Hi friends, and thanks for stopping by to read I’m Not on Vacation. I’m Living My Life as a Nomad.
Every once in a while, I reread one of my old blog posts and stumble across a sentence that still hits me.
This was one of them:
“I am not on vacation. I’m living my life as a nomad.”
That single line explains my travels better than almost anything else I’ve written.
People often imagine long-term travel as an endless holiday. Cocktails on the beach. Fancy dinners every night. Tours, excursions, shopping, rooftop bars, and constant movement from one postcard destination to another.
That may be how some people travel.
It is not how I travel.
I cannot afford to be a vacationer.
If I traveled the way tourists do, my money would disappear in weeks. Maybe months if I were careful. Instead, I travel the way someone lives when this is simply their normal life.
That means I stay in one place as long as possible. Constant transportation costs destroy a budget. Every time I move, I spend money on buses, flights, taxis, luggage fees, accommodation transitions, and often higher short-term prices.
Slow travel is cheaper.
It also gives me something tourists rarely experience: an actual life somewhere.
I get to know neighborhoods. I recognize the people selling fruit. I learn which streets feel safe at night and which bakery sells the cheapest bread. I develop routines. I walk everywhere. A lot.
Most of my days are surprisingly ordinary.
Laundry.
Groceries.
Work on my blog.
Read books on my Kindle.
Watch YouTube videos.
Go for long walks.
Figuring out why the shower suddenly has no hot water.
Again.
Sometimes people are surprised by this. They picture perpetual sightseeing. But when you travel long term on a limited budget, you quickly learn the difference between travelling and vacationing.
A good example happened in Puerto Viejo, Costa Rica.
I stayed at the women’s hostel La Tribu, where I met two lovely women who invited me along when they went out for drinks and dinner. They were kind, social, and genuinely fun to spend time with. I joined them a few times because when you travel solo, companionship matters.
But Costa Rica is the most expensive country I’ve visited in Latin America.
The restaurant bills and drinks added up quickly.
That’s a smoothie – no alcohol in the above photo. Just an example of how everything adds up quickly.
Eventually I had to pull back because I simply couldn’t afford to keep spending like I was on a two-week holiday. They were vacationers. I was living there temporarily.
There’s a difference.
That doesn’t mean I never do tourist things.
Of course I do.
Hello, Machu Picchu.
I’m not immune to once-in-a-lifetime experiences. Sometimes I save for them specifically because I know they matter to me.
But most of my life on the road happens far away from famous attractions.
And honestly, some of my favorite moments cost almost nothing.
In Cusco, Peru, I could buy an avocado sandwich from a woman sitting on the sidewalk for 3 soles — about one Canadian dollar. Then I’d wander over to another vendor selling slices of cake or pie for 2.50 soles.
Cheap lunch.
Happy nomad.
Those are the moments that feel sustainable to me. Small routines. Familiar faces. Tiny pleasures that fit inside a realistic budget.
I think social media has convinced people that travel only “counts” if every moment is exciting or luxurious. But long-term travel, especially budget travel, often looks a lot more like regular life than people expect.
You still:
- need to eat
- need to budget
- worry about money
- do laundry
- get tired
- comparison shop for groceries
- choose the cheapest meal because that’s what works financially
The only difference is your neighborhood changes from time to time.
Sometimes I think people feel sorry for budget travelers because we aren’t doing expensive tours every day.
But I don’t feel deprived.
I feel free.
Freedom, for me, is being able to continue travelling month after month because I learned how to stop treating travel like a constant celebration.
I am not on an endless vacation.
I’m simply living my life.
And sometimes my life happens to come with palm trees, mountain views, hostel kitchens, long walks, occasional cold showers, and really good avocado sandwiches.
Published by Cheryl @ The Lifestyle Digs on September 17, 2026.
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