by Switzerland, Norway, Iceland, Japan, Denmark, Luxembourg, Bahamas, Israel, and Singapore.
For context, the US ranks 21st highest cost of living in the world.
The country with the lowest cost of living in the world is Pakistan, followed by India, Kyrgyzstan, Afghanistan, Syria, Uzbekistan, Tunisia, Nepal, Algeria, and Colombia.
Colombia is the country with the lowest cost of living that I’ve been to. One US dollar is the equivalent to about 3,900 Colombian pesos. A 45-minute Uber ride from the Medellín airport to the center of town cost the equivalent of $8.34, including tip. We paid the equivalent of $1400 for a month in our one-bedroom, two-bathroom Airbnb in Bogotá in a building with laundry, a gym, and a security desk. That was in the most expensive city in Colombia, in one of the nicest neighborhoods in Bogotá. And that comes out to $700 per person, per month.
The average cost of a comparable apartment in Los Angeles is $2600 per month. By comparison, we spent $800 total for a month in Gaira, a town just outside the Caribbean coastal city Santa Marta, for a one-bedroom, two-bathroom Airbnb with a jacuzzi and a patio in a gated complex. That’s $400 per person per month for rent. For context, I was paying about $850 a month for rent in my last apartment in St. Louis for about the same amount of space and one less bathroom, and one less jacuzzi.
Just consider that if you are traveling to a place where the cost of living will be an advantage to you, it’s likely that there are other people there that are struggling with that cost of living. And by accepting the gouged-up tourist prices for that place to stay, you may be pricing someone else out of a place to live.
[Music starts]
I don’t say this to discourage you from traveling, but to be more aware of the imperialism that may cloud how you view the cheap cost of living situations.
[Music stops]
Deals, deals, deals. Now, let’s talk flight deals. I think one thing people are often mistaken about is that we will just fly anywhere, whenever. But traveling that way is pretty expensive. We are way more calculated than that.
We follow flight deals on things like Scott’s Cheap Flights to get alerts about good deals.
Also, flying with no checked bags allows us some flexibility in booking cheaper flights.
In February 2022, while sitting in our apartment in Medellín, we saw a flight deal from Scott’s Cheap Flights from LA to Edinburgh round trip for about $630 for the summertime. Now, if you’re not familiar with the cost of transatlantic flights, let me just tell you, that’s a damn good deal. Considering I needed to get to Glasgow for the 2022 General Assembly for Humanists International, this was the perfect opportunity to jump on this deal.
And sometimes we have airline miles saved up from using our credit cards that we can apply to flights or hotels. Back in February 2021, when our Friday flight from La Paz, Mexico, to Puerto Vallarta was canceled, and we couldn’t get another one for two days, I used credit card points I’d racked up to book this really nice resort hotel for the weekend.
Looking for the cheap deals is what has kept my annual travel expense lower than the expense of owning a car.
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I want to wrap this episode up with some general things I’ve learned when considering where to travel:
First, nowhere is the “right” place to be. Every place has its pros and cons. Learn how to be okay with making last-minute pivots. It reduces a lot of the stress in navigating nomadery.
Second, some countries require proof of onward travel. DO YOUR HOMEWORK! Make sure you know which ones do so you don’t end up in a frantic situation where you have to book a random outgoing flight in order to board your incoming flight. It’s not fun. I’ve been there.
And last but not least, this all needs to be kept in context…
Phil and I are hoping to eventually move aboard a sailboat so that we can travel as watery digital nomads with reduced carbon footprints.
[Music starts]
When we end up traveling that way, we will likely have an entirely different set of considerations for deciding where we will go!
I guess you’ll just have to follow me to find out.
Carly Turro:
Thank you for listening to The Nomadic Humanist, written and hosted by Anya Overmann.
If you enjoyed the show, make sure to like and subscribe to the podcast. You can follow Anya’s journey around the world by visiting nomadichumanist.com.
The Nomadic Humanist is a production of Atheists United Studios and was produced by Joey Krieger and Evan Clark in sunny Los Angeles, California.
Special thanks to Katie Bolton, Phil Gundry, and Heretic House for donating their time and space to the production of this season.
On behalf of The Nomadic Humanist, I’m Carly Turro. Happy travels!
[Music stops]
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Outtake
Anya Overmann:
…matter where you are. Following COVID safety precautions IS the best practiced.
Joey Krieger:
[laughs] That last word was kinda funny.
Anya Overmann:
Fuck. I said, “practiced.” Should I just do that last line again?
Joey Krieger:
Yeah, do that last line. Otherwise, perfect.
Anya Overmann:
[clears throat] Okay. Goddammit… [laughs]